Operational functions have been transferred from the former Department of Humanitarian Affairs to other parts of the United Nations system. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee, composed of all the key humanitarian agencies, has further strengthened its role as the primary mechanism for the coordination of humanitarian assistance activities. The Committee has established policy guidelines on issues such as the link between human rights and humanitarian action and the humanitarian consequences of economic sanctions. It also played an active role coordinating the initiatives of United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations in support of internally displaced persons, including the establishment of a global database. Policy development is one of the three core functions of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Humanitarian action can have important political, socio-economic and environmental repercussions.
It has also elaborated clearly defined principles, based on the Charter, human rights and international humanitarian law, which would be applicable to all United Nations activities in crisis countries. There are many opportunities for cooperation between humanitarian assistance and human rights programmes. For example, the wealth of information at the disposal of both humanitarian and human rights organizations can help to enhance the early-warning capacity of the United Nations, thus ensuring better identification of needs for humanitarian and other assistance and allowing human rights programmes to be more responsive to country developments. There is a widespread desire in the international community to counteract the harm economic sanctions impose on vulnerable segments of the civilian population in targeted countries. In a statement transmitted to the Security Council in February, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee expressed concern about the adverse humanitarian consequences of sanctions on civilian populations and urged that measures be taken to minimize them.