Paper details

Paper authors	Chin Ruamps
In panel on	Humanitarian standards as the leveller in humanitarian politics
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

This paper aim to show that traditional humanitarian principles appear to be insufficient to help humanitarian agencies when they face humanitarian assistance dilemmas in fields. Traditional humanitarian principles have their main focus on humanitarian imperative (humanity), independence, impartiality, and neutrality (Barnett, 2011; Minear & Weiss, 1993; Hoffman & Weiss, 2006; Rieff, 2002). While humanitarian imperative and the notion of independence remain the most important humanitarian principles in humanitarian operations, principles of impartiality and neutrality have attracted much criticism. In brief, the principles of impartiality and neutrality are two of the core principles of humanitarian action. The former focuses on providing aid according to need and without discrimination; the latter focuses on the importance of not taking sides in conflicts (Abu-Sada, 2012; Barnett, 2011; ECHO & ODI, 1998; Fast, 2014; Harroff-Tavel, 1989; Hoffman & Weiss, 2006; Mackintosh, 2000; Minear & Weiss, 1993).

Although a commitment to impartiality can help humanitarian agencies reflect the belief in humanity, it is viewed as outdated by many, given that it often benefits not only the genuine affected populations but also the obvious wrongdoers (i.e. unjust belligerents). Examples like this were found in the case of Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand by the end of the 1970s. The principle of impartiality hence risks enabling armed combatants to gain from the relief programme. The principle of neutrality, on the other hand, encourages repressors to continue to cause harm through staying neutral, making no judgements and remaining silent on repressors’ mass abuse of victims. The example of the Biafran War in the late 1960s showed how humanitarian agencies encouraged repressors to continue to cause harm because of the principle of neutrality (Terry, 2002). These contradictions hence made traditional humanitarian principles hard to justify. The humanitarian assistance dilemmas can thus arise when humanitarian agencies are committed to principles of impartiality and neutrality and feed unjust armed combatants.

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