International Framework to Protect Civilians during Armed Conflict Unraveling, Speakers Warn Security Council, Urging Enforcement of Existing Laws
2024 Deadliest Year on Record for Humanitarians, as Civilian Deaths Soared
United Nations officials and humanitarians alike warned that the international framework created to protect civilians during armed conflict is itself under attack during a day-long debate in the Security Council today on that topic, as many speakers stressed that civilians will continue to suffer if existing laws are not enforced.
“The short version — the scaffolding built last century to protect us from inhumanity is crumbling; those who will die as a result need us to act,” stated Thomas Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. In 2024, the UN recorded more than 36,000 civilian deaths in 14 armed conflicts, with the real number likely far higher. He detailed the plight of civilians today: dead, deprived of essential services, forcibly displaced, subjected to “rampant” sexual violence or suffering from “alarming” levels of conflict-driven hunger. “2024 was also the deadliest year on record for humanitarians,” he added.
Spotlighting an unravelling of international law — “despite the lessons of history and clear legal commitments” — he underscored that this jeopardizes the protection architecture that took decades to build. “There is, though, another path,” he said — provided States act to “salvage what they have built”. This requires that they ensure respect for international law and support efforts to fight impunity. He said they also must acknowledge that, even when parties comply with the law, “the scale of civilian harm can be devastating”, which necessitates strong policy and operational measures to protect civilians. “Let us be remembered not for the warnings we gave, but for the action we took,” he urged.
Next, Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), emphasized: “In the past year, we have seen bombed maternity wards, blockaded medical supplies and massive funding cuts.” In Afghanistan — where 90 per cent of women lack access to essential healthcare services — a woman dies from preventable pregnancy-related complications every two hours. And, with bans on female workers and shrinking access to care, maternal deaths are projected to rise by 50 per cent in 2026.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, over 28,000 women and girls have been killed since October 2023, she noted, adding: “Tens of thousands have given birth under bombardment and siege, without anaesthetics, postpartum care or clean water.” Urging the Council to treat reproductive violence as a distinct category of harm and hold perpetrators accountable, she added that “trauma compounds over time”. In Gaza, 75 per cent of women suffer from depression; women in Afghanistan describe living in “open-air prisons” and domestic violence is rising in Ukraine.
Call to End ‘Permissive Signals’ to Ignore International Humanitarian Law
“Where is the political courage to stop the killing?”, asked Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “If you do not defend the rules of war today, you are accepting a world where wars are fought with increasing barbarity and disregard for our shared humanity,” she underscored. “In today’s conflicts, you do not have to pull the trigger to be complicit in the consequences,” she added, stressing that the fourth Geneva Convention contains clear, unambiguous protections for civilians in times of armed conflict.
She therefore urged the Council to prevent any permissive signals that international humanitarian law can be ignored, that life-saving aid can be denied or that principled humanitarian action can be replaced. Peace starts with treating the wounded, reconnecting separated families, ensuring the provision of life-saving aid and sparing civilian populations and infrastructure from harm. “It is in the darkest moments that our commitment to protecting civilians is most tested and needed,” she said, declaring: “It is possible to protect civilians in war.”
Children Are Uniquely Vulnerable to, Harmed by Effects of War
Doing so is especially necessary in the context of children, emphasized Janti Soeripto, President and Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children, as they are “uniquely vulnerable to the effects of war”. Recalling the words of one of her organization’s healthcare workers in Somalia, describing what happens when children suffer acute malnutrition, she said that “the skin becomes attached to the bone, the child becomes a skeleton” and cries all day “until it stops doing that”. Children, she continued, are also more likely to die from blast injuries: “The blast is more likely to penetrate their small bodies, and they have less blood to lose.”
Observing that humanity faces a “moment where many competing visions of the future are battling for supremacy” and “not an erosion, but an assault” on its values, she said that humanitarians are often asked for technical solutions to inherently political problems. “Yes, we need support to get food, medicine and schooling to children trapped in conflict,” she acknowledged, but added that it is also necessary for Member States “to do your job”. When civilians suffer because a State makes a political choice to disregard the laws of war, that choice is based on a calculation that the international community will not enforce the law. “We urge you to act,” she concluded.
“Crisis of compliance with international law, the question of impunity and the imperative of justice and accountability without politicization, selectivity and double standards — in our view — were the key common messages from these briefings,” observed the representative of Pakistan. The United Kingdom’s representative, recalling that the Council has recently heard several such briefings on the gap between obligation and adherence, underscored: “These gaps are where harms to civilians arise every day.”
