When armed conflict sends people fleeing, humanitarian aid workers rush in to provide emergency assistance and long-term support.
This World Humanitarian Day, ActionAid is partnering with the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to honour the thousands of aid workers who risk their lives everday to save others.
Sadly, it’s also a day to remember those that have been killed on the job. According to a UN-sponsored (PDF) report released in April, attacks on humanitarian personnel have tripled over the past decade. That spike has primarily been the result of increased kidnappings and roadside bombings on the battlefields of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia.
These security challenges have far-reaching impacts on global aid efforts. Attacks on humanitarian personnel limit access to some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Zohra Bibi's husband, a school teacher was killed during the military operation against Taliban militants in Swat.
In Pakistan, ActionAid worked with Zohra Bibi—a mother of 10 whose husband was killed during an anti-Taliban military strike. At the height of the conflict, Zohra moved her entire family to a neighbouring province. They returned to find their home and crops destroyed. ActionAid worked with a Pakistani relief agency to help Zohra get new livestock to help feed her family.
Despite the apparent risks in places like Zohra’s home in the Swat Valley, humanitarian organisations continue to send teams into the world’s most precarious security environments. To do that, aid groups are investing heavily in security measures to protect their staff.
Hiring armed security officers and putting up barriers, however, can cut aid workers off from the very communities they are trying to protect. Working with armed guards or the military to keep personnel safe in the field can also blur the lines between humanitarian aid and gun-barrel diplomacy—as seen with the militarisation of aid to Afghanistan. And that can create more instability.
So, how can the aid community get out of this Catch-22?
Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross launched a four-year-long campaign to end the mounting violence against aid personnel.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent have put education at the heart of their global campaign to end violence against health care workers. In the field, they distribute information on international humanitarian law to military personnel, government officials and non-state opposition groups. They also negotiate safe zones, and protect field hospitals with blast-proof materials and protective emblems.
But education alone is not enough. The Geneva Conventions’ protection of health care workers and those they care for continue to be ignored. Over the next few years, the Red Cross and Red Crescent plan to work with governments, NGOs and members of the health care community to develop practical solutions for protecting health care personnel, and beef up international humanitarian law to stop the targeting of aid workers.
The UN has also developed its own best-practice recommendations for gaining and maintaining access. The UN believes that building support among local communities and hiring local residents are the keys to success in volatile environments. They also recommend low-profile approaches, which protect aid operations from becoming easy targets.
Protecting aid workers will require changing global attitudes towards humanitarian aid. It will not be an easy task, but, with the continuing need for humanitarian relief in war zones across the globe, it is a necessary one.
