Engagement with armed actors
The overwhelming majority of the current global humanitarian response addresses the needs of people affected by conflicts involving one or more armed groups. To understand the context, to maintain safe operations, to protect people affected by crisis and, most essentially, to reach them, it is necessary to engage with a wide range of different armed groups. Humanitarian action possesses no armed force to defend its interventions, and must base its operations on the acceptance by state and non-state armed groups (and, increasingly, armed criminal groups as well). This engagement also includes the promotion of respect for IHL and the protection of civilians.