Aid Worker Attack Database

One of the most important solutions that the head of the Red Cross, as well as various other humanitarian organization leaders, have rallied behind is the collection of data. They claim that by quantifying the issue they can present a better case to the United Nations as to why protection of humanitarian aid workers should be on their agenda. Furthermore, a well established database can provide guidance on where solutions need to be focused and what the root cause of the majority of the attacks is.

However, many leaders have admitted that this data collection will not be an easy task. Due to the widespread locations of humanitarian organizations and the hectic nature of many conflict zones, gathering information on all attacks committed will likely take more time and resources than is currently being spent.

That being said, Humanitarian Outcomes, a research consulting specialist group, has created The Aid Worker Security Database, which organizes instances of reported attacks dating back to 1997. Although Humanitarian Outcomes has admitted their database is flawed and is nowhere near all encompassing, it is a step in the right direction and gives a better sense of the demographics of these attacks.

I would encourage you to look through the database and use to search bar to find your nation or other areas that might be of interest for committee. Furthermore, you can check out their summary of attacks in 2018 here, which gives a nice overview of the statistics they gathered from last year.

While looking through the data be sure to keep in mind:

1) Have any attacks occurred in your nation? If so, can you find any statements by your government which address these attacks?

2) What do the trends of both the type and location of attacks look like from 1997-present in general and in specific regions? What do you believe may be the cause for these changes? Do different regions require different types of solutions?

3) What can best be done to enable better and more accurate data collection on aid worker attacks in the future?
 

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 20, 2019 at 8:52 PM

    Greetings!
    As the delegation of the United Kingdom, we have not had any official attacks within our nation, however we have commented on attacks occurring within others. We are a strong advocate for aid that is "based on need and need alone" and have even audited our own counterterrorism bills in order to allow aid groups to reach the regions in critical situations. Looking at the data, it's interesting to look at not just the region, but the reported "means of attack". Attacks from "Aerial bombardment/missile/mortar/RPG/lobbed grenade" (AB) are definitely much more frequent especially within the nation of the Syrian Arab Republic. On the other hand it seems different types of assaults follow other regions, such as bodily assault frequenting in South Sudan. The changes in types of assaults we believe definitely has to do with the changes occurring within modern warfare and a movement towards proxy wars. Therefore, we do believe that different regions should focus their efforts on tackling this problem differently. This could be best exemplified by a report conducted by the ICRC which mentions their success in regional based approaches. (In Nigeria they came to the conclusion that a change in legislation was what hindered health care and in South Sudan it was a change in practices that showed the most promise) The fact of the matter is that there are so many factors such as existing legislation, the type of conflict, and the culture of the region that need to be considered. Which is why the United Kingdom advocates for this data collection. We believe that the independent data collection done by many of these humanitarian aid organizations in collaboration with the actions taken by the WHO and UN Rapporteurs could become more sufficient with increased dialogue between the two as well as with the nations they reside.

    ~The United Kingdom

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  2. UnknownFebruary 26, 2019 at 7:22 PM

    Fellow delegates,

    The delegation of Senegal would like to commend the United Kingdom for their statement regarding data collection and the absence of violence against aid workers in their area. Senegal would like to point out that the country has had attacks against aid workers within the region. According to data, there have been a total of 8 victims, of which 1 was killed. Regarding this Issue, the country of Senegal has not released any official statements but would like to emphasize the death of the aid worker was a result of their vehicle striking a mine, and those accused were villagers who were allied with rebels, with the motive of targeting the government. Senegal is a politically and economically stable country, but it does face challenges with developing in terms of access to natural resources which causes a significant portion of the civilians to live below the poverty line. Acknowledging this, it is important to understand the impact humanitarian aid organizations and workers have in the country, which further leads Senegal to say that data collection should be no doubt implemented as a solution. The UN is only recently addressing these problems, and having numbers may have a bigger effect when making a collective decision regarding protection. On the contrary, this may not be beneficial to and successful in every country. As mentioned one of the problems with the solution is the lack of access in rural places, which are ultimately the ones that need the most support. Senegal, while stable, is still a developing country with low funds, and data collection is an expensive solution. Essentially the delegation of Senegal believes data collection is a good long-term solution but can be more effective in terms of providing a better case, and understanding the problems would be with the collaboration, as the United Kingdom mentioned, UN committees and with developed countries that can provide a better source of funding.


    Hope to discuss more during committee,
    Delegation of Senegal

    ReplyDelete
  3. People's Republic of ChinaFebruary 27, 2019 at 7:57 PM

    Greeting Delegates,

    The People’s Republic of China would like to commend Senegal and the UK on their proposed solutions.

    There have been no humanitarian aid worker attacks in China. However, that does not diminish China’s attention towards this detrimental situation. Data collection would be helpful to understand different crises to learn the causes of many aid worker attacks and how to prevent their occurrence. However, it must also be acknowledged that in countries with many humanitarian attacks such as South Sudan and Syria, that oftentimes this isn’t a high priority. Therefore, the government should not be responsible for the data collection, but rather the humanitarian organization that the victim was from. If it is a formal policy within the organization to file a report on the causes of the aid worker’s death, then more data will be collected. To verify whether the data is accurate and correct, each humanitarian aid organization must have a section that works towards investigation. In the countries where humanitarian worker attacks are high, may also have a multitude of internal conflicts which we should all be mindful of during committee.

    Thank you,

    The People’s Republic of China

    ReplyDelete

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