Tip of the iceberg? The importance of accountability during armed conflicts in light of the attacks on WCK aid workers
by Lisa Zadrozny Stausholm
This Thursday at the STAM debate panel coorganized with Stand Up For Europe, Marta Barandiy said something that resonated with me in light of this week’s deadly attack in Gaza on World Central Kitchen (WCK) humanitarian workers. She urged : “it is crucial that we do not take for granted our human rights, that we protect them and promote our European values all across the world. The same way young European citizens don’t remember a life without Europe, our future children may not remember a life where human rights are respected.” A violent reminder that societies can very quickly slide into inequality, injustice and abuse of power, undermining the dignity and well-being of all, echoed loudly with the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen Aid Workers and the rise of Gaza civilian casualties. It is crucial that these attacks now act as an electrochoc that puts an end to the worldwide climate of lack of accountability that has been settling in for a couple of decades. Acknowledging and safeguarding human rights starts by holding accountable institutions, armies and countries who violate them.
Accountability plays a pivotal role in shaping a just, safe, healthy and cohesive democratic society by addressing wrongdoing, promoting ethical behaviour, and upholding the rights of all individuals involved. Institutions enforcing laws and protecting human rights accomplish this.
Which laws protect human rights in armed conflicts?
International law, constituted significantly by the Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols, is to be enforced by the Security Council of the United Nations. These treaties, also known as the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts, aim to protect the basic human rights of individual victims to armed conflicts, more specifically non-combatants. These international rules of war can be summarised as follows :
- It is considered a war crime to target civilians. Those who are not fighting, such as aid workers, ordinary people, medical, personnel who have been caught up in conflict, must be protected.
- With no possible exception, prisoners of war must be treated with dignity, thus prohibiting torture or degradation. They must be provided with food and water and be allowed to communicate with their loved ones.
- Medical workers have to be protected as they care for the wounded on both sides of the conflict. This implies that hospitals and civilian buildings cannot be targeted. But, if a military objective has moved into a hospital, it is no longer considered a civilian structure and can be targeted.
- Rape and sexual violence is forbidden.
- Weapons that can be used during times of conflict are limited so as to not unnecessary damage the environment. Chemical and biological warfare are outlawed.
These international treaties aim to maintain international security and peace among the 196 member states of the United Nations having signed the treaties.
Do the deaths of the 7 WCK worker’s death and alarming numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza break international rules?
The WCK aid workers killed by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) earlier this week bring to light a very important issue. WCK founder José Andrés calls the attacks as being deliberate and urges for an independent investigation regarding the attack that killed 7 workers in Gaza to uncover if it was unintentional or if it violated international law. He accused Israel of a “direct attack” targeting the humanitarian workers "systematically, car by car" even though the NGO had coordinated their movements with the IDF and were traveling in clearly marked vehicles.
The attack occurred with use of high precision drones. The IDF maintains that it was an accident and unintentional. Israeli Prime Minister supported the IDF’s statement in a video message Tuesday, adding that it happens in wartime. Nonetheless, UN says that these attacks may be war crimes. Médecins Sans Frontières also expressed a firm position, disagreeing with Israel’s statement that it was a "regrettable incident", saying numerous other humanitarian personnel have been attacked previously. This is not a new phenomenon, as rise in attacks on aid workers was already being discussed in 2015.
WCK is one of the few disaster relief non-profit organization’s operating in this conflict. At the time of the attack, workers were delivering critical aid to people in Gaza, who are on the brink of famine. WCK has since suspended all operations in Gaza, followed by other organisations, all of which will have a massive impact on civilian casualties, as highlighted by U.N. Human Rights Office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence stating an "already real risk of more deaths from famine and disease at larger scale". External aid has been crucial to Gaza civilians since 2007 as their borders are strictly controlled by Israel and goods don’t move easily across borders. As such, aid workers are a significant factor for improving the fate of civilians, who should be protected during war time under the 1949 Geneva Conventions. As of last month, more children have been killed in Gaza in the last four months than globally in the last four years of world conflict. These alarming numbers brought to us by the United Nations showcase a clear issue.
A pattern of lack of accountability
Institutions play a fundamental role in society, as thoroughly explored in the field of social sciences. As individuals live in groups, systems need to exist to provide a common framework to be able to live in society. Institutions organise society by establishing norms and values, promote stability and order, and facilitate cooperation and coordination among individuals and groups. Institutions such as governments, legal systems, educational institutions, and economic organisations help regulate behaviour, resolve conflicts, and ensure the smooth functioning of society. This helps to form a cohesive society, maintain social order, protect individual rights, and achieve common objectives. The Meyer world society theory brings to light that individuals from all over the globe form a world society, the United Nations being one of its pillar institutions. Meyer argues that this global society’s cultural framework sets norms and procedures on how world actors should act. I personally believe this theory to be extremely relevant today, especially in our interconnected society globalised through technology.
