First humanitarian summit May 23-24

Human rights groups on Friday called for the first ever World Humanitarian Summit to result in meaningful action in tackling crises affecting millions of people around the world. The Istanbul meeting, convened by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, aims to end conflicts through political leadership, managing refugees, dealing with natural disasters and climate change, empowering women and girls and preventing widespread diseases.

The World Health Organization said aid organizations are dealing with emergencies “of unprecedented scale. The geographic scale, magnitude of populations affected, duration, danger and complexity of emergencies today is unparalleled.”

Mark Goldring, chief executive of Oxfam Great Britain, said the summit “needs to be more than an expensive talking shop.”

“Governments have already made numerous commitments which they have not followed through on relating to ending sex discriminatory laws, banning FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) and ending other forms of violence against women,“ Equality Now spokesman Brendan Wynne told USA TODAY. “Women and girls can’t continue to wait any longer.”

Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty said leaders must address a “widespread disregard for international law. Mass violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law are behind this global refugee crisis,” he said. “Conflicts are fast becoming a free-for-all with the price paid by civilians.”

[USA Today]

Turkish President criticizes Europe over Syrian suffering

According to the Turkish news agency Anadolu, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently criticized the alleged indifference of some European countries towards suffering Syrians in need and stressed that the EU is more worried about rare species of turtles and gay rights, rather than the fate of refugees.

“Shame on those who in the West divert their sensitivity to the so-called freedoms, rights, and law shown in the debate over gay marriage away from Syrian women, children, and innocents in need of aid,” Erdogan said, cited by the media source. “Shame on those who divert their sensitivities to the living space of the whales in the seas, seals, [and] turtles away from the right to life of 23 million Syrians,” he added.

According to the Turkish leader, neither Europe nor the US care about hundreds of thousands of Syrians who had to flee their home country amid increased violence.

Earlier in March, Brussels and Ankara agreed on a deal under which Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the European Union through its territory in exchange for Syrian refugees accommodated in Turkey, on a one-for-one basis. In return, the 28-member bloc pledged to accelerate the Turkish EU accession bid and introduce a visa-free regime between Turkey and the Schengen area.

However, the refugee deal is on the brink of failure. The European Parliament has temporarily suspended its work on the visa-free program for Turkey, since the latter has not fulfilled 72 conditions necessary for the visa-free travel to enter into force.

[Sputnik]

Iraq humanitarian crisis ‘one of the world’s worst’

Recently, the United Nations described Iraq’s humanitarian crisis as “one of the world’s worst”, saying that more than 10 million Iraqis, making up almost a third of the population, are in need of immediate humanitarian aid. This number has doubled from last year.

In a statement to the Security Council, UN Envoy to Iraq, Jan Kubis, warned of the potential mass displacement of an additional two million Iraqis in the coming months. He also called on the international community to provide aid to those in Fallujah, whose conditions were described as alarming.

The war against ISIL has created more than 3.4 million internally displaced people (IDPs), many living in camps without access to medical care, water and clothes, according to one UN official.

According to the UN, approximately 2.6 million Iraqis have fled the country since the beginning of the crisis in January 2014 when ISIL overran large swaths of the country. Additionally, more than one million Iraqis fled between 2006 and 2008 due to the sectarian war in Iraq, following the US-led invasion and occupation in 2003.

Iraqi government forces, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes and advisers, have managed to regain some of the territory seized by ISIL. However, the group still controls vast areas of northern and western Iraq.

[Al Jazeera]

Don’t just condemn humanitarian law violations. Stop them.

The recent airstrike on a camp for Syrians displaced from their homes is the latest in a long line of tragedies resulting from the disregard that certain parties to conflict hold for international humanitarian law. The UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, the UN high commissioner for human rights, the French foreign ministry, the White House and many others have all spoken out against this horrific attack, yet frustrations abound with the inability of the international community to stop them from happening.

This frustration has prompted the withdrawal of the highly respected Médecins Sans Frontières‎ (MSF), one of the integral cogs in the humanitarian system, from participation in the first world humanitarian summit, due to take place in Istanbul this month. In announcing their withdrawal, MSF said: “We no longer have any hope that the summit will address the weaknesses in humanitarian action and emergency response, particularly in conflict areas or epidemic situations.”

