The U.N. Security Council voted to condemn attacks on humanitarian aid workers and demand all combatants protect them under international law.
Friday's 14-0 vote, with Russia abstaining, reflects the alarming number of attacks and threats that aid workers face each year around the world. Combatants must protect aid workers and civilians under international humanitarian law, but many ignore or lack knowledge of them.
The number of U.N. staff killed in Gaza just in the past seven months since the Israel-Hamas war erupted has risen to 194, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.
A major part of international humanitarian law is found in the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Ratified by 196 nations, the Conventions are the rules of war aimed at protecting civilians, the injured, and soldiers. Two additional 1977 protocols were added to protect victims of armed conflicts.
Switzerland, a member of the 15-nation council, sponsored the resolution, which reaffirms the responsibility of nations and combatants to respect and protect civilians and aid workers. Geneva also is headquarters to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and is custodian of the Conventions.
Sending 'a strong and hopeful message'
The resolution also condemns disinformation and incitement to violence against humanitarian aid workers, and encourages nations to address the threats. It also calls on the U.N. secretary-general to recommend how to better protect aid workers and prevent more attacks.
"It is a strong and hopeful message, and an unequivocal one in favor of respect for international humanitarian law," Swiss U.N. Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl said after the vote.
Baeriswyl said the resolution pays tribute to people such as Lorena Perez, a Red Cross physiotherapist killed in Afghanistan in 2017, Sergio Vieira de Mello, a former U.N. human rights chief killed in Iraq along with 22 colleagues in 2003, and Komon Dioma, a Médecins sans Frontières driver killed in Burkina Faso in 2023.
"It is dedicated to all those who commit themselves in contexts that are both fragile and complex," she said, "at the risk of their lives and of which we often only know the figures, whether in Gaza, Sudan, or Ukraine."
