diff --git a/include/lib/utils.h b/include/lib/utils.h
index cdb125cfa..17ee93694 100644
--- a/include/lib/utils.h
+++ b/include/lib/utils.h
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2016-2018, ARM Limited and Contributors. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2016-2019, ARM Limited and Contributors. All rights reserved.
  *
  * SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
  */
@@ -79,13 +79,11 @@ void zeromem(void *mem, u_register_t length);
  * which is constant and does not depend on the execute address of the binary.
  */
 #define DEFINE_LOAD_SYM_ADDR(_name)		\
-static inline u_register_t load_addr_## _name(void)		\
-{								\
-	u_register_t v;						\
-	/* Create a void reference to silence compiler */	\
-	(void) _name;						\
-	__asm__ volatile ("ldr %0, =" #_name : "=r" (v));	\
-	return v;						\
+static inline u_register_t load_addr_## _name(void)			\
+{									\
+	u_register_t v;							\
+	__asm__ volatile ("ldr %0, =" #_name : "=r" (v) : "X" (#_name));\
+	return v;							\
 }
 
 /* Helper to invoke the function defined by DEFINE_LOAD_SYM_ADDR() */
diff --git a/plat/arm/common/arm_gicv3.c b/plat/arm/common/arm_gicv3.c
index cfc535939..4a3a22ec0 100644
--- a/plat/arm/common/arm_gicv3.c
+++ b/plat/arm/common/arm_gicv3.c
@@ -44,12 +44,11 @@ static const interrupt_prop_t arm_interrupt_props[] = {
 
 /*
  * We save and restore the GICv3 context on system suspend. Allocate the
- * data in the designated EL3 Secure carve-out memory. The `volatile`
- * is used to prevent the compiler from removing the gicv3 contexts even
- * though the DEFINE_LOAD_SYM_ADDR creates a dummy reference to it.
+ * data in the designated EL3 Secure carve-out memory. The `used` attribute
+ * is used to prevent the compiler from removing the gicv3 contexts.
  */
-static volatile gicv3_redist_ctx_t rdist_ctx __section("arm_el3_tzc_dram");
-static volatile gicv3_dist_ctx_t dist_ctx __section("arm_el3_tzc_dram");
+static gicv3_redist_ctx_t rdist_ctx __section("arm_el3_tzc_dram") __used;
+static gicv3_dist_ctx_t dist_ctx __section("arm_el3_tzc_dram") __used;
 
 /* Define accessor function to get reference to the GICv3 context */
 DEFINE_LOAD_SYM_ADDR(rdist_ctx)