Beyond Compliance Consortium’s evidence reflected in House of Commons Committee report on humanitarian aid

Posted on Tuesday 1 July 2025

Faced with “one of the most dangerous times in history for humanitarian and aid workers”, the Committee urges the UK government to establish itself as the “primary champion” of IHL on the international stage by upholding this body of law, protecting aid workers, and ensuring that others do too. The report relies extensively on written evidence submitted by researchers of the Beyond Compliance Consortium. In setting out the critical importance of even-handed, consistent and proactive condemnation of parties to conflict that fail to act in the spirit of IHL, the report validates the Beyond Compliance Consortium’s cautionary warning regarding the “systemic implications of double-standards”.

Professor Ioana Cismas (University of York), the Principal Investigator of the Beyond Compliance Consortium and one of the authors of evidence, noted that: “The Committee adopted in its report several of our recommendations, including urging the UK government to consistently and meaningfully (re)affirm humanitarian norms in discourse and practice across all contexts, and to strengthen and reaffirm its commitment to international courts and institutions.” Importantly, in their report, the Members of Parliament forming this cross-party committee note that the “Government must be ready to call out actions not only when a blatant breach of IHL has been ruled on by a court, but when the spirit of IHL is being eroded.” This echoes strongly with one of the main conceptual findings of the Beyond Compliance Consortium’s research that misinterpretation and side-stepping of IHL, suspected violations, and civilian harm and humanitarian need that might go beyond IHL regulations should be accounted for to effectively ensure full(er) protection in war.

Read more on the Beyond Compliance Consortium website.

Read the full report.