Thirdly, with regard to the normative framework in conflict situations, private security companies are playing an increasingly important role. It is essential that those companies undertake to abide by and respect international norms.

Secondly, humanitarian access remains a crucial element for all protection and aid activities relating to people affected by armed conflict and violence. Switzerland expresses its concern with regard to the growing restrictions on access granted to humanitarian actors in conflict zones. We also wish to reiterate that it is the primary responsibility of States to provide their people with protection and aid.

Over the past ten years, the activities of the Security Council have been increasingly influenced by the issue of the protection of civilians. Encouraging progress has been made, especially in terms of establishing general standards, as well as in taking into account the specific protection needs of women and children.

In conclusion, we think it appropriate to continue to follow the issue of explosive weapons, especially with a view to better implementing international humanitarian law. The use of certain explosive weapons in densely populated areas is clearly a major source of suffering for civilians in situations of armed conflict. A more in-depth study could, for example, reveal the extent to which greater protection could limit these impacts.

However, the impact of those developments will have little value if they are not transformed into a tangible improvement in civilian protection on the ground. We therefore encourage the Security Council, and in particular its informal group of experts on the protection of civilians, to take that into account in their work.

First, Switzerland agrees with the Secretary- General's evaluation of the need for greater respect for the law by non-State armed groups and stresses the importance of preventing obstacles to the efforts of humanitarian organizations in that regard. We are concerned by the impact that the adoption of lists of terrorist groups may have on efforts to strengthen the protection of civilians.

We believe that the personnel of humanitarian agencies and organizations have a primary responsibility to coordinate with local authorities before going to any areas to which they want to deliver aid so that the Government can offer them the necessary protection. We have recently noticed that many humanitarian workers do not abide by safety procedures or coordinate with the authorities, making them vulnerable to such attacks.

Ultimately, the protection of civilians is the responsibility of individual States themselves. Therefore, we should improve the capacities of the concerned States so that they can assume their responsibilities ably, rather than weaken those capacities through sanctions, despite the fact that those who support sanctions try to portray them as either smart or targeted or by using other evasive descriptions.

The recommendations of the Secretary-General in his various reports on this issue have focused on the need to reactivate and improve the capacities of United Nations peacekeeping operations with regard to the protection of civilians.

The principle of protecting civilians in armed conflict is a noble one to which we all aspire. However, we are concerned by attempts by some countries to utilize that goal to serve particular political aims, such as the ongoing campaign on the so-called responsibility to protect.