Still, a society relying on institutions implies a fundamental factor, namely trust. Institutions need to be credible and legitimate, they need to be able to enforce laws agreed upon. When society loses trust in institutions as they perceive justice is not served and perpetrators of human rights violations go unpunished, it leads to an unstabilized society. As Institutions responsible for upholding human rights and ensuring accountability, such as legal systems and international organisations, loose credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of the public, this can further erode trust in governance structures and hinder efforts to address human rights abuses effectively. Moreover, without accountability mechanisms in place, a fundamental principle within any justice system, individuals aren’t held responsible for their actions and perpetrators aren’t deterred. A climate of no consequences emboldens future violations and disregard for international norms, generally weakening the international human rights framework. Over time, diplomatic relations will be strained, undermining efforts to promote peace, security and cooperation among nations. It is therefore extremely important that we uphold the rule of law and promote transparency and accountability for a just and equitable world society.
Today, it is not only about fighting for justice to be restored regarding these attacks, it is about fighting for our world institutions to hold accountable those violating human rights, violating laws and treaties agreed upon amongst 196 nations. Instilling a climate and culture of no consequences is very dangerous, and consequences start with accountability. This is nothing new, as it was already discussed by the President of the International Rescue Committee in a United Nations press release from May 25th 2022. He stated that he is not demanding for new laws to be created, but for the ones in place not to be failing in the first place. A legal, political and diplomatic humanitarian system already exists to protect civilians. He emphasised that delivering aid has become increasingly challenging through the years, not due to natural geography but rather to significant man-made obstacles. The President urged for a “new force” to prevent aid from being weaponised, stating that it is the Council’s responsibility to hold accountable those targeting civilians or aid workers. Yemen’s representative urged the Council to honour its commitments : “The international community has to act. We need true accountability here.” Brazil’s representatives pointed out that the problem isn’t the absence of norms but the lack of respect for them.
During the same 2022 United Nations meeting, speakers were already calling Council to fulfil its responsibilities as 90% of war time casualties are civilians. Aid workers were mentioned as being threatened with arrest for helping the enemy, even though they stand by the four humanitarian principles - humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. But aid workers have more and more trouble staying neutral as they are often pushed in a corner in difficult situations by legal bureaucracy. They are no longer seen as non politicised helpers by parties in a conflict.
The importance of accountability has been highlighted above, but I would like to specify how it should be done. I believe that institutions being a pillar of a healthy society, it is not enough that when someone is held accountable, only certain individuals suffer the consequences for their actions. Is is very important to act now on a global level and hold institutions and systems responsible as a whole for violating human rights, especially as there has been a growing distrust towards essential institutions for years. Social media have become the main source of information as a convenient option but also as a reaction to distrust towards traditional medias. A sense of “nothing works”floats in society towards police, justice and government institutions, mainly stemming from a lack of holding individuals accountable : police officers getting a paid leave for excessive use of force resulting in death, institutions not being held accountable for the systemic issues they create. Twenty years ago, real accountability was already a problem when 17 US army soldiers and CIA officers were charged and removed from duty for committing war crimes and human rights violations against detainees of the prison of Abu Ghraib in early Iraq war. After the publishing of those horrific photos that shook the world, it later came to light that the US Department of Justice had authorised interrogation techniques involving torture of foreign detainees. The memoranda also argued that international humanitarian laws, such as the Geneva Conventions, did not apply to American interrogators overseas. Amnesty International published a paper proving President Georges Bush authorised waterboarding as an interrogation technique, which he later issued and apology for. Why were these institutions allowed to hide behind legal semantics even though their authorisations lead to these violations?
As such, I believe we might have reached a tipping point where enough is enough, and where not enough is not enough. The climate of no consequences for war criminals, those executing orders directly and those authorising them is an ongoing issue. Holding accountable institutions as a whole is absolutely crucial and has significant sociological impacts. As most worldwide institutions are over 75 years old, should we maybe start rethinking their system if they don’t work as they should?
Sources :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse
https://press.un.org/en/2022/sc14904.doc.htm
https://www.axios.com/2024/04/02/world-central-kitchen-strike-gaza-jose-andres
https://www.amnesty.org/fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/amr510092011en.pdf
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/attacks-humanitarian-aid-workers-five-new-findings
https://www.forces.net/world/what-are-international-rules-war
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/04/gaza-world-central-kitchen-aid-operations-explainer
https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/who/humanitarian-principles_en#:~:text=Humanity means that human suffering,armed conflict or other dispute.
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/abuse-photos-ii/6/
https://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/30/world/meast/iraq-prison-abuse-scandal-fast-facts/index.html