POLITICS: UN Members Renege on Pledges to Protect Aid Workers

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 26 2000 (IPS) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has expressed concern over the growing number of UN staffers killed in the line of duty and the lack of security and protection by member states.

Speaking on the occasion of Staff Day, Annan was implicitly critical of member states who have fallen far behind in their commitments to protect UN staffers serving in dangerous missions overseas.

“Security is not a luxury or an option,” he said Monday, “Member states must live up to their primary responsibility not only to provide security, but also to bring to justice those who violate it.

“That is the very least that those who serve the international community are entitled to expect,” he added.

Annan said that since Staff Day last year, more than 60 military, police and civilian personnel have been killed, or more than one death per week.

He said he will soon submit a report to the General Assembly that seeks significant changes in the way the United Nations provides staff security: in the number of personnel, in the training they receive, the services they provide and the equipment they use.

“Of course, this will cost money, and I will make a strong case to the General Assembly,” he said.

Since 1992, 197 UN civilian personnel have been killed on overseas missions. For the first time, in 1998, the number of UN civilian staff killed exceeded that of their military counterparts – out of a total of 52 UN fatalities, 29 were civilians.

Last week three staffers working for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Atambua, West Timor, were killed by Indonesian militias. A fourth worker was killed in Guinea – all four in less than two weeks.

The Security Council had earlier called on Indonesia to take several measures to restore law and order in West Timor, including disarming and disbanding the militia there immediately.

Last week, thousands of staffers both in New York and Geneva marched outside their offices demanding better protection for aid workers

“We all recognise that our work will never be without risk but every measure must be taken to reduce those risks to the minimum,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata said last week.

She called on the international community to do its part to ensure that all aid workers are protected. “The international community must listen,” Ogata said, “I have appealed many times to states, particularly those with the means, to fully and forcefully take on their duty to safeguard the lives of all aid workers.”

She said one way for states to fulfil their responsibilities is to adopt international laws to protect all humanitarian workers everywhere.

“Criminal provisions must be made for countries to swiftly and appropriately punish all those who so easily kill, attack, threaten or otherwise harm humanitarian staff.”

In December 1994, the General Assembly adopted a “Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel,” which prohibits any attack against UN and other aid workers.

The convention, which establishes the principle of “prosecute or extradite,” also criminalises murder, kidnapping or other attacks on UN personnel. State parties are bound to make these acts punishable by law with appropriate penalties, taking into account their grave nature.

Of the 189 member states, only 43 have signed the convention and 33 ratified it.

Harri Holkeri, president of the General Assembly, said that targeting of humanitarian and peacekeeping personnel has become increasingly organised and intentional. “The very people that endanger their own lives to help other people in need are being brutally attacked and killed,” he added.

In her remarks at a memorial ceremony Monday, Deputy Secretary- General Louise Frechette said there is no more basic requirement of the United Nations and its member states than to provide security for the men and women sent into the fields to do the organisation’s work, and to bring to justice the perpetrators of violence against UN staff.

“This is a responsibility, first and foremost, for the member states,” she said. Frechette said that during the recently- concluded Millennium Summit, both the General Assembly and the Security Council reaffirmed their commitment to staff security.

“Still, in just one sign of the distance still to be travelled, less than one-quarter of the membership is party to the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel.”

“Danger in the field does not need to lead to death for it to leave its ghastly mark. Many staff members have been held hostage, assaulted or raped. Others have been detained with their fate unknown, leaving their families to imagine only the worst,” she said.