“International humanitarian law is disintegrating before our eyes”

In 1945, when world leaders boldly committed to save future generations from the scourge of war, their pledge led to the foundation of the United Nations and to modern international humanitarian law.

The turmoil that ensued was a far cry from the picture of peace and diplomacy they had in mind. In the decades that followed, civilians experienced devastation caused by conflicts that played out completely differently to the two world wars – marked by proxy conflicts and fierce battles of ideology fought in the name of religion or regime change.

But the consequences of these conflicts were all too familiar: civilians injured or killed; children and women raped and abused; towns and cities razed to the ground; and whole communities forced from their homes, bringing mass displacement up to post-world war two records, at well over 60 million people.

Today’s civil wars involve a greater number of factions making them even more complex to bring to resolution. They are characterised by shocking levels of brutality meted out on civilians and an all-pervasive impunity for perpetrators. People in besieged areas are deliberately starved, intimidated and deprived of essential goods – sometimes for years at a time, with impunity. Homes, schools, hospitals and places of worship are bombed at alarming levels often with patients, staff, families, worshippers and students still inside.

Many of today’s conflicts lack a clear frontline and are more likely to take place in densely populated urban settings with civilians in the crossfire. When populated urban areas are attacked with explosive weapons, 90% of the people killed or injured are civilians.

We stand at a critical juncture: 150 years of achievement in signing up to international laws and agreeing to international norms to protect civilians in conflict zones, are unravelling before our eyes. To reset the international system to better meet the needs of the millions of people whose lives are torn apart by violence, three areas at the core of the humanitarian enterprise must urgently be addressed – access, principles and protection. In May, states will gather for a humanitarian summit in Istanbul, where they will have a unique chance to commit to concrete changes in each of these areas.

First, access. All over the world – and at a staggering scale in Syria – warring parties deny or obstruct access to aid organisations trying to reach communities in need. This barring of access may be blatant: attacking and killing aid workers, looting their supplies, outright denying safe passage, or it may be more subtle, coming in the form of burdensome bureaucratic measures.

Siege is a barbaric tactic of war that has no place in the 21st century. Harrowing images of starving children in Syria’s besieged town of Madaya at the beginning of this year have shaken us all, but all over the world there are hundreds of Madayas: in Sudan, in Yemen, in Myanmar, in Nigeria – people are barred from accessing assistance while aid workers engage in difficult, dangerous and complex access negotiations with warring parties, sometimes with success, often with none.

Secondly, at the summit, leaders must come prepared to renew their commitments to the core humanitarian principles – humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence – that guide our work. Preserving our neutrality and our refusal to take sides in conflict, as well as our independence from political agendas, are essential to achieving our mission to protect and provide assistance to affected populations based on needs alone.

Abiding by these principles allows us to build acceptance with fighting parties and communities and to reach the frontlines of crisis. The politicisation of aid leads to suspicion of our mission, undermining our work and putting in danger the lives of our staff and the people we are supposed to protect and assist.

Third, protection is at the cornerstone of humanitarian action. Over the past 150 years, and in the past two decades in particular, we have put unstinting efforts into strengthening international legal frameworks governing the rules of war. Yet we are witnessing a brazen and brutal lack of respect for these rules. Warring parties must abide by the rules of distinction, proportionality and precaution.

We can no longer stand by as families are deliberately and indiscriminately bombed in their homes, while the bombers go unpunished. It is heart-rending to provide food and water to families only for them to risk being shot as they come to get aid, or if humanitarian workers are targeted. It is hopeless to build hospitals if we cannot guarantee the safety of patients and healthcare staff. Counter-terrorism and asymmetric warfare do not justify the loosening or dismissal of the rules that aim to protect civilians in conflict. Enough is enough. Even wars have rules.

In his report One Humanity, Shared Responsibility and his agenda for humanity, the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon calls for global leadership to prevent and end conflicts, and on global leaders to uphold the norms that safeguard humanity. Governments must commit to setting up of a watchdog to track, collect data and report on violations of international humanitarian law. He also calls for greater support for national justice systems and international judicial bodies, such as the international criminal court, to bring an end to impunity. We look forward to commitments on each of these and many other initiatives at the world humanitarian summit.

The vision set in the UN charter after world war two remains relevant, but global leaders must now reinforce the foundations that make up the humanitarian system. The world humanitarian summit will be a turning point in how states, international organisations, the private sector, civil society and individual leaders, come together to confront the major challenges of our time. Leaders have shown what they are capable of when they commit to change. Last year in Paris on climate change, in New York on the 2030 sustainable development agenda, in Sendai on risk reduction, leaders demonstrated the power of political leadership to make progress on some of the most difficult issues all of us, across the world, are facing. We must harness this level of political momentum to deliver this success in May in Istanbul and ensure necessary protection of civilians and access to humanitarian assistance for the generations that succeed us.

Jan Egeland is secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a former UN emergency relief coordinator. Stephen O’Brien is UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator