19 August 2022 | Gilles Michaud, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security
19 years ago, on this day, 19 August, a blast at the United Nations compound in Bagdad killed 22 staff, wounding more than 150 others. This tragedy marked a watershed moment, forever shattering the assumption that the blue flag of the Organization wouldever again protect its personnel and their partners.
Since 2009, the United Nations have reclaimedthis day as World Humanitarian Day, toremember and celebrate aid workers from around the world who dedicate their lives to assistingthose most in need, in places and at times of great risk to themselves. As Under-Secretary General for Safety and Security at the United Nations, I want to pay tribute to all the aid workers, and I want to take this opportunity to present why and how we, in the security community, are working to ensurethatthey can operate as safely as possible in service of humanity.
This year’s anniversary comes at a time of great suffering around the world.
New conflicts are flaring up while old ones are mired in impasse. Over the last twelve months, almost 90 million people around the world were forced to flee their homes. After a two-decade decline, extreme poverty is rising. Globally, up to 811 million people cannot put enough food on their tables and the specter of famine looms once again in various parts of the world. Every day, women and men from all nationalities and creeds are providing vital assistance to the millions of people behind these grim statistics.
Guided by the principles of humanity and impartiality that remain their moral bedrock and daily compass, they are out there, where the greatest needs and security threats coexist. They are out there, despite the increasing number of actors who choose to ignore the laws of war and humanitarianism, and who target humanitarian workers to further their aims. Sadly, nearly two decades after the tragedy in Bagdad, humanitarian space continues to shrink, with 140 humanitarian workers killed in 2021 (source: OCHA, UN News 12 August 2022).
Under humanitarian law, the safety and security of UN personnel is the responsibility of the countries in which they work. In fact, it is a moral imperative and a legal obligation for Member States as well as non-state actors to protect and preserve humanitarian space. In many circumstances, these actors do not have the capacity or the will to fulfill this responsibility. Nevertheless, the United Nations and many of the NGOs we work with stay and deliver, despite the risks.
Today, the United Nations and a handful of international and local organizations continue to operate in Afghanistan, after most international actors departed following the Taliban takeover a year ago. In Somalia, and across the Horn of Africa, the United Nations and NGOs are working tirelessly to respond to a catastrophic food crisis that has already claimed the lives of thousands of children, amidst the existence of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabaab.
And as I write this, more than 1,700 personnel from the United Nations are in Ukraine, working side by side with Ukrainian relief workers and other partners. They are delivering food, clothing, and shelters to those forced to leave their homes. They are providing emergency care to those who have been injured. Back in May, it was the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) who, along with UN Security staff, extracted civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol even as mortars rained on the city.
Security is a humanitarian enabler.
In the three years since taking on my functions I have visited many UN staff and their partners working in such incredibly challenging circumstances, serving communities that have been pushed to the brink of survival. They have left me humbled by the risks and sacrifice that they accept in service of humanity. Their commitment is fueling my determination that we support them as best as we can so they can continue to ‘stay and deliver’ as safely as possible, with us, the security community, by their side.
The deployment of aid workers in these areas is made possible, in part, thanks to the incredible work of the security community from UNDSS, UN entities and partner organizations. On World Humanitarian Day, it is important to recognize and appreciate this support, which spans a wide range of activities. We undertake reconnaissance of routes to make sure these are safe for humanitarian convoys. We facilitate access to remote areas with warring parties. We conduct threat analysis and advise humanitarian colleagues on how to mitigate the risks they face. We provide training to UN staff to equip them with the skills needed to act in specific situations, including kidnap or attacks.
Our mission, in the security community, is and must remain to ensure that humanitarian assistance can be delivered. Keeping humanitarian personnel safe is not enough to succeed: humanitarian aid must reach those who need it. And while this is a difficult undertaking, and we fail at times to fully play this enabler role, the examples above demonstrate that more often than not, we are collectively, as a United Nations,‘staying and delivering”.
Nonetheless, our security support must continue to evolve. I see two main reasons why.
First, threats are evolving. Actors with the will and capability to do harmto humanitarians are intensifying their efforts. The weapons used in modern conflict are increasingly sophisticated. The steady erosion, over the last two decades in particular, of respect for international humanitarian law and the laws of war creates an unpredictable operating environment.
Second, no country is immune to instability. Political polarization and economic inequalities are global phenomena. Tensions over resources are accelerating and will become one of the main drivers of violenceand displacement in the coming years. COVID-19, with its disruptions and divisions, is not the final global pandemic we will see. In this context, conflict can surface almost anywhere, anytime,and we must be ready to respond quickly.
How should we, in the community security, evolve?
It starts with mindset. We must constantly ask ourselves: how can we help get this vital program, this critical intervention, implemented? As such, we must think of ourselves as humanitarian partners rather than ‘security officers’ working in isolation of UN goals. We must continue to learn and understand what humanitarian entities do, and how they operate. We have a mutual interest within the security community and with our humanitarian partners to intensify our operational collaboration, and to advocate together for the principles that guide our shared work. Expanded partnerships also give us access to a broader range of skills, enabling us to launch a timely, and scalable response in times of emergencies.
As a result of this learning and listening mindset, we must intensify our emphasis on managing risks to programming and focus less on protection with gates, guns and walls. This means designing solutions that explore how programs can be delivered, by expanding our support toolbox above and beyond traditional hard security measures. These are indispensable, but they must be supplemented by other forms of support: for example, by producing analytical products that probe the deeper drivers of insecurity, or by engaging with partners outside of the security realm, notably the IFIs to understand the economic dimensions of conflict.
To be an effective enabler, I am also convinced that the security community needs to diversify its profiles and skillsets. In addition to military and police backgrounds, we need a more diverse and inclusive workforce, to be better equipped to understand and respond to the diversity of threats and their impacts. Staff of different functions, gender, age, religion, ethnic origin and sexual orientation can be exposed to different risk levels and therefore require different types of support. Although regulations and policies can help standardize our response, the most effective approach comes from having diversity within the workforce; one that understands these differentiated risks and the need for differentiated responses.
And we must embrace innovation, whenever and wherever it helps us provide better and faster support. This commitment must encompass the adoption of new information and knowledge management tools, greater use of smart data, and working methods that foster collaboration, promote leadership from below, and challenge our assumptions. This may take some of us out of our comfort zone, but it is vital to our effectiveness.
In conclusion, it is important to remember that UNDSS was born out of the aftermath of the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad. Many more violent incidents have impacted our staff since –in Algeria, the DRC, Nigeria, Somalia, Afghanistan, and elsewhere –promptingus to begin a journey towards a new security risk management approach.
These risks are inevitable, and they are intensifying. The question is not if, but when and where the next major upsurge in violence will occur. UN security must therefore emulate a goal that has shaped the humanitarian community’s evolution: To ensure that where and when there is a crisis, we are adequately prepared to respond in the right way, at the right time, so that humanitarian workers can get to the people most in need.
Therefore, on the security side, we will continue our efforts to constantly evolve, to do better, and to align our work with the objectives of our humanitarian colleagues. We owe it to our fallen colleagues, and to all those who bravely continue the mission of serving humanity across the world.