Considering how difficult to keep the humanitarian space in the conflict on-going place, there is a widespread belief among academic scholars that indicates insecurity for humanitarian aid workers leads shrink of humanitarian space under the civil war situation. Although public interest and budget for humanitarian aid have been growing in the world post-9/11, and following this, humanitarian space has been widened at the same time. However, it has been argued that keeping humanitarian space is still not easy to achieve. Especially in the situation of civil war, number of humanitarian aid workers lost life incidentally. Indeed many analytic researches show the evidence that humanitarian space is not declining in total. Contrary some literature highlights that a humanitarian space in particular situation such as conflict must be reduced. Especially countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq where have been struggled with the conflict for several years, keeping humanitarian space has not been so successful. In this essay, it will be argued that why humanitarian organisation must to be faced to the risk of terror and what makes so difficult to keep the humanitarian space under on-going conflict. Despite the fact that humanitarian workers see that keeping humanitarian space in the war-ongoing place is difficult, it does not necessarily mean that they should stop their aid. They sometimes face the dilemma of making assistance along with military forces but it is unavoidable in such dangerous situation. I would like to argue that flexibility and taking balance of such dilemma are important for them to continue their humanitarian activities.
First of all, it is crucial to understand what exactly ‘Humanitarian space’ is, before discussing how...
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...n space. Approach for humanitarian space has been changed since the attack on 9.11 in the US, which was the trigger that the boundary of military force and NGOs to became obscured. Under such circumstance, NGOs have become to face the risk of terrorism. On the other hand, it is unavoidable NGOs to spread their activities without military forces in dangerous places, thus this dilemma causes vicious circle. Although terrorism prevents spreading humanitarian space, terrorism could be caused by several reasons such as misunderstanding of NGO activities, or bad national mood for particular nations where military/NGO workers comes from. It is still argumentative that whether humanitarian space is collapsed or not, however at very least the notion humanitarian space had changed after global war, and also the risk of terrorism can affect the activity of NGOs in micro level.
The proliferation of crises around the world has led to a prominent increase in the amount of humanitarian aid needed. Humanitarian aid work represents not only compassion, but commitment to support innocent populations that have experienced sudden or on-going tragedies. Some of these tragedies include: malnutrition, genocide, diseases, torture, poverty, war, natural disasters, government negligence, and unfortunately much more. There is no doubt that these tragedies are some of the world’s toughest problems to solve as they are often complex, multifaceted and require diligence and patience. For this reason, being a humanitarian aid worker is more than a profession, it is a lifestyle that requires a sharp distinction between one’s work and
An Imperfect Offering is a powerful personal memoir from a James Orbinski, a Canadian who has spent most of his adult life in front-line humanitarian work in the world's worst conflict zones. Despite its dark chapters, it is also a hopeful story about the emergence of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as a new and independent agent of civil society, and the possibilities of making the world a better place. In “An Imperfect Offering”, James Orbinski tells the story of people who have been harmed by war, and humanitarian workers who have come to heal them when possible. He engages in deep reflection on the nature of humanitarian response and the many threats to this most human activity. He has sharp criticism for governments who act to cause suffering or to prevent its relief. He asks, “How am I able to be in relation to the suffering of others?” His life as a doctor, and a humanitarian worker illustrates this answer. Accordingly, the books main thesis is that humanitarianism is about the struggle to create space to be fully human. However, he illustrates how this struggle is becoming increasingly difficult with the imperfect offering of politics, which has resulted in the blurring of boundaries between humanitarian assistance and the political objectives of military intervention.
The objective of this paper is to address the ongoing crisis in Darfur and how it relates to international relations topics. This will be done by first bringing the reader up to speed with a historical summary of the Darfur Conflict so that they understand what is happening there. The next section will analyze the situation in Darfur using various international relations concepts. The final section will discuss the implications of the conflict on the international level, meaning, “Why should the world care? How does it affect other countries?”