With attacks on medical facilities continuing, MSF’s anger is widely shared. But the cross-party international development committee believes that the summit can and must bring about action to uphold the law. First and foremost is action on international humanitarian law. As the report points out, the problem is not the absence of binding laws, but the persistent failure to comply with or enforce them. In his pre-summit report, the UN secretary general refers to the flouting of law as “contagious” – when states disrespect the basic rules governing the conduct of war, they invite others to do the same.

[The Guardian]

Turkey’s humanitarian role worldwide

Turkey is presently hosting almost 3 million refugees fleeing war zone regions and conflict, including 2.7 million Syrian refugees, according to official statistics.

Turkey’s official development aid supplies to more than 140 countries across the globe. Turkey’s successful provision of humanitarian and emergency aid is thanks to several institutions, including the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), and the Turkish Red Crescent (or Kizilay).

Turkey’s development aid provided via TİKA more than quadrupled from $85 million in 2002 to $3.59 billion in 2014. Over the same period, total humanitarian aid from Turkey increased 47 percent to $6.4 billion, a rise of 42-fold. According to preliminary figures, in 2015 Turkey’s official development aid reached $3.91 billion.

TIKA drilled over 1,000 water wells in 2013-2014, including 423 in Asia and 337 in Africa. TIKA also provided over 250 health centers with equipment during the same period. It has also supplied refrigerators, ovens, eating/cooking utensils, and food packages to refugees fleeing Daesh terrorism living in camps in northern Iraq’s Kirkuk, Erbil, Dohuk and nearby areas.

It also launched an emergency campaign for Somali, which suffers from drought, supplying food and healthcare equipment. When Pakistan was hit by an earthquake two years ago, 12,000 food packages were supplied to victims of the quake. TIKA also runs charity activities in Palestine.

The Turkish Red Crescent is number two in world rankings with its ability to provide emergency shelter and food for 300,000 people. Carrying out humanitarian aid activities in countries and regions such as Pakistan, Chad, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Arakan, Palestine, Mauritania, Senegal, Niger, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Philippines, Iraq and Lebanon, the Turkish Red Crescent was also the first relief organization to help disaster victims after the Pakistan floods.

[Anadolu Agency]

Doctors Without Borders pulls out of World Humanitarian Summit

Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF) announced that it will not be participating in the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit, calling it a mere “fig-leaf of good intentions” that will not actually hold states accountable for their failure to address the humanitarian crisis in the world today.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon previously called on world leaders to attend the first World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), which will be held in Istanbul later this month. But news that Doctors Without Borders will not be attending the summit reveals how little faith some international aid organizations have that the summit will bring about true change.

“We no longer have any hope that the WHS will address the weaknesses in humanitarian action and emergency response, particularly in conflict areas or epidemic situations,” Doctors Without Borders announced in a statement on Wednesday. “As shocking violations of international humanitarian law and refugee rights continue on a daily basis, WHS participants will be pressed to a consensus on non-specific, good intentions to ‘uphold norms’ and ‘end needs.’”

The announcement comes mere days after a Doctors Without Borders-supported hospital in Aleppo, Syria was attacked, killing at least 50 people, including one of the last pediatricians in the city. It also follows recent news that 16 U.S. military personnel involved in the horrific bombing of a Doctors Without Hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan in October 2015 received “disciplinary measures,” but no criminal charges were made. These cases are not new. According to the organization, 75 hospitals managed or supported by Doctors Without Borders were bombed last year.

In its decision to withdraw from the summit, Doctors Without Borders called for greater accountability for these violations of international law, as well as greater attention to the refugee crisis, which the U.N. has said is the largest the world has seen since World War II, with nearly 60 million refugees in the world today.

On Tuesday, the president of Doctors Without Borders, spoke in front of the U.N. Security Council in New York City, and called for an end to the bombing of hospitals throughout regions of conflict. “What are individuals in wars today? Expendable commodities, dead or alive,” Dr. Joanne Liu said. “In Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen, hospitals are routinely bombed, raided, looted or burned to the ground. Medical personnel are threatened. Patients are shot in their beds. Broad attacks on communities and precise attacks on health facilities are described as mistakes, are denied outright, or are simply met with silence. In reality, they amount to massive, indiscriminate and disproportionate civilian targeting in urban settings, and, in the worst cases, they are acts of terror.”

[Médecins Sans Frontières ]