Final Report: Independent Review of Mechanisms and Procedures to Ensure Adherence by UNRWA to the Humanitarian Principle of Neutrality – Independent Review Group on UNRWA

Executive summary

An Independent Review Group on the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was appointed by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, in consultation with the UNRWA Commissioner-General, on 5 February 2024. The Group was created to assess whether UNRWA is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and respond to allegations of serious neutrality breaches when they are made, taking into account the […] context in which it has to work, especially in Gaza,1 and to make recommendations for UNRWA to improve and strengthen in this area, if necessary. This followed allegations made by the Government of Israel in January 2024 that some UNRWA staff may have participated in the 7 October 2023 terror attacks on Israel. The UN Secretary-General also activated a separate investigation by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) to determine the veracity of these allegations, which, if proven true, would be horrifying in addition to being a grave violation of their obligations towards the Organization.

In the days and weeks after the allegations, 16 Member State donors suspended or paused funding, and others indicated conditionality. Overall, the suspension of funding amounted to around US$450 million. Based on initiatives already taken by UNRWA, a number of Member States have since resumed funding. However, Member States requested more information on
what had occurred as well as reinforcement of UNRWA’s existing neutrality mechanisms and procedures, including staff vetting and oversight.

The Review Group commenced its work on 13 February 2024. Led by Ms. Catherine Colonna, the Group included three research organizations, namely the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Sweden, the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights. Throughout the nine-week review, the Group extensively analysed the mechanisms and procedures currently in place within UNRWA to ensure neutrality and address potential breaches. The Group’s members conducted field visits to UNRWA headquarters and facilities in Amman, Jerusalem and the West Bank, engaging with various stakeholders including UNRWA officials, donor Member States, host countries, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The Group conducted meetings and interviews with more than 200 people, including with UNRWA staff in Gaza. Direct contacts were made with 47 countries and organizations.

The three institutes submitted their research to the Secretary-General through his Chef de Cabinet and to the Chair. The present document, which constitutes the final review report, is presented under the responsibility of the Chair. Situating the review, it is significant that UNRWA continuously operates amid recurring conflicts, violence, a lack of political progress, poor socioeconomic conditions and the proliferation of armed groups. In Gaza in particular, Hamas, the de facto ruling entity until October 2023, is designated as a terrorist organization by major donors such as the United States and the European Union (EU), while other factions also actively oppose the Palestinian Authority. UNRWA’s neutrality challenges differ from those of other international organizations due to the magnitude of its operations, with most personnel being locally recruited and recipients of UNRWA services. In the absence of a political solution between Israel and the Palestinians, UNRWA remains pivotal in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. As such, UNRWA is irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians’ human and economic development. In addition, many view UNRWA as a humanitarian lifeline.

As a UN agency, UNRWA and its staff and personnel have a fundamental obligation to maintain neutrality to ensure the integrity of the agency’s mission and the effectiveness of its operations. Neutrality is a UN commitment as one of the four humanitarian principles formally adopted by the General Assembly and upheld by other UN agencies while operating in humanitarian settings. It means that humanitarian actors must not take sides in hostilities or engage in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature. Despite significant investment and efforts, UNRWA’s neutrality has been consistently questioned by Palestinian and Israeli stakeholders. In the past, several allegations of neutrality breaches have taken place and disciplinary measures were taken, but allegations of neutrality breaches were never as serious as the ones that surfaced in January 2024.

The Review revealed that UNRWA has established a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian principles, with emphasis on the principle of neutrality, and that it possesses a more developed approach to neutrality than other similar UN or NGO entities. The UNRWA Neutrality Framework was established in 2017 “to serve as a repository of existing standards, practices and procedures with regard to neutrality and to introduce new standards and procedures.” The framework aims to “ensure a consistent and coherent approach, agency-wide, to key issues relating to the neutrality of UNRWA operations.” The Framework covers substantive areas including the neutrality of UNRWA staff and other personnel, including their use of social media; neutrality of UNRWA installations; neutrality of UNRWA assets, particularly vehicles; and other areas in relation to UNRWA operations, including donors, partners and agency assistance. Obligations for the agency’s staff are set out clearly in the International Staff Regulations and the Area Staff Regulations dated 1 January 2018. Despite this robust framework, neutrality-related issues persist. They include instances of staff publicly expressing political views, host-country textbooks with problematic content being used in some UNRWA schools, and politicized staff unions making threats against UNRWA management and causing operational disruptions. The Review identified several measures to help UNRWA address its neutrality challenges in eight critical areas requiring immediate improvement:

• Engagement with donors
• Governance
• Management and internal oversight structures
• Neutrality of staff and behaviour
• Neutrality of installations
• Neutrality of education
• Neutrality of staff unions
• Strengthened partnership with UN agencies.

The measures identified in each critical area are designed to help UNRWA face the neutrality challenges stemming from the operational, political and security environment in which it operates. Given the uniqueness of this political context, these measures will have a significant impact only with the support of host countries, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.