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UN Security Council calls for protection of humanitarian personnel

29 August 2014 21:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The UN Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution, urging all parties in armed conflict to ensure safety of humanitarian workers and full, unimpeded humanitarian access, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The resolution strongly condemned all forms of violence and intimidation against those participating in humanitarian operations, and urged states to ensure accountability for crimes against such personnel. It reaffirmed the obligation of all parties involved in an armed conflict to comply with international law to "ensure the respect and protection of all humanitarian personnel and United Nations and associated personnel."

While calling for full, unimpeded access to all people in need of humanitarian assistance and for relevant parties to make available all necessary facilities for humanitarian operations, the resolution builds in particular on resolution 1502 on the protection of UN personnel, associated workers and humanitarian people in conflict zones, adopted in 2003 in the aftermath of an attack on the UN compound in Iraq in 2003.

Similarly to resolution 1502, the text of Friday's resolution expressed the Council's determination to take a number of " appropriate steps" to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel.

The resolution has ensured that the mandates of relevant United Nations peacekeeping operations can "help to contribute to a secure environment to enable the delivery of humanitarian assistance by humanitarian organizations, in accordance with humanitarian principles."

Additionally, it requested UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to ensure the inclusion of key provisions of the Convention on the Safety of UN and Associated Personnel in all status-of-forces, status-of-missions and host country agreements between the UN and those countries, and encouraged Ban to bring to the attention of the Council situations where humanitarian assistance is unable to reach people in need as a consequence of violence directed against humanitarian personnel and United Nations and its associated personnel.