2026 ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment - Economic and Social Council, 30th Plenary Meeting

Very good morning.
Let us begin our meeting, Your Excellency's distinguished delegates.
I call to order the 30th meeting of the Economic and Social Council at the Humanitarian Affairs segment of its 2026 session.
I now invite the Council to continue its consideration of Agenda Item nine entitled Special Economic Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Assistance.
Your Excellency's colleagues, We shall begin high level Panel two on the topic from communities to practice.
The SG's report on the protection of civilians presents a deeply concerning picture.
As we heard Tom Fletcher say in his opening remarks, the disregard for international humanitarian law is not abstract.
The erosion of respect for international humanitarian law is one of the greatest impediments to the ability of humanitarian organizations to deliver assistance today.
Across multiple conflicts, civilians continue to face indiscriminate attacks, displacement, hunger, and destruction of essential civilian infrastructure.
Hospitals, schools, water systems, and energy infrastructure continue to be damaged or destroyed.
Humanitarian personnel and medical workers continue to face unacceptable levels of violence.
The report also highlights the increasing humanitarian consequences of disregard for international humanitarian law.
Protection failures are contributing directly to displacement, food insecurity, collapse of essential services, and growing humanitarian suffering.
International humanitarian law establishes clear obligations.
Civilians must be protected, humanitarian access must be respected, medical personnel and humanitarian workers must be protected.
At the same time, the report reminds us that protecting civilians requires more than expressions of concern.
It requires political will, practical action, and sustained commitment from member states and parties to conflicts.
That is why today's discussion will focus on the practical consequences of protection failures, the responsibilities of member states and parties to conflicts, and the urgent need to strengthen respect for international humanitarian law.
We will also hear perspectives from humanitarian organizations, protection actors, and affected communities regarding the operational realities they continue to face.
The erosion of respect for international humanitarian law risks undermining not only civilian protection, but also the ability of humanitarian organizations to deliver assistance safely and effectively.
That is why the protection of civilians must remain central to humanitarian action.
We shall now hear presentations by our distinguished panelists.
I turn now to Her Excellency Shamma Abid, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, to whom I ask the following question.
How does erosion of civilian protection contribute to displacement? I give the floor to Her Ecellcy the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh.
Mr.
Chair, fellow panelists, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
Good morning, and I'm pleased to join this important discussion today.
We are meeting at a time when the nature of armed conflict is becoming increasingly complex.
Protracted crises have become the norm rather than the exception.
Civilians are bearing the brunt of conflicts that are often prolonged, fragmented and shaped by multiplicity of state and non state actors.
The lines between combatants and civilians are increasingly blurred and humanitarian access is often obstructed or politicized.
These realities demand not only renewed commitment, but also a fundamental recalibration of how the international community acts.
Let me begin with the key lesson, commitment without compliance is insufficient.
While the normative framework of international humanitarian law is robust, its enforcement remains inconsistent.
Selective adherence and politicization of humanitarian norms have weakened trust in the system.
The international community must, therefore, prioritize accountability for violations regardless of where they occur or who commits them.
Impunity continues to be one of the greatest enablers of repeated civilian suffering.
A second lesson is that prevention is more effective than response.
Too often, the international system mobilizes only after crises have escalated into full scale humanitarian emergencies.
Early warning mechanisms exist, but early action is frequently delayed due to political constraints or lack of consensus.
Strengthening preventive diplomacy, investing in conflict resolution, and addressing root causes such as inequality, exclusion, and governance deficits are essential to reducing civilian harm.
Next, we must recognize that humanitarian action and political processes cannot be treated in isolation.
Sustainable protection of civilians requires coherent coordination between peace development, and humanitarian actors.
Fragmentation of mandates and competition among institutions often reduces operational effectiveness.
A more integrated approach is needed, one that places civilian protection at the center of all international responses.
The growing number of protracted crises and evolving conflicts also shows that protecting civilians requires inclusivity.
Women play a crucial role in humanitarian response and peace building, enhancing trust, access and operational effectiveness on the ground.
Their meaningful participation is, therefore, both an equity issue and an operational necessity for more credible and effective protection outcomes.
At the same time, conflict is increasingly extending into the digital space through harassment, disinformation, and cyber abuse, disproportionately affecting women and girls.
This calls for expanding civilian protection frameworks to include digital threats, alongside stronger safeguards, monitoring, and coordinated international action to address technology enabled violence.
The recently concluded Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa on 20th April 2026, I call for a global platform to address digital harassment targeting women and girls and I reiterate my call in this platform also.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me now to share Bangladesh's perspective and experience in this regard.
Since 17 February 2026, our BNP led government under Prime Minister Tarik Rahman has been pursuing a people centric foreign policy guided by Bangladesh first, emphasizing multilateralism while upholding international law, including international humanitarian law.
In contrast to the human rights violations under the previous regime, our government has adopted a model of humane and good governance while promoting transparency in the administration and state apparatus.
Strengthening public awareness programs and advancing social development remains central pillars of our commitment to prevent recurrence of the incidents perpetrated by the last regime in Bangladesh.
This commitment is reflected in our sustained engagement with the United Nations, including through active participation in UN peacekeeping.
Today, Bangladesh remains one of the largest contributors globally.
Our peacekeepers serve in complex environments, protecting civilians while also engaging in community support, medical assistance, and infrastructure rehabilitation.
As a woman, I'm particularly proud that many of our female peacekeepers continue to serve in frontline civilian protection roles.
Recently, on the international day of UN peacekeepers in Dhaka, our Prime Minister reaffirmed that Bangladesh views peacekeeping not merely as an obligation, but as a moral responsibility to humanity.
On humanitarian responses, I must also highlight the Rohingya crisis, which Bangladesh continues to shoulder as a severe and protracted burden.
We host over 1 million forcibly displaced Rohingya, providing shelter and basic support despite significant constraints.
We reiterate with deep concern that the Rohingya women and children are suffering disproportionately due to their intrinsic vulnerabilities.
This grim reality highlights the need for equitable burden sharing, sustained global support, and ensuring early repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar, alongside accountability as a key deterrent.
We repeat that humanitarian assistance alone is insufficient without a durable political solution to this crisis.
Mr.
Chair, the protection of civilians is not merely a legal obligation, it is a moral imperative and a test of our collective humanity.
The gap between commitments and practice must be closed through political will, institutional reform, and shared responsibility.
Bangladesh remains committed to working with all partners to uphold international humanitarian law and ensure that humanitarian principles are not only proclaimed but practiced.
Let us move together from promises to concrete action.
I thank you.
I thank the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh.
I now turn To the Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights, Mr.
Zia Salfi, to whom I ask, what are the operational and humanitarian consequences of increasing disregard for international humanitarian law? You have the floor.
Thank you, Chair.
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, friends.
At Physicians for Human Rights, for the last 40 years, we have worked at the intersection of medicine, science, law, and human rights to document attacks on health care and their impact and to seek accountability for these attacks.
As we just heard from the representative of Bangladesh, the important issue is the lack of accountability for norms that states here have largely agreed to.
I hope that what I can do today in the few minutes that I have is to frighten you all with the gravity of the situation that we are facing.
I hope also to describe how we got to this dangerous place, but also at the end to encourage and inspire you and us all to take concrete steps towards a solution.
Let me start with the words of one of our partners, our colleagues in the Eastern Congo, which are now facing massive conflict, a huge displacement crisis, and as had been predicted after the abrupt cut to assistance to public health facilities in the Eastern Congo, an outbreak of multiple infectious diseases.
At the top of the headlines is Ebola.
This doctor told us that the outbreak is occurring at a time when we are no longer truly able to carry out proper epidemiological surveillance because of the conflict, because of the disruption in funding, because of the displacement.
What's happening in DRC is getting headlines, but it is happening around the world, and this is something that we've called a poly crisis.
The intensifying armed conflict, displacement, rise in infectious disease threats, cuts to humanitarian and global health assistance, and weakening respect for international rules, in particular, attacks on healthcare facilities and humanitarian workers.
And so what begins as an attack on a clinic in the DRC, in Sudan, in Ukraine, in Myanmar, in Gaza, or Ethiopia can and will be felt across borders across communities.
No, no political arrangement can stop the spread of measles, of cholera, of tuberculosis, of Ebola.
We've just heard described absolutely clearly, and I'm going to steal your language here, the issue of commitment without compliance.
The norm protecting health care is one of the oldest protections in the laws of war.
In 2016, the Security Council adopted resolution 22 86 unanimously, condemning attacks on health care, calling for better data collection, protection of humanitarian access, and stronger accountability.
Last month on the tenth anniversary of that resolution, it was gratifying to hear in this chamber so many states, including all of the permanent members and nearly all except for one member, confirming their commitment to this norm.
Many of the states repeated exactly what you said.
The problem is not the norm, but the lack of accountability.
So where is the problem with the lack of accountability? Again, we've heard selective and politicized application of international law.
Rules that apply in Ukraine also apply in Lebanon.
The same rules apply in Sudan, in Myanmar, in Ethiopia, in Colombia, in Iran, in the UAE, in Qatar.
Disinformation and law have perverted what was once a very clear norm.
The very narrow exception to the norm protecting health care in conflict.
That is, that healthcare facilities or personnel may be targeted under very, very strict conditions if they have become militant, militarized, and specifically involved in harm to military force, only and only then under specific conditions can they be attacked.
This has now been twisted into a wide excuse justifying multiple attacks.
Technological changes like drones and cyber operations, AI enabled targeting have increased the risk to health care.
Civilian infrastructure increasingly depends on electricity, water, telecommunications, roads.
Attacking these systems produces enormous health consequences.
