We are pleased to inform you that the Security Council passed resolution 2175 requiring accountability for those who kill our colleagues. (Pertinent text below)
The resolution follows recent actions by your staff union calling for those who kill UN staff to be held accountable. These actions have included:
- a letter sent by unions to the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Secretary-General calling for those who killed our 11 UN colleagues in Gaza to be investigated and held accountable;
- a remembrance event on the Place des Nations, as part of a coordinated global day of action, that many of you attended and which received press coverage; and
- an op-ed on the issue.
This is the latest step forward in our campaign to improve staff safety, As part of that campaign we have:
- brought the organization’s poor safety record into the open by publishing independent statistics from Humanitarian Outcomes showing 267 colleagues (not including peacekeepers) attacked and killed over the past ten years;
- intervened at the UN working group on mercernaries as well as worked with NGOs and the media to drastically reduce the UN’s use of armed private security in favour of professional military forces;
- pushed for remembrance events and half masts for colleagues killed in action and for which management is now reviewing its policy, so that the issue remains at the forefront; and
- gradually shifted the organization’s mentality from staff fatilities being considered a regrettable but acceptable part of working in the field to the issue headlining this year’s World Humanitarian Day.
But there is more to do. We are lobbying management and member states for:
- an independent UN coroner to investigate and report transparently on every death of a colleague killed in action, identify who should be held accountable for that death, and pursue them through legal means – too many families are still waiting to hear who killed their loved ones in places such as Baghdad and Kabul;
- better support for survivors and bereaved families – victims of malicious acts should not become victims of bureacracy; and
- more resources for security of staff in dangerous locations and better protection for national staff.
With our fellow colleagues serving in increasingly dangerous locations, staff safety should be the organization’s priority. We thank you for your support.