Olivier Vandecasteele
2025-2026 Obama Foundation Europe Leader
Founder and Director, Protect Humanitarians
Belgium
Olivier Vandecasteele is the founder and director of Protect Humanitarians, a nonprofit organization that supports frontline humanitarian workers by promoting best practices in staff care, mental health, and legal assistance. In 2022, Olivier was detained in Iran for over a year, where he was subjected to ill treatment and challenging conditions, a detention that the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the Human Rights Council has deemed arbitrary. This inspired him to establish Protect Humanitarians, which was launched after his release in 2023, and work towards prioritizing the protection and psychological safety of humanitarian workers. Olivier has organized global events reaching over 8,000 people, established an emergency fund to assist local NGOs impacted by such incidents, and provided support to humanitarian workers in Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan, and the DRC.
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