Recommendation 1

Numbers of aid worker deaths are rising year on year and the situations where access to aid is deliberately impeded are also increasing. This violates the purpose of IHL: to protect civilians in a time of war. We see growing examples of where IHL is ignored or used to justify the restrictions to aid delivery. This has to stop. Furthermore, we have concerns that there is a trend of breaches of IHL being ‘traded off’ by implicated parties who can be seen to justify breaking IHL as a result of the other party or parties doing the same. This apparent ‘race to the bottom’ is extremely worrying and demonstrably contrary to the spirit of IHL which sets high standards to ensure citizens and humanitarian workers are appropriately protected in conflict zones. The short-term impacts of IHL trade-offs by belligerents is having stark and deadly consequences. (Conclusion, Paragraph 7)