Amid rising levels of humanitarian workers and United Nations personnel killed in armed conflict, the UN Security Council Wednesday explored ways to strengthen protection, with Pakistan calling for “practical measures” to end violence against them.
“If those who carry out humanitarian action and UN responsibilities are no longer protected, then the entire edifice of civilian protection is weakened,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the 15-member Council, which debated ‘Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict (SC Resolution 2730).
In this regard, he called for the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2730, which reaffirmed the obligation of all parties to armed conflict to respect and protect humanitarian workers, including local aid workers and UN personnel.
“The continued rise in attacks against humanitarian and UN personnel reflects a dangerous erosion of respect for international law,” the Pakistani envoy said, while pointing to the implementation of international humanitarian law as the starting point for reversing trends. “Humanitarian workers and UN personnel, including peacekeepers, must be respected and protected in all circumstances.”
Further, Ambassador Asim Ahmad said accountability must be strengthened. “Impunity only invites repetition.” “When such attacks are not met with consequences, the result is predictable: violations increase and risks deepen”, he said, calling for prompt, impartial, transparent and effective investigations.
“Perpetrators must be identified and held accountable,” Ambassador Asim Ahmad demanded.
He urged member states to operationalize resolution 2730 through practical measures under UN auspices, notably to improve the monitoring of attacks, reporting on trends and follow-up on investigations.
Protection also must be better integrated in to operational planning, the Pakistani envoy, while underscoring the need for conflict prevention and resolution, mediation, and early action, all for promoting peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with the UN Charter.
“Those who protect civilians must not themselves be left unprotected,” Ambassador Asim Ahmad emphasized.
Opening the debate, Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, reported that in 2025 at least 326 humanitarian workers were killed across 21 countries, bringing the total over the past three years to more than 1,010. By comparison, 377 humanitarian workers were killed globally in the preceding three years.
This almost threefold increase “is not an accidental escalation – it is the collapse of protection,” he said, adding that of those deaths, more than 560 occurred in Gaza and the West Bank, 130 in Sudan, 60 in South Sudan and 25 each in Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Fletcher questioned whether the international community still stands by Security Council resolution 2730 – a text adopted amid a marked deterioration in the security environment for humanitarian personnel and UN and associated staff operating in armed conflict settings. The resolution was led by Switzerland and co-sponsored by more than 90 Member States, reflecting broad cross-regional support.
“It seems insulting to the more than 1,000 colleagues killed to simply echo the commitments of that resolution – protection, integrity, accountability,” he added. “We come here not to remind you of these commitments, but to challenge you to uphold them.” Gilles Michaud, UN Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security, recalled the killings of a member of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) when a drone hit a home in Goma (DRC) in March 2026, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) in an attempted kidnapping in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) in November 2025 and a member of the Department for Safety and Security by a tank in Gaza in May 2024. “To this day, no one has been held accountable for their deaths,” he stressed, expressing regret that, since he took up his post in 2019, “the threats to humanitarian personnel have only grown in scale, intensity and frequency”.
Unfortunately, Michaud added, attacks against humanitarian workers no longer come only from non-State armed groups, but from the same member states “who profess an attachment to international humanitarian law while paying little attention to such law in practice”.
To make matters worse, recent budget cuts have led to reduced security support globally. This, he said, leaves “our people ever more exposed and our programmes – in fact, your mandates – more vulnerable”.
Michaud called for “real, consequential measures” against anyone that compromises the safety and security of women and men whose work saves lives. Otherwise, they are, at best, “signs of helplessness”.