Statement of the Emergency Relief Coordinator to UN SC on the protection of civilians in armed conflict

Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the Council,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for this opportunity to brief the Council on the protection of civilians in armed conflict and, more specifically, on the report of the Secretary-General before you today.

I believe the specific recommendations for action in the report will be critical to more systematic consideration by the Council of protection of civilian concerns and the implementation of your landmark resolution 1674.

Mr. President,

A leap of imagination is not always easy, sitting in this warm and comfortable chamber, but let us remember the essential background. Throughout the world's conflict zones, people live under almost constant threat of being attacked in their homes; of having their lives, or those of their families, wrecked as they travel to work or to school, to visit the market or to worship. They risk random killing, violence and abduction, harassment and discrimination. They risk being forced to take up arms, sometimes even against their own families and communities in the most brutal ways. They risk torture, rape, and abuse. They risk above all being forced from their homes and their land, forced into a downward spiral of opportunities lost forever, lasting dependency and destitution in temporary and inadequate shelters that often become urban slums.

A case in point is the growing toll on civilians in Somalia from fighting between insurgent groups and Ethiopian and Government forces. I urge all parties to the conflict to refrain from indiscriminate attacks affecting civilians. And I call on this Council to remind all forces of their responsibilities under international humanitarian law. Reports of civilian suffering in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, as a result of fighting between the Ethiopian forces and the ONLF rebels, are also of increasing concern.

Likewise, in a different but similarly worrying context, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in Gaza, is reaching the limits of what is bearable for any community. The combination of access restrictions, even for humanitarian deliveries, economic deprivation, Israeli military incursions and aerial attacks, and intra-Palestinian violence is driving the civilian population into a situation where the risk of provoking even more violence and tragedy is only too evident.

And in Darfur too, the humanitarian issues grow ever more worrying, as the violence increases once again, resulting in yet more deaths, more displacement and more relocations of humanitarian personnel.

Mr. President,

These are three situations of particular current concern. But as reported to you before, civilians are also frequently the victims of attacks in places like Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sri Lanka, or Iraq. Such attacks are often aimed deliberately at instilling fear, destabilizing civilian populations and forcing displacement.

Suicide attacks are a particularly disturbing manifestation of this, given their often intentionally indiscriminate nature. And this was demonstrated with chilling effect earlier this month when a suicide bombing in the northern Afghanistan province of Baghlan led to the deaths of scores of civilians, including many school children.

Incidentally, let me take this opportunity to correct a misleading impression given by one sentence in paragraph 22 of the report which was intended to say that suicide attacks are a feature in an increasing number of countries, mentioning Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and Somalia, but could be read as suggesting, incorrectly, that suicide attacks are increasing in each of these countries, including Israel, which is not the case.

Mr. President,

Targeting civilians shows blatant contempt for the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including its basic tenets: the principles of distinction and proportionality. It also presents Member States often with the daunting challenge of how to respond to such violence, particularly when perpetrated by non-State armed groups, whose members are often difficult if not impossible to identify. What is clear, however, is that any military response must itself comply with international humanitarian law as well as show respect for the human and cultural dignity of those already exposed to insurgent attacks.

Mr. President,

Previous reports on the protection of civilians as well as your Aide Memoire have outlined a broad range of concerns and proposed actions. Unfortunately, as the nature of conflict evolves, so do the issues of protection. The present report makes a number of proposals with regard to compliance with international humanitarian law in situations of asymmetric warfare, the use of cluster munitions, and accountability. But I would like to focus my remarks today on four of the actions presented in the report: on combating sexual violence; on ensuring rapid and unimpeded access; on more systematic and proactive action to address housing, land and property issues; and on the establishment of a Council Working Group on the protection of civilians.

Combating sexual violence

First, there is an unequivocal need for more concerted and innovative action to prevent and respond to sexual violence in armed conflict.

The report contains a number of recommendations to this end addressed to Member States, with whom the primary responsibility lies for preventing and addressing sexual violence. But combating sexual violence, and the impunity on which it thrives, requires a rethink of how we use the tools at the disposal of the international community and, in particular, the Security Council.

We need, for instance, to look at referring situations of grave incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence to the International Criminal Court (ICC). In addition, or as an alternative, we may even need to look at imposing targeted sanctions against States or non-State armed groups that flagrantly perpetrate or support such crimes.

I fully appreciate that the latter, in particular, would be a complex undertaking. However, complexity cannot be an excuse for inaction in the face of these appalling crimes.

Also as recommended in the report, in situations where local justice mechanisms are overwhelmed, the Council should look for creative ways to support States to hold the perpetrators of sexual violence accountable, for example through the establishment of special ad hoc judicial arrangements.

This would, I believe, be a particularly important step in relation to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As I noted in my briefing to the Council following my mission to the DRC in September, to do justice to the women of the DRC, we cannot be satisfied with just treating the wounds inflicted by sexual violence. We have to find better ways to stop it.

The Council should send a clear message of deterrence by treating serious acts of sexual violence for what they are - war crimes and crimes against humanity that should no longer be tolerated.

Ensuring access

Mr. President,

The second action is access - an essential, if not the most essential, element of our efforts to provide assistance and protection.. The Council has, on several occasions, underlined the need for all relevant parties, including non-State actors and neighboring States, to cooperate fully with the United Nations in providing safe, timely and unimpeded access to civilians in armed conflict.

