Ahead of the UN Security Council open debate on the protection of civilians on 21 May 2024, Article 36 signed on to the 2024 statement by members of the NGO Working Group on the Protection of Civilians, which can be read here or below.

Recognising the huge scale of humanitarian harm to civilians in armed conflicts today, including from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas (EWIPA), the statement urges states to take meaningful action to improve protection both nationally and internationally, including through supporting initiatives including the EWIPA and Safe Schools Declaration, and to take steps to impunity for international crimes.

2024 Statement by members of the NGO Working Group on the Protection of Civilians

This year marks both the 25th anniversary of Security Council’s adoption of the protection of civilians (POC) in armed conflict agenda, and the 75th anniversary of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. 

Rather than an opportunity to mark progress in strengthening (POC) in conflict, the Security Council must reckon with the reality that today civilians are being targeted by parties to armed conflict. Despite significant effort and investment, including UN Security Council resolutions enshrining the Protection of Civilians as a global priority, 2024 has been characterised by the continued erosion of compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL). A widening gap between legal obligations and practice now threatens 25 years of progress and leaves civilians in conflicts around the world vulnerable to devastating consequences of those wars – these impacts affect women, children and other marginalised groups in special and disproportionate ways.

Today, civilians continue to suffer the tragic effects of war across numerous contexts, including those with UN peace operations or where missions are in the process of drawdown or withdrawal, with marginalised groups disproportionately impacted. Warring parties – including state and non-state actors –  continue to kill, maim and cause life-long psychological wounds to civilians, use sexual violence and starvation as weapons of war, and destroy critical civilian infrastructure, the environment, livelihoods and education. As conflict is increasingly fought in urban areas, the levels of harm to civilians and damage to civilian infrastructure increases exponentially, especially when parties to conflict use explosive weapons in populated areas (EWIPA). In all cases, the physical, psychological and reverberating effects of violence often continue to impact civilian lives and livelihoods for generations after the conflict has ended.

We are standing at the threshold, witnessing a deliberate undermining of the collective commitments established to limit the barbarity of war, combined with a profound lack of accountability and disregard for international laws and standards designed to protect civilians from the horrific tolls these wars can have on them. In addition, survivors are often left without justice or redress. If this accountability gap is not addressed urgently, we risk barrelling further down a path of no return.

As NGOs working in conflict zones around the world, we see first hand the devastating impact of this gap in implementation and accountability. While we seek to strengthen rules and means to prevent and address civilian harm in armed conflict, the scale of harm and humanitarian need is now far outpacing our ability to respond. Reversing the tide is not just a legal and moral responsibility, but it is central to maintaining international peace and security and to making progress on essential shared global goals.

The world has changed considerably in the last 25 years. Armed conflicts have become increasingly complex, urbanised, and asymmetric. Meanwhile, emerging threats such as the use of new technologies and artificial intelligence, mis- and disinformation, and the presence of non-state security actors, including private companies as well as climate change, continue to change the manner in which armed conflict is fought and the nature and scale of risks to civilians in conflict. A re-commitment to POC is more urgent than ever. 

This responsibility to prevent and end armed conflicts, regulate how they are fought and hold the perpetrators of violations accountable sits with armed actors, states and with the bodies designed to maintain international peace and security – all of which are currently failing in their duties. States must not only respect their own legal obligations and commitments, but should also use their leverage to ensure that all parties to a conflict, and those supporting them, respect the rules of war, including POC. Those with power must ensure all civilians, including humanitarians, journalists, human rights defenders and peacebuilders are not a target. 

Major arms exporting States can play a role in encouraging compliance with international law in armed conflicts. By ending the supply of weapons, ammunition, and parts and components to contexts where there might be an overriding risk of the commission of violations of IHL and human rights, States will not only fulfil their obligations under the four Geneva Conventions and international customary law to ensure respect for IHL, but also contribute to preventing the suffering of civilians. 

Ahead of this year’s UN Security Council Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians, we collectively urge UN Security Council members, the UN Secretary-General, and all UN Member States to take full advantage of the opportunity of these important anniversaries to inject renewed urgency into ensuring the implementation of international law and UNSC Resolutions for the protection of civilians in armed conflict.

We urge these priority actions:

1. At the national level, states must take meaningful action to improve civilian protection in conflict, this should include reinforcing guidance, policies, strategies, legislation and mechanisms at the national level to strengthen protection of civilians; building commitments to POC and international law into global military partnerships, ensuring arms transfers do not occur when there is an overriding risk they might contribute to serious IHL or IHRL violations; using national systems or the legal principle of universal jurisdiction to prosecute those committing abuses and violations of IHL; endorsing initiatives aimed at strengthening civilian protection in conflict including the EWIPA Political Declaration and Safe Schools Declaration; and engaging with communities, civil society and local peacebuilders as key partners in strengthening POC, recognising promoting the value of locally-led protection for effective and sustainable POC outcomes and recognising the agency of civilians and local communities in their own protection.
2. At the global level, states must take urgent steps to end impunity and promote accountability on the international stage, this should include commitment from P5 members to support the proposal to suspend the veto in the U.N. Security Council in cases of mass atrocities; criminal prosecutions for IHL violations in international courts; ensure current and future peace operations in all their forms have the guidance, budget and resources to meaningfully strengthen POC; and the creation of a working group comprised of current and former Council members to develop a set of proposals in consultation with civil society on how to improve implementation of UNSC Resolutions related to POC – a first step should be agreement to implement a 6-month follow up discussion on the SG’s Annual Protection of Civilians Report to look at progress made and gaps that remain on challenges outlined in the report and strengthen the mechanisms for holding both state and non-state actors accountable for violations against children under the Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) agenda;

3. Re-commitment by states to POC in the face of emerging challenges, this should include ensuring IHL, IHRL and the protection of civilians are prioritised as core tenets of global multilateral governance in the forthcoming Pact for the Future; strengthening and implementing legal accountability mechanisms and other safeguards around the use of new technologies in armed conflict, including adopting a treaty to prohibit and regulate autonomous weapons systems by 2026 as recommended by the UNSG in the New Agenda for Peace; strengthening and implementing international, regional and national legal and regulatory frameworks governing Private Military and Security Companies, including mechanisms for transparency, oversight, accountability and redress for civilian harm; and establishing an Environment, Peace, and Security (EPS) agenda to better protect civilians from conflict-linked environmental harm and the impacts of the environment-climate-conflict nexus.

Signed by,

Action Against Hunger

Amnesty International

Article 36

CARE

Center for Civilians in Conflict

Concern Worldwide

Control Arms

Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect

Human Rights Watch

Humanitarian Policy Group / ODI

International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW)

International Rescue Committee

Legal Action Worldwide

Nonviolent Peace Force

Norwegian Refugee Council

PAX

Plan International

Save the Children

Watchlist for Children and Armed Conflict

World Vision