Humanitarian Negotiations with Armed Groups

5 Negotiating on Specific Issues

5.4 Negotiating Humanitarian Access

One of the most common reasons for humanitarian organizations entering into negotiations with armed groups is to secure access to provide assistance and protection to those in need.
Negotiations with armed groups on humanitarian access face additional challenges that may not be present when humanitarian organizations negotiate with other actors (host governments, for example) on the same issue. These challenges include the following:

Because armed groups generally do not have sovereign control over an internationally recognized territory, the regulation of access to populations or territory controlled by these groups often represents an expression of authority by the group.
It may be difficult to identify, at the outset, the mechanisms of access (now many convoys, locations, etc.) that will be required to meet humanitarian needs.
Negotiations with armed groups on issues of access may lead others to believe that the humanitarian organization is recognizing the authority of the group in a certain territory.
Because the need for humanitarian access to those in need is often most acute when conflict is most intense, identification of armed group interlocutors and negotiation of transit routes can prove very difficult and include security risks for all parties involved.

To assist in securing humanitarian access through negotiation with an armed group, and to overcome the challenges outlined above, humanitarian organizations should keep in mind the following points:

When entering into humanitarian negotiations with the armed group, the humanitarian organization should present the issue of access as one of access to meet the humanitarian needs of a population , rather than access to a particular territory; Access should be needs-driven, rather than territory-specific;
Humanitarian organizations should approach the negotiations with a set of working principles of humanitarian access to guide the dialogue on the mechanics of access. Suggested ‘working principles of access', derived from the core principles of humanitarian action and international law (Chapter 3), are presented in Table 4;
Humanitarian negotiators should make it clear to the armed group, and to external parties, that the access negotiations do not confer recognition by the humanitarian organization of the armed group or of its control over a population or territory;
In situations where the humanitarian needs of the population to be accessed are not precisely known, the early stages of the negotiations could usefully focus on an assessment mission to determine more precisely humanitarian needs;
Access negotiations should include consideration of: (i) logistics associated with access routes and convoys (when, where, how); (ii) liaison arrangements to ensure free passage to reach the intended beneficiaries (through roadblocks etc.); (iii) the need for both parties to communicate agreed access procedures within their organizations.

Table 4
Suggested working principles of humanitarian access to guide negotiations with armed groups

Working principle of humanitarian access	Description
Humanity and Impartiality	Humanitarian access is an essential prerequisite to and enabler of humanitarian assistance; For humanitarian organizations, humanitarian access serves to identify and address essential needs of all the civilian population, with particular attention to the most vulnerable in the population; Humanitarian access must be facilitated for the purposes of delivering humanitarian assistance, protection in an impartial manner.
Obligation to ensure humanitarian access under international law ⁴³	Armed groups must allow and facilitate unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief to civilians in need; Where demonstrated humanitarian needs exist, armed groups must facilitate the freedom of movement of authorized, impartial humanitarian relief personnel;
Effectiveness	The effectiveness of humanitarian access is measured by the degree to which access facilitates delivery of humanitarian assistance;
Transparency	A key aspect of this efficiency is the use of clearly-defined and traceable procedures and decision-making processes on the part of the armed group and the humanitarian organization;
Sustainability	Humanitarian access must be facilitated with a view to sustaining humanitarian assistance and protection activities to address humanitarian needs for as long as they persist;
Accountability	Failure to ensure the passage of essential goods, services and personnel, constitutes a breach of international law;

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⁴³The two points relating to the obligation of armed groups to ensure humanitarian access are drawn from customary international humanitarian law. See, for example, Rules 53-56 presented in the ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law published in March 2005 (referenced in Section 3.3).