Humanitarian access in armed conflicts: current challenges

Abstract

Humanitarian access is a crucial element of humanitarian action in situations of armed conflict since it is impossible to provide direct humanitarian assistance without it. The right of access to victims of armed conflict is a fundamental element of humanitarian action since it allows humanitarian aid organizations to make an independent assessment of needs, ensure the effectiveness of their activities and monitor the fair distribution of such aid. However, gaining and maintaining access to the population to provide humanitarian assistance is difficult for humanitarian organizations. The provision of such access may be limited by armed conflict and the fact that humanitarian access is usually considered ad hoc, so there are often no established methods or rules for granting such access. Although humanitarian access is not a new issue in international law, there are several challenges today in securing and maintaining such access in situations of armed conflict. The article will consider the problems of understanding the term "humanitarian access," the rights and responsibilities of participants in armed conflicts regarding such access, obligations, and restrictions on humanitarian organizations themselves, criteria for granting humanitarian access in various situations, the interaction of international humanitarian missions with combatant parties, challenges related to the accreditation of humanitarian missions, the coordination of the system of humanitarian assistance, and legislative, regulatory gaps. The article will suggest possible ways to solve the problems.