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The United Nations office for security co-ordination, Unsecoord, has hit out at member countries' apparent unwillingness to provide safeguards for humanitarian staff working in dangerous countries, following a week of tragedies.
Over the past week, two UN staff members have been murdered in Burundi, one killed in Kosovo and six hostages taken in Georgia - bringing the total UN staff killed in the line of duty to 180 since 1992, and the number of hostage incidents since 1994 to 52, involving 178 staff members.
"Member states have to realise they cannot continue to send unarmed civilians into areas where they will not put in military," said Diana Russler, the UN's deputy security co-ordinator in New York. "We are going to have to re-evaluate how we do business."
UN organisations have only about 70 security officers to service 188 duty stations: in Rwanda there is only one officer to look after the safety of 1,000 staff. Only Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan are adequately served.
A fund recently established to train staff entering dangerous areas has attracted almost no attention, says Ms Russler, with only Japan, Norway, Senegal and Monaco contributing.
Unsecoord's calls reflect the changing nature of humanitarian aid, as UN workers find themselves increasingly targeted by belligerents. The rise of intra-state wars, rather than conflicts between nations, has left aid workers vulnerable: often they are the only people in a region, increasing the temptation to kidnap or kill them to make a point.
Furthermore, links are being made between UN operations in different countries: in Afghanistan in 1993, for example, four staff members were murdered, ostensibly as revenge for UN actions in Bosnia.
Ms Russler says member states must take firmer action against countries where atrocities are committed against UN staff. "They have to ensure that people are brought to account for all of this," she said.