Neutrality

Neutrality is understood to mean that “humanitarian actors must not take sides in hostilities or engage in controversies of a political, racial, religious, or ideological nature”. Neutrality is much more than an abstract principle, however. International humanitarian organizations often operate in volatile contexts – 60 per cent of students at UNRWA schools have lived through conflict – and neutrality helps to create what is termed “humanitarian space”. By upholding neutrality and working with the sole goal of alleviating suffering wherever it is found, humanitarian organizations such as UNRWA can continue their crucial work. For example, neutrality is essential for the Agency to access its beneficiaries and provide them with crucial aid and to communicate with all parties to ensure that its buildings are not affected during times of hostilities or armed violence. Neutrality also enables UNRWA to work with host governments to import medicines for its clinics and to secure visas for staff to enable them to carry out their professional duties. These illustrations are just a snapshot of the crucial importance of neutrality for UNRWA operations as a humanitarian actor.

Due to the intense and protracted conflicts in which UNRWA operates, and because the most basic humanitarian operations are impossible without neutrality, the Agency places special importance upon this principle in all areas of its work. This is regulated and outlined in the UNRWA Neutrality Framework, which was issued in 2017, and several other regulatory documents which pertain to UNRWA operations and staff conduct.

Neutrality is applied across the Agency’s operations, including: