Safety and Security of Humanitarian Personnel and Protection of United Nations Personnel

A/RES/63/138No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 65Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance, published in 2009.

What other versions does this mandate have?

28 versions · 1999–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/112

2025A/RES/80/112Safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnelLatestCompare with previous version
2024A/RES/79/138Safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnelCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/118Safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnelCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/77/31Safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnelCompare with previous version
2021A/RES/76/127Safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnelCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2009.

2009A/64/336Safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnel report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

34 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General;

Urges all States to make every effort to ensure the full and effective implementation of the relevant principles and rules of international law, including international humanitarian law, human rights law and refugee law related to the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and United Nations personnel;

Strongly urges all States to take the necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and United Nations and associated personnel and to respect and ensure respect for the inviolability of United Nations premises, which are essential to the continuation and successful implementation of United Nations operations;

Calls upon all Governments and parties in complex humanitarian emergencies, in particular in armed conflicts and in post-conflict situations, in countries in which humanitarian personnel are operating, in conformity with the relevant provisions of international law and national laws, to cooperate fully with the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies and organizations and to ensure the safe and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel and delivery of supplies and equipment, in order to allow those personnel to perform efficiently their task of assisting the affected civilian population, including refugees and internally displaced persons;

Calls upon all States to consider becoming parties to and to respect fully their obligations under the relevant international instruments;

Also calls upon all States to consider becoming parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court;6

Further calls upon all States to consider becoming parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel5 as soon as possible so as to ensure its rapid entry into force, and urges States parties to put in place appropriate national legislation, as necessary, to enable its effective implementation;

Calls upon all States, all parties involved in armed conflict and all humanitarian actors to respect the principles of neutrality, humanity, impartiality and independence for the provision of humanitarian assistance;

Expresses deep concern that, over the past decade, threats and attacks against the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and United Nations and associated personnel have escalated dramatically and that perpetrators of acts of violence seemingly operate with impunity;

Strongly condemns all threats and acts of violence against humanitarian personnel and United Nations and associated personnel, reaffirms the need to hold accountable those responsible for such acts, strongly urges all States to take stronger action to ensure that any such acts committed on their territory are investigated fully and to ensure that the perpetrators of such acts are brought to justice in accordance with national laws and obligations under international law, and urges States to end impunity for such acts;

Calls upon all States to comply fully with their obligations under international humanitarian law, including as provided by the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, in order to respect and protect all humanitarian personnel in territories subject to their jurisdiction;

Also calls upon all States to provide adequate and prompt information in the event of the arrest or detention of humanitarian personnel or United Nations and associated personnel, so as to afford them the necessary medical assistance and to allow independent medical teams to visit and examine the health of those detained, and urges them to take the necessary measures to ensure the speedy release of those who have been arrested or detained in violation of the relevant conventions referred to in the present resolution and applicable international humanitarian law;

Calls upon all other parties involved in armed conflicts to refrain from abducting humanitarian personnel or United Nations and associated personnel or detaining them in violation of the relevant conventions referred to in the present resolution and applicable international humanitarian law, and speedily to release, without harm or requirement of concession, any abductee or detainee;

Requests the Secretary-General to take the necessary measures to ensure full respect for the human rights, privileges and immunities of United Nations and other personnel carrying out activities in fulfilment of the mandate of a United Nations operation, and also requests the Secretary-General to seek the inclusion, in negotiations of headquarters and other mission agreements concerning United Nations and associated personnel, of the applicable conditions contained in the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies and the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel;4

Recommends that the Secretary-General continue to seek the inclusion of, and that host countries include, key provisions of the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, among others, those regarding the prevention of attacks against members of the operation, the establishment of such attacks as crimes punishable by law and the prosecution or extradition of offenders, in future as well as, if necessary, in existing status-of-forces, status-of-mission, host country and other related agreements negotiated between the United Nations and those countries, mindful of the importance of the timely conclusion of such agreements, and encourages further efforts in this regard;

Reaffirms the obligation of all humanitarian personnel and United Nations and associated personnel to respect and, where required, observe the national laws of the country in which they are operating, in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations;

Stresses the importance of ensuring that humanitarian personnel and United Nations and associated personnel remain sensitive to national and local customs and traditions in their countries of assignment and communicate clearly their purpose and objectives to local populations;

Welcomes ongoing efforts to promote and enhance security consciousness within the organizational culture of the United Nations system, and urges the Secretary-General to continue to intensify such efforts at all levels of leadership and staff, including by reviewing and further improving, in accordance with established procedures, the unified security management system, as well as by disseminating and ensuring the implementation of security procedures and regulations and ensuring accountability at all levels, and in this regard recognizes the important work of the Department of Safety and Security of the Secretariat;

Takes note of the report entitled “Towards a Culture of Security and Accountability” of the Independent Panel on Safety and Security of United Nations Personnel and Premises Worldwide, and looks forward to the report of the Secretary-General on measures to follow up on the Panel’s recommendations and on the independent process on the issue of accountability, to be submitted for the consideration of the relevant Main Committee of the General Assembly during the sixty-third session;

