Church group calls for protection of civilians

Social justice news
September 2006

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Church group calls for protection of civilians
Geneva, August 15, 2006— Action by Churches Together (ACT) International today called on the international community to ensure that all parties engaged in conflict, such as the most recent fighting in Lebanon, now stayed by a cease-fire, meet their obligations under international humanitarian law with regard to the protection of civilians and access of humanitarian workers to those in need.

The faith-based alliance of 128 Protestant and Orthodox members around the world expressed deep concern at the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah that has cost the lives of at least 1,100 people in Lebanon alone, and more than 150 in Israel. In particular, ACT International calls on its members to put pressure on their governments to ensure unconditional humanitarian access to people in need and a guarantee of the safety of all humanitarian workers responding to a crisis such as the one that has gripped Lebanon.

“By failing to avoid civilian casualties, both parties engaged in the conflict were in breach of international humanitarian law, the fundamental principles of which are to prevent humanitarian suffering among civilian populations, to spare civilian life and to ensure that populations have access to basic humanitarian assistance,” said John Nduna, the director of the Geneva-based coordinating office of ACT International.

“With limited access to some parts of Lebanon, and almost no access in the south during the conflict, it is crucial that as humanitarians responding to the crisis, we affirm the long-standing humanitarian principle of unconditional access to people in need,” Nduna said.

With its members, the Middle East Council of Churches and International Orthodox Christian Charities, doing their best to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, with support from members of ACT around the world, Nduna explained that it is crucial that the parties that had been engaged in the conflict cease all actions hindering humanitarian assistance to the hundreds of thousands of people who have been forced to flee their homes across the country.

“ACT International deplores the bombardment of civilian infrastructure that forced Lebanon to the brink of catastrophe and calls on all parties engaged in this conflict to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law with regard to civilians,” Nduna said.

Israel said that its offensive against Lebanese infrastructure was to curtail Hezbollah’s ability to move supplies and munitions and to prevent attacks on Israel.

“Of the utmost importance to us is the protection of civilian life,” said Nduna, adding that he could only hope that the tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah would hold, even as thousands of people have started making their way back to south Lebanon.

“In too many places in the world where we are engaged in humanitarian assistance—such as in Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in Sri Lanka where recently 17 aid workers were brutally murdered, and in Sudan’s Darfur province—we see how the lives of civilians and aid workers are constantly put at risk, because of the lack of respect for the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.

“It is appalling that more than a million people had been displaced by this conflict in Lebanon—a quarter of the country’s population; that more than a third of the deaths caused by this conflict have been those of children; that in Darfur, in Sri Lanka and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories there seems to be a complete lack of respect by warring parties for the basic tenets that we hold dear,” Nduna said.

ACT International is assisting the most vulnerable of those injured and displaced in Lebanon and in other parts of the world, regardless of faith, ethnicity or political affiliation. “For us, the humanitarian imperative comes first,” Nduna said. “But increasingly, those engaged in conflict are forcing humanitarians onto the sidelines, watching as death and destruction prevail.”

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