...Abstract: Humanitarian crises and international politics goes hand in hand. One can cause the other, while the only way to fix the other is to rely on politics. This paper will highlight the cause of genocide, violent massacres and crisis, how to solve them, and key roles politicians and nations must take up wholeheartedly in order to make a difference. Personal and political reconciliation must occur in the parties involved ever want to have a mutual co existence. Humanitarian Crisis and Reconciliation To understand the impact of humanitarian crises and how international politics play a role, a common definition of such crises must be understood. In his book “Humanitarian Crises and the International Politics of Selectivity” Martin Binder defines a humanitarian crisis as a “large scale human suffering resulting from the violation or the destruction of the physical integrity of a large number of people” (pg. 332). There are quite a few causes of these events that include natural disasters-earthquakes floods, winds, landslides, avalanches, cyclones, tsunamis, locust infestations, drought, volcanic eruptions, changes in weather or tidal patterns. Human factors include political corruption, embargoes or blockades, lack of planning or foresight, and not to mention demographic and geographic characteristics like population density. Of the major causes, the majority of them come from natural disasters but the one cause that can arguably be the most...
Words: 2063 - Pages: 9
...The rise of the private sector in humanitarianism has led to the humanitarian innovation movement. By applying the principles of capitalism to the humanitarian sector, humanitarians have been hoping to bring the efficiencies and creativity produced by the market and lacked by the state. Tom Scott-Smith defines his idea of "humanitarian neophilia" as the intersection between the possibilities of technology and the ideas of the New Right. This current movement is distinct as it is striving to find solutions, through technological means, within the market itself. However, this strategy poses numerous problems. By viewing the relationships between the provider of aid and the beneficiary as a business transaction, companies are disconnecting themselves...
Words: 546 - Pages: 3
...The Humanitarian award was created to recognize outstanding individuals who dedicate their time to fight indifference, intolerance and injustice and whose accomplishments are consistent with the goals of Foundations. Each year, the Harvard Foundation presents the Humanitarian Award to an individual who works and deeds have served to improve the quality of our lives and inspired us to greater heights. My humanitarian award nomination is Jennifer Hutchins, my mom because she is a hard worker, she treats others how she wants to be treated, and she is a very nice and caring person. Jennifer Miller was born in Ohio. She is that type of person who does not get along with their biological father because he left them when she was little. The fact...
Words: 406 - Pages: 2
...|OCHA Humanitarian Futures Grant Programme |[pic] | OCHA Policy Development and Studies Branch invites applications to its 2012 Humanitarian Futures Grant Programme. The purpose of the programme is to build the capacity of young researchers to study topics relevant to humanitarian action. It provides financial support to enable original research and writing on issues and trends that relate to: 1) the changing drivers of humanitarian need; 2) the system for responding to those needs. All research projects must be completed within a maximum of six months and result in the preparation of a 20-40 page paper. Projects that include field work and original research will be prioritized. The projects should not focus on the role of OCHA. The maximum grant payable under this programme is $4,000, with the exact disbursement to be determined by the nature of the work and the total number of selected projects. The final papers will be published on the OCHA website so they benefit the humanitarian and wider community. Grantees will retain ownership of their work and it will not be used by OCHA for any other purpose. The grants are open to anyone aged 32 years and under on 1 September 2012. Research projects on any topic of relevance to humanitarian policy and practice are welcome. However, some suggested themes for research include: ❖ Accountability to affected people ❖ Measuring...
Words: 361 - Pages: 2
...a) The key IHL provisions that are covered in the instrument The Additional Protocols include rules especially designed to protect both civilians and combatants. They stipulate that: * combatants must not pose as civilians * indiscriminate attacks are not allowed * acts of violence - or threats to commit them - whose primary purpose is to spread terror are prohibited * objects indispensable to the survival of communities must not be destroyed Strengthen the obligation to provide civilians with food, water and other essentials. Those who are not, or no longer, taking part in an armed conflict must be protected, respected and treated humanely. The Additional Protocols say that: * All wounded and sick people, both civilian and military, must be collected and cared for, without discrimination. * Women and children must be respected and protected from any form of indecent assault. * Children and adolescents must be protected from the effects of war. They must not be allowed to take part in hostilities. * Members of families separated by conflict should be reunited and they should be able to exchange personal messages. They also have the right to be informed of what has happened to missing relatives. The Additional Protocols say that: * Suffering inflicted on an opponent must not go beyond what is necessary to achieve a legitimate military objective. * Combatants no longer capable of fighting may not be attacked. * In an international...