Political Will and Accountability, Not Empty Promises, Needed
Guyana’s representative, recalling the many Council instruments that “form a robust framework” to protect civilians in armed conflict, nevertheless observed that their implementation has been “mostly honoured in the breach”. Moreover, she stressed that the existing framework “is not an end in itself — it must be matched with the same level of political will for its implementation and the relevant accountability when it is ignored”. Panama’s representative concurred: “Protection of civilians in armed conflict cannot continue to be an empty promise.”
“Impunity”, stressed the representative of the Republic of Korea, “only paves the way for perpetrators to continue committing heinous crimes.” Denmark’s representative, similarly, stated: “Put simply, impunity has pushed our system to the breaking point.” Only a predictable, enforced system of accountability will deter future crimes, she stressed, warning: “If we fail on these fronts, it signals a green light to those who bomb hospitals, recruit children, perpetrate sexual and gender-based violence and weaponize hunger.”
“Sadly, in many contexts — in particular in Gaza — respect for international humanitarian law has been reduced to an empty slogan,” said Algeria’s representative. Detailing the many horrors there, he also joined others in noting that journalism is under fire — “murdering not only lives, but also the truth”. On that, the representative of Somalia, warning that “technology can amplify hate speech and disinformation, putting journalists and media workers at risk and threatening democratic values”, urged greater efforts to combat these threats.
Delegates Urge Stronger Monitoring of UN Resolutions, Support for Existing Mechanisms
Others also offered specific suggestions. Among them, Sierra Leone’s representative called for strengthened efforts to monitor implementation of Council resolutions aimed at protecting civilians. The representative of France said that the Council must support existing mechanisms and encourage States to exercise criminal jurisdiction — including by invoking the principle of universal jurisdiction. Council members, stressed the representative of the United States, have a responsibility to use the tools at their disposal to enforce peace.
“As long as conflicts persist, the fundamental safety of civilians will remain elusive,” observed the representative of China. He therefore encouraged the Council to promote the cessation of hostilities — including in Gaza, where “achieving a ceasefire and saving lives is an urgent priority”. Stating that the “stalled peaceful settlement” in Gaza is the reason why civilians there continue to suffer, the representative of the Russian Federation also took issue with today’s Secretary-General report as it relates to Ukraine and urged that “those who mislead the Council are brought to account”.
Alarm Sounded over Destruction of Water and Sanitation Infrastructure
For his part, Giorgos Gerapetritis, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece, Council President for May, spoke in his national capacity to call on the Council to make “abundantly clear” that war, violence and propaganda should never deprive a child of the right to grow up healthy and hopeful. Meanwhile, Melita Gabrič, Deputy Minister for Foreign and European Affairs of Slovenia, said: “In Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere, we are witnessing how the destruction of water infrastructure leads to alarming levels of thirst, dehydration, spread of diseases, disruption of healthcare services and, ultimately, to preventable deaths.”
The representative of the Philippines, speaking for the Global Alliance to Spare Water from Armed Conflicts, agreed: “Destruction, disruption and denial — sometimes deliberate — of water and sanitation services, as well as the pollution of freshwater sources, have become a regular occurrence.” Touching on another facet of today’s topic, Alexis Vafeades, Minister for Transport, Communications and Works of Cyprus, stressed: “We must not overlook the humanitarian dimension of missing persons.”
“This discussion could not be more relevant for Ukraine, where civilians, humanitarian and UN personnel and journalists continue to be deliberately and systematically targeted by the Russian Federation,” stressed Ukraine’s representative. Lasha Darsalia, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Georgia, similarly detailed the grave human rights abuses perpetrated against civilians in the Russian Federation-occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions. “Georgia’s experience reflects the severe impact of continued occupation,” he said.
The representative of Israel — after spotlighting the “horrific antisemitic terror attack on 21 May” in which two diplomatic staffers were shot to death “in the name of ‘Free Palestine’” — stressed: “Let us be clear — Israel is not at war with the Palestinian people; Israel is at war with Hamas, a genocidal terror organization that bears the responsibility for all devastation in Gaza.” He added that “we deeply regret every innocent lost, and we do everything in our power to protect humanitarian workers”.
No One Should Be Above the Law
“The protection of civilians is not a choice,” underscored Jordan’s representative, urging immediate, unified action to address the flagrant violations being witnessed in Gaza and elsewhere. Detailing the effects of Israeli aggression in the Strip, the representative of South Africa stressed: “If we are really serious about the protection of civilians, no one should be above the law.” The representative of Colombia, underlining her country’s commitment to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols, urged: “Now is not the time to reinterpret the rules.”