Finally, most disappointingly, is the dangerous rhetorical shift in some of the military and political discourse in language that elevates lethality over legality and the weakening of institutions designed to mitigate civilian harm.
Lack of support for the WHO, which is the institution, which is the global mandate to monitor attacks on health care, to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which has the global mandate to pursue accountability, to the International Criminal Court, which in many instances is the only venue available to pursue accountability.
Attacking these institutions erodes accountability.
There's no question about that.
There are positive steps that can be followed.
The development of civilian harm mitigation and response programs within militaries, an initiative led by the US was a significant move forward in understanding the attacks on health care and what should be done about them.
Weakening these institutions is a significant step back.
It weakens accountability.
What's the way forward? As I said, I'm now going to try to say what we need to do.
The work of PHR around the world, looking at multiple conflicts shows despite all of the rhetoric, in fact, the attacks on health care by states have grown significantly over the last ten years since Resolution 22 86.
According to work by our colleagues in the Safeguarding Health Coalition, the use of drone delivered explosive impacting health care surged by 43% in 2025, and it quadrupled already in 2024.
Let me focus on one particular aspect of this, which is the impact of such attacks on mothers and on newborns, a category that has specific protection under international law and that I think everybody in this chamber agrees has to be supported for the literal future of our species.
These attacks on health cause immediate harm, but they also have repercussive impacts.
Let me give you some example.
Our research in Syria showed that attacks by Russian forces and the Assad government significantly impacted maternal health.
Attacks on maternal clinics prevented women from seeking health, prevented their newborns from seeking and receiving treatment increases in C sections.
Then what we saw is because of the lack of accountability, the same Russian forces that were acting in Syria took that exact same pattern of behavior to Ukraine.
The same Iranian forces that were acting in Syria took that same pattern of behavior against their own population in Iran.
This is what lack of accountability means.
In Ukraine, Russian attacks on health and energy, including children's hospitals have reverberating harms that affect not only hospitals but even home based care.
In Gaza, our partners at Med San Dumont, Doctors of the World, reported a 300% rise in miscarriages since October 2023.
In a study of 100 pregnant women by MDM, more than 20% of newborns were affected.
Nearly 10% died in their first days of life.
That's astonishing.
85% of pregnancies in Gaza now present at least one complication.
Before the war, that was around 10%.
In Ethiopia, attacks, insecurity, displacement, and restrictions on aid, the poly crisis by government forces and armed militas have significantly undermined health services.
In Tigray, our research showed 2020-2024, 17% of survivors of conflict related sexual violence tested positive for HIV.
We've seen increasing rates of transmission of HIV from mothers to newborns, something that because of the PEPFAR program led by the US had nearly vanished, is now coming back.
Once it's happening in Ethiopia, it's going to happen everywhere.
The lack of accountability is what multiplies these problems.
There has been progress since 22 86, so I'm going to try to end on a positive note.
I guess part of the progress is that in those ten years, these attacks have become more visible.
Multiple commissions of inquiry by the UN, fact finding missions, work by UN agencies, including our colleagues at the World Health Organization and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and crucially civil society like us has increasingly documented these attacks.
But without your support, without political backing, resources, and follow through, without support for OHCHR, the World Health Organization, the International Criminal Court, speaking of accountability simply is rhetoric, and it will not do anything.
This norm has to be strengthened.
These events are really important, but it's crucial at the national level, at the military rules of engagement level that we see these norms underlined.
Ending impunity is paramount, not just through criminal accountability, which is significant, but also assistance to survivors and to victims, restitution, diplomatic consequences, and reparations.
This requires coordinated diplomatic, legal, economic, and institutional pressure to raise the cost of noncompliance.
It is very encouraging to hear statements from the government of Bangladesh in this regard.
I hope these statements will be taken to heart and will be followed.
All is not lost, but the danger is genuinely real.
We need better documentation.
We need better understanding that protecting health care and conflict is not just a legal and humanitarian imperative.
It's also not just a moral imperative.
It is a public health necessity, a security consideration.
These diseases and the impact on civilians will not be stopped at borders or biopolitical considerations and only coordinated international action, prevention and accountability will stop this poly crisis from spreading further.
We appreciate the opportunity to raise this issue with you.
We look forward to your concrete steps forward.
Thank you very much.
I would like to thank the Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights.
I now give the floor To Mr.
Rauf Mazu, Assistant High Commissioner for Operations at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
I ask him the following question.
How does the erosion of international humanitarian law contribute to displacement? Thank you.
Thank you very much Chair.
I would like to join the previous panelists in thanking the CoSc for considering this question.
Conflicts are a defining feature of our time and according to the ICRC, there were more than 130 armed conflict worldwide in 2024, more than double the number recorded just 15 years ago.
Entire generations have now grown up knowing only war.
Behind every statistics, there is a child unable to return to school, a family forced to flee, a community stripped of safety, dignity, and hope.
The reality is stark, civilians are paying the highest price for conflict they do not start and cannot stop.
At the same time, as we've heard from previous speakers, attacks on humanitarian workers are becoming alarmingly routine.
When humanitarian access is denied, protection is denied.
When protection is denied, displacement, suffering, and instability inevitably follows.
Delivering our protection mandate requires three urgent actions.
First, putting protection back at the center.
International humanitarian law cannot become optional.
Refugee law cannot become negotiable.
The protection of civilian cannot depend on the politics of the day.
This requires unified and unconsquet action by states, the United Nations, regional organizations, humanitarian actors, and civil society.
We need stronger coalitions that move beyond statements of concern and mobilize political leverage, diplomatic engagement, and collective pressure to prevent violations and protect lives.
As US here marks the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention this year, we're making a simple but urgent appeal.
The principle of no refulement is not a policy preference, it is a lifesaving legal obligation.
Second, invest in what protects people.
Protection is often treated as a secondary concern even where violence escalates.
Protection is not what comes after security collapses.
Protection is what prevents security collapse and we know what works.
What works early warning systems that identify risks before they become crisis, community based alerts, networks that connect affected populations to rapid responses, humanitarian presence that deters abusers and keeps access open, documentation that reduces vulnerability and safeguards rights, and accountability mechanisms that make clear that grave violation, including conflict related sexual violence, attacks on children, and forced displacement will not go unpunished.
Protection is also about ensuring access to rights and enabling self reliance.
This is why Unisia has made it a priority by 2035 to reduce by half the number of refugees in protracted displacement who are unable to meet their basic needs without external support.
The focus is to expand access to solutions and opportunities for self reliance, such as access to work opportunities, national education, health and social protection systems, enabling refugees to live in dignity and security, realizing their potential.
And third, a focus on accountability, partnerships, localization, and agency.
Protection cannot be delivered to communities.
It must be built with communities.
At times, we may arrive with solutions while overlooking the people who understand risks best, the communities living through the conflicts.
Local organizations, community networks, women led groups, refugee led organizations, and displaced persons themselves are not beneficiaries of protections, they are protection actors.
They are the first responders, the trusted messengers, and often the last line of defense when formal system fail.
Unisia has seen this firsthand from community outreach volunteers supporting vulnerable civilians in Lebanon and Syria to women led organizations helping prevent and respond to gender based violence in Ethiopia.
This is why we are prioritizing our funding to local actors.
In 2025, 2025, 71% of UNHCR funded partners were civil society organizations.
Development actors, international financial institutions, and regional organizations have a critical role to play.
Protection risks are rooted in exclusion, inequality, weak institutions, and unresolved conflict.
These structural drivers require development solutions alongside humanitarian action and I thank you.
I thank the Assistant High Commissioner for operations at the UNHCR.
I now give the floor to miss Lucia Elm, Director of the Office of Emergency Programs at the United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF.
I ask her the following question.
What are the most urgent protection concerns facing children today and what can states do to address them? You have the floor, Amy.
Thank you, Your Excellency, distinguished delegate, my colleagues and friends.
I really wanted to thank you for having UNICEF at this table and really to focus on the situation of children in many of those countries that we mentioned, being Bangladesh or the Rohingya refugees and in Gaza, in Sudan, in DC, the majority of the Aff population is actually children and really to say how children are facing a range of urgent issues and violation in conflict setting today.
Are like two of the main violations that are killing and maiming of children and also attacks on infrastructure being schools, health centers, hospitals, a lot of water infrastructure and energy infrastructure, and also what we all can do as member states, civil society organizations, and UN.
Also to recall that the Secretary-General has issued his report on children a conflict for 2025 yesterday and it is going to be an open debate to Security Council next week.
The graveest potential risk of children facing conflict is the right to life.
For the past three years, the Secretary-General annual report on children armed conflict has reported a double digit increase in the number of children killed and maimed.
In 2025 alone, the UN verified more than 14,200 children casualties across 23 contexts.
This figure illustrates a deeply concerning trend that represent only a fraction of the true toll on children and that number of violation is likely much higher.
In many contexts, this is also due to reduce access and also constraint to our teams on the ground.
Nearly 70% of those children were either killed or maimed due to the use of parties to the conflict or explosive weapons in populated areas.
A also the Executive Director of Physician for Yuma, I just mentioned, refers as a WPA, mainly in Gaza, but also in Ukraine, in Sudan, in Afghanistan, in Myanmar, in Lebanon, in Yemen, and many other context.
Wherever explosive weapons are used in populated areas, 96% of casualties are children as a civilian, including children.
And those trends are exacerbated by new technology, evolving as a means of method of warfare.
For instance, the use of drones, again, mentioned before by my predecessor, has increased dramatically, cheap and readily available.
Drones are increasing the weapons of choice for the use of explosive weapons.
We see that is unfolding in diverse contexts like in Ukraine, India Aim, in the State of Palestine, in the Central S region, and in Sudan.
