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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI13042460/00001
Notes
- Summary:
- The document “At a Crossroads” focuses on the myriad challenges facing the international system of humanitarian assistance in the immediate future. Of primary import are the political issues that often hamper the process of disseminating aid in an effective way. In recent decades there has been a significant blurring of the lines between the provision of humanitarian aid, and political or military action, thus leading to concerns regarding state sovereignty and the humanitarian imperative. The humanitarian imperative is the notion that all people have the fundamental right to assistance, and that the delivery of such aid should be based on need alone rather than political or religious objectives, race, creed, or nationality. Since the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11/2001 and the ‘War on Terror,’ governments have systematically sought to establish coherence in their foreign policies’ by aligning their political, military, and humanitarian objectives. For example, in Afghanistan aid is often concentrated in the provinces that are politically important to NATO as a means to win hearts and minds. Aid becomes an instrument within broader political and military strategies, fundamentally threatening the “neutrality of humanitarianism” as a concept. This has created an environment where many governments take an obstructive and often antagonistic stance towards aid organizations. They also compete with non-state actors to control and redirect humanitarian aid in their countries in order to reward supporters while punishing enemies. Another growing trend is for humanitarian aid to be delivered directly by the military, which drags aid projects into conflicts, making the beneficiaries targets of opposing factions. A broader concern is the confluence of aid, development, and the overtly political process of state-building. A number of measures are outlined in the document to reaffirm the neutrality of humanitarian assistance. One is to increase the independence of humanitarian actions in order to separate them from short-term political and security goals. It would also be beneficial to build effective relationships with host governments and reemphasize the neutrality of aid organizations by increasing their accountability to the populations they serve. Another mechanism of building legitimacy would be to work more closely with national and local NGOs. The document also suggests that a professional humanitarian body be established at the international level to coordinate assistance globally, thus weakening the particular political objectives that may be involved when individual nations control how aid is distributed. ( English )
- Subject:
- Humanitarian Assistance ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Acknowledgements p. iv; Abbreviations and acronyms p. v; Executive summary p. vi; 1. Introduction p. 1; 2. Challenges faced by the humanitarian system p. 5; 3. How the humanitarian system should respond to these challenges p. 17; 4 Conclusion and recommendations p. 30; Endnotes p. 33 ( English )
- Citation/Reference:
- Kyazze, A.B., Dempsey, B. (2010). At a crossroads: humanitarianism for the next decade. Save the Children.
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Florida International University
- Rights Management:
- This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without fee or prior permission for teaching purposes, but not for resale. For copying in any other circumstances, prior written permission must be obtained from the publisher, and a fee may be payable.
- Resource Identifier:
- FI13042460
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