EU Presidency Statement - Strengthening of the co-ordination of humanitarian assistance of the UN - ECOSOC

The Candidate Countries Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Croatia, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement.

The issues on the agenda of this humanitarian segment (coordination - including financing, transition, natural disasters and the hanging security environment) directly address the core of the current humanitarian debate. I shall briefly present the EU's position.

Mr. President,

I. Coordination, funding and related issues

We welcome the Secretary General's progress report on the strengthening of coordination of humanitarian assistance. The EU holds the view that humanitarian coordination continues to be a key issue and requires further improvement. We support the recommendations made in the report.

Coordination should not be limited to coordination with, or within, the UN. UN, governments and NGO's will have to proceed together. Ensuring that discussions within Country Teams include, whenever appropriate, all IASC-partners is one small but significant step in this regard.

We should like to express our respect and support for the SG's Emergency Relief Coordinator, USG Jan Egeland, and for his untiring efforts to bring humanitarian suffering to the attention of the world, and the world's leaders. His efforts related to the biggest crisis of this moment, Darfur, and his approach of problems related to humanitarian access, underlining governments' responsibilities to guarantee such access, are good examples of this.

With regard to Darfur the EU welcomes the recent agreement on improved humanitarian access, insists that unimpeded access indeed be granted immediately by the Government of Sudan, that human rights violations be brought to an end, and that all parties to the conflict abide by their commitments to the humanitarian ceasefire agreed in N'djamena, Chad, on 8 April.

Yet, Darfur is by no means the only situation in which humanitarian access is severely hampered. It is estimated that more than 10 million people in some 20 countries are inaccessible by humanitarian agencies. The EU considers the issue of unimpeded access by humanitarian workers to people in need of assistance in conflict situations essential. The protection of victims and the safety of humanitarian workers must be guaranteed by parties to a conflict.

As to coordination, the EU wishes to highlight a number of elements, the first of which is financing. Despite all our efforts, OCHA's 2004 Mid Term report signals a number of sobering trends. This year, so far, less humanitarian funding has been made available than the previous two years. The crisis in Darfur attracts less financial interest than 'Afghanistan' and 'Iraq' did, and still continue to do. This uneven distribution of funding justifies the UN's call for more, and more unearmarked funding. It also demonstrates the urgent need for better and comparable needs assessment methodologies, that should lead to donors' funding in accordance with, and in proportion to rigorous needs assessments.

In order to attract more funding, humanitarian agencies should better coordinate and prioritize. The CAP process and its guardian, OCHA, should lead the way, but should also ensure quality control at the centre.

In relation to coordination and financing, in the framework of the Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative, donors have committed themselves to improve their funding practices. The EU actively participates in the ongoing discussions, among donors, and with other stakeholders. Clearly, the need to provide adequate, predictable and timely humanitarian funding is high on the GHD agenda, as is the importance of complementing humanitarian funding with reconstruction and development financing to ensure a smooth transition.

A second element the EU wishes to underscore is the issue of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse by warring parties. In various conflicts, rape increasingly is being used as a weapon. Acts of sexual violence, exploitation and abuse in all its forms may constitute, in defined circumstances, a crime against humanity. Action must be taken at all levels to bring to justice those responsible and assist the victims.

But also sexual abuse by humanitarian workers, and by members of peace keeping forces. The EU considers sexual exploitation and abuse in all its forms utterly unacceptable, and welcomes the steps taken within the UN system to keep staff from such wrongdoings; we also support the call upon UN member states to promote similar standards of behaviour for uniformed personnel serving under UN auspices.

Thirdly, regarding IDP's, the EU believes that important work has been done. Now, the time has come to complement progress on the policy side with improved implementing practices! IDP's are a good indicator of the level of humanitarian coordination, since not one organisation is exclusively responsible for them.

Here, too, the EU welcomes the pro-active leadership by the ERC. The collaborative approach must be made to work.

