The third European Humanitarian Forum, jointly organised by the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency of the EU, finished in the EU capital Brussels, EU Neighbours reports.
At the Forum, EU Member States, together with the European Commission, announced more than €7.7 billion in humanitarian funding planned for 2024. This was a concrete indicator of global solidarity and EU leadership in humanitarian action.
The EU and Member States pledged to take action to resolve conflicts and preserve humanitarian space, in particular as the situation in the Gaza Strip deteriorated. EU Ministers expressed serious concern about the current humanitarian situation in the Strip and called for rapid, unimpeded, safe and sustained humanitarian access to people in need.
Participants also paid particular attention to the worldwide respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) in contemporary armed conflicts and welcomed the launch of an independent non-governmental initiative entitled “IHL in Focus”. In particular, the initiative will undertake an annual analysis of current armed conflicts and related violations of IHL, which will contribute to determining the state of compliance with IHL worldwide.
