How to Protect Aid Workers in Conflict Situations

Description

The deteriorating security situation for aid workers remains one of the vital but overlooked issues in humanitarian aid. Despite advancements in ensuring respect for International Humanitarian Law, violations of its rules remain a widespread problem. The increase in attacks against aid workers in recent years once again raises questions concerning the scope of their protection and ways to improve it. One principal reason behind this negative trend has been the shift in the nature of conflicts and the role of the “war on terror” in undermining the laws authority. Other reasons stem from internal developments of humanitarian actors, namely a lack of transparency or the cooptation of aid. This results in increased politicization and the disintegration of the civilian nature of humanitarian assistance.
There is a need to reassess the role IHL can play in keeping aid workers safe. With non-State armed groups at the center of contemporary conflicts, engaging them is not longer only an option, but becomes a necessity. Traditionally, studies have focused on why actors violate International Humanitarian Law rather than on what encourages them to respect it. Relying only on sanctions has proven to be rather ineffective. With a focus on the incentive structure of International Humanitarian Law, the author will analyze the reoccurring violations from a different angle in order to understand the rationale inducing armed groups to respect it, and to propose viable approaches for the future. There now is a development towards a customary international rule that can curtail a State’s scope of action in treating non-State armed groups. The accumulation of customary law relating to non-international armed conflict, the convergence of International Humanitarian Law applicable in international armed conflict and non-international armed conflict, the protection awarded by International Human Rights Law and the practice of amnesties suggest that the extension of combatant status and Prisoners of War privileges should be possible.
Analyzing these developments, the author proposes the application of International Humanitarian Law without making a distinction as to the source of obligation to all parties involved in a conflict, as a promising way to achieve greater adherence to International Humanitarian Law and thus a solution to keep aid workers safe.