Paper details
| Paper authors | Oscar A. Gomez |
| In panel on | Alternative Humanitarian Principles & Non-Traditional Humanitarians |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
In-Person / |
Abstract
The present paper offers a critical perspective of the future of humanitarian principles and institutions from the perspective of Latin American emerging powers. The region provides a mix of characteristics that result on a unique take on humanitarianism: rather well-off and mostly outside of the scope of major humanitarian emergencies—except for Haiti—it is in the position to move from recipient to provider; still, Latin America is affected by high inequality, by organized crime, by all types of disasters while hosting one of the major internal displacement situations of all times, so the region remains close to the arena of humanitarian action. The paper explores this duality, based on over 100 semi-structured interviews in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, complemented with direct observation and primary data gathering. Among major observations, at least four new principles of action are identified, namely “reciprocity,” “sustainability,” “non-indifference,” and “horizontality.” Dissimilar institutions and patterns of action could be identified for different types of emergencies, particularly for disasters, pandemics, and forced displacement, framings that they favor over an overarching humanitarian institution. Indeed, countries explicitly contest the traditional humanitarian establishment and their contributions may be better understood as reflecting ongoing transformations on their “human” security agendas.
Back