Humanitarianism 101
Iraq's Domiz Refugee Camp. Retrieved from: flickr.com. Photo: ECHO M. Chatziantoniou
"Humanitarianism is probably the most important "ism" in the world today, given the collapse of communism, the discrediting of neoliberalism, and the general distrust of large-scale political ideologies. Its activists often claim to escape or transcend partisan politics. We think of humanitarian aid, for example, first of all as a form of philanthropy -- a response to an earthquake in Haiti or a tsunami in Asia, which is obviously a good thing, an effort to relieve human suffering and save lives, an act of international benevolence. But there is a puzzle here, for helping people in desperate need is something that we ought to do; it would be wrong not to do it -- in which case it is more like justice than benevolence. Words such as "charity" and "philanthropy" describe a voluntary act, a matter of kindness rather than duty. But international humanitarianism seems more like duty than kindness, or maybe it is a combination: two in one, a gift that we have to give."
-Michael Walzer, Foreign Affairs (2011),
available at: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2011-07-01/humanitarianism
Background reading on humanitarianism:
"Nobel Lecture by James Orbinski, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oslo, December 10, 1999"
"Our action is to help people in situations of crisis. And ours is not a contented action. Bringing medical aid to people in distress is an attempt to defend them against what is aggressive to them as human beings. Humanitarian action is more than simple generosity, simple charity. It aims to build spaces of normalcy in the midst of what is abnormal. More than offering material assistance, we aim to enable individuals to regain their rights and dignity as human beings. As an independent volunteer association, we are committed to bringing direct medical aid to people in need. But we act not in a vacuum, and we speak not into the wind, but with a clear intent to assist, to provoke change, or to reveal injustice. Our action and our voice is an act of indignation, a refusal to accept an active or passive assault on the other."
"1. The humanitarian imperative comes first. The right to receive humanitarian assistance, and to offer it, is a fundamental humanitarian principle which should be enjoyed by all citizens of all countries. As members of the international community, we recognise our obligation to provide humanitarian assistance wherever it is needed. Hence the need for unimpeded access to affected populations is of fundamental importance in exercising that responsibility. The prime motivation of our response to disaster is to alleviate human suffering amongst those least able to withstand the stress caused by disaster. When we give humanitarian aid it is not a partisan or political act and should not be viewed as such."
"State of the Humanitarian System 2015" (ALNAP)
"The international humanitarian system is larger than ever in terms of financial and human resources. In 2014 it comprised some 4,480 operational aid organisations with combined humanitarian expenditures of over $25 billion and roughly 450,000 professional humanitarian aid workers in their ranks. And yet it is failing to meet the global demand for humanitarian assistance. The past few years – particularly 2014, with four concurrent major emergencies followed by the Ebola epidemic – laid bare the system’s limits. The political and security impediments to providing relief to civilians trapped in war-ravaged Syria, combined with glaring capacity gaps in the Central African Republic and South Sudan, have overshadowed genuine humanitarian successes such as the response to Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in the Philippines."
Humanitarianism efforts
"Today, the scale of human suffering is greater than at any time since the Second World War. More than 130 million people around the world need humanitarian assistance in order to survive. This is why, for the first time in the 70-year history of the United Nations, UN Secretory-General Ban Ki-moon convened the World Humanitarian Summit to generate commitments to reduce suffering and deliver better for people around the globe.The Summit took place in Istanbul on 23-24 May 2016 and convened 9,000 participants from around the world to support a new shared Agenda for Humanity and take action to prevent and reduce human suffering.The Summit generated more than 3000 commitments to action and launched more than a dozen new partnerships and initiatives to turn the Agenda for Humanity into meaningful change for the world's most vulnerable people. These results are presented on the Platform for Action, Commitments and Transformation (PACT) "