Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, thank you very much for the opportunity and I acknowledge the European Union’s leadership in advancing humanitarian diplomacy.
For all the reasons that our colleagues from the various UN entities have outlined, this work could not be more important.
Tom Fletcher said we should hold the line.
Can I start by touching on why, we’ve spoken a bit about why IHL matters, why respect for it is fundamental, how it protects civilians and humanitarian workers, how it preserves space.
I think it also upholds our shared humanity and so that is fundamentally why we need to hold the line.
But I think the question that member states – beyond the sort of exaltation that member states have to do more – are thinking through and are acting on, is what we need to do to hold the line.
So if I can share with you, one thing we are doing, which is the work we are engaging in with my colleagues from Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Sierra Leone, Switzerland and the United Kingdom to develop the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel.
It is a practical expression of international humanitarian law: how we protect those who deliver life-saving assistance, how we respect and protect those who run towards the bullets and run towards the war zone.
It’s also why Australia expresses it wholehearted support for the ICRC’s work, for your Global Initiative on International Humanitarian Law and why we are co-chairing the workstream on prevention.
I welcome, on behalf of my country, the EU’s efforts to build support for the Declaration – we thank you for that – and to translate it into practical action, including through the Protect Aid Workers initiative.
Humanitarian diplomacy is indispensable to the task of protecting humanitarian workers.
It is the way we defend principled humanitarian action. The way we ensure and press for safe and unimpeded humanitarian access. And it is one of the ways we reinforce respect for international humanitarian law.
It is imperative that we insist that those who deliver humanitarian assistance – especially the local responders who are often the first to act and often face the greatest risks – it is imperative we insist they are protected.
I am very pleased to be here as part of this and lend Australia’s support for it. I’m very pleased to say Tom, we’re very happy to give political backing to your 10 asks, so I went and got them to make sure we could.
And we will continue to work with all of you and all our partners on the Declaration – which now has two thirds of the UN as signatories – to ensure that those commitments deliver change on the ground for the humanitarian workers and for civilians they serve.
Thank you.
