Protecting Civilians in Armed Conflict: Why Essential Services Must Be Safeguarded Under the ICESCR

Protecting civilians means protecting the systems that sustain them.

In situations of armed conflict, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights does not only protect people from direct violence. It also requires safeguarding the essential civilian services on which Covenant rights depend, including infrastructure, personnel and ecosystems.

When interconnected systems such as water, food, health, energy and ecosystems are disrupted, the harm is foreseeable, cascading and cumulative.

These impacts fall disproportionately on women, girls and marginalized groups, who often face greater barriers to access and heightened risks when essential services fail.

In its submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Geneva Water Hub puts forward two core propositions:

• Covenant obligations must be interpreted across the full conflict cycle, before, during and after conflict, taking into account the systemic nature of harm.
• International humanitarian law provides concrete, context-specific rules that complement and operationalize ICESCR obligations.

Water systems make this reality especially clear. Protecting them is both a legal imperative and a practical necessity for the effective protection of civilians and the realization of multiple human rights.

We encourage the Committee to clarify this integrated framework in its forthcoming General Comment. 📄

Read the full submission here: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/cfi-subm/2026/387-draft-general-comment/subm-general-comment-cso-65-geneva-water-hub-partners.pdf