Report: Justice and accountability for attacks on aid workers – What are the barriers and how to overcome them?

Justice and accountability for attacks on aid workers: What are the barriers and how to overcome them?

Research report

In 2023, the number of aid workers killed was double that of 2022 and the numbers of aid workers killed in 2024 will create an unprecedented and horrific record high. The UN Security Council has passed ten resolutions urging states to ensure that unlawful killings of aid workers do not remain unpunished. However, to date, they have continued with almost total impunity. Access to justice and accountability for aid workers plays an essential role in combatting impunity for unlawful attacks against civilians, thus contributing to enhancing the protection of civilians more generally. But various barriers prevent aid workers from accessing justice and accountability, impacting staff members differently depending on their country of origin.

With the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2022, LAW launched a new project to support humanitarian organisations and aid workers in obtaining justice and accountability for violence committed against them. This report looks at two main questions:

• What prevents so many aid workers, particularly national staff, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from seeking justice and holding perpetrators of violence accountable?

• What can be done to support aid workers to address these barriers and access justice and accountability?

LAW used a mixed-method approach, relying mainly on qualitative approaches to gather primary and secondary data from a variety of sources. 24 reports, articles and guidelines available in open source were reviewed (see Annex A). An anonymous online survey of national and international aid workers was completed by 28 individuals (Annex B). 73 individuals from 43 different organisations were interviewed from national, international NGOs, donors, and UN agencies. Six NGO coordination mechanisms were briefed and consulted, and 2 roundtables were held with 26 experts. The key findings and preliminary recommendations below come from these roundtables and consultations.

The survey revealed interesting results. 81% of those surveyed said they or a colleague had been victims of violence and 83% stated that would like to receive legal advice, but only 18% had actually received advice from their organisation or their organisation had provided a lawyer.

Four main barriers were identified which prevent aid workers/organisations from seeking justice and accountability:

1. Aid workers rarely have access to legal information or assistance. Individuals in management positions in NGOs said that they have very little, if any guidance on what legal support to provide to their staff following an incident, and in many contexts, they did not have access to lawyers with the relevant expertise. In contrast to other responses linked to duty of care (medical, financial, and psychosocial support), access to legal information and assistance is either completely absent from the ‘duty of care package’ or treated informally, on a case-by-case basis. Aid workers were often confused about which legal frameworks provide protection to aid workers and which legal avenues were available. On the whole, legal assistance was generally misunderstood and undervalued.
2. There is a very strong perception that pursuing justice and accountability is too difficult, too expensive, and too risky. Due to the difficult contexts in which they operate, aid workers are reluctant to even consider engaging with formal justice systems due to perceptions about lack of capacity and corruption. They are also discouraged by how long processes take, and how much they cost. They raised concerns about the lack of protections available to victims and witnesses and the risk of reprisals to staff and their families from perpetrators and/or local authorities.
3. The responsibility for attacks is placed upon organisations and/or aid workers themselves rather than perpetrators. There is an overwhelming perception that organisations are exclusively responsible for incidents affecting their staff, almost to the exclusion of the perpetrator. As a result, organisations are expected to systematically compensate their staff members for the harm suffered without addressing the accountability of the perpetrators. In addition, national staff members especially tend to normalise violence and its consequences on their work environment and mental health, which leads to a sense that they have no legitimacy to initiate legal proceedings.
4. Perception that access to the populations in need of humanitarian support and funding will be lost. Staff fear that initiating proceedings could result in a loss of access to vulnerable communities and consequently result in a loss of funding. Donors, whilst agreeing with the principle of addressing impunity, also want organisations to continue operating reliably and to have on the ground access.

The report also sets out the main legal frameworks applicable for the protection of aid workers, including international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international human rights law, and relevant domestic law. The research identifies how aid workers can obtain justice and accountability through the current legal frameworks. Despite a widely held view that we need to do something to address these horrific crimes, humanitarian organisations and individual aid workers generally do not see themselves as having an active role in the fight against impunity for crimes committed against them. The reasons for this are set out in this report and are complex, but doing nothing is simply no longer an option as the number of targeted attacks on aid workers escalates year by year. For this reason, the participants in this research have proposed a series of concrete actions that can be undertaken to significantly advance accountability for the crimes committed against aid workers. As we mark, the 75th year of the Geneva Conventions it is time that new and approved approaches are adopted and implemented if we are to reverse this trend.

