Summary: 15 July 2008, New York - EU Presidency Explanation of the Vote at the adoption of the United Nations Economic and Social Council resolution on humanitarian aid
Mr. Chairman,
I am honoured to speak on behalf of the European Union.
First, Mr. Chairman, I would like to strongly emphasize that providing humanitarian aid is of prime importance to the EU. Please allow me to recall that collectively and through national contributions of its Member States, the EU is the world's largest provider of humanitarian aid, an important amount of which is channelled through the United Nations system.
The EU fully supports the work undertaken by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, M. John Holmes, and the team of the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The EU reaffirms its strong support for the OCHA as the worldwide coordinator of international humanitarian aid.
Mr. Chairman,
The EU considers access to victims as the fundamental prerequisite for any effective humanitarian action. The EU reiterates that all States and parties, in accordance with international law and international humanitarian law, must facilitate timely, safe and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel and their equipment to populations in distress in order to ensure effective humanitarian aid. The EU would like to recall that this year we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Resolution
43.131, by which the General Assembly laid down for the first time the basic principle of access to victims.
As the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, noted in his intervention, this past year has, regrettably, been marked by an increase in access restrictions, be it in Burma/Myanmar, Darfur, Zimbabwe, Gaza or Somalia, and a rising number of attacks on humanitarian personnel. State sovereignty is a well-established principle, but it must be exercised within the framework of international law and international humanitarian law. Humanitarian assistance is both a right for victims and a
duty for the international community. By restraining or forbidding the access to population in distress, their suffering is aggravated and their very survival may be placed in danger.
Mr. Chairman,
The EU acknowledges that this resolution does contain some positive aspects: references to the CERF, the humanitarian consequences of climate change, displacement, sexual and gender-based violence; as well as the strong language against impunity for crimes against humanitarian personnel.
The EU thanks the Permanent Representative of Korea, Vice-President of ECOSOC and the Brazilian facilitator for the draft Resolution, for their great determination in attempting to strike an agreement on the issue of access, for which the EU wishes to pay them special tribute.
However, the EU deeply regrets that it was not possible to include such a reference to humanitarian access to victims in this year's humanitarian resolution, even though the EU successively put forward 8 versions of a paragraph on access, based on language submitted by our partners themselves. The EU deeply regrets a culture of negotiations in ECOSOC which tends to reuse language from previous years while insufficiently taking into account the changes and new realities in the international
environment. Such an approach lessens the impact and credibility of ECOSOC's decisions and can only serve to weaken ECOSOC in the long term.
Mr. Chairman,
For these reasons, the EU cannot join the consensus on the proposed draft resolution, and will abstain.
I will conclude by reiterating the EU's commitment to work both on the ground and at the United Nations to ensure that humanitarian principles, international humanitarian law and human rights are respected, and to continue to engage constructively in future intergovernmental negotiations with the hope of reaching consensus.
Thank you very much.
| Top |
European Union Member States
Alerts by email
Email this page
Print this page