Since the end of the Cold War, the recruitment of child soldiers has been recognized as an increasingly global phenomenon. Although the majority of the relatively recent child soldier recruitment cases have developed from armed conflicts in Africa, by the beginning of the new millennium the trend increased globally, appearing on nearly every continent, including Asia, Europe and the Americas. The prevalence of this practice has turned it into a much talked about international issue. The aim of this paper is to look at how this issue is influenced and even aggravated by globalization. More specifically, it will be argued that globalization, expressed through the existence of international organizations, such as the United Nations, have been ineffective in putting a stop to child soldiery and that globalization, defined by the interconnectedness of world economies has lead to underdevelopment and therefore exasperated conflict and as a result child soldiery.
Wheeler, Nicholas J. Saving Strangers - Humanitarian Intervention in International Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Oxford Scholarship Online. Oxford University Press. 7 December 2009
Doctors Without Borders, otherwise known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, their french name, is a very important non governmental organization. While originally established in France, they now have 21 independent divisions worldwide. Their mission is to offer assistance to victims of disasters, man-made or natural, and to victims of armed conflict. Their primary concerns are medical but they also “advocate for the respect of basic human rights and humanitarian law” (Tanguy, 1998) They strive to have complete neutrality and impartiality, but will speak out to bring attention to extreme cases or conditions. ("Charter | MSF USA," n.d.)
"The Gates Foundation: Helping NGOs at the Front Line." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 07 Oct. 2013. Web. 26 May 2014.
The “Trojan Horse” exists in humanitarian intervention as it is mixed with considerations of national interest, such as state influence, national power, prestige and access to potential oil supplies. For example, in Syria and Sri Lanka, the responsibility to protect norm has not done very little to protect populations within states. The author notes that the international community's feeble responsibility on the Darfur’s crisis has failed to recognize the role of the “responsibility to protect.” The West’s disinclination to intervene in Darfur raises skepticism about the West’s humanitarian intervention techniques, especially after the invasion of Iraq and western strategic interests in Sudan. Nevertheless, the notion of the responsibility to protect is important in the protection of human rights as it seeks to confront atrocity committed by states through prevention, protection or
Barnett, Michael, and Thomas G. Weiss. Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2008.
Humanitarian intervention is often described as “using of military force in others states to halt human rights abuses or otherwise promote human rights”. This definition of human rights fails to consider the other aspects of intervention such as non-violent form of aid, such as medical supplies or food. While there are less aggressive ways that nations can intervene the issues of humanitarian intervention arise from military action. The main goal of intervention is to alleviate the suffering of the people who are suffering from abuse. A common concern with humanitarian intervention is when is it justified for other nations to ignore sovereignty and become involved in a countries domestic matters.
Humanitarian intervention is a multifaceted issue that has been a topic of concern within international political and legal realms for many decades. It is often defined as
There is no static or perfect definition that can encapsulate all that may fall under the theme of humanitarian intervention. Philosophically speaking, humanitarian intervention is the idea that individuals have the duty to prevent human rights violations from occurring. Furthermore, the legal basis of humanitarian intervention is derived from the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Lecture 11/15/16). As decided by the UN in 1948, all nations have a responsibility to protect, or to prevent crimes against humanity, and while it was an important milestone for the recognition of human rights, not all those experiencing the crimes of genocide
Chandler, David G. "The Road to Military Humanitarianism: How the Human Rights Ngos Shaped a New Humanitarian Agenda." Human Rights Quarterly. 23.3 (2001): 678-700. Print.
The expansion of European power, coupled with the arrival of Christian missionaries, has been linked with the spread of Western thoughts, and within such distinctive political environment, humanitarianism have interacted with Western derived concepts to inform the development of modern humanitarian action. Indeed, looking into the term “humanitarian”, it came into wide and frequent circulation lately in the last decades of the 20th century (Davies, 2012: 1).
When considering the concepts of human rights and state sovereignty, the potential for conflict between the two is evident. Any humanitarian intervention by other actors within the international system would effectively constitute a violation of the traditional sovereign rights of states to govern their own domestic affairs. Thus, the answer to this question lies in an examination of the legitimacy and morality of humanitarian intervention. While traditionally, the Westphalian concept of sovereignty and non-intervention has prevailed, in the period since the Cold War, the view of human rights as principles universally entitled to humanity, and the norm of enforcing them, has developed. This has led to the 1990’s being described as a ‘golden