Reflections on Humanitarian Action

Principles, Ethics and Contradictions

HSU

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN: 9780745317274
• eBook ISBN: 9781849641098
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Global Development Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Humanitarian action has become a subject for serious debate in light of recent conflicts across the globe. The debacle in Somalia, the policy of intervention in Bosnia, and domestic conflicts in the West over intervention in Kosovo have given rise to many complex questions surrounding humanitarian action. The contributors to this volume provide a systematic overview of the issues involved from a wide range of viewpoints. The book examines the central problems of humanitarian action: the judicial question and the right to humanitarian assistance; the ethical framework of humanitarian action; the challenge of coordination of all the actors involved in humanitarian action; the recipients in the aid chain; the link between aid, development and emergency action; the role of the media; and a practical evaluation of Operation Lifeline Sudan.

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
• About the Transnational Institute
• Introduction
• 1. Humanitarian Principles in International Politics in the 1990s
• 2. The Right to Humanitarian Aid: Basis and Limitations
• 3. The Ethical Framework of Humanitarian Action
• 4. The Complex Nature of Actors in Humanitarian Action and the Challenge of Coordination
• 5. Subalterns on the Aid Chain
• 6. Relief, Development and Humanitarian Intervention
• 7. The Media and the Humanitarian Spectacle
• 8. Chronicle of Ajiep, Bahr el Ghazal, Sudan, 1998
• List of Contributors
• Index