In Sudan, during the first quarter of this year alone, drone attacks accounted for nearly 80% of all child casualties.
And drones have expanded the scope and reach of hostilities, civilians who were previously unaffected by fighting and having a deep psychological impact on children.
Children in conflict today describes I've been always under surveillance and the presence and the sound of the drones and I saw it myself in many of the countries that I mentioned Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine, really also expand this feeling of there is no way nowhere safe for them.
As mentioned at the outset as well, that beyond the killing and maiming of civilian, we're witnessing a growing part of attacks on civilian infrastructure.
One single attack or collateral damage of an essential infrastructure is often enough to set a devastating cascading effect.
Let me give you an example.
In February last year in the Nile, in the White Nile State of Sudan, a strike on an energy system knocked out a primary water treatment plant that required electricity.
As a result, families were forced to collect untreated water directly from the White Nil River.
White lab.
Two weeks later, 2,700 cholera cases including more than 500 children were recorded in those communities.
65 people died, ten of whom are children and schools were closed with 50,000 children losing access to education.
From Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine, and Mali, we witnessed how the destruction of essential infrastructure, heightened children's vulnerability and multiplies the potential risk they face.
When schools are destroyed, damaged and contaminated by explosive ordinance, we surge increasing early marriage, child labor, recruitment, and use of children.
When hospital capacity is reduced to become non functional because of attack of facility or medical personnel, families might forego essential health care for their children, including lifesaving vaccination of a significant risk in attempting to reach alternative sources of care.
As we say all over again, education in emergency is not only lifesaving, it's life sustaining and life changing.
Because also of the multiple impact on other services.
Each attack on a facility is an attack on the entire system that upholds and safeguards the lives of children.
When the system crumble, the consequences disproportionately felt are felt by girls, children with disability, and other categories of vulnerable children.
Now, let me turn to the last part of your question.
What can member states do and what we all can do as civil society and un organization and partners.
Four elements.
Number one, as the primary duty bearers, party to the conflicts might abide by international humanitarian law, yet member states can and must also use the leverage and influence to ensure the respect by parties to the law and to recall the laws of war set out the most basic protection afforded to civilian armed conflict and should be our minimum threshold.
Also, states should avoid the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and endorse the WIPA declaration.
If the declaration already be endorsed, domestic implementation is fundamental, as actively engaging other member state on best practices and promote it and whether your state is engaged in a conflict or not.
Second, we must strengthen the protection of civilian infrastructure, including water and sanitation facility and the energy system.
I urge member states, especially Security Council member, to use all tools at their disposal to influence parties to the conflict abide by their obligation to safeguard essential system and services to sustain civilian life.
Third, make sure that we retain the possibility to understand our children are impacted by conflict, including by safeguarding the Children arm Conflict agenda and other relevant human rights instrument.
Those tools uncover the of civil armed conflict and allow for collective action by the Security Council member, member state, and the wider public.
This information also help better direct our humanitary re towards the protection of civilians and most of all also the prevention of those grave violations.
And ultimately, we as humanitarian and development partners, civil society, have also a very important role to play.
We need to place protection of civilian at the center of our action across the four UN pillars.
This means designing and implementing responses based on the protection of civilian and making sure that we have an integrated multi sectoral approach, including by leveraging our voice, our collective voice in the humanitarian diplomacy sphere as a tool to uphold the rise of the children everywhere and wherever they are.
Thank you.
I thank the Director of the Office of Emergency Programs of UNICEF for her statement.
I'll give the floor to miss Lita Dalton, Director of the Financing and Outreach Division at the Opt.
What happens when consensus and the norms of humanitarian principles are eroded? What does that mean? When we're talking about defending the humanitarian reset.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Excellency, for the opportunity to address the critical issue of protecting civilians in armed conflict and strengthening respect for international humanitarian law and humanitarian principles.
You'll hear some familiar messages that my fellow panelists have voiced today, but they merit repeating over and over again until civilians are protected, international humanitarian law is upheld as well as the principles and that there's clear accountability for such violations.
Over 37,000 civilians were killed in across 20 armed conflicts in 2025, according to OHCHR.
That's one civilian killed every 14 minutes.
At that rate, that means that nine civilians will be killed during the duration of this meeting, this three hour meeting, nine people would be killed.
Across multiple conflicts, civilians are paying the highest price.
They're killed in their homes, in their markets, at work, at school, while fleeing for safety.
All too often, they are not collateral damage.
They're the ones paying the highest prices for choices made by those waging wars.
Civilian infrastructure is damaged or destroyed, essential services collapse.
Communities already under strain face repeated displacement, deprivation, and fear.
But none of this is inevitable.
Wars have rules, and when those rules are ignored, civilians suffer first and most.
Across crises, humanitarian organizations face growing access constraints, insecurity, bureaucratic restrictions, misinformation, and attacks on humanitarian personnel and assets.
Too often, these attacks are not condemned.
Too often, they're not investigated and too often there's no accountability.
The Secretary-General latest report on the protection of civilians is clear in its warning.
International humanitarian law is also clear, and the obligations of parties to conflict are clear.
Humanitarian principles are clear.
This is not a crisis of norms.
It's a crisis of compliance and of political will.
And it has direct operational consequences.
Respect for international humanitarian law is not only a legal or moral issue.
It's fundamental to whether humanitarians can reach people in need at all.
Humanitarian principles are not abstract concepts.
Humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence are what allow us to operate.
They enable access, they sustain trust.
They allow assistance to be delivered based on need and not on politics.
When these principles are undermined, humanitarian operations become slower.
They're more dangerous, more expensive, and less effective.
When access is denied, aid is delayed.
When civilians and infrastructure attack needs multiply.
When communities are displaced, crises deepen.
Violations of international humanitarian law are not only legal or moral failures, they're drivers of human suffering.
This is why the defend pillar of the humanitarian reset is so important.
To defend humanitarian action is not simply to defend institutions or mandates.
It's to defend the international humanitarian law that protects civilians and constrains the conduct of hostilities.
It's to defend the humanitarian principles that enable access and trust.
It's to defend the conditions that allow humanitarian action to exist, and ultimately, it is to defend humanity in the darkest moments of conflict.
There's no delivering without defending.
This is particularly important at a time when we're witnessing a dangerous erosion of restraint across conflict, violence against civilians, attacks on infrastructure, and constraints on humanitarian operations are increasing and in some contexts becoming normalized.
The erosion of restraint has consequences.
When the rule of law is weakened by the rule of force, civilians pay the price and humanitarians struggle to reach them.
Despite this, humanitarian workers continue to deliver.
Every day, they operate in some of the most dangerous environments to provide lifesaving assistance to millions of people.
They take immense risks to reach people in need.
Over 1,000 aid workers have been killed over the past three years.
You've heard that before.
But humanitarian action cannot substitute for protection.
It cannot compensate for violations, and it can't replace political responsibility.
The international community already possesses the legal frameworks, principles, and operational capacity required to better protect civilians and support humanitarian action.
What is needed is the consistent political commitment to uphold them.
Excellencies, protecting civilians is not optional.
Upholding humanitarian principles is not negotiable and respecting international humanitarian law is not conditional.
At a time of growing instability, we have to reaffirm a simple truth.
Defending international humanitarian law, protecting civilians and enabling humanitarian action are the responsibility of every member state.
They cannot be separate objectives.
There's no delivering without defending.
Thank you.
I would like to thank the representative from OCHA for that.
I now would like to give the floor to miss Elise Moschini, permanent observer of the International Committee of the Red Cross, to whom I ask the following question.
What are the consequences of the recent disregard for international humanitarian law? Thank you.
A.
Thank you, Chair.
Excellencies colleagues, as indicated by your question, respect for international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians are under unprecedented strain.
Last month, the president of the ICRC told the Security Council wars fought without rules transform wars between combatants into wars against civilians.
This is not an abstraction.
Is a daily reality we witness in our operations.
The operational and humanitarian consequences of disregard for the rules of war are both devastating and accelerating.
Three dimensions exemplify this.
The first, when IHL is disregarded, civilians bear unacceptable consequences.
We see rising civilian casualties, attacks on healthcare, the weaponization of food and water, the destruction of essential services.
Civilian harm is not only the immediate consequences of individual attacks.
It is also the cumulative impact of such attacks on essential infrastructure, which aggregate over time and create systemic crises.
When water and health systems collapse, when energy grids fail, when connectivity is disrupted or shut down, populations of entire cities can be pushed to the limits of survival.
People are not only killed by weapons, they are killed by the dismantling of essential service systems that sustain their lives.
This dangerous slide is propelled by an insidious normalization of violence and dehumanizing narratives.
Wars fought without limits, narratives that portray the enemy as subhuman or seek to justify deliberate destruction, threaten the moral foundations of our humanity.
The second, when IHL is disregarded, humanitarian space collapses.
Humanitarian organizations face growing access restrictions, insecurity, disinformation campaigns, and bureaucratic impediments.
Neutral, impartial, independent humanitarian action is being obstructed and the consequences are deadly.
The conditions for some humanitarian colleagues have become excruciating, including colleagues threatened, detained, held hostage.
31 Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers were killed in 2025.
In April of this year, the UN reported, as cited by our OCHA colleague now, over 1,000 humanitarian personnel were killed while performing lifesaving work in the last three years.
Attacks on humanitarian personnel call into question the protections that IHL was designed to provide to humanitarian personnel and to the civilian population.
Some attacks spark public outrage, others pass unnoticed.
But every attack represents a failure of humanity.
The third point, these patterns are amplified and accelerated by technology.
