DVM 2106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Humanitarian Intervention, Humanitarian Principles, Political Warfare
21 Jun 2018
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LECTURE 8: Humanitarian Assistance and Intervention
Understanding humanitarian assistance
- Humanitarian assistance and intervention
Concept borrow from development
- Humanitarian assistance as “development on steroids” – short-term, rapidly provided assistance
to relieve immediate suffering
- Humanitarian assistance as being “apolitical” – tries to relieve human suffering but does not try
to address the underlying structural causes (such as colonialism and how that affects war…)
History of Humanitarian Action
- Evolution of humanitarian thought based on specific historical, ideological and political
interactions
- Three major periods in the history of the field
1. Age of imperial humanitarianism
2. Age of neo-humanitarianism
3. Age of liberal humanitarianism
- Started with faith-based (ideological) charities… Christian missionaries, Islamic missions)
Defining Humanitarian Assistance (Hammond)
- “Humanitarian Assistance is an assistance primarily aimed at providing emergency life-saving
support to people affected by crisis”.
- “Humanitarian assistance is in general based on the principles of impartiality and neutrality”
- “Humanitarian assistance is an assistance in response to human-made or natural disasters”.
Imperial Humanitarianism – 1800-1945
- Notions of charity and compassion rode on the back of the colonial political projects in 19th C
- Birth of humanitarianism in support of injured soldiers in the battlefield with a series of political
warfare in Europe
- Establishment of International Committee for relief of wounded soldiers… ICRC in 1863
- Evolution of Red Cross movement to provide support for those affected by natural disasters in
1921
- Founding of League of Nations in 1919 after WW1 and its eventual expansion into UN in 1945
- Can be argued that it was imperial/colonial (religious missionaries!)
Age of neo-humanitarianism (1945-89)
- Political commitment to a global community to prevent the wars and its consequences
- Address the legacies of these wars –population displacement, physical and social destruction
and economic stagnation
- Post-war reconstruction efforts in Europe: CARE (1945)
- Post-war resolutions
UNDHR (1948)
Geneva Conventions (1949( relating to the conduct of war
Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Humanitarian assistance as development on steroids short-term, rapidly provided assistance to relieve immediate suffering. Humanitarian assistance as being apolitical tries to relieve human suffering but does not try to address the underlying structural causes (such as colonialism and how that affects war ) Evolution of humanitarian thought based on specific historical, ideological and political interactions. Three major periods in the history of the field: age of imperial humanitarianism, age of neo-humanitarianism, age of liberal humanitarianism. Started with faith-based (ideological) charities christian missionaries, islamic missions) Humanitarian assistance is an assistance primarily aimed at providing emergency life-saving support to people affected by crisis . Humanitarian assistance is in general based on the principles of impartiality and neutrality . Humanitarian assistance is an assistance in response to human-made or natural disasters . Notions of charity and compassion rode on the back of the colonial political projects in 19 th c.
