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humanitarian
This
page highlights international humanitarian groups and agencies,
along with studies of global humanitarian law.
It covers -
introduction
Differences between human rights and humanitarian organisations
are explored in Larry Minear's The Humanitarian Enterprise
(Bloomfield: Kumarian Press 2002), complemented by René
Provost's International Human Rights Law & Humanitarian
Law (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2002).
A comprehensive treatment of customary law is provided in
Customary International Humanitarian Law (Cambridge:
Cambridge Uni Press 2005) by Jean-Marie Henckaerts & Louise
Doswald-Beck.
Perspectives on humanitarianism are provided in works such
as David Rieff's persuasive A Bed For The Night: Humanitarianism
in Crisis (London: Vintage 2002), The Role of NGOs
under Authoritarian Political Systems (Basingstoke: Macmillan
1997) by Seamus Cleary, Compassion and Calculation: The
Business of Foreign Aid (London: Pluto 1996) edited by
David Sogge, Fiona Terry's Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox
of Humanitarian Action (Ithaca: Cornell Uni Press 2002)
and The Ethics of Assistance: Morality & the Distant
Needy (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2005) edited by
Deen Chatterjee.
For the intersection of rights, responsibilities and power
see works such as Reading Humanitarian Intervention: Human
Rights and the Use of Force in International Law (Cambridge:
Cambridge Uni Press 2003) by Anne Orford, Saving Strangers:
Humanitarian Intervention in International Society (Oxford:
Oxford Uni Press 2003) by Nicholas Wheeler, You, the People:
The United Nations, Transitional Administration, and State-Building
(New York: Oxford Uni Press 2004) by Simon Chesterman, The
Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism
(Princeton: Princeton Uni Press 2004) by David Kennedy, Evaluating
Humanitarian Action: Reflections from Practitioners (London:
Zed Books 2001) edited by Adrian Wood & John Borton and
In the Shadow of 'Just Wars': Violence, Politics and Humanitarian
Action (Ithaca: Cornell Uni Press 2004) edited by Fabrice
Weissman
Questions of development and aid programs are highlighted
in the separate Digital Divides
profile elsewhere on this site, which points to international
studies and works such as William Easterly's The Elusive
Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures & Misadventures
in the Tropics (Cambridge: MIT Press 2001), Amartya Sen's
The Political Economy of Hunger (Oxford: Clarendon
1990), Graham Hancock's acerbic The Lords of Poverty:
The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid
Business (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press 1989), Civil
Society & the Aid Industry (London: Earthscan 1998)
edited by Alison Van Rooy, NGO Capacity & Effectiveness:
A review of themes in NGO-related research recently funded
by ESCOR (London: IIED 1996) by Anthony Bebbington &
Diana Mitlin and Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks
in International Politics (Ithaca: Corbell Uni Press
2003) by Margaret Keck & Kathryn Sikkink.
the IFRC
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies (IFRC)
is the peak body of national Red Cross societies and their
counterparts in the Islamic world.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
- a nongovernment organisation that is independent of those
national Red Cross/Red Crescent organisations - is based in
Switzerland. It is the custodian of the Geneva Conventions
highlighted earlier in this profile. It is not an agency of
the United Nations.
The IRC promotes itself as
an
impartial, neutral and independent organization whose exclusively
humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity
of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them
with assistance. It directs and coordinates the international
relief activities conducted by the Movement in situations
of conflict. It also endeavours to prevent suffering by
promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal
humanitarian principles.
Spending in 2004, primarily on disaster relief, was around
823 million Swiss Francs. The IRC receives substantial government
funding. Its emphasis on noncondemnation of governments (and
more broadly on what has been characterised as a discretion
that amounts to secrecy) has led to criticisms that it is
coopted by totalitarian regimes. Its failure to condemn the
Holocaust and subsequent atrocities has proved to be particularly
controversial, resulting in the emergence of organisations
such as MSF that both deliver aid and alert the international
community.
Perspectives are provided by Jean-Claude Favez' The Red
Cross and the Holocaust (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press
1998) and the more upbeat The Humanitarians: The International
Committee of the Red Cross (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni
Press 2005) by David Forsythe.
ACF
Action Against Hunger - aka Action Contre la Faim (ACF/AAH)
- is an international nongovernment and nonreligious organisation
founded in Paris in 1979. Its emphasis is on the relief of
famine and problems of global hunger.
ActionAid
ActionAid (AA)
is a conferderation of international development and philanthropic
organisations in Europe.
CARE
The Cooperative for Assistance & Relief Everywhhere (CARE),
initially the Cooperative for American Remittances in Europe,
is a confederation of international relief and development
organisations in the US, Japan, Australia, Canada and other
nations.
CRS and WorldVision
World Vision International (WVI)
originated in the US in 1950 to aid children orphaned in the
Korean War and has arguably become the largest 'Christian'
relief and development agency. It is controversial for combining
a humanitarian and an evangelical agenda.
Competitor Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
is another religious organisation, founded in the US in 1943
by the Roman Catholic Bishops to assist the poor in other
nations.
IRC
The International Rescue Committee (IRC),
not to be confused with the Red Cross, was founded prior to
the 1939-45 War and initially centred on rescue of those persecuted
by the Nazi regime and allies such as France. Agents included
the great Varian Fry. It has become one of the largest US
NGOs.
MSF
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF),
with the motto of soignez et temoignez [care for
and testify], was founded in 1971 by French doctors and has
grown to become the largest indepenmdent medical relief agency.
It has expanded from traditional emergency relief to advocacy
regarding Third World access to pharmaceuticals.
Oxfam
Oxfam,
formerly the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, was founded
in the UK in 1942 to aid starving civilians in Greece. It
has come to emphasise emergency relief, development and advocacy
with for example campaigns for international debt relief and
human rights.
SCF
Save the Children Fund (SCF),
founded in the UK after the 1914-18 War to assist children
in Germany and Austria, has come to combine emergency relief
with social activism. It has proven to be an influential international
lobbyist in calls for developed economies to increase aid
to the Third World and has increasingly emphasised a rights-based
approach, centred on the UN Declaration on the Rights of the
Child.
WHO and WFP
The World Food Program (WFP)
is a UN agency established in 1963 to "lead the fight
against global hunger" but has come to centre on emergency
relief efforts.
The World Health Organization (WHO)
is another UN agency, concerned with both medical treatment
and social development in line with conceptualisation of health
as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being"
rather than the absence of disease or infirmity.
ECHO
The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO)
was established by the European Union in 19992 to provide
emergency assistance and relief to victims of armed conflict
or natural disasters outside the EU. It is claimed as the
largest single aid donor in the world.
UNICEF, UNHCR, UNDP
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
was created as the United Nations International Children's
Emergency Fund - an ad hoc body - in 1946. It became a permanent
UN agency in 1953, with a mission of helping "children
living in poverty in developing countries" and protecting
"children in the midst of war and natural disaster".
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
The UN Development Programme (UNDP)
is the UN's principal provider of development advice, advocacy
and grant support.
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