{"id":78132,"date":"2016-08-22T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=78132"},"modified":"2016-08-21T16:49:49","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T15:49:49","slug":"world-humanitarian-day-a-need-for-common-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/08\/world-humanitarian-day-a-need-for-common-actions\/","title":{"rendered":"19 August, World Humanitarian Day: A Need for Common Actions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ren\u00e9<\/a>In Memory of S\u00e9rgio Vieira de Mello (1948-2003)<\/em><\/p>\n

19 Aug 2016 – <\/em>The United Nations General Assembly has designated 19 August as \u201cWorld Humanitarian Day\u201d to pay tribute to aid workers in humanitarian service in difficult and often dangerous conditions.\u00a0 19 August was designated in memory of the 19 August 2003 bombing of the UN office building in Baghdad, Iraq in which S\u00e9rgio Vieira de Mello,\u00a0UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and at the time Special Representative of the UN Secretary General was killed along with 21 UN staff members. Over 200 UN employees were injured. The exact circumstances of the attack are not known, and why USA and UN security around the building was not tighter is still not clear. A truck with explosives was able to dive next to the building and then blew itself up.<\/p>\n

S\u00e9rgio Vieira de Mello had spent his UN career in humanitarian efforts, often with the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and at other\u00a0 times as Special Representative of the UN Secretary General. As an NGO representative to the UN in Geneva and active on human rights issues, I knew him during his short 2002-2003 tenure as High Commissioner for Human Rights. Many of us had high hopes that his dynamism, relative youth (he was 54) and wide experience in conflict resolution efforts would provide new possibilities for human rights efforts. His death along with the death of others who had been Geneva-based was a stark reminder of the risks that exist for all engaged in humanitarian and conflict resolution work.<\/p>\n

This year the risks and dangers are not just memories but are daily news. On 3 May 2016, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2286 calling for greater protection for health care institutions and personnel in light of recent attacks against hospitals and clinics in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Afghanistan.\u00a0 These attacks on medical facilities are too frequent to be considered \u201ccollateral damage.\u201d The attacks indicate a dangerous trend of non-compliance with world law by both State and non- State agents.\u00a0 The protection of medical personnel and the\u00a0 treatment of all the wounded \u2212 both allies and enemies \u2212 goes back to the start of humanitarian law.<\/p>\n

\"S\u00e9rgio<\/a>

S\u00e9rgio Vieira de Mello, from Brazil.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Association of World Citizens has stressed the need for accountability, including by investigation of alleged violations of the laws of war.\u00a0 The grave violations by the Islamic State (ISIS) must be protested by as wide a coalition of concerned voices as possible. There is a real danger that as ISIS disintegrates and no longer controls as much territory, it will increase terrorist actions.<\/p>\n

The laws of war, now more often called humanitarian law, have two wings, one dealing with the treatment of medical personnel in armed conflict situations, the military wounded, prisoners of war, and the protection of civilians. This wing is represented by the Geneva (Red Cross) Conventions. The second wing, often called The Hague Conventions limit or ban outright the use of certain categories of weapons. These\u00a0 efforts began at The Hague with the 1900 peace conferences and have continued even if the more recent limitations on land mines, cluster weapons and chemical weapons have been negotiated elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The ban on the use of weapons are binding only on States which have ratified the convention. Thus the current use of USA-made cluster weapons in Yemen by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition is, in a narrow sense, legal as the USA, Saudi Arabia and Yemen have not signed the cluster weapon ban. The Association of World Citizens was one of the NGOs leading the campaign against cluster weapons. My position is that when a large number of States ratify a convention (which is the case for the cluster-weapons ban) then the convention becomes world law and so must be followed by all States and non-State actors even if they have not signed or ratified the convention. The same holds true for the use of land mines currently being widely used by ISIS in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

The current situation concerning refugees and internally-displaced persons can also be considered as part of humanitarian law.\u00a0 Thus those working with refugees and the displaced within their country are also to be honored by the World Humanitarian Day.\u00a0 To prevent and alleviate human suffering, to protect life and health and to ensure respect for the human person \u2212 these are the core values of humanitarian law.<\/p>\n

There needs to be a wide public outcry in the defense of humanitarian law so that violations can be reduced. The time for action is now.<\/p>\n

_________________________________<\/p>\n

Ren\u00e9 Wadlow, a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and of its Task Force on the Middle East, is president and U.N. representative (Geneva) of the Association of\u00a0World\u00a0Citizens and <\/em>editor of Transnational Perspectives. He is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Memory of S\u00e9rgio Vieira de Mello (1948-2003) – 19 August was designated in memory of the 19 August 2003 bombing of the UN office building in Baghdad, Iraq in which S\u00e9rgio Vieira de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and at the time Special Representative of the UN Secretary General was killed along with 21 UN staff members. Over 200 UN employees were injured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}