Emphasizes the importance of paying special attention to the safety and security of United Nations and associated personnel engaged in United Nations peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations;

Also emphasizes the need to pay particular attention to the safety and security of locally recruited humanitarian personnel, who are particularly vulnerable to attacks and who account for the majority of casualties and cases of harassment and unlawful detention, requests the Secretary-General to keep under review the relevant internal United Nations policy, operational and administrative arrangements that can contribute to providing locally recruited personnel with adequate safety and security, and calls upon humanitarian organizations to ensure that their staff are adequately informed about and trained in their respective organization’s relevant security measures, plans and initiatives, which should be in line with applicable national laws and international law;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to take the necessary measures to ensure that United Nations and other personnel carrying out activities in fulfilment of the mandate of a United Nations operation are properly informed about and operate in conformity with the minimum operating security standards and relevant codes of conduct and are properly informed about the conditions under which they are called upon to operate and the standards that they are required to meet, including those contained in relevant national laws and international law, and that adequate training in security, human rights law and international humanitarian law is provided so as to enhance their security and effectiveness in accomplishing their functions, and reaffirms the necessity for all other humanitarian organizations to provide their personnel with similar support;

Welcomes the ongoing efforts of the Secretary-General and stresses the need to ensure that all United Nations staff members receive adequate security training, including training to enhance cultural awareness, prior to their deployment to the field, as well as the need to attach a high priority to stress management training and related counselling services for United Nations staff throughout the system, and reaffirms the necessity for all other humanitarian organizations to provide their personnel with similar support;

Emphasizes the importance of information on the range and scope of security incidents involving humanitarian personnel and United Nations and associated personnel, including attacks against them, to clarify their operating environment;

Welcomes the ongoing efforts of the Secretary-General to further enhance the security management system of the United Nations, and in this regard invites the United Nations and, as appropriate, other humanitarian organizations, working closely with host States, to further strengthen the analysis of threats to their safety and security in order to manage security risks by facilitating informed decisions on the maintenance of an effective presence in the field, inter alia, to fulfil their humanitarian mandate;

Also welcomes the work of the Secretary-General in enhancing security collaboration with host Governments for the purpose of contributing to staff safety and security, including efforts to support United Nations designated officials with regard to collaboration with host Government authorities;

Calls upon all relevant actors to make every effort in their public statements to support a favourable environment for the safety and security of humanitarian personnel;

Stresses that the effective functioning at the country level of security operations requires a unified capacity for policy, standards, coordination, communication, compliance and threat and risk assessment, and notes the benefits thereof to United Nations and associated personnel, including those achieved by the Department of Safety and Security since its establishment;

Requests the Secretary-General, inter alia, through the Inter-Agency Security Management Network, to continue to promote increased cooperation and collaboration among United Nations departments, organizations, funds and programmes and affiliated international organizations, including between their headquarters and field offices, in the planning and implementation of measures aimed at improving staff security, training and awareness, and calls upon all relevant United Nations departments, organizations, funds and programmes and affiliated international organizations to support those efforts;

Recognizes the steps taken by the Secretary-General thus far, as well as the need for continued efforts to enhance coordination and cooperation, both at the headquarters and the field levels, between the United Nations and other humanitarian and non-governmental organizations on matters relating to the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and United Nations and associated personnel, with a view to addressing mutual security concerns in the field, taking into account relevant national and local initiatives in this regard, inter alia, those derived from the “Saving Lives Together” framework, encourages collaborative initiatives to address security training needs, invites Member States to consider increasing support to those initiatives, and requests the Secretary-General to report on steps taken in this regard;

Underlines the need to allocate adequate and predictable resources to the safety and security of United Nations personnel, including through the consolidated appeals process, and encourages all States to contribute to the Trust Fund for Security of Staff Members of the United Nations System, inter alia, with a view to reinforcing the efforts of the Department of Safety and Security for the safety and security of personnel working in emergency and humanitarian operations;

Also underlines the need for better coordination between the United Nations and host Governments, in accordance with the relevant provisions of international law and national laws, on the use and deployment of essential equipment required to provide for the safety and security of United Nations personnel and associated personnel working in the delivery of humanitarian assistance by United Nations organizations;

Recalls the essential role of telecommunication resources in facilitating the safety of humanitarian personnel and United Nations and associated personnel, calls upon States to consider acceding to or ratifying the Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations of 18 June 1998, which entered into force on 8 January 2005, and urges them to facilitate and expedite, consistent with their national laws and international obligations applicable to them, the use of communications equipment in such operations, inter alia, by limiting and, whenever possible, expeditiously lifting the restrictions placed on the use of communications equipment by United Nations and associated personnel;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session a comprehensive and updated report on the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnel and on the implementation of the present resolution.

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Safety and Security of Humanitarian Personnel and Protection of United Nations Personnel

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