Lastly, mine action is a prerequisite for the safe delivery of humanitarian aid, and long term development. Actors working in this field are encouraged to coordinate their efforts under the guidance of the UN Mine Action Service. The Humanitarian coordinator should integrate a coordinated mine action programme into the overall humanitarian operation, with the needs defined in the CAP.

Mr. Chairman,

II. Natural disasters

With regard to natural disasters and disaster reduction, the EU wishes to underline its support for the work of the ISDR-secretariat, as well as for the Kobe Conference on disaster reduction. Again, we witness an active role on the part of the ERC, fully justified by the simple fact that the number of natural disasters is rising, as is the number of affected people. We subscribe to the conference's focus on capacity building, contingency planning, preparedness and ownership, because this will best limit damage in the long run. In particular, the latter applies to the consequences of climate change, as climate change will lead to a further increase in extreme weather events. Hence, disaster reduction must go beyond disaster response, and become part of development planning as well as of local coping strategies.

The EU recognises that the international community is failing to invest sufficiently in disaster preparedness, and that to do so might prove more cost effective than investment in disaster response.

On disaster response, the EU firmly believes that the leading role played by OCHA, UNDAC and INSARAG is indispensable, and has earned our full support. Presently, an EU disaster response mechanism is being prepared, that will complement and support the existing UN instruments.

Mr. Chairman,

III. Security environment

The changing security environment, and the UN's response to new security challenges are extremely important for humanitarian action. This year we have witnessed a further increase in the number of attacks and casualties. Only a few weeks ago, MsF lost another 5 staff members in western Afghanistan. And although it is clear that the situation in some crises is more threatening than in others, it is also clear that new threats have to be taken into account across the globe.

We welcome the UN's work on enhanced security analysis and measures. But although safety of staff comes first, this should lead to risk management, not risk avoidance! Risk avoidance will result in reduction of the UN's response capacity, and hence, credibility.

With regard to the safety of UN personnel the EU calls upon all Member States not being State Parties to the UN Convention on the Safety of UN and Associated Personnel to adhere to the Convention at their earliest convenience.

Respect for International Humanitarian Law is the best way to forestall the suffering of people in conflict. It is the obligation of all States to respect, and to ensure respect of, International Humanitarian Law, in particular the Geneva Conventions and additional Protocols. The EU believes that both the UN and member states must face the challenge of establishing security and safe working environments for humanitarian workers. If we fail, the entire humanitarian system may fail.

Security for humanitarian actors will increase where there is less, or no 'blurring' of roles and mandates of humanitarian and military actors. UN and member states must accept responsibility to actively avert such 'blurring'.

Clearly, the welcome concept of 'integrated missions' brings along the risk of UN humanitarian action being perceived to be part of a broader, political agenda. We have a shared responsibility to organise integrated missions in such a way that there can be no misunderstanding about the independent, impartial and neutral character of the humanitarian part of UN operations.

IV. EU priorities

In 2004, the EU and its Member States are the largest source of humanitarian funding worldwide. We have included humanitarian principles and International Humanitarian Law in our future Constitutional Treaty. And we do more, in collaboration with others. When it comes to coordination, we have committed ourselves to supporting UN/OCHA and the CAP-system. We clearly see humanitarian objectives, policies and practices converge, as we see, in the longer term, funding modalities. We consider the GHD-process to be one of the main vehicles for this. The EU therefore attaches great importance to the next GHD-conference in Ottawa.

The EU will do its utmost to make the Kobe conference a successful one, with a clear link to the Plan Of Implementation of the WSSD in Johannesburg, 2002, but also in operational terms, including new partnerships.

Regarding new security challenges, the EU pledges to uphold and promote the principle of independent and neutral humanitarian action, both within and outside UN integrated missions. The EU offers its support to the UN in its efforts to answer to new security threats, because it believes that UN presence is of paramount importance, especially in crisis environments.

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