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" It has always been clear that any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic humanitarian consequences. "
Peter Maurer
Consequences
Always
Nuclear Weapons
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" The young, the old, women, the disabled, the sick and the wounded are entitled to protection under international law. Too often, the ICRC's calls for those laws to be respected are ignored. "
Peter Maurer
Protection
Law
Old
" We need to continue to modernise current humanitarian work while at the same time drive a more systemic shift in how we envision the operation and financing of humanitarian solutions. "
Peter Maurer
Need
More
Drive
" Very often, development agencies or even some of the humanitarian actors choose the... more comfortable type of work, where it is safe, while the more important work has to be done where it is profoundly unsafe. "
Peter Maurer
Choose
Important
Work
" As conflicts last longer, as the scale of needs increase, we are having to adapt. There is an increasing blurring between immediate humanitarian assistance and long-term development needs. "
Peter Maurer
Development
Last
Long-Term
" They say that truth is the first casualty of war. But there is another casualty as well: trust. As conflict escalates, trust between people and political leaders crumbles away as surely as night follows day. "
Peter Maurer
Truth Is
Day
Night
" Concrete steps are needed to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in military plans, doctrines, and policies. "
Peter Maurer
Military
Role
Plans
" Not enough countries, not enough armies, not enough armed groups are abiding by the fundamental human values enshrined in the Geneva Conventions. "
Peter Maurer
Values
Human
Enough
" There is a clear business case for building the resilience and capacity of local communities, businesses, and institutions because a peaceful, educated, and productive population will stimulate economic growth in the long term. "
Peter Maurer
Business
Growth
Resilience
" We need to understand that the Geneva Conventions are not just some historical documents born of another time, created for another purpose. "
Peter Maurer
Understand
Born
Need
" Ensuring the respect of international humanitarian law and principles is one of the key areas necessary to establish accountability chains. "
Peter Maurer
Key
Law
Respect
" You don't torture people. You don't indiscriminately attack civilians. You protect as good as you can the impact of your warfare on women and children. "
Peter Maurer
Children
Good
Impact
" Conflicts are increasingly causing devastation in densely populated urban centres rather than open battlefields, creating a host of new problems through the cumulative impact from the destruction of vital services like water and electricity. "
Peter Maurer
Problems
Impact
Water
" There is great potential for investments that are built around improving social, environmental, and economic conditions. "
Peter Maurer
Great
Potential
Social
" Until the last nuclear weapon is eliminated, more must also be done to reduce the risk of a detonation. Nuclear-armed states should reduce the number of warheads on high alert and be clearer about the actions they are taking to prevent accidents. "
Peter Maurer
Last
Risk
More
" New technologies are rapidly giving rise to unprecedented methods of warfare. Innovations that yesterday were science fiction could cause catastrophe tomorrow, including nanotechnologies, combat robots, and laser weapons. "
Peter Maurer
Science
Tomorrow
Giving
" We still have a strong commitment to our original mission, which is to protect and assist people who are suffering from the impact of violence, but the violence has changed its character, format, and pattern so that we are now responding year after year. "
Peter Maurer
Suffering
Commitment
Strong
" Wars are getting longer, they are more complex, and the humanitarian need is great. "
Peter Maurer
Need
Humanitarian
More
" The disconnect between what people think and what the political leaders are actually doing is something that we really need to start raising. "
Peter Maurer
Political
Start
Think
" If you back out of a convention... you can't dodge your obligation. Torture is still not acceptable. "
Peter Maurer
Back
Out
Still
" Conflicts are not temporary interruptions: they are structural, socio-economic catastrophes, and funding must be allocated accordingly. "
Peter Maurer
Funding
Socio-Economic
Must
" The principal cause of suffering during humanitarian crises is insufficient respect of applicable rules of international humanitarian law. "
Peter Maurer
Law
Suffering
Rules
" The issue of corruption in the humanitarian system is not an issue which is fundamentally different from dangers of corruption in other areas. One of the best ways to strengthen accountability is to engage in principled and law-based humanitarian action. "
Peter Maurer
Action
Accountability
Corruption
" It's one thing if a politician in a small country says a little bit of torturing is good to do. There is a qualitative difference... when it's a candidate to run a superpower. "
Peter Maurer
Good
Country
Small
" Where you are born, your parent's beliefs, or your ethnic background should not make you a target. "
Peter Maurer
Target
Born
Background
" I think we are challenged in how we define humanitarian action today and how we relate to long-term needs. We are also confronted with legitimate expectations from the people who want us to respond far more thoroughly to their basic pleas than we would have done in a much more contained form of conflict. "
Peter Maurer
People
Think
Today
" Every year, we ask our donors to dig deeper. And every year, they gladly, generously comply. It is now up to us to find ways and means to forestall the day when they cannot - or will not. Or the consequences for people in war zones could be disastrous. "
Peter Maurer
Us
Consequences
Day
" Each day that passes without kids being able to go to school is an enormous burden on the future. "
Peter Maurer
Go
School
Without
" Cities tend to be representations of societies: diversity and inequality find their extremes in urban settings. Yet, when war is added onto pre-existing inequalities, high levels of poverty, or even disaster, urban fragility increases exponentially, making it harder to absorb the shocks of warfare. "
Peter Maurer
Poverty
Diversity
War
" Self-reliance is not always possible; we have to acknowledge that there are situations of dramatic crisis which will force us to substitute non-existing public delivery systems. "
Peter Maurer
Always
Crisis
Delivery
" The Fourth Industrial Revolution does not just entail risks: it also brings solutions to humanitarian problems. "
Peter Maurer
Solutions
Revolution
Risks