And yet, as the report brings out, constraints on access are many, varied, and in a number of places, the rule rather than the exception. The result is millions of people excluded from access to life-saving assistance and the minimal protection provided by the mere presence of humanitarian workers. Constraints on access should have consequences for those that impose them and not just for those who suffer from them.

Alarmingly, in a number of the countries referred to in the report, already critical situations have deteriorated still further. In Somalia, for example, fighting in Mogadishu has led to an increase in the number of internally displaced to an alarming one million people, while thousands of others are trapped in their homes, unable to reach safety let alone assistance. In the meantime, humanitarian agencies are increasingly treated with suspicion by the parties to the conflict and their activities impeded. A recent example of this was the forcible detention of the head of the World Food Programme by the Somali National Security Service in October.

Elsewhere, the expulsions earlier this month of the Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar and the head of the OCHA office in South Darfur, impede our efforts to provide assistance and protection in already difficult circumstances.

Of particular concern is the fact that security incidents involving humanitarian staff continue to mount and to undermine our ability to provide life-saving assistance. The Secretary-General's report on the safety and security of humanitarian personnel notes that between July 2006 and June 2007 there were 507 violent attacks directed against United Nations personnel, 442 incidents of harassment and intimidation, 534 cases of robbery, 232 physical assaults, 126 cases of hijacking and 273 reported cases of arrest and detention by State and non-State actors. And these figures do not of course include similar attacks and incidents involving NGO staff who are often present in greater numbers and more places than UN personnel.

During a similar period, attacks against UN and NGO staff in Darfur, for example, increased by 150%. Only last month, seven humanitarian workers were killed; ten vehicles were hijacked, and seven convoys were ambushed. In Afghanistan, the World Food Programme has suffered unprecedented attacks on its food aid convoys in the past 11 months. More than 30 incidents involving WFP trucks have been reported this year as against five in 2006.

Mr. President,

As requested by the Council, OCHA is developing a monitoring and reporting mechanism to facilitate more in-depth analysis of the causes and consequences of access constraints. This analysis will be annexed to future reports on the protection of civilians and included in my regular briefings to the Council. Such analysis will provide an important opportunity for action in response to particularly grave situations.

It will also produce an expectation of action by the Council. And, in my view, justifiably so.

To overcome some of the less obvious obstacles to access, we need to give serious consideration to the development of a standard moratorium on immigration and customs requirements for humanitarian workers and supplies.

But in particularly grave cases, the Council should consider concerted advocacy and negotiation with warring parties for the establishment of "deconflicting" arrangements; for example, high-level diplomacy to promote humanitarian corridors or days of tranquility where these can make a real contribution.

Last but not least, the Council should hold situation-specific debates on access and even, where appropriate, consider referring grave instances of denial of access, as well as situations involving attacks against humanitarian workers, to the International Criminal Court. Denying access exacerbates malnutrition and disease, increases civilian deaths, and prolongs human suffering. And there should be no impunity for those responsible.

Housing, land and property issues

Thirdly, Mr. President, the critical need to address more effectively and much earlier on housing, land and property issues, often at the origins of conflict and almost always a result of conflict, as people leave or are forced from their homes and land. The resolution of such issues is inevitably linked to the achievement and the consolidation of lasting peace and the prevention of future violence. In Darfur for example, after four years of conflict and continuing displacement, reaching common agreement on land tenure and compensation for the loss of property has emerged as a key element of a sustainable peace.

Recording loss of land, homes, or property; upholding rights and entitlements; reinforcing the right to return as a means of demonstrating our non-acceptance of ethnic cleansing or sectarian violence; and mediating disputes in areas of return should all become standard measures even while conflict continues.

This means ensuring that mechanisms are in place at the national level to address such issues. And it means equipping peacekeeping missions with the mandate, tools and expertise required to promote and support these national efforts.

Security Council working group on protection of civilians

Mr. President,

Whereas the first years of establishing the protection of civilians on the Council's agenda were dedicated mostly to raising awareness of the issues and then to developing possible tools, we have now reached a critical new phase in our collective efforts to implement resolution 1674. Establishing a Council working group on the protection of civilians, as suggested in the Secretary-General's report, would mark this new phase.

I am not suggesting the establishment of a heavy reporting mechanism similar to the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. Rather, we would like to see a regular forum for timely consultation on protection of civilians concerns between the Council in its entirety and OCHA and other relevant departments.

We believe this would help ensure a more consistent application of the Aide Memoire and other protection of civilians concerns in the Council's deliberations, for example on the establishment or renewal of peacekeeping mandates and other relevant missions, the development of draft resolutions, and presidential statements.

Mr. President,

I realize that these are all significant proposals for the Council and its working methods and no doubt require further deliberation. Fundamental to the protection of civilians is the resolution of the conflicts which cause their suffering. The United Nations in all its aspects certainly needs to do more to this end. But beyond that, the systematic implementation of resolution 1674, and the measures contained in an updated Council Aide Memoire on the protection of civilians, would show real commitment to the millions of victims. That would send a message whose impact would reverberate around all the conflicts that civilians face throughout the world.

Mr. President,

Thank you for your attention.