Ukraine: Staff safety is a top priority for HEKS/EPER
Since the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022, HEKS/EPER has been providing humanitarian aid for the civilian population in Ukraine and adjoining countries. That process was hit by tragedy on 1 February 2024, when a targeted drone strike killed two HEKS/EPER staff members and wounded four others, some severely, as they conducted a humanitarian fact-finding mission in Southeastern Ukraine. Immediately following this tragic incident, HEKS/EPER suspended its humanitarian operations in the region for four weeks in order to deal with the event and care for the staff members. The event also prompted HEKS/EPER to commission an external, independent report.
As a humanitarian organization, HEKS/EPER attaches the utmost importance to learning from crises. This entails always giving top priority to staff safety. Existing security arrangements and work processes have therefore been and are still being continuously analysed and further streamlined.
On the basis of the report, which is now available, HEKS/EPER has taken further steps and made adjustments regarding risk management, where this had not yet been done. The upshot is that humanitarian operations are now being conducted at a much safer distance from the front line. Besides, more personnel have been assigned to the leadership team in Ukraine. Decision-making processes in connection with the assessment and management of security risks are to be laid out more clearly and simply at all levels of the organisation – from the Executive Board to collaborators in the various countries. Likewise, the number of safety training exercises for staff members, and also technical capabilities, are to be stepped up and the internal safety culture is to be further reinforced.
Other risks also attendant on humanitarian operations in complex and challenging contexts, including corruption, bureaucratic hurdles or differing interpretations of organisational culture, will still constitute a major challenge in the future, which HEKS/EPER will tackle through careful monitoring and systematic controlling. HEKS/EPER will be unflagging in its endeavour to look into relevant incidents, observations or suspicious circumstances – which can also be reported via the organisation's own whistleblower portal.
It is still unclear what lay behind the attack of 1 February 2024, which constituted a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. Investigations by the Governments of France and Ukraine into a possible war crime are still in progress. HEKS/EPER will nonetheless continue to stand up for people in need throughout the world – in Ukraine and also in other high-risk regions where the provision of humanitarian aid goes hand-in-hand with a high level of safety precautions. HEKS/EPER furthermore insists that all parties to the conflict respect international humanitarian law and that staff members of humanitarian organizations are afforded unconditional protection.
