Author(s)
Cécile Le Grix
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
“International humanitarian law: the great step… backwards?”, Humanitarian Alternatives No. 23, July 2023
While current events highlight the relevance of international humanitarian law in protecting populations who are victims of organised violence, it is increasingly being challenged from all sides, with some critics more well-intentioned than others. In this issue, Alternatives Humanitaires provides a critical overview of the current state of compliance with humanitarian law and principles. The contributions are not limited to legal considerations, but emphasise the importance of combining political, sociological and historical approaches in order to understand how the issue has evolved and current debates.
https://www.alternatives-humanitaires.org/en/our-publications/
Global history of modern humanitarian action, Research project, ODI, 2012-2016
This research project, led by ODI between 2012 and 2016, sought to promote the use of history in the practice and policy-making of humanitarian action. The aim was to help the sector better understand its history and make greater use of historical analysis and lessons in discussions and debates aimed at improving humanitarian action. The study engaged with histories, cultures and contributions to humanitarian action beyond those of Western Europe, North America and other developed countries, to better understand the different ways in which care for others during conflict and natural disaster has evolved around the globe. With studies in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, it was intended the project would assist with engagement and dialogue.
https://odi.org/en/about/our-work/global-history-of-modern-humanitarian-action/
Humanitarian history in a complex world, Eleanor Davey, Policy Brief 59, HPG, ODI, 2014
Despite widespread agreement that knowledge of past experience is essential to present and future decision-making, the humanitarian sector has largely failed to reflect on its history to inform current challenges and debates. This HPG Policy Brief explores how an understanding of humanitarian history can strengthen critical analysis by challenging assumptions and helping to think through complexity.
https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/8975.pdf
Continuity, change and contest. Meanings of “humanitarian” from the “Religion of Humanity” to the Kosovo war, Katherine Davies, HPG Working Paper, ODI, 2012
This study examines the evolving meaning of the term ‘humanitarian’, from its emergence in the mid-nineteenth century through to the end of the twentieth century. Its primary objective is to trace the development of the concepts and ideas that the word denotes and connotes, the ways in which the word has been used (and ‘misused’) and its discursive operations. More specifically, the study explores how the goals of humanitarian action have developed, the principles that guide it, the range of actors that pursue it and its relationship with politics. The study is not a history of humanitarianism; rather, it seeks to show how the term is reflective and constitutive of humanitarian action.
https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/7769.pdf
THE POLITICAL DIMENSION OF HUMANITARIAN CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Back to basics: humanitarian principles in contemporary armed conflict, Humanitarian Law & Policy, ICRC, 2022-2023
This series of articles creates a space for debate and discussion on the humanitarian principles and how to ensure that we deliver the best response to people affected by armed conflict and violence.
“Why Ukraine is moving the needle on old debates about humanitarian neutrality”, Tiara Ataii, The New Humanitarian, 16 May 2023
Neutrality is one of the core principles underpinning traditional humanitarianism – a precondition, some believe, to navigating aid access amid conflict and warring parties. Yet, neutrality’s effectiveness, let alone its ethics, repeatedly come under question in conflict. Ukraine is the latest crisis to challenge humanitarian orthodoxy.
“Evacuation challenges and bad optics: why Ukrainians are losing faith in the ICRC”, Lily Hyde, The New Humanitarian, 16 May 2023.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, the International Committee of the Red Cross – one of the world’s oldest and most venerated humanitarian organisations – has found itself engulfed by a neutrality row, marked by unsubstantiated claims that it has been abetting the forced evacuation of civilians to Russia and broader perceptions that it has not done enough to assist Ukrainians.