For all its benefits, technology is also reshaping the battlefield with important policy and legal implications.
To cite three examples, the prolonged presence of drones, as just described by our colleague from UNICEF, over homes, schools, farms, and hospitals creates constant fear and restricts people's movements, even during pauses in hostilities, drone countermeasures and failed or fallen drones also increase the risk for civilians, including long term risks generated by the presence of explosive remnants of war.
Cyber operations, whether deliberately or by mistake, may have dramatic effects on civilians.
As malware can spread instantly around the globe, it has the potential to affect critical civilian infrastructure and essential services such as health and water systems and to impede logistic systems that humanitarian operations depend upon.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning for decision making enable widespread collection and analysis of data sources.
They may identify people or objects, assess patterns of life and behavior, make recommendations for military strategy or operations, or make predictions about future actions or situations.
They accelerate decision making, sometimes reducing the time available to meaningfully verify targets or assess proportionality.
Distance between human operators and the impacts of their decisions grows both physically and conceptually.
To translate commitments to practice, technological evolution must be matched by concrete safeguards that preserve human judgment, human control and human dignity.
Against this backdrop and the unbearable realities described by my fellow panelists today, I offer one avenue the global initiative to galvanize political commitment to IHL was launched in 2024 by Brazil, China, France, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and South Africa.
Less than two years later, 113 states have officially joined, and more than 160 states have taken part in consultations to develop practical recommendations, concrete measures to strengthen the protection of civilians and preserve the protective purpose of IHL.
The ICRC encourages all states to join the initiative to contribute actively to its outcomes, including participating at the highest possible level in the Human and War Conference to be held in Jordan on seven December.
Excellencies, I conclude with one ask.
The consequences of disregarding IHL are devastating for victims and for our humanity.
The ICRC will continue to combine prevention efforts, protection action, and assistance close to affected people bilateral dialogue and diplomacy.
But our action cannot counter the depth of the devastation we see.
Today, we urge all states to act to uphold humanity in war.
Thank you.
I would like to thank the permanent observer of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Now, I give the floor to miss Abe El N, who is joining us virtually.
I'd like to ask her the following question.
When it comes to those communities that have been affected, what does protection truly mean in practice? You have the floor.
Okay.
Thank you for having me.
Excellence and distinguished deliberates Salman Aik.
You asked what protection in practice means for the affected communities and for the responders in Sudan.
I will tell you because right now for the people of Sudan, protection is merely a papa.
Since April 2020, We are witnessing here in Sudan is not just a conflict.
It is a deliberate, systematic, ruthless war against civilians and it is happening under the eyes of international community.
For us, protection is not only like a brac policy discussing in a safe home.
It is a basic survival when need.
In practice, protection for us mean a pregnant woman not believing to the death or suffering or suffering a miscarriage on a death way because she had to flee for her life.
In practice, protection also means a grantee that those seeking refuge are not arbitrarily detained, tortured, sexually violated, and abducted for ransom or summarily executed in the dark.
In practice, protection means our frontline local responders, especially the brave women led organizations and those who step into the void left by the international community can save lives without becoming targets themselves.
Yet, this fundamental protection do not exist.
Civilian infrastructure is disseminated, densely populated areas are resistantly bombed.
People are starved and denied essential healthcare and food.
And how the world responded with profound bralelizing in action.
The safety of civilian has been treated as an afterthought in political and mediation efforts.
There is no clearer nor more shameful example of this than Al faciir example.
The whole world worship the city was sake for two years.
You hear the alarms.
The massacre was clearly predicted and yet the international community stood by and took no real action to prevent it, and many cities are on their way.
Silence and inaction in the face of such atrocities be immunity as you know.
We cannot we cannot bring back those we lost in El Fs, but you have the power to dictate what happened tomorrow.
So we ask that the safety of civilians be placed at the absolute center of all political channels, all political mediations going now.
We ask enough pressure on the lowering barriers to force respect for international law.
We do not need expressions of concerns.
We need we need you to use every political, diplomatic, and humanitarian tool at your disposal to stand with the people of Sudan and Thank you.
Thank you very much indeed for that statement.
I now would like to open the floor for comments or questions regarding the presentations we have just heard.
Delegations wishing to request the floor should indicate their intention by raising the nameplate, or rather, in this case, My name is Ayo Awakon.
I'm representing B Africa.
I want to thank the organizer of this program for the opportunity to ask the UN Secretary-General designate question.
My question centered on the UN Haiti initiative and the legacy of the fut summit.
You know, which actually presents an opportunity to reshape the United Nations by raising the Secretariat budget by 20% and also match key agencies.
Your leadership role is very critical in navigating the of the transformation.
I apologize for that technical hitch.
As I was saying, delegations, if they wish to take the floor, should press the microphone button.
I would like to remind delegations to strictly observe the agreed time limits so that we can accommodate as many speakers as possible.
To ensure proper interpretation, delegations are asked to speak at a normal pace and to provide a written copy of their statements beforehand to the Secretariat.
We've already received a few requests for the floor.
First of all, I'd like to recognize Australia, followed by Germany.
Thank you, President, and I'll do my best to speak in time, although without a timer, it makes it very challenging, feel free to shut me down.
Listen, I'm honored to deliver a statement on behalf of the ministerial group for the Declaration for the Protection of humanitarian personnel comprising Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
It's clear to Wallace that there has never been a greater need to mobilize action to protect civilians, including humanitarian personnel.
When humanitarians lives are put in danger, it undermines their ability to deliver lifesaving aid, limiting how, where, and whom they can serve.
Practical and preventive action is needed to ensure that humanitarian personnel are protected.
The Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian personnel provides a pathway forward to sustained and tangible action.
As the Declaration's ministerial group, we are taking steps to advance this agenda.
First, we are committed to strengthening respect for international law and addressing impunity for violations.
Respect for international humanitarian law is not optional, and as reaffirmed in UNSC resolution 27 30, parties to armed conflict must respect international humanitarian law in all circumstances.
We condemn in the strongest terms actions that have killed UN peacekeepers and all unlawful attacks on humanitarian personnel, including national and locally recruited personnel.
Second, we commit to taking practical measures to reduce the risks that humanitarians face on the ground and we support activities to improve security assessments, promote humanitarians legal protections, and enhance incident reporting.
Third, we urge all states and non state parties to armed conflict to allow and facilitate safe, rapid and unhindered access for the delivery of humanitarian assistance to all civilians in need in accordance with relevant humanitarian law.
Humanitarian activities must not be criminalized and humanitarian personnel must be respected and protected, and we notably condemn arbitrary arrests and detention of personnel.
With 113 signatories to the declaration so far, there is strong political will to support this agenda.
Thank you, President.
Good luck.
Thank you very much.
The next speaker is Germany.
Followed by the Russian Federation.
Thank you, Chair.
Germany would like to thank Spain for putting this crucial panel on Protection and International Humanitarian Law on the agenda of the Humanitarian Affairs segment.
Thank you to all the panelists today for their insightful remarks.
The massive rise of systematic attacks on civilians, humanitarian workers, and civilian infrastructure, including healthcare infrastructure, is devastating.
These attacks constitute grave violations of international humanitarian law.
Germany expresses its deepest gratitude to all humanitarian personnel on the ground, often working under dangerous and unacceptable circumstances.
The past three years, referred to today, have been the deadliest on record for humanitarian workers.
We can't let 2026 be the fourth year.
The legal framework is in place.
What we need is accelerated implementation and collective political will.
Germany sees three key priorities.
First, accountability.
Perpetrators must face consequences through national and international mechanisms.
Second, monitoring.
We need stronger systematic data on attacks that reaches the Security Council and enables concrete action.
Third, prevention.
The protection of civilian and humanitarian infrastructure and staff must be consistently embedded in military doctrine, procedures, and command structures during times of war and peace.
For our part, Germany stands ready to contribute.
We will remain a steadfast defender of international humanitarian law.
Continue to engage in humanitarian diplomacy, to end conflict, and advocate for safe and unhindered humanitarian access to all conflict zones, including in Gaza and Sudan.
We are also an active member of the ICRC's global initiative to galvanize respect for international humanitarian law, as well as the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian personnel.
We urge all member states who have not yet done so to join these important initiatives.
To conclude, allow me one additional question to the panel.
We've heard it today, again, local humanitarian actors in the communities are often severely affected by IHL violations.
Which preventive measures have been proven effective in terms of protection and preparedness against such attacks? And how can we make sure that local actors, including women led organizations benefit from such measures.
And also, how can member states support these efforts? Thank you.
Thank you very much.
The next speaker is going to be the Russian Federation, followed by the Philippines.
President, the Russian Federation expressed its position on the topic of this session yesterday in a national statement.
At the same time, I'd like to make a comment on today's session on the discussion that we've had.
The representative of Physicians for Human Rights spoke at length about international humanitarian law and the need to stop double standards.
However, his own statement was an example of this exact selective approach.
We heard politicized accusations against Russia and Iran.
At the same time when we're talking about Gaza where tens of thousands of civilians are dying, hospitals are being destroyed, humanitarian assistance is being blocked and civilian infrastructure is being destroyed.
The speaker preferred not to name who was doing it and who was enabling it.
When they talk about the situation in Iran, it also preferred not to refer to the country that rolled out this war against that country, which has led to serious humanitarian consequences.
Is that not a double standard? Can you really call for universal respect of IHL, but at the same time politicize some situations and skirt around others if the criticizing them will be politically inconvenient? The price of this high minded appeals is small if they are accompanied by such clear political selectivity.
Russia, in turn, will reaffirm its commitment to international humanitarian law and believes that it should be applied in good faith, objectively, and without political selectivity.
Thank you for your attention.
