ACCESS TO PERSONS IN NEED OF PROTECTION

The provisions reproduced below request States to ensure prompt, safe and unhindered access for UNHCR and other humanitarian personnel to persons in need of protection, or emphasize the importance of ensuring such access.

Resolution / Paragraph Number & Date

Full Text

GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTIONS

49/169, OP12 23 Dec 1994

12. Calls, likewise, upon States and all parties to conflicts to take all possible necessary measures to ensure impartial, safe and timely humanitarian access to persons in need of protection and assistance;

49/174, PP11 23 Dec 1994

Bearing in mind the necessity of facilitating the work of humanitarian organizations, in particular the supply of food, medicine and health care to refugees, returnees and displaced persons, deploring acts of aggression against personnel of humanitarian organizations, particularly those that have led to the loss of life, and stressing the need to guarantee the safety of the personnel of those organizations,

50/152, OP13 21 Dec 1995

13. Reiterates that, the grant of asylum or refuge being a peaceful and humanitarian act, refugee camps and settlements must maintain their exclusively civilian and humanitarian character and all parties are obliged to abstain from any activity likely to undermine this, condemns all acts which pose a threat to the personal security of refugees and asylum-seekers, and also those that may endanger the safety and stability of States, calls upon States of refuge to take all necessary measures to ensure that the civilian and humanitarian character of refugee camps and settlements is maintained, and further calls upon States of refuge to take effective measures to prevent the infiltration of armed elements, to provide effective physical protection to refugees and asylum-seekers and to afford the Office of the High Commissioner and other appropriate humanitarian organizations prompt and unhindered access to them;

51/75, OP6 12 Dec 1996

6. Emphasizes the importance of ensuring access by the Office of the High Commissioner to asylum-seekers, refugees and other persons of effective manner, expresses deep concern at conditions in a number of countries or regions that seriously impede the delivery of humanitarian assistance and protection, and calls upon States to take all necessary measures to ensure such access and to ensure the security of staff engaged in humanitarian operations;

52/103, OP7 12 Dec 1997

7. Condemns all acts that pose a threat to the personal security of refugees and asylum-seekers, and calls upon States of refuge, in cooperation with international organizations where appropriate, to take all necessary measures to ensure that the civilian and humanitarian character of refugee camps and settlements is maintained, as well as to abstain from any activity likely to undermine this, inter alia, through effective measures to prevent the

infiltration of armed elements, the identification and separation of any such armed elements from refugee populations, the settlement of refugees in secure locations and by affording to the Office of the High Commissioner and other appropriate humanitarian organizations prompt, unhindered and safe access to them;

52/167, OP3, 16 Dec 1997 53/87, OP11 7 Dec 1998 54/192, OP3 17 Dec 1999

3. Calls upon all Governments and parties in complex humanitarian emergencies, in particular armed conflicts and post-conflict situations, in countries where humanitarian personnel are operating, in conformity with the relevant provisions of international law and national laws, to cooperate fully with the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies and organizations, and to ensure the safe and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel in order to allow them to perform efficiently their task of assisting the affected civilian population, including refugees and internally displaced persons;

53/1/N, OP5 17 Dec 1998

5. Again urges the Governments of the region and all concerned parties to provide protection as well as safe and unhindered access for United Nations and other humanitarian personnel to the populations in need in all areas of the region, in accordance with international humanitarian law;

53/125, OP9 12 Feb 1999 54/146, OP10 17 Dec 1999 55/74, OP11 12 Feb 2001

9. Urges States to uphold the civilian and humanitarian character of refugee camps and settlements, inter alia, through effective measures to prevent the infiltration of armed elements, to identify and separate any such armed elements from refugee populations, to settle refugees in secure locations and to afford to the Office of the High Commissioner and other appropriate humanitarian organizations prompt, unhindered and safe access to asylumseekers, refugees and other persons of concern;

54/180, OP14 17 Dec 1999

14. Calls upon States to ensure effective protection of, and assistance to, refugees and internally displaced persons, consistent with international law, inter alia, by respecting the principle of nonrefoulement, ensuring full, safe and unhindered access by humanitarian workers to displaced populations and ensuring the security and civilian and humanitarian nature of camps and settlements for refugees and internally displaced persons; 4. Calls upon all Governments and parties in complex humanitarian emergencies, in countries in which humanitarian personnel are operating, in conformity with the relevant provisions of international law and national laws, to cooperate fully with the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies and organizations and to ensure the safe and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel in order to allow them to perform efficiently their task of assisting the affected civilian population, including refugees and internally displaced persons;

55/175, OP4 19 Dec 2000

56/166, OP8 19 Dec 2001

8. Urges States to uphold the civilian and humanitarian character of refugee camps and settlements, consistent with international law, inter alia, through effective measures to prevent the infiltration of armed elements, to identify and separate any such armed elements from refugee populations, to settle refugees at safe locations, where possible away from the border, and to ensure prompt and unhindered access to them by humanitarian personnel;

56/217, OP4

4. Calls upon all Governments and parties in complex humanitarian emergencies, in particular in armed conflicts and in post-conflict situations,

21 Dec 2001

in countries in which humanitarian personnel are operating, in conformity with the relevant provisions of international law and national laws, to cooperate fully with the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies and organizations and to ensure the safe and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel in order to allow them to perform efficiently their task of assisting the affected civilian population, including refugees and internally displaced persons;