Paper details

Paper authors	Alasdair Gordon-Gibson
In panel on	The politics of humanitarian negotiations
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Confrontation with authority and competition amongst stakeholders feature prominently in debates on dysfunction in the humanitarian environment. By reimagining and recasting the identity of humanitarian actors and identifying a place of shared participation with power that is able to challenge its authority if the humanitarian norms agreed by the community are breached, I present an approach that redefines the places of participation inside contemporary constructions of humanitarian space. In order to navigate the complex interconnections in this place of competing interests and divergent identities, the paper considers two of the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement that are less examined by traditional scholarship – Voluntary Service and Universality – which, I argue, enables a more shared and inclusive participation than current discussions around the core humanitarian principles permit. This approach calls for a shift in the discourse away from the dominant and centralised platforms of the international humanitarian ‘system’ and instead recognise a messier humanitarian paradigm that accepts the imbalances and hierarchies of politics and power, and, as communities have always done, work alongside them in both cooperation and contestation.

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