I thank the Russian Federation.
I now give the floor to the Philippines.
Thank you, Chair.
The protection of civilians lies at the core of our collective responsibility.
Yet civilians continue to pay the highest price in armed conflict.
Attacks on civilian populations and infrastructure, including healthcare facilities, schools, water systems, and humanitarian personnel are unacceptable and undermine both human dignity and the rules that govern armed conflict.
The Philippines calls on all states and parties to arm conflict to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law, international human rights law and refugee law.
Respect for the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence remains indispensable to ensuring that humanitarian assistance reaches those most in need wherever they are and without discrimination.
Excellencies, international commitments acquire their fullest meaning when supported by effective national implementation.
In the Philippines, civilian protection is supported by laws such as the Act on crimes against IHL, genocide and other crimes against humanity, and the special protection of children in situations of armed conflict A.
Our armed forces of the Philippines integrates IHL into its doctrine, training, and operations, including adherence to the principles of distinction, proportionality, and the protection of civilian infrastructure.
We recognize the importance of investing in capacity building, training, and accountability mechanisms to strengthen compliance with IHL.
Particular attention must be given to the protection of women and children, consistent with the women peace and security agenda and efforts to protect children affected by armed conflict.
At the same time, emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons systems present new challenges for civilian protection.
As these technologies evolve, we must ensure that humanitarian principles and legal obligations remain fully respected.
The Philippines looks forward to the high level conference on IHL in Jordan later this year as an opportunity to reinforce global commitment to protecting civilians and upholding the rules that safeguard humanity in times of conflict.
Thank you.
I would like to thank the Philippines for that statement.
I give the floor to Sigate Tu Chao, followed by Indonesia microphone Please raise your hand and we'll give you the floor.
We'll turn your mic on.
La Pada, you have the floor.
Thank you, Chair.
Your Excellencies and distinguished colleagues.
My name is Regina Yun, and it is an honor to represent the Sigma Thetau International Honor Society of Nursing on behalf of our nurse members globally.
Medical centers were once a place of refuge and conflict where healthcare providers cared for all those that came under the principles of neutrality and impartiality.
Now we are facing unprecedented times with its affiliates, healthcare and humanitarian aid workers as well as essential infrastructure targeted and attacked with impunity.
Last year, there was 13 and 58 attacks impacting health care services recorded across 19 countries.
This resulted in 181 deaths.
The majority of these incidents impacted health facilities or transport and harm both healthcare providers and patients.
These deaths represented dedicated healthcare providers, including nurses and midwives, that faced a double burden of both working in a conflict while facing one and yet went to work under impossible circumstances anyway, intending to use their expertise to help the most vulnerable.
Under international humanitarian law, civilians, aid workers, healthcare providers and infrastructures such as hospitals are protected.
It is not an option.
It is a legal obligation.
The targeted attacks and systemic destruction represent catastrophic consequences and cascades.
Disruption essential services lead to increased rates of disease outbreaks and malnutrition, and communities die from causes that are preventable and otherwise treatable.
In addition, vulnerable populations such as women and girls bear a disproportionate amount of the burden related to gaps in sexual and reproductive health services, including deaths due to lack of emergency maternal care.
Remember, over half of maternal deaths globally stem from just 17 fragile contexts.
In addition to current crises, climate chains acts as a threat multiplier, accelerating humanitarian needs.
Health systems in fragile settings cannot absorb crisis after crisis without structural investment.
We need proactive, climate resilient health infrastructure sustained by long term financing built with local actors who know and provide services to their communities best.
Therefore, humanitarian response must no longer be reactive and fragmented, but be holistic, intersectional, and gender responsive, addressing needs beyond immediate survival, but build health systems that encompass physical and mental health, psychosocial well being, protection, and resilience.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health Lands Commission has recommended that health must be upheld as a non negotiable right and protection of healthcare and healthcare workers as such.
Only through localization, climate resilience, accountability, and protection of human rights and dignity with communities at its center, can we build a more equitable and peaceful future for all.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much indeed.
I now give the floor to Indonesia, followed by Cuba.
Okay.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
Indonesia, thanks the panelists for the valuable insight.
Indonesia ally itself with a statement by Australia on behalf of the ministerial group for the Declaration for the Protection of humanitarian personnel.
The figures before us are not statistics.
They represent real life loss.
More than 332 humanitarian personnel killed in a single year.
UN peacekeepers targeted medical facilities attack.
These are not accident.
They are violation.
Indonesia condemn in the strongest terms all attacks on humanitarian personnel, UN peacekeepers, and medical facilities in armed conflict.
We call on all parties to cease such attacks immediately and uphold their obligation under international humanitarian law.
Mr.
Chair, moving from commitment to practice requires three things.
First, IHL must be upheld without double standard.
All parties to conflict must respect the core principle of IHL without exception.
Selective application of IHL undermines the credibility of the entire framework.
As one of the co chairs of the works of the global initiative to galvanize political commitment to IHL, Indonesia invites the international community to make IHL a genuine political priority, not only in times of crisis, but as a sustained commitment.
Second, accountability.
Violation of IHL must not go unpunished.
States must ensure full, prompt and impartial investigation.
Third, humanitarian access must be ensured.
Safe, rapid and unimpended access for humanitarian actors must be guaranteed.
Obstruction of humanitarian aid and targeting of medical personnel and facilities are grave violation that cost lives and must cease immediately.
Mr.
Chair, a question to the panels.
Beyond the declaration and resolutions, what mechanism have proven most effective in changing the behavior of parties to conflict with respect to IHL compliance? I thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now give the floor to Cuba, followed by Switzerland.
Thank you very much, President.
The protection of civilians in conflicts is a legal and moral obligation that states have.
However, the current reality shows an alarming gap between the commitments that the international community has undertaken and their implementation effectively.
According to the recent report of the Secretary-General on the situation in armed conflicts, Global conflicts have reached the highest level in a decade with nine active conflicts and an increase in hostilities in 45% of cases.
This has gone hand in hand with a weakening of multilateraliism and respect for international law.
While the arms race is only being ratcheted up, global military expenditure is increasing and we're seeing a notable increase in attacks on civilian infrastructure.
We condemn deliberate attacks on civilian and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, humanitarian and energy facilities, and water facilities.
We also reject the use of hunger as a method of war and any measure that prevents humanitarian assistance from getting into those who need it.
The best way to protect people is to prevent conflicts erupting in the first place, addressing their root causes such as exclusion and marginalization and avoiding the use of unilateral coercive measures.
States must adhere to international law and international humanitarian law.
This should be the cornerstone of any effort to protect people.
Humanitarian action must always be governed by the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.
Humanitarian assistance should not be used as an instrument for political pressure, nor should it be conditioned to the achievement of geopolitical aims, can it be a pretext for interference in the internal affairs of states.
To make genuine headway in the effective implementation of commitments, we need to respect countries' sovereignty, independence, and the self determination of peoples and abide by multilaterasm.
The philosophy of war must be rejected as should the aggression against sovereign states.
We urgently need to have concrete measures to attain sustainable development without which there will not be lasting peace and without which we'll continue to face enormous challenges at the regional and global level, which will ultimately have unpredictable consequences for civilians.
Thank you.
I would like to thank Cuba.
I now give the floor to Switzerland, followed by Canada.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to all panelists for their insightful remarks.
At the time of growing polarization, Switzerland remains committed to promoting the respect and preserve the integrity of international Marite law as a universal framework that protects civilians in all situations of conflict.
Switzerland expresses concern regarding the growing trend to relativize IHL and recalls that it is binding on all states.
Switzerland underlines that IHL is a protective body of law that must be interpreted in good faith and hence opposes any permissive interpretation of its rules that undermines the protection of civilians.
Switzerland will continue to invest in dialogue, humanitarian diplomacy, and engagement with all parties to conflict, to strengthen respect for international mait law, including its rules related to humanitarian access.
As humanitarian needs continue to grow, respect for IHL must be raised as a political priority.
This includes the obligation to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded access to all civilians in need.
For humanitarian action to remain principled and effective and hence relieve suffering and save lives, international humanitarian law must be respected by all parties to the conflict at all times and in all circumstances.
In that regard, Switzerland actively supports ICRC's global initiative to galvanize political commitment to IHL, as well as the Declaration to Protect human and personal.
I thank you.
Lu.
Thank you very much.
The next speaker is Canada, followed by the UK.
Thank you, Chair and thank you to the panelists for their powerful interventions.
As state parties to the Geneva Conventions, we have all agreed to preserve the lives of the most vulnerable and to uphold human dignity.
We know all too well that the erosion of these established norms carries devastating consequences.
Injury and loss of life, displacement, obstruction of lifesaving assistance for populations in need, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and the enduring trauma of war.
As member states and as donors, there's also a stark financial reality that we cannot ignore.
Billions are invested each year to address the devastating consequences of the noncompliance with international humanitarian law.
Reducing the impact of conflict on people and objects protected by internationalitarian law costs far less than addressing the aftermath of violations.
All parties to conflict must move beyond rhetoric and translate their commitments and obligations under international humanitarian law into concrete actions.
States must continue to exert pressure to strengthen compliance and with it, reinforce our collective humanity.
Canada is committed to this task, including through Humanity and War Initiative and advancing the Declaration for Protection of Humanitarian personnel.
We must also be bold and robust diplomacy, both publicly and behind closed doors.
With a united vision grounded in our shared commitment to the Geneva Conventions, we have the collective power to turn the tide and make real difference in the lives of millions of conflict affected people around the world.
Thank you.
Thank you very much indeed.
The next speaker is the UK, followed by the US.
