InterAction releases statement on UN Integration Policy
InterAction has released a policy statement calling for UN humanitarian organizations to assert their independence within the UN political sphere.
The policy statement was written in reaction to the UN’s longstanding “Integration Policy,” which was recently brought into light in a new study called “UN Integration and Humanitarian Space.” The policy requires UN humanitarian organizations to operate in alignment with UN political mandates, including peacekeeping missions. This is fundamentally incompatible with the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence – all essential to operating safely and maintaining access to affected people in situations of armed conflict and other political violence.
While InterAction appreciates the importance of strengthened coherence within the UN system, humanitarian actors can no longer afford for their operations to be subsumed under the political and peacekeeping mandates of UN missions. InterAction is calling for a humanitarian exception to the integration rule to assert the independence of humanitarian action.
