Statement by Ms Natasha Smith, Counsellor (Development), Australian Mission to the United Nations on Agenda Item 71 (a) : Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations
19 November 2007
(As delivered)
Mr President
The international community is faced today with a formidable level of disasters and emergencies, both in scale and number. These humanitarian emergencies wreak havoc on nations and communities, threatening economic growth and undermining development, including the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. It is our duty to seek to prevent and respond to humanitarian crises. It is also our responsibility to ensure accountability for the impact of our assistance. At the same time we are facing new challenges, such as climate change, that continue to add complexity to the planning and delivery of humanitarian action.
Australia strongly supports the key role of the United Nations in providing leadership and coordination of international humanitarian action, especially the role of OCHA. We welcome the Secretary-General’s reports on Strengthening the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance of the United Nations on the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) which are informing our discussions and negotiations at this General Assembly.
Mr President
We have on a number of occasions commented positively on the humanitarian reform agenda and the steps the humanitarian system, under OCHA’s leadership, has taken to improve the coordination, capacity, funding and partnerships that underpin effective humanitarian action. But we consider it is no longer correct to point to the cluster approach, strengthening of humanitarian coordinators, and mechanisms such as the CERF as new approaches or reforms. These are all now integral and fundamental to humanitarian action and how the humanitarian community operates. Lessons, though, are still to be learnt and efforts to improve humanitarian response even further must continue. To this end, we look forward to the independent review of the CERF and external review of the cluster approach.
Mr President
All of us who are engaged in humanitarian action must strive to ensure that what we do is as effective as possible and is based on needs. This requires resources, people with the right skills in the right places at the right time, strong and effective coordination of effort, appropriate tools, proper accountability and risk management and strong and clear leadership. Supporting this must be the objective of the General Assembly as well as the ECOSOC.
The best response system in the world is useless if affected communities cannot be reached. Fundamental to saving lives in any emergency is rapid, safe and unhindered access by humanitarian personnel and goods and services to people in need. Without access, lives cannot be saved. This is simply irrefutable.
The safety of humanitarian personnel in emergency response is also critical. Too many humanitarian workers’ lives are lost in the line of duty each year. We pay tribute to those who have died while seeking to protect the lives of others. We urge more practical measures, such as encouraging recipient states to work closely with organisations delivering humanitarian aid, be taken to facilitate access and to protect humanitarian personnel.
Another critical humanitarian issue that requires urgent attention is the protection of civilians. Australia calls on all member states and other actors, especially in armed conflicts, to prevent violence committed against civilian populations, and to effectively respond if and when such acts occur. Australia is particularly concerned that gender-based violence, especially sexual violence, continues to occur at alarming levels in emergency situations. Such violence must be prevented and stopped wherever it occurs or has the potential to occur. Perpetrators of such violence must be apprehended and brought to account, and the survivors given the care and support they need.
Mr President
Our doctors tell us that prevention is always better and easier than cure. This is as true in the humanitarian field as it is in health. Australia considers disaster risk reduction, which includes prevention, mitigation and preparedness for natural disasters as an important priority for humanitarian and development assistance. In this regard, we commend the Hyogo Framework for Action and its program of work. Implementation of the Hyogo Framework helps build the resilience of nations and communities to disasters and advocates for the integration of disaster risk reduction into legislation and development planning. Building on Hyogo, we welcome the inaugural meeting of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in June this year. This forum provided support for the dissemination of disaster risk reduction best practice and the promotion of partnerships between states, non-governmental organisations and the private sector for developing and supporting strategies to implement the Hyogo Framework for Action. We encourage further work in this critical area.
Mr President
Australia is a strong supporter of humanitarian action and the role of the UN therein. We are active in supporting prevention, risk reduction and emergency response, and will continue to work to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian action. As I said, the humanitarian challenges facing the international community continue to be formidable. This makes our efforts to strengthen our ability to respond all the more critical. We look forward to working with the United Nations, especially OCHA, and all member states as we continue to do so.