Humanitarian space and security of humanitarian workers: A review

Humanitarian crisis leave the affected people in need of water, health care, and shelter. In order to promptly and adequately respond to the overwhelming needs of the vulnerable people, both the local and the international community has formed several humanitarian organizations, charged with the responsibility of providing aid and assistance to people affected by crisis, irrespective of their geographical location. Humanitarian organizations require safe passage to carry out their operations; the concept of humanitarian space was developed to ensure this. While preserving humanitarian space in conflict zone is proving challenging to humanitarian organizations because of various factors, it is however clear that the security of aid workers is a major concerns for aid organizations working in areas experiencing social change or armed conflicts. The rates of kidnapping, injuries and deaths of aid workers seems be on the increase, requiring aid agencies to be more security conscious and adopt measures to save guard the lives of their employees. Some measures taken recently by humanitarian organizations include suspending aid when and where the security of their employees is under threat and in some cases withdrawing completely from such environment. Thus, affecting the ability of aid organizations to carry out their mandate and as a result, those who are in dire need of relief and assistance suffer. For there to be an improvement in aid delivery, warring parties should respect the sanctity of humanitarian space and the ethics governing humanitarianism. This paper therefore present a review of humanitarian space and the security of humanitarian aid workers.