Pandemic Pauses: Understanding Ceasefires in a Time of Covid-19

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization characterized the rapid global spread of the novel coronavirus known as Covid-19 as a pandemic.1 Shortly after, on 23 March 2020, the UN Secretary General (UNSG) Antonio Guterres called for an immediate global ceasefire, to help tackle the threat of Covid-19 rather than compound the risk to those in fragile and conflict-affected areas.2 The UNSG implored conflict parties to immediately “silence the guns” in order to “to help create corridors for life-saving aid”, “to open precious windows for diplomacy”, and “to bring hope to places among the most vulnerable to COVID-19”.3 In response to this call, at least 171 states together with multiple international, regional, and local organisations, including major religious leaders, declared their support by June 2020.4 Since the onset of the pandemic, ceasefires have been declared or proposed by some conflict parties in Armenia and Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Philippines, Senegal, Syria, South Sudan, Sudan, Thailand, Ukraine and Yemen, although as we discuss further below, not all of these can be clearly attributed to the UNSG call itself. Difficulties in agreeing a United Nations Security Council Resolution to support the initiative undercut the call, but eventually on 1 July 2020, the UN Security Council (UNSC) unanimously approved Resolution 2532 in support of a 90-day global humanitarian pause to enable humanitarian assistance related to Covid-19.5