Legal basis for the right to humanitarian assistance during non-international armed conflicts

Abstract

The international community has long sought to reduce the suffering caused by armed conflicts, and establish legal rules that will mitigate them, and protect those affected by them, where armed conflicts, whether international or non-international, and due to the exigencies of war and military operations lead to a shortage or absence of food, drinking water, medicine, medical equipment, clothing, services and other materials needed to sustain the lives of civilians.

It is no secret that non-international armed conflicts have increased significantly at present leaving behind victims and displaced persons who are looking for aid this requires seeking to ensure their right to humanitarian assistances, especially in light of the obstruction of the parties to these conflicts to deliver that assistance, Government authorities may sometimes try to prevent relief supplies from reaching geographical areas under the control of opposition-armed groups, on the other hand  these armed groups may deny the obligations and provisions imposed by international humanitarian law particularly with regard to the right to humanitarian assistance based on their position of refusing to recognize the conventions ratified by the government they are fighting, and between this or that situation the suffering of civilians continues which may eventually lead to humanitarian disasters with unimaginable consequences. 

This has led us to highlight the legal basis for humanitarian assistance during non-international armed conflicts, to indicate what such assistance is and the legal conditions for its provision, and to clarify the humanitarian principles governing it.