GENERAL ASSEMBLY HUMANITARIAN PLENARY: NATIONAL STATEMENT
Statement by H.E Mr. James Larsen, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
10 December 2025
Thank you, President.
I also thank the facilitators of the humanitarian resolutions we have been considering today and reaffirm Australia’s support for them as tabled.
The humanitarian system is at a critical juncture: more protracted conflicts, more frequent disasters, but fewer resources to respond.
Simultaneously, respect for international humanitarian law is being severely undermined.
In 2025, there is again an unacceptably high risk to humanitarian personnel, with 320 devastating deaths and many more workers wounded or kidnapped. To reverse this trend, governments, the United Nations, international organisations, NGOs and civil society must come together to demand that, in every conflict, international humanitarian law must be upheld.
I would like to thank the more than 100 countries who have endorsed the new Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel, particularly Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Sierra Leone, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, with whom Australia worked to drive this important initiative.
To protect civilians, we must protect humanitarian personnel. And we ask a lot of humanitarians. To deliver principled, high quality aid and protection across frontlines and in disasters. To reach people in the most vulnerable situations. And to build resilience to future shocks. But they are overstretched, underfunded, and under attack.
It is only by working together that we can safeguard a United Nations that helps solve the world’s most pressing problems and delivers for the people who need it most.
The humanitarian system cannot prevent or solve conflict and crises alone. We must therefore strengthen our efforts across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace-Political nexus, forging new partnerships and ways of working collaboratively to address the root causes of humanitarian need, build peace, and enable communities to recover and rebuild.
The General Assembly must also play its part, now more than ever.
By working constructively to support the Emergency Relief Coordinator to convene humanitarian actors to prioritise resources. By encouraging ambitious, meaningful and lasting reform, through the Humanitarian Reset and UN80 initiative, for a more effective and efficient global humanitarian response. By being clear-eyed about the capacity of a more streamlined system. By preserving the functions that only the United Nations can deliver.
And by putting local communities first. Those communities are best placed to understand their own needs, and must be empowered to make decisions in crises. And this requires engagement with groups not always heard, including women, children, people with disability, LGBTQIA+ people and refugees.
Australia recognises the vital role of the humanitarian system in our region, the Indo-Pacific, home to some of the most complex, but forgotten, crises.
The humanitarian situation in Myanmar continues to deteriorate. Humanitarian need has increased twenty-fold since the 2021 coup, and more than 3.6 million people are internally displaced. Australia remains committed to assisting the people of Myanmar, and displaced Rohingyas and their host communities in Bangladesh.
We also remain steadfast in assisting the people of Afghanistan, who face dire humanitarian needs due to ongoing political and economic instability.
Australia also advocates for continued prioritisation of climate responsive and preparedness initiatives in our region, including anticipatory action and early warning systems, which save lives and reduce the costs of responding.
We recognise that donors have a key role to play. For our part, we are committed to supporting multi-year funding, and pooled funds, backed up by robust accountability mechanisms.
And Australia recognises that bold reform will require new approaches to managing risk.
President, Australia is proud to be a part of a global humanitarian system that responds to crises and saves millions of lives every year.
Once again, I thank the facilitators of this year’s resolutions for their constructive leadership, and let me acknowledge the efforts of Sweden in relation to the Humanitarian Omnibus resolution, and let me support the decision to withdraw the resolution from consideration this morning.
Australia will continue to support efforts to shape a reimagined humanitarian system that, despite challenges, will continue to save lives, and reduce suffering for crisis-affected peoples.
Thank you.