United Nations Economic and Social Council: Humanitarian Affairs Segment

New Zealand National Statement

Mr. President, Excellencies, Colleagues,

New Zealand is pleased to participate in ECOSOC's Humanitarian Affairs Segment and we thank Spain for their leadership.

We extend our unwavering gratitude to humanitarians globally for their tireless work in challenging circumstances. We extend our condolences to those who have lost family members and colleagues while serving humanity.

New Zealand considers the number of humanitarian personnel who have been killed and injured to be entirely unacceptable and urges all Member States to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect those serving the most vulnerable.

In this regard, New Zealand strongly supports Australia's leadership of the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel. The international community must recommit, and take action to uphold, international humanitarian law.

For New Zealand, respect for international humanitarian law includes interpreting the law in good faith. We are seriously concerned to see increasing instances of overly permissive interpretation, or deliberate misinterpretation of the law to justify actions.

2026 is the ten-year anniversary of Security Council Resolution 2286 on the protection of healthcare in armed conflict. New Zealand is proud to have co-led that resolution through the Council alongside Spain, Japan, Uruguay and Egypt.

Resolution 2286 was one of the most widely co-sponsored Council resolutions ever. The high level of backing it enjoyed demonstrated a universality of support for the protection of healthcare workers and abhorrence at the attacks on them.

While we remain proud of the resolution, it is also painful to know that violations of international humanitarian law and attacks on healthcare workers have continued.

What we need is the political will to implement the commitments we've already made. Mr President, New Zealand commends the Humanitarian Reset, and the effort to rethink how the humanitarian system can better serve those in need in a context of resource constraints.

However, progress appears uneven. We urge key humanitarian actors to work together effectively to increase the pace and scale of reform wherever possible, and to keep Member States informed, including by clearly demonstrating tangible reform progress and outcomes. The cost of not doing so is stark.

We will be closely monitoring the impact of reforms in our own region, the Pacific. New Zealand has, like many countries here today, made a serious investment in the humanitarian system over many years. We expect to weight future contributions towards humanitarian agencies that are demonstrably contributing to a more effective, efficient, locally led and accountable humanitarian system.

And as reform efforts continue, New Zealand again reaffirms the critical importance of safeguarding IHL and of upholding the humanitarian principles.

I thank you.

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