Saving Lives Together: A Review of Security Collaboration Between the United Nations and Humanitarian Actors on the Ground

A number of deteriorating security situations and a lack of respect for International Humanitarian Law by non- humanitarian actors operating in areas considered by aid organisations to be humanitarian spaces continue to pose great challenges for international aid delivery. According to Bruderlein and Gassmann, the UN and NGOs alike are experiencing increasingly complex threats – due to expanded field operations in fragile contexts, the blurring of the distinction between civilians and combatants, new forms of warfare and greater availability of weapons – which have endangered notions of independence and neutrality alongside staff and operations.2 Their study claims that a new paradigm has emerged under which the presence of international organisations and NGOs is no longer universally accepted and, as a result, they are having to deal with increased threats to security on top of their everyday activities.