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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt">THE CONTRIBUTION OF HUMANITARIAN ACTION TO PEACE<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">In recent years we have seen how the gap is widening between the scale of humanitarian needs and the available humanitarian response.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><i><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">By
<em><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in an address to the Stockholm Forum on Peace & Development.</span></em></span></i><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">STOCKHOLM, May 22 2019 (IPS) – The connection of humanitarian action to broader objectives like peace, development and human rights
is understandably complex, but it is also an area in which some fresh thinking is important.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">The dilemma we are facing today is how to expand and uphold neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian action while designing and
understanding such action as a bridge to broader and more ambitious transformative agendas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">No matter how we characterize this dilemma, above all we must anchor our discussions in the realities of people living under the shadow
of conflict, insecurity and fragility. This is particularly important given that more than 80% of people displaced by violence and conflict today originate from fewer than 20 particularly vulnerable contexts, most of them privileged areas of humanitarian action
– and that those contexts endanger achievement of the SDGs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">Working on the frontlines, the ICRC bears witness to suffering in conflicts around the world; and we also observe how the new dynamics
of violence are taking a heavy toll on the lives of every day men, women and children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">In recent years we have seen how the gap is widening between the scale of humanitarian needs and the available humanitarian response.
Despite all the efforts to grow the humanitarian sector and to respond through emergency operations to such contexts, we also recognize that gaps do not and will not be closed by traditional humanitarian action.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">The dominant features of fragility that we see today include:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:9.0pt;margin-left:18.75pt;text-indent:-.25in;line-height:15.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2">
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</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">High levels of violence, whether though military or counter terrorism operations, intercommunity violence or criminality;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:9.0pt;margin-left:18.75pt;text-indent:-.25in;line-height:15.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2">
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</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">Under development, and a lack of reliable essential services;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:9.0pt;margin-left:18.75pt;text-indent:-.25in;line-height:15.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2">
<![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#C00000"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">Failures of governance and endemic corruption;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:9.0pt;margin-left:18.75pt;text-indent:-.25in;line-height:15.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2">
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</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">The impacts of climate change, exacerbating existing pressures and embedding new fragilities; and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">Enormous humanitarian needs, whether through displacement, pandemics, or the loss of education or livelihoods.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">These factors are exacerbated by protracted, urbanized conflicts, which not only kill and maim, but destroy systems, infrastructure
and economies and thus compel humanitarian actors to take a fresh look at what people need in such environments.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">I am reminded of the shells of destroyed cities we’ve seen in recent years – Mosul, Aleppo, Taiz and many more. The deep structural
degradation of infrastructure and social systems in cities will be incredibly difficult to repair and will require high levels of investment over the long term.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">But it is exactly in these places where we see a patent absence of development actors – because of security risks or political blockages
to envisage broader development engagement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">In protracted, decade-old conflicts, people’s needs go beyond emergency assistance. Even though battles are being fought, chronic diseases
still need to be treated, children still need education, adults still need jobs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">People’s needs are many-sided: they are short, medium and long term. They are individual and community oriented. They are material,
but also psychosocial and psychological.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">The realities on the ground are moving further away by the day from the classical bureaucracies, structures, processes and policy categories
which the international community has created to deal with such issues of concern: human rights, peace-building, development, humanitarian action. Realities don’t fit the boxes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">At the same time, with these deep needs, it is clear that no actor working alone will be able to meet the demands. Today’s needs landscape
has long surpassed any individual approach.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">And there are no blanket solutions: instead, we must the adapt to the particular needs of communities, to their skills and resilience
capacities. Approaches will differ enormously, for example in low or middle-income countries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">Approaches must be strongly localized as well as supported by neutral international actors. Complementarity of efforts centered on creating
maximum impact for people will therefore be essential.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Humanitarian actors are not peace builders: neutral, impartial, independent humanitarian action is distinct from political agendas and
it must remain so.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Yet, I would argue that
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">while others make peace, humanitarian action helps to make peace possible.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">International humanitarian law has positive and multiplying impacts when it is respected. For example, when the principles of proportionality
and distinction are applied, lives are saved, hospitals and schools remain open, markets can function and reconciliation after the conflict becomes easier.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Frontline humanitarian action too is a vital stabilizing factor in fragmented environments and a building block towards greater stabilization.
Principled humanitarian action serves to protect against development reversals caused by the effects of war and division in societies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">For example, in recent years in Syria, as the war has shifted into new phases, ICRC has adopted a two-track approach – providing emergency
food, shelter to displaced populations; but also working in areas with greater stability to repair water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">We have also shifted to replace in-kind by cash assistance and thus prepare the ground for a return of regular economic life or to support
market creations and income generating activities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">And it is not only in Syria, but in many contexts millions of people survive and can go back to previously stable lives because of sustained
humanitarian upkeep of infrastructure, health systems or investments in community-building and livelihood support.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Also, today the ICRC is fulfilling varying requests to act as a neutral intermediary in conflict. Each and every month, when my colleagues
brief me on the engagement, we entertain to establish links between belligerents, I wonder whether out of isolated humanitarian activities, we are able to build a more sustained engagement pointing beyond humanitarian action.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">We are called on to prevent relations from deteriorating or to find mutual trust-building measures that would help increase stability.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Here in Stockholm, the Yemeni parties agreed to make detention exchanges an important next step in peace negotiations and it is ICRC’s
humanitarian experience, which has supported the negotiation of a draft agreement, which hopefully one day will also lead to something broader than a humanitarian result.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Our mode of working is distinct, drawing on our humanitarian experience and relying on the principles of neutrality, independence and
impartiality but the effect of our action hopefully allows for more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Through humanitarian disarmament initiatives, we are engaging bilaterally, mini-laterally and multilaterally to build consensus to limit
the use of indiscriminate, harmful weapons.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Over the years, we have seen strong support from the international community on weapons treaties, including to ban chemical and biological
weapons and landmines.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Now with conventional arms reaching record levels, we are also urging States of influence to lead by example and ensure no weapon is
supplied where there is a clear risk it would be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">We are also working with others to create greater impact. New financing models, such as the Humanitarian Impact Bond, the Famine Action
Mechanism with the World Bank and the United Nations, are testing grounds to align complementary experience, data and finance and to bring States, the private sector and humanitarian actors together in finding new and more meaningful tools to address some
of the big disruptions of our times.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">With humanitarian demands vast and complex, we must find a basis on which to work differently. It will take all of us – working together
and through our distinct roles – to prevent and alleviate suffering, to build stability, and take the first steps on long path back to peace and development.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">I am aware that some are afraid that principled humanitarianism risks losing its soul by trying to build pathways to peace and development.
But may I remind them what the </span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C00000">founding fathers of the ICRC in their foundational assembly of 1863 agreed: that humanitarian action could only escape the danger of prolonging
war, if it were shaped in a way that it would contribute to the creation of peace in the long run.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><a href="http://www.other-news.info/2019/05/the-contribution-of-humanitarian-action-to-peace/">http://www.other-news.info/2019/05/the-contribution-of-humanitarian-action-to-peace/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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