Steve Dennis (humanitarian)

[1][2] Dennis' litigation against his employer was the first time that a European court has ruled on the duty of care of aid workers.

[2] On June 29, 2012, the Norwegian Refugee Council secretary general Elisabeth Rasmusson landed in Dadaab with communications officer Astrid Sehl on a UNHAS plane as part of a fundraising trip that was also designed to raise awareness of the situation.

[2][10] After the Friday afternoon prayers, the convoy left the Norwegian Refugee Council office and travelled down a narrow road, with a razor wire fence on each side.

[2][10] Ali,[8] the newly hired driver of the third vehicle, with Sehl in it, was struck by four bullets and died immediately behind the steering wheel.

[2][3][5] Glenn Costes, the Filipino project manager was shot in the leg, causing severe internal injuries.

[4] Dennis and fellow abductees were rescued by the Kenyan-government-aligned Somali Ras Kamboni militia near Dhobley[13] about 60 km into Somalia.

[3] After the rescue, Dennis and his colleagues were flown by military helicopter from Dhobley to Nairobi on 2 July 2012[4][13] where they received health checkups.

[8] Dennis was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and suffers from insomnia, hyper vigilance and the effects of muscle loss from the gunshot wound.

"[2][10] Norwegian Refugee Council undertook an internal review of the incident which produced 130 recommendations to improve the safety and security of their work.

[3] After a crowdfunding to pay his legal costs, and unsuccessful attempts at a settlement, Dennis took Norwegian Refugee Council to court.

The court found that Norwegian Refugee Council lacked a sufficient understanding of the riskand identified "weaknesses with regards to the identification and implementation of mitigating measures, particularly in relation to the decision to not use an armed escort, which was contrary to existing practice and security recommendations for Dadaab at the time".

[17] The court also found that there was no basis to apply a more lenient duty of care for staff working for aid agencies.

"[2][1] The European Interagency Security Forum's stated in 2016 that the court's judgement clarified that humanitarian agencies do have a duty of care to their employees, just as any other type of employer has.

[18] Dennis' actions were described by Brendan McDonald of the Be Well Serve Well camping as breaking a taboo "Few have the courage to speak out about anxiety, post-traumatic stress, depression and burnout.