Reports : 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?

The increase in attacks against humanitarian personnel has a direct impact on civilians who need to access life-saving services. Noting the humanitarian community’s outrage and call for concrete action, a new research proposes recommendations to improve accountability of the perpetrators of attacks and justice for the victims.  

NEW YORK (20 May 2024) – States and humanitarians must act to support justice and accountability for humanitarian personnel, especially national and locally recruited personnel, when they are attacked as they deliver essential aid under extreme circumstances. A new report by Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) identifies the barriers to seeking justice and accountability for aid workers, and shares concrete and creative recommendations to improve their access to legal aid and to hold the perpetrators accountable.  

On 20 May 2024, LAW, OCHA, UNDSS, the Permanent Representations to the UN in New York of Switzerland, Canada, Brazil and France, Action Against Hunger International (AAH/ACF) and Nonviolent Peaceforce co-hosted a side event to PoC Week in New York, titled “Advancing the protection of aid workers”. 

“There is an incident every other week” 

There was unanimous agreement that attacks against humanitarian personnel have increased and that legal accountability is required and must be actioned.    

“It is only when they know what the repercussions might be that we will prevent them from attacking repeatedly.” 

During the “Advancing the protection of aid workers” event, LAW launched its report, Justice and accountability for attacks on aid workers: What are the barriers and how to overcome them. 

For this research, extensive consultations were undertaken, including interviews with 73 individuals from 43 different organisations, roundtables with 26 experts, an anonymous online survey of 28 national and international aid workers and a review of 24 reports, articles and sets of guidelines available in open source.  

The research reveals that while 81% of the aid workers who took the online survey had been the victim or had a colleague who was the victim of an incident of violence in the course of their work, and 83% would like to get legal advice if they were the victim of violence, only 18% did obtain legal advice. 

The reseach identified four main barriers. 

“People lack information on who to report to” 

Lack of access to legal information and assistance. Aid workers often did not know which legal frameworks provide protection to aid workers and which legal avenues are available. Legal assistance was generally misunderstood and undervalued.   

“The system to hold people accountable is broken” 

View that pursuing justice as too difficult, expensive, and risky. Due to the difficult contexts in which they operate, aid workers are reluctant to 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 risk of reprisals to staff and their families.   

“It was a work accident, it happens” 

Shifting of Responsibility. There is an overwhelming perception that organisations are exclusively responsible for incidents affecting their staff, almost to the exclusion of the perpetrator. In addition, national staff members especially tend to normalise violence, which leads to a sense that they have no legitimacy to initiate legal proceedings.  

“There are many other interest at stake despite holding the perpetrator accountable”  

Fear of Losing Access and Funding. Aid workers fear that initiating proceedings could result in a loss of access to vulnerable communities and consequently result in a loss of funding. 

“There is only so much we can do. It all boils down to legal accountability now.” 

To overcome these barriers, the report proposes a set of six concrete and creative recommendations: 

1. Establish a pool of qualified and independent lawyers to provide free legal information, assistance, and representation to humanitarian personnel and especially locally recruited personnel. 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. Lawyers can provide legal information and assistance, represent them throughout legal processes when appropriate, undertake risk assessments and take measures to mitigate risks. 

1. Create a roster of deployable and experienced experts/investigators and an online helpline to conduct independent investigations into incidents when appropriate and to advise organisations on immediate steps to collect and preserve evidence, significantly improving the likelihood of perpetrators being held accountable later. 

1. Ensure systematic dialogue and a response to the targeting of humanitarian personnel by organising an annual forum of relevant stakeholders to review the numbers of attacks and efforts to address justice and accountability. In addition, justice and accountability should systematically be on the agenda of the IASC Principals, to ensure that a space is specifically created to discuss and strategise on how to address this complex but critical issue.  

1. Report on action taken on justice and accountability, including investigations, to the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly, through the Emergency Relief Coordinator or another UN mechanism. 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.     

1. Improve internal procedures to ensure that aid workers can safely access legal assistance and ensure that legal assistance is part of the duty of care package. 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.  
2. Support organisations who pursue justice and accountability by engaging UN Country Teams and donors who have a close relationship with national authorities at the highest levels. They can support NGOs or individual aid workers who risk losing access or fear reprisals, through diplomatic intervention.  

“We know the problems and we know what needs to be done” 

Member States, the UN and NGOs must urgently act to improve access to justice for humanitarian personnel when they are the victim of attacks or are under threat due to their work as a humanitarian. They must support efforts to hold the perpetrators accountable. Mechanisms providing legal aid for aid workers, such as the Protect Aid Workers project and LAW’s accountability for aid workers initiative must be funded and accessible to humanitarian personnel, especially locally recruited personnel. 

Read the full report here.