Ukraine one year on: NGOs call for the protection of civilians, humanitarian access, localisation and durable solutions

You can read a copy of the report here.

We are calling on all relevant stakeholders to prioritise the following:

• Urge for International Humanitarian Law to be fully upheld with due consideration to the principles of humanity, necessity, proportionality, and distinction. All attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, should be systematically condemned and responsible individuals held accountable.
• Commit to fully fund the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan, and Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRRP). Ensure that all interventions (in response plans and beyond) are informed by the views of all affected people, including consulting women, children and marginalised groups on their specific needs and priorities.
• Ensure that all interventions (in response plans and beyond) are informed by intersectional gender analysis and sex, age, race, ethnic background and disability disaggregated data.
• Urgently reinforce dialogue on humanitarian access to conflict-affected areas and ensure that people can access humanitarian aid wherever they are.
• Scale up direct, flexible and unrestricted funding for national and local organisations. Foster the development of new pooled funds and consortia modalities for smaller and newer humanitarian NGOs and voluntary networks to allow for WROs/WLOs, LGBTQIA+, and youth-led organisations working with marginalised groups to access funding. In coordination with intermediaries, UN agencies and INGOs, harmonise and simplify reporting procedures, due diligence and compliance processes.
• Ensure meaningful consultation and participation of Ukrainian civil society organisations, including WROs/WLOs, LGBTQIA+, and young people-led organisations working with marginalised groups and affected communities in all decision-making spaces and dialogue to develop approaches to localisation, including provision for multilingual communication.
• Double-down efforts to protect and support refugees from Ukraine by helping them meet their basic needs, providing them with reception, inclusion, and early integration support to ensure people can make voluntary and informed decisions about their future.
• Scale up humanitarian, recovery, and reconstruction efforts, as well as coordination between aid organisations and local service providers to ensure durable solutions for displaced individuals and families, both inside Ukraine and abroad. Meaningful participation of IDPs, including older women and men, in the development of solutions and the decision-making on housing, employment and other needs on the local and national level must be at the heart of these processes. Consultations should be extended to those displaced in host countries.

SIGNATORIES

1. ActionAid
2. Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund
3. CLEAR Global
4. Cherkasy Human Rights Center
5. Christian Aid
6. Danish Refugee Council
7. Handicap International
8. HelpAge International
9. Helping to Leave
10. International Rescue Committee
11. INTERSOS
12. Medicins du Monde International Network
13. Mercy Corps
14. Norwegian People’s Aid
15. Norwegian Refugee Council
16. Oxfam
17. People in Need
18. Plan International
19. Polish Humanitarian Action
20. Premiere Urgence Internationale
21. Right to Protection
22. Save the Children
23. Solidarités International
24. Stabilization Support Services
25. Terre des Hommes
26. War Child
27. Welthungerhilfe
28. World Vision