Topic: Protecting Humanitarian Workers in Conflict Zones
Country: North Korea
Delegate Name: Samantha Heiman
School: Roeper School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All North Korea position papers GLIMUN 2011 committees
Humanitarian aid is services provided to a country in times of natural disaster, or as discussed in the committee, man-made disaster. Humanitarian workers are meant to save lives, give medical care, and reduce suffering among people in these areas. The amount of attacks against humanitarian workers has been on the rise since the 1990’s, and has further increased since 2000. 2008 was a peak year in violence towards aid workers, and the most dangerous countries for aid workers are Somalia and Afghanistan. Legal protection is granted to humanitarian workers from the United Nations, NGO’s, and PVO’s through the Geneva Convention. The United Nations recognizes attacks against them as a war crime. However, due to a perceived threat to national sovereignty and a lack of laws demanding protection of humanitarians, attacks have been occurring.
While DPRK does not currently have any conflict zones, recently many humanitarian forces have been released to the nation for other accused violations. Problems between citizens and these groups have been low. DPRK believes that these attacks should be prevented.
In order to prevent further attacks on humanitarians in countries, one solution could be to further educate aid workers on how to abide by the laws of the nation they are entering. In doing this, the humanitarian groups could still do their job, but without interfering with the national sovereignty of the country they have entered. In cases where violence is almost guaranteed to occur, agreements could be decided with the NGO’s and other aid organizations to limit or stop entry of aid workers.