Thank you, Chair, and also thank you to all of our briefers for their really interesting and insightful statements today.
I think one thing that the panel has made very clear is the scale and the severity of civilian harm, and it's truly alarming.
The attacks on civilians and humanitarians reflect a seriously dangerous shift away from the norms that were designed to protect them.
The Geneva Convention sit at the heart of IHL, and they're rooted in the imperative to protect those who are caring for the wounded and sick.
I think one of our briefs said that attacks on health care have a reverberating impact, and we wholly agree with that and this is why the UK has funded some important research to evidence those reverberating impacts.
This monitoring of incidents and their impacts is really important so that we can use that evidence to drive specific action that sustains services, that protects patients and medical personnel, and that crucially upholds IHL as well.
Protection, as I think our brief from UNHCR said, protection is indeed, it's not a secondary concern.
It must be at the forefront, and it must also keep pace with the changing technological nature of conflicts.
I think we heard a bit more about that from our briefs today.
This is also why the UK is supporting a global roadmap to help mitigate risks posed by unmanned aerial systems to humanitarian operations.
We encourage other states to join us in that as well.
We also launched a handbook last year on conflict hunger and international humanitarian law, and that aims to translate international humanitarian law into practical action to address the devastating trend of conflict and hunger.
We really encourage partners to work with us and use this resource to strengthen our collective engagement on this issue.
Finally, I'll just say, as others have said, that we are a proud and active member of the Australia led Ministerial Group for the Protection of Humanitarian personnel and also the ICRC's global initiative to galvanize political commitment to IHL.
We think those are both very important initiatives.
Just to conclude, today, we've been urged to take concrete actions and move beyond rhetoric.
These are just a few things we can do to protect IHL, and we will continue to use our position to do that and press parties to the conflict to protect civilians.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
The next speaker is the United States.
Thank you Chair.
The United States stands with humanitarians around the world who are working every day to assist people affected by crisis.
We support them and reiterate our thanks for their work.
In the Security Council, the United States remains steadfast in our support for the protection of civilians agenda.
We will continue to shape peacekeeping missions with appropriate and suitable protection mandates while also integrating other critical issues like support for the facilitation of humanitarian access, and we maintain our clear position that international humanitarian law must be respected in situations of armed conflict.
Additionally, we are working to strengthen protection of civilians and humanitarian action through our funding and efforts to support reforms to the humanitarian system.
For example, our shift to pooled funding is delivering critical assistance to the field in record time and demonstrating a faster, more accountable, efficient, impact driven, locally driven, and hyper prioritized model of humanitarian assistance.
We also know, however, that humanitarian assistance cannot and will not solve conflict.
For this reason, the United States has consistently incorporated humanitarian issues into our diplomacy, including peace initiatives spearheaded by our president.
The United States stands ready to collaborate with humanitarian organizations and other member states in advancing these efforts.
Thank you.
L.
Thank you very much indeed.
I now give the floor to secure Islamic funds.
Ambassador President, thank you for giving me with the floor.
I represent the humanitarian organization.
I'd like to raise a couple of issues that we believe are crucial.
The first is a specific impacts of violations of IHL impacts on children in the context of a reduction in funding.
At a time when protection of childhood remains underfunded structurally, even though it is a vital sector, the situation has worsened significantly since 2025.
A recent studies from 68 countries indicates that 84% of those working in the field are facing budgetary cuts and half of them have lost more than 40% of their funding.
In parallel, three quarters of them report an increase in violations of children's rights.
New data from 2025 that was published yesterday confirms this.
The reduction in these programs has a direct impact on a fall in the follow up and documentation of violations, a reduction of engagement with parties to conflict and ultimately a weakening of accountability mechanisms.
The simple presence of humanitarian personnel has an essential role in the protection of children.
It's essential to consider the place given to children in humanitarian diplomacy.
How can we guarantee that children's rights are not sidelined? Beyond specific initiatives on childhood, how can we ensure that all diplomatic actions related to conflicts systematically include priorities and children specific commitments? There is a real risk here of marginalizing questions related to childhood, including an accountability mechanisms on violations of international humanitarian law.
So While there are tools available, it is crucial that all mechanisms systematically include a child's rights based approach.
Second point I just wanted to raise is the protection of humanitarian personnel, particularly with the growing risks of criminalization of them and the impacts of disinformation.
Narratives according to question the legitimacy of humanitarian organizations as well as the confusion between their mandates is a major challenge today for the safety of personnel working to respect humanitarian principles.
These trends alter the perception of humanitarian organizations as neutral, independent, and impartial actors and they've reduced the level of exception by people and parties to conflicts, thus increasing the risk of violence and criminalization.
These risks also accumulate because of the current financial constraints, which means that some organizations have to choose between continuing their actions with the population and necessary investments to protect themselves.
So I wanted to ask the panelists on possible courses of action.
How can we effectively fight these dangerous narratives? How can we strengthen accountability for those who are at the origin of these disinformation campaigns and what good practices exist to prevent the criminalization of humanitarian actors and how can this be rolled out on a bigger scale? Thank you very much.
Thank you very much indeed.
I now give the floor to Guatemala, followed by Norway.
Thank you very much, President.
We'd like to thank you for convening this discussion and we'd like to thank the panelists for their enlightening briefings today.
Guatemala is deeply concerned to see the report by the SG and notably the fact that more than 326 humanitarian workers last year lost their lives in conflict.
In addition to this, 64.5% of funding in humanitarian emergencies is allocated to these crisis situations.
This shows that we need to ensure that we address the urgent nature of the situation and ensure that countries abide by international humanitarian law.
It's critical that parties to conflicts guarantee safe, unhindered, swift access for humanitarian assistance, protect humanitarian workers in line with international humanitarian law.
They must also impartially and promptly investigate attacks on humanitarian workers and strengthen national and international accountability mechanisms to bring those responsible for these violations to justice.
As a country that has gone through an internal armed conflict, Guatemala is only too well aware of these issues.
Our experience leads us to insist that there must be concrete actions taken.
Commitments and norms already exist.
The problem is implementing them.
As proof of this commitment, Guatemala has joined the Global Initiative for International Humanitarian Law, which acknowledges the need to redouble efforts to ensure the effective implementation of these norms and standards.
In this regard, we recall the relevant resolution of the Security Council, which calls upon all parties to conflicts to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law.
Lastly, we wish to stress the need to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure as well as medical and humanitarian personnel whose work is critical to save lives in conflict situations.
This requires specific measures being taken to guarantee safe humanitarian corridors to prevent attacks on civilian infrastructure and to ensure effective investigations where that is required.
Two thirds of emergency humanitarian funding is being allocated to crises, as I mentioned earlier.
That is why it's so important to ensure accountability.
This must become a priority and not just an obligation that we talk about.
Thank you, the President.
I thank you for your statement.
I now give the floor to Norway, followed by UNFPA.
Thank you, Chair and thank you to all panelists for highlighting the many challenges we face and concerns that we share.
Violations of international humanitarian law and erosion of established norms, attacks on health and humanitarian personnel, and protection concerns such as sexual and gender based violence and conflict related sexual violence, as well as risks to children, refugees, and displaced people.
We agree that impunity and lack of accountability must be addressed.
Violations of IHL must be called out wherever they occur and regardless of the perpetrator.
Chair, I will focus on sexual and gender based violence.
Human rights, including women's rights and gender equality, must be at the core of a reformed humanitarian system.
The humanitarian reset must center protection in an inclusive way, placing those most at risk at the heart of our efforts.
Protection from conflict related sexual violence and sexual and gender based violence, as well as support to survivors is a key priority for Norway.
While women and girls are most exposed, boys, men, and LGBTQI plus persons are also at risk.
Through partnerships with UN FPA, other UN organizations, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, and civil society, we support prevention and response to gender based violence, as well as sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls affected by crisis.
These are lifesaving services that must be prioritized from the outset of any emergency.
Norway chairs the call to action on protection from gender based violence in emergencies in 2025 and 2026, a network of around 100 members, including states, donors, UN agencies, and NGOs.
Its objective is to strengthen efforts to prevent, mitigate, and respond to GBD in humanitarian crisis.
In light of disproportionate funding cuts affecting women and girls, we will use this platform to safeguard SGBV prevention in the reformed humanitarian system.
I ask the panelists, how can we ensure that SGBT is addressed from the very start of every crisis? Finally, sexual violence as a tactic of war must end.
We urge member states to find collective ways to hold perpetrators accountable and to fight impunity.
Thank you.
L I thank the distinguished representative of Norway and I now give the floor to UNFPA, followed by Egypt.
Thank you, Mr.
President, Excellencies, we continue to face a global protection crisis marked by rising attacks on civilians, on health facilities, including maternity wards, and a women and girls safe spaces.
Sexual violence as a weapon and tactic of war continues to increase.
We've heard today how attacks on health services directly impact maternal and newborn health.
60% of preventable maternal deaths occur in fragile settings.
We've also heard about international humanitarian law being under attack and humanitarian principles being disregarded.
Protections and in addition, the protection needs of women and girls have never been higher.
In 2026, the United Nations Population Fund estimates that 84 million people need gender based violence prevention and response services.
These are women and girls and people in all the diversities who've experienced at risk of sexual violence, exploitation, forced marriage, and trafficking.
Women and girls have experienced conflict rated sexual violence and gender based violence, require access to specialized services and support, yet insecurity, movement restrictions, and attacks on humanitarian workers curtail access to survivor centered services, especially in hard to access areas.
The situation is exacerbated by funding shortfalls.
A recent protection cluster survey found that about two thirds of gender based violence organizations, mostly local actors, reported cuts impacting their interventions which are lifesaving.