“A new Solferino moment for humanitarians”, Hugo Slim, Humanitarian Law & Policy, ICRC, 2022
In this post, 160 years after the publication of Henri Dunant’s Mémoire de Solférino, Hugo Slim reflects on how war and humanitarian aid have evolved. He argues that three major changes have taken place since Dunant’s time: the dramatic and devastating developments in military technology, the shift in humanitarian priorities from wounded soldiers to civilians, and the dominance of international humanitarian super-agencies over national organisations in wartime aid today. Based on his reflections, he sets out three main areas for action.
https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2022/02/10/new-solferino-moment-humanitarians/
Haïti: La fatigue de l’humanitaire? Frédéric Thomas, Le Regard du CETRI, CETRI, 2022
This article looks at humanitarian aid in Haiti since 2010: as Haiti continues its descent into hell, the UN is calling for more aid. However, a humanitarian perspective does not help us to understand the current situation, and tends to obscure power and responsibilities – including those of the international community – at the risk of maintaining the status quo that Haitians do not want.
https://www.cetri.be/Haiti-la-fatigue-de-l-humanitaire
“Politique de l’humanitaire, humanitaire politique?”, Les Cahiers d’Outre-Mer, n°286, Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 2022/2
The history of humanitarian aid shows how, despite the founding values of the mid-19th century, humanitarian action is linked to politics. Humanitarian actors’ operational methods are increasingly different around the world, and the way that humanitarian principles are implemented (neutrality and impartiality in particular) varies from one organisation to another. This issue of Les Cahiers d’Outre-Mer seeks to understand where the boundaries lie between, on the one hand, the need for aid and the desire to help and, on the other, how this aid is understood locally, whether in terms of interference or perceptions that are sometimes false (but with concrete effects).
https://www.cairn.info/revue-les-cahiers-d-outre-mer-2022-2.htm
Why humanitarians should stop hiding behind impartiality, Joshua Craze, Alicia Luedke, The New Humanitarian, 22 August 2022
The humanitarian principle of impartiality is in crisis. South Sudan – where aid is frequently manipulated by political elites – offers both a clear warning, but also a possible path forward. This article explains why.
Prendre le monde sans changer le pouvoir: les ambiguïtés de l’action humanitaire, Frédéric Thomas, Le Regard du CETRI, CETRI, 2020
This article looks at the ambiguities of humanitarian action: essential to the survival of millions of people around the world – refugees, displaced people, starving people, sick people, etc. – it is worth billions of dollars every year. It often has the power to impose its choices and standards on governments, associations and individuals. And yet, it does not always really help the victims of crises.
https://www.cetri.be/Prendre-le-monde-sans-changer-le
Vale the Humanitarian Principles: New Principles for a New Environment, Matthew Clarke, Brett W. Parris, The Humanitarian Leader, Working Paper 001, Centre for Humanitarian Leadership, 2019
For more than 150 years, the international community’s assistance to those affected by various humanitarian events has been guided by four clear and succinct principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. These principles have guided not only the ways in which the international community has responded to natural and human-induced disasters – they have also shaped the humanitarian system more generally. Whilst important and necessary at the time of their inception, the maturing of the humanitarian sector, along with the increasing complexity and intensity of humanitarian events, requires a reconsideration of their relevancy and usefulness. This paper argues that these four principles are no longer fit-for-purpose to guide and shape the international community’s humanitarian actions. The authors argue instead that four new principles would better direct humanitarian action in the current environment: equity, solidarity, compassion and diversity. They discuss the deepening complexity of modern humanitarian emergencies and resulting declining suitability of each of the four original principles, before considering the four new suggested principles.
https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/thl/article/view/1032/1021
“Les ONG, cheval de Troie du système capitaliste”, Caroline Broudic, Humanitaire, n°39, 2014
This article takes a resolutely global and critical look, using the example of social protection – which, on the face of it, has little to do with liberalism – to understand the systemic logic to which NGOs are unwillingly lending their support. By also looking at development policies, the author helps us to understand what is at stake in the ‘liberalisation of humanitarianism’.
