ReliefWeb

Background:

Populations in armed conflicts, weakened by years of fighting, destruction, erosion of basic services, and displacement, are particularly vulnerable to the spread of Covid-19 in the current pandemic. Many of them depend on humanitarian relief for their survival: displaced persons, detainees, and populations under siege or cut off from basic services.

Yet, as States take measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 (such as restrictions on international travel), freedom of movement of humanitarian workers, transport of medicines and other goods, and humanitarian operations are hampered, leaving some populations without support.

Finding a balance between the legitimate right (and duty) of States to protect public health, and the need for humanitarian relief and access by impartial humanitarian organizations, requires constant dialogue.

International humanitarian law (“IHL”, or the law of armed conflict) provisions give parties to the conflict, third States and international humanitarian organizations important ground rules to guide the dialogue on humanitarian access and the provision of humanitarian activities, including when a pandemic erupts in times of armed conflict. IHL rules governing humanitarian access, in conjunction with general international law, set a framework for what each actor may and may not do while striking a balance between health imperatives, military necessity and humanitarian action.

Key messages:

• Measures taken by States to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic do not exist in a legal void and must be consistent with all applicable rules of international law, including IHL. IHL rules on humanitarian access are not displaced by health regulations and other measures taken by belligerents and third States to combat the spread of Covid-19.

• Impartial humanitarian organizations must seek and obtain consent from the authorities to deliver their activities, including in the context of Covid-19. Consent to humanitarian operations is not discretionary and arguments based on the necessity to counter the spread of Covid-19 are not valid grounds under IHL to deny consent to humanitarian activities undertaken by impartial humanitarian organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Under IHL, permissible grounds to deny such consent are limited and are set out below.

• States are entitled under IHL to prescribe measures of control and other technical arrangements based on health considerations in order to regulate the humanitarian activities they have given their consent to. However, such measures and arrangements cannot, in practice, end up amounting to a refusal of consent, unduly delay humanitarian operations, or make their implementation impossible.