The global provider of last resort for gender based violence prevention and response, UNFPA remains committed to ensuring that lifesaving GBV services and those for sexual and reproductive health are available when and where no other actor can provide them.
UNFPA is uniquely positioned to ensure uninterrupted access to essential reproductive health and gender based violence commodities, enabling the continuity of care even in the most challenging operational context.
We thank member states for their support and ask for continued provision of predictable and flexible funding to recognize sexual and reproductive health and gender based violence services as lifesaving and to help close critical funding gaps in priority crises.
This is especially important given recent announcements of humanitarian funding for which UNFPA is not eligible.
Ensuring that the protection of women and girls is addressed requires that the specialized protection and health services that women and girls and people in all the diversity require are treated as priority in every crisis response around the world.
Thank you.
I thank the Distinguished Center of the UFPA.
I now give the floor to Egypt to be followed by Ethiopia.
Suchan side rice.
Thank you, President.
The Secretary-General reports on the protection of civilians in situations of armed conflict and his report presented to EcoSoc demonstrate a grave escalation in attacks against humanitarian relief personnel.
UN reports reflect also a spike in attacks against UN personnel and in this connection, more than 136 members of personnel were killed in 2025.
The majority those working for Unwa in the conflict of Gaza, the number of victims has gone beyond anything seen before, and this is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.
There are so many indicators that show a real problem and it is therefore incumbent upon us to identify the causes of this and how this all hinders humanitarian action and exacerbates violations perpetrated under international humanitarian law.
This kind of incident is a precedent that risks becoming the norm.
The immunity that we thought had been given to these humanitarian actors is itself being violated repeatedly.
Therefore, we fear that this then becomes the norm and this becomes common practice.
Egypt, during its mandate at the Security Council in 2016, worked to see adopted 26 86 to protect health care facilities during armed conflict.
As we said during the general debate, there is a whole arsenal of resolutions that we can use quite rightly so.
Unfortunately, however, these many resolutions sometimes show how inefficient it is to actually apply and implement them.
I would repeat that the problem is the non implementation of these resolutions and not in the very existence of law and the resolutions itself.
I thank Egypt and I'll give the floor to Ethiopia to be followed by Sweden.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
Ethiopia welcomes this segment on the transition from relief to development, a priority that reflects our own national experience and approach to humanitarian and recovery efforts.
Mr.
President, my delegation categorically rejected the characterization of Ethiopia by one of the panelists as a government that deliberately restricts humanitarian assistance.
Such assertions are unbalanced and fail to reflect the realities on the ground.
Ethiopia has consistently worked in collaboration with the United Nations and the humanitarian partners to facilitate the delivery of lifesaving assistance to conflict and the disaster affected areas in line with international humanitarian law.
Since the Pretoria Agreement of 2022, Ethiopia has made substantial progress stabilizing affected areas, facilitating humanitarian access, and supporting the safe voluntary return of displaced populations.
We are particularly proud of progress in the health sector.
Facilities damaged during the conflict are being rehabilitated.
Health workers have been returned to their posts and essential services, including maternal and primary health care are being restored across previously affected areas.
Humanitarian organizations, including health partners continue to operate across the country, including in the North with expanding access to deliver assistance where needed.
We would like to encourage the Parist to update his notes accordingly, drawing on the most recent assessments from our UN country team.
Ethiopia remains firmly committed to international humanitarian law and to its obligations regarding the protection of civilians, health workers, and health facilities.
Our continued cooperation between agencies and health and humanitarian partners reflected this commitment and we welcome continued engagement rather than reliance on characterizations that do not reflect current realities.
We also wish to highlight Ethiopia's own efforts to bridge the relief to development continuum, including health system contraction, livelihood restoration, and the work of our National Dialogue Commission in supporting durable locally owned recovery and reconciliation.
Furthermore, Ethiopia is making steady progress on its path towards sustainable development and a national reconciliation as demonstrated by the peaceful conduct of its general election just two weeks ago.
We look forward to continue to continue constructive engagement with this council grounded in accurate and updated information.
I thank you, Mr.
President.
Thank you very much.
The next speaker.
Sweden, followed by the European Union.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
Let me start by giving full support for the global IHL initiative, as well as the Declaration for the Protection of humanitarian personnel.
We meet at a moment when the protection of civilians is under extraordinary strain.
Across many different regions, we are witnessing a failure of political will.
Civilians are targeted, humanitarian access is obstructed, and international humanitarian law is violated with impunity.
These are political choices and they require political responses.
This is why diplomacy, including humanitarian diplomacy has become indispensable.
Operational negotiations in the field remain vital, but they are no longer sufficient on their own.
The decisions that determine whether aid reaches people in need, whether corridor is open, and whether parties respect their obligations are shaped in capitals, in regional organizations, and in this building.
Member states possess diplomatic tools, relationships, influence, political capital that can and must be mobilized to uphold international humanitarian law and secure access.
This includes when it's politically difficult, also in relation to partners and allies.
Respect for IHL is not optional and ensuring respect is a legal obligation for all states.
As financial pressures and geopolitical fragmentations intensify, humanitarian diplomacy becomes a force multiplier.
It is one of the few tools that can expand humanitarian space without expanding humanitarian budgets, but it must be strategic, sustained, and connected to real outcomes for people.
Thank you.
L Thank you very much.
I now give the floor to the European Union, followed by Algeia.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
Today, there are more than 130 active conflicts worldwide.
That is more than double the number of just 15 years ago.
These conflicts account for roughly 70% of global humanitarian needs.
That statistic in itself makes it clear that promoting the respect for international humanitarian law needs to be our collective first priority for the entire humanitarian community.
International humanitarian law is still the most powerful tool to protect civilians in times of war and promoting international humanitarian law and humanitarian access is not optional, as many of you have said.
It is the very foundation and very central to effective and safe humanitarian action.
Okay.
European Union is committed to strengthen its humanitarian diplomacy as we have set out in the policy communication that we have issued on the 27th of May.
We will strengthen our humanitarian diplomatic efforts, and we will try to intensify the effectiveness of these work.
We will be making better use of the network of EU delegations that we have across the world.
We will use better our political and economic tools.
We will be developing trainings for diplomats and we will be trying to work together with all 27 member states as a European bloc.
I also think this is an area where we can develop more cooperation between the United Nations and donors.
It is an area where we need to team up and do better together.
The European Union is also stepping up on the protection of aid workers.
We have a regional program that provides legal and other types of support to victims of violence among aid workers, and we will be rolling out that program across the globe in the coming months.
Thank you.
La thank you very much.
I now give the floor to Algeia.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
I also thank the panelists for their sovereign insights.
Recent grave violations of international humanitarian law demand our immediate attention.
Millions of civilians in conflict zones still endure the threat and impact of direct attacks, the weaponization of starvation, the obstruction of a humanitarian assistance, and the horrors of forced displacement.
They also face the consequences of the collapse of healthcare and education systems.
This underscores the urgent need to re examine our collective approach to international humanitarian law.
Upholding international humanitarian law is an absolute obligation.
IHL must be applied universally without selectivity.
Furthermore, parties to conflict must protect vital infrastructure crucial to human survival and allow safe, immediate and unhindered humanitarian access.
Current violations directly undermine the ability of humanitarian actors to operate safely and effectively.
In this regard, Algeria is actively engaged on this agenda, serving as co chair of the working group on protecting civilian infrastructure within the global initiative to galvanize political commitment to IHL.
Mr.
Vice President, we are also witnessing an alarming normalization of attacks on medical care personnel.
Our unwavering commitment to their protection was firmly reaffirmed when Algeria signed the Declaration on the protection of humanitarian personnel in September 2025.
We must also ensure that the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence remain the cornerstone of the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
Crucially, breaking the cycle of recurrent violations require securing full accountability and prosecuting perpetrators through established legal frameworks.
Mr.
Vice President, this requires mobilizing collective will and decisive action to effectively translate commitment into practice.
Only through our shared determination can we safeguard our humanity and ensure that international humanitarian law is fully enforced and universally respected.
I thank you.
Thank you very much indeed.
Now, I invite the distinguished panelists to respond to the questions made the comments made and the questions posed.
I give the floor to miss Moschini first.
Want to speak Mistake, not me.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I give the floor to Mr.
Mazu, Assistant High Commissioner for operations at UNHCR.
Chair, I would like to thank all participants for the intervention on this crucial topic.
One of the most visible consequences of attacks on civilian populations is forced displacement, which remains at an extremely high number, 114 million people displaced internally and refugees.
As noted, at the beginning of this panel by the State Minister for Foreign Affairs from Bangladesh, a country which hosts over 1 million Rohingya refugees.
The solution in a case like this one is to facilitate the voluntary return in conditions of safety and dignity of these populations.
The other point that we've heard from all and which is important to underline is the importance of financing and mobilizing the necessary resources for humanitarian assistance.
We all know that there has been a drastic reduction in the resources available and that has had very serious consequences on civilian population.
This being said, we all know that humanitarian assistance is not sustainable and it is essential to try and make sure that forcibly displaced population are given the means to be self reliant as early as possible when the circumstances allow.
This is at the heart of our protection strategy as UNHCR.
This requires not just the action of humanitarian actors, but it also requires the action, as we've heard from many of development actors, and we probably did not underline that enough, but also of the private sector.
I would like to thank you.
Ludo thank you very much to Mr.
Massieu.
I now give the floor to miss El Mi, Director of the Office of Emergency Programs at UNICEF.
Mr.
President, thank you, distinguished delegates for all the intervention in terms of support of children, vital social services, the imperative and importance of protecting them during conflict.
Maybe from my side, a couple of additional points.
