The legal framework of humanitarian access in armed conflict

Obtaining and maintaining humanitarian access to populations in need by
humanitarian actors is a challenge. A wide range of constraints on humanitarian
access exist, including ongoing hostilities or an otherwise insecure environment,
destruction of infrastructure, often onerous bureaucratic requirements, and attempts
by parties to armed conflict to block access intentionally. The difficulties that these
constraints present to humanitarians are frequently compounded by a lack of
familiarity – on the part of states, non-state armed groups, and humanitarian relief
organizations – with the legal framework. The main purpose of this article is to lay
out the existing international legal framework regulating humanitarian access in
situations of armed conflict.