Topic: Protecting Humanitarian Workers in Conflict Zones
Country: Brazil
Delegate Name: Erik Burbulla
School: Roeper School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Brazil position papers GLIMUN 2011 committees
International aid workers are clearly at risk. Each year more and more workers are getting killed, primarily in the conflict zones of Darfur, Afghanistan and Somalia. As the death toll rises, aid agencies don’t know what to do. Increased danger means that aid workers simply have to pull out of the country, which is a negative for all parties. Innocent lives are lost because aid cannot get in to help them while the militant groups only grow stronger and more ruthless. The problem is especially pertinent for this body because many of the humanitarian groups in these countries are led by the United Nations. The UN’s primary goal is to “maintain international peace”. When aid workers are forced to flee a country, it becomes impossible for the United Nations to do that job.
Brazil has been one of the leading contributors of United Nations aid workers and peacekeepers in the past decade. We have sent our citizens to the Middle East, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and had the largest UN peacekeeping presence during Haiti’s disastrous earthquake. As a nation of generous humanitarians, it is especially difficult for Brazil to watch what is happening to the aid workers in Somalia and Darfur.
It is even more difficult because at this point, that is all the United Nations can do: watch. The easy solution would be to stop giving aid, but Brazil and the United Nations would not stand for that. Therefore, it is important that the UN provide alternative solutions to help the aid workers. Deepening the stance of neutrality is vitally important for aid organizations. The UN should push them to reinforce that stance. Providing clear safety instructions and protocols to the workers is also a must. Though these solutions are not especially proactive, they must be instituted as a start to end the increased violence against humanitarian aid workers.
