Alison Barrett writes:
As the threat of a wider regional conflict in the Middle East intensifies, world leaders are being urged to take transformative action for a safer, more peaceful and sustainable world.
“Our world is in a whirlwind. We are in an era of epic transformation – facing challenges unlike any we have ever seen – challenges that demand global solutions,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the UN General Assembly this week.
While the current state of the world is unsustainable – with conflict in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, and rising uncertainty over climate change, as well as the need to end poverty and reign in artificial intelligence (AI) – Guterres said the challenges we face are solvable.
“But, that requires us to make sure the mechanisms of international problem-solving actually solve problems.”
A sustainable, safe and peaceful future – as adopted by world leaders in the Summit of the Future’s Pact for the Future – requires confronting impunity, inequality and uncertainty, he said.
Overdue reforms
Meanwhile, in an address to the UN Security Council, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from The Elders called for a reform of the Council to “address escalating conflicts and prevent future crises”.
Sirleaf said that The Elders recommend a coalition to launche a reform process and drive negotiations for a more representative and effective Security Council.
“Reform is urgent and overdue. The Council must be fit for the world of 2025 and beyond, not a relic from 1945,” she said.
She said action is needed on three issues:
- Leaders must uphold international law consistently – “powerful states, including some permanent members of the Council, are deliberately ignoring international norms”
- Conflict resolution and peace-building must be truly inclusive, including mandatory participation of senior women in peace-making and peace-building processes
- Leaders must restore the credibility of the International Peace and Security architecture.
Toll in Lebanon
The death and humanitarian toll in Lebanon has soared this week with reports of at least 558 people including children, women and civilians killed by Israeli attacks on Monday 23 September, according to Amnesty International.
“As Israel continues to intensify and expand its bombardment, and Hezbollah continues to launch attacks into Israel, all parties to the conflict must respect international humanitarian law and take all feasible precautions to protect civilian lives,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International.
Ettie Higgins, UNICEF Deputy Representative to Lebanon, said the recent escalation is having a significant impact on children’s physical and mental wellbeing.
Children are “exposed to ongoing attacks, displaced from their homes and unable to rely on an overstretched and under-sourced health system,” Higgins said.
The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has expressed outrage and deep sympathies over the killing of two UNHCR staff in Lebanon this week. They reiterate calls to protect civilians, including aid workers, in line with obligations under international humanitarian law.
World leaders must also exert their influence through diplomatic pressure and cooperation in ending impunity to ensure the atrocities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory ends, according to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The Committee – consisting of the World Health Organization and humanitarian and human rights organisations – has renewed its urgent call for a sustained, immediate and unconditional ceasefire in a Statement of Principles this week.
“Civilians must be protected, and their essential needs must be met. There must be accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
“Humanitarian and aid organisations have been doing their utmost to provide relief in Gaza and the West Bank, often at great personal risk, and with many aid workers paying the ultimate price,” the Statement says.
The Statement reiterated calls made last week for safe access to deliver the second round of polio vaccinations to children in Gaza.
Public health tragedy
Following the successful delivery of the first dose polio vaccinations, experts have called for a measles vaccine to be included when the second polio dose is administered.
United States academic Dr Ronald Waldman, from the Milken Institute School of Public Health, and independent public health consultants Robert Steinglass and Phillip Nieburg argue in The Lancet that as “an operational platform is in place”, the delivery of measles vaccine to a target population in Gaza is feasible.
However, they acknowledge that restricting the focus of the current campaign to polio vaccination is justified.
But forgoing measles vaccination “would be a failure to learn from the past, a missed opportunity, and risks leading to an unacceptable public health tragedy”, they write.
Apolitical?
Another recent article in The Lancet calls for apolitical humanitarianism to be rejected, saying it is an “illusory project” rooted in power imbalances, enabling violations of humanitarian law and emboldening states to restrict humanitarian aid.
The authors – Dr Shatha Elnakib and Dr Yusra Shawar, School of Public Health, John Hopkins University, Dr Sarah Aly, Yale School of Medicine, and Dr Yara Asi, School of Global Health Management and Informatics, University of Central Florida – argue that depoliticising humanitarianism neglects its “entanglements with colonialism, racism and white saviourism”, and prevents humanitarian institutions from challenging state interests.
It also fails marginalised populations – “humanitarian actors that profess apoliticism are at best complacent with existing systems of oppression, and at worst complicit in legitimising them”.
“Humanitarians must not shy away from principled engagement with political systems and structures,” they write.
They encourage humanitarians who work in institutions “professing” an apolitical stance to ask themselves: what state interests, power structures, and voices do you uphold, and whose do you minimise?
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