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The Role of Humanitarian Organisations in Conflict Zones

Updated: Feb 7, 2024

Abstract:

The principles of humanitarian access under international humanitarian law (IHL) are well-defined; nevertheless, putting them into practice at the country level might present difficulties. States must find a balance between protecting the security of civilian populations and humanitarian organizations and making sure that people have access to products and services that allow them to fully enjoy their rights in order to ensure full respect for those regulations. When offering support and help in crisis areas, humanitarian groups encounter many difficulties. These difficulties are frequently caused by how dynamic and complicated these ecosystems are. This article discusses the difficulties the organization faces in helping the injured party while hampering their own lives at risk. It goes on to discuss the intricate global humanitarian situation that occurred in Yemen.

 

Introduction

There are an increasing number of people in need of humanitarian aid. Humanitarian needs remain a result of armed conflict. In many countries, the lack of political solutions has resulted in protracted crisis that have caused massive destruction, internal and external population displacement, and a collapse of law and order. Organizations are dedicated to preventing and/or reducing suffering caused by violent conflicts. Typically, their duties include looking for, gathering, and moving the sick and injured, as well as the missing and dead; treating the sick and injured; helping prisoners of war; and aiding the civilian populace by delivering humanitarian aid. In IHL, they are also occasionally referred to as unbiased humanitarian organizations. One subset of humanitarian organizations are relief societies. Governments in each of these countries have recognized these societies, and their employees are treated on an equal basis with military medical personnel—so long as they abide by military rules and regulations.


The Role of Humanitarian Organisation: International Humanitarian Law

International humanitarian law pertains to armed warfare scenarios. It seeks to safeguard some very vulnerable populations and lessen the impact of conflicts on both people and property. Additionally, it sets out measures. There are four fundamental and generally acknowledged humanitarian principles that direct humanitarian activity; however, each humanitarian organization may adhere to a different set: humanity, independence, impartiality, and neutrality. Regarding IHL, the first difficulty stems from various opinions about the degree of protection that the law provides for humanitarian relief workers. IHL protects humanitarians in the same way that it protects all other civilians: assaults on them are forbidden and, when carried out on purpose, constitute war crimes. However, IHL also provides extra protection to a few specifically listed groups of aid workers, including medical, UN, and associated staff. It's unclear how much of these various legal protection levels actually translate into various degrees of field protection that organizations receive. Many believe that the legal protections now in place for humanitarians are appropriate, at least insofar as attacks on them are outlawed by law. As a result, they have concentrated their efforts on improving protection for civilians in general. Others argue that because it is the vital role of humanitarian aid workers to provide aid in conflict situations, there should be more security for them specifically. As desirable as it may be to amend IHL, given the current political climate, opening up key articles of international law to amendment is likely to harm rather than promote humanitarian values. If current safeguards have shown to be insufficient in actuality, a number of practitioners have expressed the necessity for a greater emphasis on the application and enforcement of the law in order to better protect both civilians and humanitarians. For humanitarian actors, putting the legislation into practice and claiming protection in the field and justice when attacks do occur provide a second barrier. In fact, relatively few violent crimes against humanitarians are ever looked into or prosecuted on their own. In many conflict zones, there is a breakdown of law and an element of insecurity, therefore challenges in implementing the law are to be expected . The question of whether humanitarian groups should even be in the business of enforcing legal compliance emerges, even though it might become challenging for them to do so. It is normal for the attacked groups to demand justice, but humanitarian organizations have good reason to avoid the enforcement domain even in cases where tools for enforcement are available.


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Humanitarian Aid Workers: The Jeopardy to Their Security

Increased efforts over the past two decades to measure and monitor incidences of violence and threats against humanitarian assistance workers have led to a far better awareness of security incidents and trends of violence affecting humanitarian aid workers and programs. However, there are still a lot of issues with data gathering, sharing, analysis, and governance, which affect our comprehension of events and trends as well as the best ways to respond. Health professionals and humanitarian health groups commonly operate in combat environments where they face direct attacks and where ongoing hostilities undermine essential services and basic institutions. According to Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) 2019 and Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) 2018, violence against humanitarian health professionals is a continuous and widespread issue in today's world and can even be fatal. "The most dangerous place on earth for health-care providers" is Syria in particular (Fouad et al. 2017). Attacks by violence against personnel and humanitarian health organizations have a lot of detrimental effects. Health professionals may experience financial loss, psychological distress, physical suffering, or even pass away. Attacks have the power to demolish medical facilities, stop the supply of necessary goods from reaching their destination, stop services from being provided, or even force an organization to close. After some initial attempts in the late 1990s to use mortality rates to quantify violence against aid workers, three databases have been formed to document and exchange data on security incidents. A Humanitarian Outcomes project, the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD) offers the most publicly available data. Despite the fact that there are still gaps in our quantitative understanding of security occurrences and patterns affecting humanitarian action, research in this field has led to a considerably fuller picture.


Case of Yemen: A Primal Alarm of Humanitarian Failure and Crisis for Women

Yemen continues to be one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes on earth. A startling 21.6 million people would need humanitarian aid in 2023, with 80% of the nation unable to meet their basic needs for food and shelter. The COVID-19 pandemic, natural calamities, economic collapse, and eight years of violence have disproportionately affected women and girls. Their access to potentially life-saving sexual and reproductive health services has been severely hampered by the health system's virtual collapse. Every two hours, a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth today, from causes that, given access to treatments, are virtually totally preventable. It is anticipated that over 1.5 million expectant and nursing mothers will experience acute malnutrition in 2023, increasing the risk of low birth weight and health problems for the unborn child. Ensuring that all Yemeni women and girls have access to services that are essential to their health, well-being, and life is UNFPA's top goal. UNFPA is requesting $70 million in 2023 as part of the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan in order to reach 3.9 million individuals.

 

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*This article is authored by Pihoo Agrawal, Student of Symbiosis Law School, Noida and reviewed by Twinkle, Student of Symbiosis Law School, Noida.



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