Attacks on aid workers are rising, accountability is dwindling, and protection systems are chronically underfunded. The Brussels Conference on the Protection of Aid Workers on 15 and 16 October 2026, should move beyond expressions of concern and deliver concrete commitments on prevention, duty of care, monitoring, accountability, and respect for International Humanitarian Law (IHL), with particular attention to the needs and leadership of national and local humanitarian actors.
We need tangible action, now:
- Put Equitable Duty of Care and Risk Management at the Centre
Protection of aid workers must begin with equitable security practices and adequate resourcing. Donors should fund the full cost of security risk management and duty of care as a direct programme cost, including insurance, legal assistance, medical and psychosocial support, secure communications, emergency relocation, and organisational capacity through direct program funding and adequate core funding. Particular attention must be paid to national and local organisations, which too often bear the highest risks without equivalent access to funding, information, or decision-making.
- Strengthen Prevention Through Effective Coordination and Local Leadership
The conference should deliver practical solutions to improve the safety of humanitarian personnel, including stronger civilian-military coordination and more effective deconfliction mechanisms. At the same time, civil-military coordination must preserve humanitarian independence, and participation in notification or deconfliction mechanisms must always remain voluntary, as IHL protects humanitarian relief operations. Lessons learned from contexts such as the Occupied Palestinian Territory not only demonstrate the urgent need for minimum standards governing the communication and management of humanitarian presence, movements, and access but even more strongly the need for better compliance with IHL and accountability for its violations. Frontline humanitarian workers and local organisations must be meaningfully represented in these discussions, given their direct experience of access negotiations, security management, and operational constraints.
- Improve Monitoring, Early Warning and Collective Response
States and humanitarian actors should support the strengthening and connecting of existing incident-monitoring and reporting mechanisms affecting aid workers, including attacks, detentions, intimidation, misinformation, and bureaucratic impediments. In line with UNSC Resolution 2730, this data should serve as the basis for advocacy, accountability, and policy action. States should also establish an effective alert mechanism to identify and respond to emerging patterns of attacks or restrictions on humanitarian operations through coordinated diplomatic engagement, with clear safeguards for confidentiality, informed consent and protection against reprisals.
- Reaffirm Respect for International Humanitarian Law and Protection of Civilians
Protection of aid workers cannot be separated from protection of civilians. Attacks on humanitarian personnel and deliberate denial of humanitarian assistance are often part of broader patterns of harm against civilian populations. Effective deconfliction mechanisms are important, but they cannot substitute for compliance with core principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction, proportionality, precautions in attack, and the protection of humanitarian relief operations. The conference should foster collective engagement with State and non-State parties to conflict to promote behavioural change that protects humanitarian space, humanitarian personnel, and civilians.
- Move from Commitments to Accountability
The rules protecting humanitarian personnel already exist. The challenge is in their implementation. When aid workers are attacked, states must respond immediately: public condemnation, diplomatic demarches, Security Council action and targeted restrictive measures where appropriate, assessed case by case, with safeguards against harm to civilians and humanitarian operations — regardless of political alliances.
States must consistently respond to attacks against aid workers through public condemnation, diplomatic action, sanctions where appropriate, domestic investigations, and support for international accountability mechanisms, including the ICC and relevant UN bodies. The UN monitoring architecture should be strengthened through improved data collection, identification of perpetrators, and systematic follow-up. Unlawful attacks, arbitrary arrest or detention, and unlawful obstruction of humanitarian assistance must carry consequences.
Oxfam calls on Member States to fully implement UNSC Resolution 2730 and the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel. States must now translate commitments into action and use all the tools at their disposal: donor agreements, legal action in their jurisdictions, and diplomacy at the UN Security Council.