Jan Egeland
15 September 2006
Nairobi — For those who strive to save the world's sick and wounded, this season has been among the worst of times. Too many days begin with desperate calls from colleagues, telling us that more humanitarian workers have been ambushed, kidnapped or killed in the line of duty.
But the tragedy does not end there. The assaults sever the lifeline of hope that unarmed aid workers provide to millions of desperate and destitute families in Darfur, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan among other hot spots in the world. These attacks must end.
Last month, 17 Action Against Hunger humanitarian aid workers in Sri Lanka were executed in the north-eastern town of Muttur. We await the results of the investigation and call for prosecution of those responsible. Two more aid workers were killed in Sri Lanka in August: 19 deaths in one month alone.
In Darfur, Sudan, last week's death of an International Rescue Committee humanitarian worker brings to 13 the number of aid workers killed since the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed in May - more deaths than in the past two years combined. More than 25 humanitarian vehicles have also been hijacked or attacked in the past two months.
Overall, violent incidents in Darfur increased more than 100 per cent in the first seven months of 2006 compared to the same period last year, further jeopardising the world's largest relief operation.
In Afghanistan, 27 aid workers have died this year and 31 the year before. In Senegal, an aid worker was killed last week when her vehicle struck a suspected landmine. Add to this the dozens of other aid workers killed, kidnapped or attacked in Somalia, Iraq, Chechnya, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere in the last three years and the tragedy of the crimes becomes more stark.
Those who seek to alleviate man's inhumanity to man have become its victims. Attacks against humanitarian workers have occurred against the backdrop of deteriorating security, impunity for perpetrators and an increasingly politicised environment for aid work. In each case, the workers, armed only with their principles, paid with their lives for upholding the ethos of humanity, neutrality and impartiality that defines the humanitarian movement.
In the Geneva Conventions, civilians caught in armed conflict and aid workers seeking to help them are to be protected from harm. UN Security Council Resolution 1502 and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court affirmed that attacking a humanitarian aid worker could constitute a war crime.
All UN members have a responsibility to end impunity and bring to justice those who commit the crimes. Despite the proclamations, aid workers are still targeted, with local NGO staff the most frequent victims. When humanitarian staff or operations are targeted, aid agencies have no choice but to suspend or downscale their work.
The result: An aid lifeline to millions is severed. The loss of one life thus leads to the potential loss of thousands more who can no longer be reached by water, food and medicines. Attacking an aid worker undermines the fundamental right of civilians on the front lines of violence or disaster to receive help.
Such help is impossible to provide unless aid workers have safe, free and unimpeded access to all those in need. This is essential for we cannot be remote, long-distance humanitarians. The principle of humanity, the moral cornerstone of our work, requires us to be near those in need, be they on the front lines of conflict in Lebanon or Somalia or the fault lines of a natural disaster.
Proximity entails risks - but this is the price we must pay to access those in need. In numerous conflicts, aid workers' ability to help millions of civilians who urgently need it is curtailed by the threat of attack or bureaucratic obstacles imposed.
In Darfur, we have full access to only about half of those in need due to widespread fighting and pervasive attacks against humanitarians. The other 1.6 million civilians we cannot reach or only at grave risk to our safety.
What can we do to protect our colleagues, particularly local and national staff so that we can continue to provide life-saving help to civilians? We must begin with humanitarianism that emanates from the principle that suffering civilians have the right to impartial assistance, embracing all nationalities, cultures and creeds, rooted in the ethical precepts shared by all major religions.
We need neutral and impartial humanitarianism - neutral in name, deed and perception. Local communities need to know humanitarian workers have one purpose: To alleviate human suffering through assistance based on need alone. Aid workers enjoy no ironclad guarantees of safety. The only security we can hope for comes not from armed security officers or by withdrawing from the front lines. In the long run, security must be built from the ground up.
We must continue to build trust with local communities. This takes time, humility and empathy. But without the acceptance of communities, humanitarians will be vulnerable, and their work drained of solidarity with those in need.
The writer is a UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs
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