Recommendations

1. Establish a pool of qualified and independent lawyers to provide free legal information, assistance and representation: Receiving legal information, being heard, understanding the violations you have suffered, and hearing the options available for legal redress is already a crucial step in the recovery process of a victim of crime. Independent, qualified, and specialised lawyers can provide legal information and assistance to aid workers, represent them throughout legal processes when appropriate, undertake risk assessments and take measures to protect their clients and mitigate risks. As highlighted by NGOs this support is not currently covered by insurance, is not available to all staff and organisations (particularly national staff and national organisations) and is not free, effectively putting it completely out of reach of all but the wealthiest aid workers and international NGOs.
2. Create a roster of deployable and experienced experts/investigators and online helpline: In the aftermath of an incident NGOs and aid workers do not necessarily know which lawyers to approach and what to do about collecting, retaining and sharing information and/or evidence about the crimes committed. Direct contact with experts/investigators who can advise organisations on immediate steps and have the capacity to deploy and investigate incidents can significantly improve the likelihood of perpetrators being held accountable. In many circumstances victims and survivors feel safer formally pursuing justice much later, particularly when the conflict dynamics have changed and/or transitional justice processes are more developed. Investigators can ensure that information, evidence and contact details are safely archived.
3. Ensure systematic dialogue and a response to the targeting of aid workers: The humanitarian community is regularly outraged by the number of attacks on aid workers, but if we want to meaningfully address impunity, then there must be a significant investment in dialogue and coordination between Donors, the UN and NGOs on the necessity to act. Instead of ad hoc reactions to incidents by a few courageous organisations, an annual conference of all relevant stakeholders should review the numbers of attacks and all efforts to address justice and accountability. In addition, justice and accountability should systematically be on the agenda of the IASC principles, to ensure that a space is specifically created to discuss and strategize on how to address this complex but critical issue.
4. Report on action taken on justice and accountability, including investigations, to the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly: In the absence of a UN mandate holder (Special Rapporteur or Working Group) on the security and safety of aid workers, the Emergency Relief Coordinator could annually or bi-annually report to the UN Security Council and the General Assembly on the numbers of incidents affecting aid workers and the action taken to address justice and accountability for these attacks. In the event of a serious incident or series of incidents, that could constitute a serious violation under IHL, there must be an immediate requirement to deploy qualified and independent investigators to support, where appropriate, state investigations. For example, this could be the responsibility of the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, or an independent mechanism created by a Resolution of the UN General Assembly.
5. Improve internal procedures to ensure that aid workers can safely access legal assistance: Legal aid is an individual right of victims of crimes, whether an aid worker or not, and should be included in all duty of care packages alongside medical and psychosocial support. It is a service that is not questioned in humanitarian responses, and is made available to beneficiaries of protection programming, such as refugees, IDPs and other vulnerable populations in conflict. Unless this is also provided to aid workers, not only will impunity continue to spread, but it will be impossible to address the perception that only NGOs are legally and financially responsible for all the consequences of security incidents. Managing the risks around accessing legal assistance and pursuing justice and accountability can be integrated into organisational risk management strategies, which should also include a detailed analysis of the impact of failing to address impunity on access to vulnerable communities.
6. Support organisations who pursue justice and accountability. UN Country Teams and donors have a close relationship with national authorities at the highest levels and can support NGOs or individual aid workers who risk losing access or fear reprisals through diplomatic measures. This support has been made available to other vulnerable civilians who have successfully engaged with justice mechanisms, for example to victims and survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in international and domestic legal proceedings and can be extended to specific aid workers and NGOs in contexts where there are risks of a negative reaction from local authorities, police and/or community leaders.

Read the full report here.