Thank you, Mr. Chair, honourable members.
My name is Heather Jeffrey and I'm the Director General for International Humanitarian Assistance at Global Affairs Canada.
I am pleased to return today to respond to any further questions about Canadian humanitarian assistance to support vulnerable groups in inaccessible regions.
To briefly recap my previous remarks, all persons who are affected by a humanitarian crisis and have identified needs are eligible to receive humanitarian assistance irrespective of their status, including internally displaced persons and refugees. We channel our humanitarian assistance as a matter of policy, not through governments, but through trusted humanitarian partners, including the UN, the Red Cross and Red Crescent family, and non-governmental organizations.
Humanitarian actors aim to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain the dignity of crisis-affected populations. They give priority to the most urgent cases of distress and, therefore, do not make distinctions on the basis of nationality, race, gender, religious belief, class, or political views.
Access has been rightly identified by many before this committee over the past days as the most critical variable that affects the ability of humanitarian actors to provide support to vulnerable populations, particularly in conflict situations. It's also the most challenging to resolve. By operating in accordance with the humanitarian principles, our partner organizations are able to engage in dialogue with all parties to gain greater acceptance for their activities and thereby improve their ability to reach otherwise inaccessible populations. To that end, Canada has been and will continue to be a very strong advocate for the humanitarian principles.
However, we also recognize that access challenges clearly remain. Therefore, we're continuing to engage diplomatically through a variety of channels to try and address all the ongoing situations of concern and to insist publicly that all parties to conflict respect their obligations under international humanitarian law.
We also continue to direct our humanitarian responses through a diverse network of humanitarian partners in order to try and maximize the scope of the assistance that's being provided in a region.
Thank you for your consideration. I would be pleased to respond to any questions you might have.