The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), one of the largest and most influential humanitarian organizations in the world, opposes regulations designed to prevent terror groups from stealing aid and actively seeks to overcome or circumvent them.  It supports direct engagement with terrorist organizations and resists vetting beneficiaries to determine if they are linked to proscribed groups. (For more information on NRC’s opposition to anti-terror policies, see NGO Monitor’s July 2024 report, “Norwegian Refugee Council’s Campaign to Weaken and Circumvent US Anti-terror Policy.”)

These policies are particularly dangerous when the NRC operates in areas controlled by – or with a substantial presence of – terrorist organizations, such as in Lebanon.

According to an April 25 NRC publication: “NRC is providing assistance to families in southern Lebanon, Beirut, and Mount Lebanon that have been displaced by hostilities along the border with Israel. NRC is providing assistance, both food kits and cash, to people who stayed in the border areas.” (emphasis added)

These are areas with a substantial Hezbollah presence, particularly near the border, where the terrorist organization’s daily attacks on Israeli civilians and military personnel – and substantial military infrastructure – has prompted an Israeli ground incursion to secure its border region.

Notably, the NGO continues its operations in Lebanon, reporting on September 27th that its personnel that had been in the South have resumed operations in Sidon and Tyre.

Given this context, it is critical that NRC’s donor governments – including the EU, Germany, the UK, Norway, and Sweden –ensure that their funds are not being used to enrich Hezbollah members, entities under their control, or their allies.

Funding to NRC operations in Lebanon

According to NRC financial data, in 2023, the NGO received the following support from donor governments for their Lebanon operations:

  • EU: ECHO – NOK 10.7 million (approximately €900,000); INTPA – NOK 6.9 million (approximately €600,000)
  • Germany: MFA – 8.9 million NOK (approximately €760,000); GIZ – 3.1 million NOK (approximately €270,000)
  • Switzerland: SDC – 12.1 million NOK (approximately €1 million)
  • UK: FCDO – 758,000 NOK (approximately £230,000)
  • Norway: MFA – NOK 21.9 million (approximately €1.8 million)
  • Sweden: SIDA – NOK 12.9 million (approximately €1.1 million)

NRC opposition to anti-terror vetting

NRC Secretary-General Jan Egeland at a December 2020 conference organized by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs: “Exemptions from counter-terrorism laws and sanctions regimes…We need blanket humanitarian exemptions.…We need you to champion that there will be no vetting of the ultimate beneficiaries of humanitarian relief.”

In 2020, NRC published a “toolkit,” promoting “best practices” for navigating challenges presented by anti-terror requirements.  In it, the organization reaffirms its position that it should be allowed to engage with terrorist organizations, and rejects vetting of beneficiaries to ensure that they are not affiliated with proscribed terror groups:

  • Engaging with non-state armed groups (NSAGs), regardless of whether they are DTGs [designated terror groups], is a key element of gaining and maintaining secure access to people in need.” (emphases added)
  • Vetting of beneficiaries is a red line for many humanitarian organisations because it could lead to organisations selectively responding to the needs of affected populations, withholding assistance from certain potential beneficiaries rather than providing assistance on the basis of needs alone…To ensure an impartial response, affiliation with political, or other groups, does not form part of the selection criteria” (emphases added).

NRC supporting Hamas involvement in Gaza aid distribution

NRC’s position is not theoretical.  The NGO has called for direct Hamas involvement in aid distribution in Gaza, and lobbied for downgrading US sanctions on the Houthi terrorists in Yemen –  demanding exemptions that would allow the NGO to engage with the terror group. (See below)

NRC has longed campaigned for direct Hamas involvement in aid distribution in Gaza.

In 2006, it called on the Norwegian government to “support Hamas as the democratic elected government and not impose actions that lead to more instability.”

In a joint 2013 publication with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), NRC laments the fact that donor government restrictions limit its contact with the terrorist organization:

“The parameters of humanitarian action have for the most part been shifted so that programmes are designed firstly to avoid contact with or support to the designated group (Hamas) and only secondly to respond to humanitarian needs… This distortion of the core humanitarian principle of impartiality is one of the key fears of those concerned about the impact of counter-terrorism measures on humanitarian action.”

Consistent with that approach, the NGO continues to demand Hamas involvement in aid distribution.

In a March 1, 2024 CBC interview, NRC’s “regional head of advocacy in the Middle East,” Samah Hadid, asserted:

“It’s absolutely crucial to have the Gazan security force in place to give them the safety they need to secure the aid convoys going in and the aid trucks going in because of the lack of security on the ground. But these police force units have said that Israel has targeted them, and they’ve been bombed… They need to be allowed to safely accompany these convoys…”

NRC and Yemen

On January 17, 2024, the State Department designated the Iranian-backed group Ansar Allah (the Houthis formal name) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group (SDGT).  Since October 2023, Houthi attacks on maritime shipping in the Red Sea have intensified, resulting in the deaths of sailors manning vessels traversing the area, and US military personnel.

NRC condemned the 2021 US designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), lobbied for their de-designation, and denounced the 2024 decision to apply the SDGT label, while calling for international exemptions to allow it to engage with the Houthis.