As per the United Nations, humanitarian corridors are several possible forms of a temporary pause of armed conflict. These corridors are demilitarised zones in a specific area and for a specific time, to which both warring sides agree. These corridors facilitate in bringing food and/or medical aid to areas of conflict, and help civilians to be evacuated. According to the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, “Humanitarian aid, in these circumstances, can pass through the so-called humanitarian corridors, which must be respected and protected by the appropriate authorities and, if required, under the UN authority.”
These corridors are necessary when cities are under siege and the population is cut-off from basic necessities, such as food, water, and electricity. The corridors provide crucial relief where a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds due to the violation of international law of war through large-scale bombing of civilian targets.
The corridors, in most of the cases, are negotiated by the UN. But, sometimes, they are also set up by local groups.
In rare circumstances, humanitarian corridors are only organised by one of the parties to the conflict. For example the US airlifted its people after the Soviet blockage of Berlin in 1948–49. Other examples include the so-called Kindertransport from 1938 to 1939, when Jewish children were evacuated to the United Kingdom from areas under the Nazi control; the 1992–1995 siege of Sarajevo, Bosnia; and the 2018 evacuation of Ghouta, Syria.
Humanitarian corridors have been used extensively in conflicts such as the Syrian civil war, the Libyan civil war, and the Gaza war, etc.
International Conventions regarding Humanitarian Corridor
In 1990, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a Resolution 45/100, which established humanitarian corridors. The Geneva Conventions of 1949, as well as their Additional Protocols of 1977, also recognise these corridors.
Access to Humanitarian Corridors
Parties to a conflict decide who can have access to these humanitarian corridors. It is generally limited to neutral actors, such as the UN or aid organisations like the Red Cross. They can also be used by UN observers, NGOs, and journalists to gain access to contested areas where war crimes are being committed. Parties to the conflict also determine the length of time, the area, and the means of transport such as trucks, buses, or planes.
Risks Involved
There is also a risk of military or political abuse of these corridors because all sides need to agree to set up these corridors. For example, the corridors can be used to smuggle weapons and fuel into the besieged cities. In eastern Ukraine, a five-hour ceasefire was to be in place, on March 5, to allow around 2,00,000 people from Mariupol and 15,000 residents from the city of Volnovakha to leave. However, the initiative failed after a few hours. As per the Mariupol city administration, the evacuation was ‘postponed for security reasons’ because Russian troops continued bombing the city and its surroundings. On the other side, Russian news agency, RIA, said that ‘nationalists’ prevented the civilians from escaping, and that Russian troops also came under fire during the ceasefire. Besides, the corridors have been criticised for providing a passageway for Ukrainians to travel to Russia and Belarus—two countries that are attacking Ukraine.
Analysts are of the view that humanitarian corridors are never neutral or impact-free. Their presence alters the local war economy’s make-up, which includes the presence or absence of residents and aid. Thus, getting all stakeholders to agree on a humanitarian corridor is very difficult, and corridors are usually attacked soon after they open. It is because the warring parties may be hesitant to provide humanitarian corridors as they may expose war crimes if UN observers or journalists follow them. Humanitarian corridors call attention to how space and territory are reconstructed in the aftermath of crises and disasters. Local infrastructure, real-estate markets, leisure zones, and perceptions of where safety and danger are located, as well as who is given access to certain locations, can all be affected by humanitarian actors’ presence.
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