The first one is related to the children and conflict agenda and really the support to the monitoring and reporting mechanism and how member state can support the MRM.
It is not only mechanism to monitor and report violation, but it is also very important tool to mobilize actions, our action, member state action and particularly in parties to the conflict.
Because parties to the conflict, they have the opportunity to be the listed when and if they sign and implement those action plans.
Really the importance to make sure that we follow through and the implementation of those action plan is fast tracked.
Second, also, the issue of to really listen to the voices of children and to listen to what they have to say.
If you ask them what they want and what they need in conflict, they will tell you one thing.
They want to be protected.
They want to be in a safe environment, and they want to be able to be with their peers.
They want to be able to learn, to be in school without fears and without being attacked under the sound of the buzzing of a drone.
My last point is really the importance of our collective voice.
We heard a lot about humanitarian diplomacy, humanitarian advocacy and really urge the influence that you have as a member state and us collectively to influence the parties to the conflict, their behavior, and also to influence other member state who have leverage in those parties to the conflict.
Thank you.
Lula Gracias, thank you very much, miss Elme.
I now give the floor.
To miss Lisa Dalton, Director of the financing and Outreach Division at OCHA.
Thank you very much, Chair and I join my colleagues in thanking all of you for your statements of support for protecting civilians in our increasingly difficult environment of operating as humanitarians, but also certainly those that we aim to serve.
I just wanted to make three quick points.
One is a component I wanted to highlight that I don't believe really came through here, which is the increasing criminalization of humanitarian action We've seen in many countries across the world where humanitarians are detained, they are prosecuted for just doing what they need to do, which is to serve the civilians and serve the people most in need.
The Secretary-General has called on member states to integrate humanitarian carve outs in their counterterrorism legislation to ensure that aid workers are not detained, prosecuted or condemned for implementing legitimate humanitarian work.
That's the first point.
The second, I wanted to address the point or the question raised by the distinguished colleague from Germany about how to make sure local actors and women led organizations are supported.
So thank you very much.
I just wanted to add I just wanted to provide two different overarching points.
One is compliance with IHL and accountability remain essential to this for any and all but including local partners, local national actors and should apply equally to all civilians, whether local, national actors and international.
This is really the foundation of what we're looking at.
The second is I met with the UN Department of Safety and Security, UN DSS yesterday.
This is a point that we're actually talking about.
We're talking about how to support local and national actors in their role because, of course, that is where we're going with the humanitarian reset.
We want to ensure that the increased voice agency and action by local national partners.
We need to support them, enhance their protection and security.
Security costs have to be integrated into programming to help mitigate the risks of these different incidents and security management systems must be adapted to better protect local staff and particularly NGO staff.
So I would say that this is one issue that we have to really think about collectively to ensure that we can advance localization in an environment of safety and security for those that are trying to serve the people that need it most.
The last point I wanted to make is in response to the distinguished colleague from Norway.
The emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher has made it very clear that services to victims of GBV must be prioritized, including by highlighting the differentiated needs of women and girls, especially in conflict.
So I think by continuing to highlight this important priority, it's very much central to the humanitarian reset and at the heart of the defend pillar of the four Ds of the humanitarian reset.
I do want to just repeat what I had said at the beginning and at the close of my statement, which is there's no delivering without defending.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, miss Dalton.
I now give the floor to miss Mervat Hamedl Neel, founder and Director General of the Sudanese Center on People and Empowerment, joining us virtually.
We seem to have a technical problem, so we will move on and give the floor to Mr.
Samana Sarifi, Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights.
I want to join my panelists in thanking everyone for the very important contributions and statements of support for humanitarian workers and in particular for health care workers.
First, I want to really thank and respond to the comments from the distinguished delegate from the Russian Federation.
It is absolutely correct.
I'm checking my remarks, but I want to be clear that Israel has carried out significant attacks on the healthcare system in Gaza and in Lebanon.
We have spoken out on this quite significantly, and so there was no intention about that.
We have also significantly criticized statements by the United States government suggesting that there will be deviations from IHL in the course of its conflict.
So thank you for raising that oversight on my part.
And I want to also use that opportunity to talk about some of the concrete measures and the lack of accountability we've talked about.
I look forward to the Russian Federation support for the International Criminal Court in investigating these violations in the context of the war in Gaza.
Any violations by Israel or Hamas have to be investigated properly independently, and we look to your support for those investigations by the International Criminal Court and we hope you will support the International Criminal Court without any sense of double standards in its other investigations.
This issue goes to a major conceptual problem in this discussion today.
This is the job of NGOs to say these unpleasant undiplomatic things.
We have talked about violations, we have talked about victims and survivors as if they are suffering from a natural phenomenon.
Attacks on humanitarians and health care workers are not natural phenomenon.
It's not the rain.
It's not an earthquake.
In statement after statement, delegates failed to name the perpetrators and it's important for accountability to name the perpetrators.
Now, you're diplomats, this is not the forum.
What is the concrete way forward? Multiple people have asked about this.
It's very clear.
It's the WHO that monitors attacks on health care systems.
Other UN agencies monitor attacks on their own actions.
Um, we would like to see the Secretary-General pull this together.
I'm going to guess with financial support from you all to create a mechanism that gathers this information that can report it back.
It's the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that has the responsibility for investigating these attacks and gathering evidence and looking forward to accountability processes.
As I've said multiple times to many of you, there's half a person at OHCHR that is responsible for documenting attacks on health care.
So we really appreciate the statements of support, the demands for accountability.
The process has to go through those two agencies and the rest of the UN to gather the information, and then it has to go through civil society organizations like me who will say the unpleasant things, who will carry out the unpleasant investigations, who will gather the evidence to push through for accountability.
In this regard, I also want to thank the distinguished delegate from Ethiopia for stating their commitment to supporting the health care situation and the humanitarian situation in the context of a very complicated conflict.
As always, we civil society organizations are not here just to be antagonistic.
I look forward to discussing with the Ethiopian government.
They've requested just now that we update our figures.
I want to be very clear, we have updated our figures.
Significant attacks on healthcare facilities and humanitarian actors are continuing in Tigray, but now that pattern of behavior has spread to Amara and Afar province.
Levels of sexual violence that are unprecedented have been documented since the Pretoria Agreement.
I am sure that these are issues that need to be addressed by the Ethiopian government.
We look forward to working with them closely.
We look forward to working with all of you.
The route to accountability goes through being able to identify perpetrators, to provide the platforms like the International Criminal Court that will at some point put those perpetrators on trial, give them due process, and if necessary, provide accountability.
That's the only way forward.
I hope that we can translate all of the statements in support of accountability and in support of these norms into concrete action towards justice mechanisms, restitution, and assistance for the survivors and the victims.
Thank you very much.
And, I'd like to thank Mr.
Cia Sarifi.
That brings us to the end of this segment.
I'd like to thank our panelists very much.
Your Excellency, colleagues, I'd like to thank all of our panelists for a very rich and important discussion.
I think this conversation has brought into clear focus the human and operational consequences of the challenges that were laid out in the Secretary-General report.
Throughout the discussion, one message came through consistently.
The erosion of respect for international humanitarian law is not abstract.
It has real and immediate consequences for civilians, for humanitarian operations, and for the system as a whole.
We have heard how in many contexts, civilians continue to face violence, displacement, and deprivation under extremely difficult conditions.
How damage to hospitals, schools, and basic infrastructure all lead to the collapse of essential services and how these pressures feed directly into deeper and more sustained humanitarian suffering.
We have also heard how constraints on access, insecurity, and operational risks are making it harder for humanitarian organizations to reach people safely and effectively.
So the discussion has reinforced a very simple point.
Protection and humanitarian action cannot be separated.
They are both deeply interconnected.
When protection fails, operations become more difficult, more costly, and less effective.
And ultimately, those consequences are borne by civilians themselves.
There was also clear acknowledgment across the panel that international humanitarian law establishes essential obligations.
Civilians must be protected, humanitarian access must be respected.
Humanitarian and medical personnel must be able to operate safely.
There was also broad recognition of the importance of these principles.
At the same time, our discussion also reflected that perspectives differ across contexts, particularly with regard to implementation and accountability.
That is an important reminder of the complexity of the environments in which humanitarian action takes place today.
It also underscores the need for continued dialogue, continued engagement, and continued cooperation among all stakeholders involved.
Your Excellencies, a few common elements have nevertheless emerged.
First, there is a shared understanding that the consequences of protection failures are serious and far reaching.
Secondly, there is recognition that respect for international humanitarian law remains critical not only for the protection of civilians, but also for enabling humanitarian operations to take place.
Thirdly, there is broad acknowledgment that addressing these challenges requires sustained effort and practical action.
As reflected both in the Secretary-General report on the protection of civilians and in today's discussion, this is a shared responsibility.
Looking ahead, the discussion points to the importance of continuing to strengthen dialogue, promote practical measures to support protection, and help sustain the conditions that allow humanitarian action to function.
This includes efforts to improve access, support the safety of humanitarian personnel, and ensure that assistance reaches those most in need.
Your Excellencies.
This panel has also reinforced a broader point that runs across this segment.
The link between protection, access, and delivery is fundamental and sustaining that link remains essential to effective humanitarian action.
As we move forward, I would encourage all of us to carry these insights into our continued work and to remain engaged in strengthening collective approaches wherever that is possible.
Let me once again thank all panelists and all participants for their valuable contributions.
I'd also like to thank the interpreters who have been able to follow my very swift reading of the text says the speaker.
The council will reconvene this afternoon at 3:00 P.M.
In this chamber to hold the high level panel on funding with impact financing humanitarian action to deliver results in support of people in need.
The meeting stands adjourned.