https://journals.openedition.org/humanitaire/3056
This article is taken from issue 39 of the review, Humanitaire, which focuses on the topic, “What economic model for what aid system?” Other related articles are available at the following link:
https://journals.openedition.org/humanitaire/3033
WEBINARS
Beyond neutrality: alternative forms of humanitarian action, ODI, 1h29, 2022
This online event proposes a discussion with a range of experts to explore consistent challenges and new developments associated with the principles and ethics of humanitarian action in key conflicts of 2022.
https://odi.org/en/events/beyond-neutrality-alternative-forms-of-humanitarian-action/
Opérations de sauvetage en Méditerranée: qui pour secourir les migrants? IREMMO, 30 March 2022, 1h57
On Tuesday 23 November 2021, Michaël Neuman (Crash-MSF) was invited to IREMMO to talk about rescue operations in the Mediterranean alongside Marta Esperti (doctoral student in Sociology at the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord and an associate researcher at the Institut Convergences Migrations) and Damien Simonneau (moderator, senior lecturer at Inalco). A number of themes were addressed: criticism of the notion of ‘humanitarian crisis’, the types of actors involved and actual rescue practices, the criminalisation of aid, the politicisation of humanitarian action and how those rescued are integrated into the systems put in place.
THE INVOLVEMENT OF LOCAL ACTORS IN HUMANITARIAN RESPONSES
“After the Taliban ban on women NGO work, local and foreign aid groups take different approaches”, Ali M. Latifi, The New Humanitarian, 2023
After the Taliban ban on women NGO work, local and foreign aid groups have been scrambling to adjust their operations and take different approaches.
Diaspora Humanitarian Response & Engagement Good Practices, DRC, 2022
This report provides an overview of key good practices of diaspora organisations that engage in humanitarian response. These fourteen good practices were selected after consultations with diaspora organisations as well as institutional humanitarian actors. Each good practice is illustrated by two concrete examples of diaspora organizations who respond to crisis and emergency situations. The examples cover the variety of diaspora engaging in humanitarian assistance, in terms of nationalities, countries of residence and humanitarian sectors.
https://demac.euwest01.umbraco.io/media/fg4koj1v/demac_good-practice-guide_double-spread-final.pdf
Humanitarian resistance: Its ethical and operational importance, Hugo Slim, HPN, ODI, 2022
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the return of military dictatorship in Myanmar have reminded the world of the importance of humanitarian resistance. In both countries, civilian rescue and relief is being organised by resistance groups that are struggling for victory and humanity in equal measure, and so simultaneously taking sides for human life and human freedom. They are not neutral, but they are humanitarian. In many situations, resistance humanitarians are reaching people faster and better than orthodox humanitarians from neutral international agencies.
https://odihpn.org/publication/humanitarian-resistance-its-ethical-and-operational-importance/
Supporting the people of Myanmar: it’s about political will, Adelina Kamal, Daniel Benowitz, HPN, ODI, 2022
This article focuses on the humanitarian commitment and resistance of local humanitarian actors and networks based on the Myanmar border. Many of these frontline humanitarian workers are refugees themselves or have been running and hiding from military atrocities for months, years or even decades. Rather than waiting for a formal mechanism, they have taken it upon themselves to devise strategies to assist those in need, by developing aid networks, building support and taking the necessary risks on the ground.
https://odihpn.org/publication/supporting-the-people-of-myanmar-its-about-political-will/
Women leading locally: exploring women’s leadership in humanitarian action in Bangladesh and South Sudan, Namalie Jayasinghe, Momotaz Khatun, Moses Okwii, Oxfam, 2020
This report examines women’s leadership in locally led humanitarian action with case studies from Bangladesh and South Sudan. Co-authored with two women’s organizations, Ashroy Foundation of Bangladesh and Rural Women for Development in South Sudan, it seeks to understand whether and how local humanitarian leadership (LHL) can promote or constrain women’s leadership. The report finds that women’s leadership in LHL is limited in both countries, with women’s leadership facing many of the same challenges as LHL itself. However, by encouraging collaboration between women leaders, women’s organizations, and LHL actors, progress toward a more gender-transformative humanitarian system can be achieved.
Pages
p. 98-103.