Charlotte Lindsey is a seasoned leader and advocate with extensive experience at the intersection of human rights, international humanitarian law (IHL), humanitarian action, and emerging technologies. Her career spans 30 years, including a decade as Director of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and working for six years in situations of armed conflict such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kenya, Rwanda, Tajikistan and Croatia, where her responsibilities included activities for the protection of civilians, visiting detainees, tracing missing persons, and programmes to build respect for IHL.
As Director of Digital Transformation and Data, Charlotte developed the ICRC’s digital transformation strategy and capacities in data analytics and data governance. She worked at the ICRC from 1993 to 2020 and held other positions including as Director of Communication and Information Management, deputy Director of Communication, deputy and interim Head of Division for Policy and Movement Relations and Head of Women and War Project. She carried out research in over 40 countries and a review of ICRC programmes globally, she authored “Women Facing War: The Impact of Armed Conflict on Women (2001 published in 7 languages),” the ICRC Strategy and Guidance Documents “Addressing the Needs of Women affected by Armed Conflict,” and on “Responses to Sexual Violence in Situations of Armed Conflict.” She has published a range of articles in ICRC and external publications and short films. Charlotte was a member of the Drafting Committee for three successive International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement Conferences of States and Movement members.
Over the last decade, Charlotte’s work focuses on addressing the evolving challenges of technology in humanitarian action and digital risks. As Chief Public Policy Officer at the CyberPeace Institute, where she worked from 2021 to January 2025, she focused efforts on awareness and policy recommendations to the UN and other fora on cyber policy, cyberattacks and influence operations, emerging technologies, surveillance technology, digital transformation. She developed a methodology to qualify and quantify the harms of cyber incidents and published two Expert Meeting Reports as well as a range of published articles. Charlotte also chaired, for the Paris Peace Forum, the Working Group on Cyber Mercenaries (surveillance and spyware), and was a regular chair and speaker at events.
She was a Tedx speaker in 2018, and in 2019 was recognized as one of 10 Digital Transformer’s in Switzerland and awarded the prize for a digital innovation by Digital Switzerland.
Charlotte is co-CEO of a cybersecurity start up, Neutrality Sàrl. She is a subject matter expert with The Hague Center for Security Studies. She is also a consultant specializing on detecting and combating harmful information, emerging technologies, cyber policy and in relation to humanitarian action and digitalization, and has consulted with international organizations and NGOs including the Paris Peace Forum and Terre des homme. She is also a civil society representative on the Swiss Government Steering Committee for implementation of the Swiss National Cyber Strategy. Charlotte is a Trustee of Age International.