Remarks by Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights - Palestine

Donor Forum on the Mine Action Response in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Thank you for convening this important discussion on Humanitarian Mine Action in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Our colleagues from national and international partners of the Protection Cluster’s Mine Thematic Area and the United Nations Mine Action Service have carried out extraordinary work in impossible conditions. They have highlighted the severe threat of explosive ordinance and contamination in Gaza, advocated for protection through education and clearance, and charted a path forward for safe humanitarian response and rebuilding in Gaza.

Thank you to each of you for your commitment and efforts.

As outlined in the joint Protection and Mine Action analysis that we released last week, explosive ordnance contamination has become one of the defining humanitarian and protection challenges in the OPT and it undermines the full enjoyment of human rights.
In Gaza, the extensive use of explosive weapons in a densely populated environment has caused exceptionally high levels of death, traumatic injury, displacement and destruction, and left an estimated 68 million metric tonnes of debris and potentially contaminated rubble where hundreds and hundreds of missing people now lie.

Explosive ordnance remains embedded in collapsed homes, damaged infrastructure and rubble. This creates immediate risks to civilians, while making humanitarian access, debris management, the dignified recovery of human remains, reconstruction, and return considerably more difficult.

The challenge extends beyond Gaza. In the West Bank, longstanding contamination is increasingly compounded by militarized operations in populated areas and emerging hazards associated with wider regional escalation.

The harm caused by explosive ordnance can present itself long after an attack. Its effects extend through ongoing exposure to unexploded ordnance in damaged and dangerous homes and infrastructure; it disrupts essential services and causes long-term psychological distress and repeated displacement.

Survivors frequently require emergency medical treatment, rehabilitation, psychosocial support and other specialized services.
At community level, persistent fear of explosive ordnance can restrict movement, access to essential services and livelihoods, and prevent people from safely returning to their homes and communities.

Humanitarian Mine Action should not be understood as a stand-alone technical activity. Explosive Hazard Assessments, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, risk education, victim assistance and information management are all directly relevant to civilian protection, recovery and the enjoyment of rights. 

For Mine Action and the Protection Cluster, this means continuing to advocate collectively for several fundamental requirements.
1. We need safe, sustained and predictable humanitarian access for Mine Action actors.
2. We need timely authorization for Mine Action activities and access for qualified personnel and the specialized equipment required to assess and mitigate hazards.
3. We need predictable, sustained and multi-year financing, commensurate with the scale and duration of the contamination challenge.
4. We need continued investment in Palestinian Mine Action capacity, including national expertise and institutions that will be critical to the longer-term recovery.
5. We also need to ensure that Mine Action is systematically reflected in humanitarian planning, debris management, early recovery and reconstruction.
6. And finally, we need significant and meaningful diplomatic pressure to remind all Member States to uphold obligations under international law. This requires parties to a conflict to clear Explosive Remnants of War, to take measures to protect civilians from the effects of these weapons and to assist the efforts of international and non-governmental organizations working in these areas.

I hope that today's Forum can help us translate this shared analysis into concrete changes on the ground.
Thank you.

Read the Protection Cluster’s analysis on civilian harm associated with explosive ordnance in the Occupied Palestinian territory: A Continuum of Civilian Harm and the Path to Protection: How Explosive Ordnance Shapes Protection Risks and the Imperative for Humanitarian Mine Action in the Occupied Palestinian Territory - occupied Palestinian territory | ReliefWeb

* In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the UN Human Rights Office has been coordinating protection response under the umbrella of the Humanitarian Country Team since 2009. The Protection Cluster in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has over 100 partners, covering Gaza and the West Bank, and focusing on a wide variety of protection issues including mine action, gender-based violence, and child protection.