CARE Affair #11 - Power

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2.98 SYRIA IN SEPTEMBER 2017 419,920 million people were living in hard-to-reach areas. people were cut off from humanitarian assistance. conflicts: the wounded and sick in armed forces in the field (Geneva Convention I), wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of the armed forces at sea (Geneva convention II), prisoners of war (Geneva Convention III) and civilians in wartime (Geneva Convention IV). The Geneva Convention’s protection also extends to workers of aid organizations and others who are providing care and aid; in other words, the humanitarians. When I first heard about the four humanitarian principles years ago, I thought someone was joking. “Humanity”, that was clear enough, but “neutrality”, “impartiality” and “independence” seemed to me to be just three ways of saying the same thing – at least, at first glance and taking the words as they stand. But the terms deal in substance with completely different aspects. They provide the essential framework that enables aid organizations to be perceived as external actors in a conflict. That is why the humanitarian principles are so central and why attacks on aid workers are considered a serious violation of international law. Basically it’s easy to explain: Aid organizations and their staff help those who need it most, regardless of who they are or which group they belong to (impartiality). They are independent of all other interests apart from this aid (independence). And they do not take sides in the conflict in which they move (neutrality). A closely-woven net of safeguards to ensure that aid workers can actually reach those who need help most urgently. So far so good. Almost all aid organizations today employ advocacy experts. Their titles may vary, but these people’s job is to seek and maintain contact to political decision–makers. At CARE in Germany there are three topics on which we mainly carry out political advocacy: Drawing attention to humanitarian crises, demanding action against climate change and its negative effects, and the global elimination of hunger. So is CARE Germany still neutral when we make contact with political decision–makers and, for example, demand that the German government take decisive action to solve a conflict? If we do so, are we not violating the humanitarian principles and risking our neutral image and stance, thus becoming a target? Shouldn’t we keep out of the political arena and concentrate on our work, i.e. practical aid for people on the spot? One example: March 2017 marked the sixth anniversary of the outbreak of conflict in Syria. 23 NGOs gathered in front of the German parliament to form a joint, powerful image under the motto: “Our hands are tied”. They demanded access to those areas in Syria where very little or no aid was getting through because of ongoing fighting or blockades. The public stunt was accompanied by a paper listing their demands. In the paper we appealed urgently to the Federal Government to increase diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the conflict in Syria. We pointed out that to achieve this, first a permanent, independently monitored ceasefire was necessary, after which a political agreement between the parties to the conflict should be reached. And we demanded that independent representatives of Syrian civil society should have a substantial role in all negotiations. We demanded that pressure be applied to all parties in the conflict to protect the civilian population from military operations. And we urgently pushed for international humanitarian law to be complied with and violations to be punished by means of international criminal courts. CARE affair N o. 11 — Power 52
BESIEGED AND HARD-TO-REACH AREAS SYRIA Many factors hamper effective aid delivery in Syria and make it a dangerous mission to support the civilian population: Ongoing fighting; local and national authorities refusing permissions for aid transports; broken ceasefires; disagreements on access routes and the non–compliance of proceedings at checkpoints by the conflict parties. Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) HOMS IDLEB ALEPPO AR-RAQQA DAMASCUS Besieged and hard-to-reach areas in Syria (as of 09/2017) Hard-to-reach areas Besieged areas (no access) Accessible areas When our hands are tied 53
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