Ms. Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Remarks - Humanitarian Carve Outs for UN Sanctions Regimes: The Impact and Implementation of Resolution 2664 (2022)

Thank you very much to Ambassador Mythen and Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield for their kind invitation to take part in this event today.

I very much welcome this opportunity to reflect on the impact and implementation of resolution 2664, a landmark achievement towards protecting the ability of humanitarians to reach all those in need.

UN sanctions have been an important part of Security Council’s efforts to promote international peace and security, and protect civilians.

They have been used to stop the flow of arms into war zones, and support governments and regions working towards peaceful transitions.

The listing of individuals who commit violations of international humanitarian law and Human Rights has been a particularly important deterrent.

But as OCHA, the ICRC, and others have raised for a number of years, UN sanctions have also had unintended implications for humanitarian operations.

Measures to restrict access to resources for listed individuals and groups have in a number of cases inhibited donors, humanitarian organisations, their banks, service providers, and suppliers from carrying out critical activities and transactions as part of humanitarian responses. In many cases, over-compliance has compounded the issue.

We have seen the negative effects in numerous contexts, from Northwest Syria, to Afghanistan, Nigeria, and beyond. In the case of Somalia in 2010, and more recently in Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover, sanctions contributed to bringing humanitarian operations almost to a standstill in the midst of rapidly unfolding crises on the ground.

Lives that could have been saved were not.

In both cases, Security Council action had an almost immediate impact on the ground: within days of the adoption of specific humanitarian carveouts, humanitarian operations were able to resume and scale up.

The adoption of Resolution 2664 by the Security Council in December was therefore timely and welcome. The resolution not only provided for a humanitarian carveout across all UN sanctions regimes – a measure for which the humanitarian community had pushed hard for years – but also sent a strong message from the Security Council: that whatever the political and security context, sanctions should not prevent people from accessing life-saving assistance.

I therefore commend the Security Council for taking this important step, and the US and Ireland for spearheading the initiative.

I commend those governments that have already taken steps to reflect the requirements of resolution 2664 in their national legislation. And I urge others to do so.

And I call on States:

To extend humanitarian carveouts to other restrictive measures, such as counterterrorism measures.

To continue engagement with humanitarians and the private sector to address issues such as overcompliance; And to promote risk tolerant humanitarian funding policies .

For its part, the UN will continue to facilitate the strengthening of humanitarian due diligence policies and risk management.

And to carrying out its responsibilities under resolution 2664 to report on the implementation and impact of the resolution.

We look forward to working with all of you towards realising the full potential of resolution 2664 for the people we serve.