Words: 960 - Pages: 4
...Service Process Design: The Emergency Telecommunications Cluster and Humanitarian Disaster Relief Operations Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Factors Influencing Service Process Design 5 2.1 Disaster Preparedness 5 2.2 Disaster Response 7 2.3 Collaboration during Disasters 10 3. Project Management and Humanitarian Logistics 10 4. Conclusion 12 Bibliography 13 Appendix 1 – List of figures 16 Service process design: Emergency Telecommunications Cluster during Humanitarian Disaster Relief Operations 1. Introduction On 8 November, 2013, Typhoon Haiyan struck the islands of the Philippines unleashing record sustained wind velocities of 315 km/h, (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs , 2013). The storm which initially affected over 18 million people included the devastation of large urban population centres in Tacloban City and Roxas City. On November 9, the President of the Philippines appealed to the global community requesting international support. This request called for assistance in priority identified sectors including search and rescue, fuel, and telecommunications (Government of Philippines, 2013). Within 48 hours in response to the government request, the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) activated, deploying staff and equipment to contribute to the Humanitarian Relief Operations (HRO) through provision of voice and data services as described in their ITIL based service...
Words: 3617 - Pages: 15
...DOES HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION HELP RESOLVE CONFLICTS? CASE STUDY ON THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO. INTRODUCTION This essay will point out the definition of humanitarian intervention and the lack of definition or misinterpretation of the legality of humanitarian intervention. It will give a historical description on the nature of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the exploitation of the country and the main instigators fuelling this conflict. It will analyse the humanitarian intervention efforts by the international community and how has it helped in the conflict resolutions to protect the nation’s citizens. It will also give you the different organisations, a description of the contributions the international community are trying to achieve to alleviate the suffering of the population as well as the measures to help the nation from ceasing the continuation of this ongoing conflict. The definition of what constitutes humanitarian intervention can be questioned both legally, morally and politically, it has been defined as a states use of military force against another state or within the state, aim at ending human rights violations but should be best understood as intervening without military force to alleviate mass human suffering within sovereign borders. (Wikipedia, 25th Sep 2013) Another excellent definition as stated by Holzgrefe, J.L is a “threat or use of force across state borders by a state (or group of states) aimed at...
Words: 2522 - Pages: 11
...Humanitarian intervention is a label that has been employed to describe economic to military intervention. The main types of intervention include military, diplomatic, developmental and economic sanction. Mill’s (1859) stated that "There seems to be no little need that the whole doctrine of non-interference with foreign nations should be reconsidered, if it can be said to have as yet been considered as a really moral question at all... To go to war for an idea, if the war is aggressive, not defensive, is as criminal as to go to war for territory or revenue; for it is as little justifiable to force our ideas on other people, as to compel them to submit to our will in any other respect”. This essay will demonstrate how humanitarian intervention efforts are not reaching the goals that are needed to properly aid the disadvantaged nations in developing nations. Economic humanitarian intervention emerged at the end of the Second World War. Historically, it is apparent that foreign aid was used explicitly to prevent the expansion of communism during the Cold War, and not solely to help those in need. It can be argued that humanitarian intervention has done more harm than good to the nations. Northern/ Western countries have enriched themselves from their unequal relation with Southern either under colonialism or under the trading system, which has the Southern nations paying more towards their ongoing debt and receiving an irrelevant amount of foreign aid to help assist these nations...
Words: 2006 - Pages: 9
...to intervene in another state’s territorial and political sovereignty with or without United Nation Security Council’s approval? It is the aim of this essay to examine some of the answers commonly given to these questions. To address the ethical and legal justifiability of intervention this essay will begin by analyzing how we define humanitarian intervention. The second section discusses moral and ethical issue relating to humanitarian intervention. The discussion focuses on the several theories that present a moral case for intervention. It concludes by examining whether international law should affirm a right to humanitarian intervention. The literature on the ethics and legality of humanitarian intervention is filled with disagreement. This essay seeks to identify and critically assess the often unexamined moral and legal assumptions behind these disagreements. Definition of Humanitarian Intervention It is necessary to begin with a clear understanding of the concept to be analyzed. We need then to start by addressing the question, what is humanitarian intervention? And to address this we need to study the definition of humanitarian intervention. “It is the threat or use of force across state borders by a state of group of states, such as the United Nations, NATO and European Union, aimed at preventing or ending widespread and grave violations of the fundamental human rights of individuals other than its own...
Words: 3276 - Pages: 14
...|HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION | |INTRODUCTION | Humanitarian intervention poses a hard test for any international society built on principles of sovereignty, non-intervention, and the non-use of force. Immediately after the Holocaust, the society of states established laws prohibiting genocide, forbidding the mistreatment of civilians, and recognizing basic human rights. These humanitarian principles often conflict with principles of sovereignty and non-intervention. Sovereign states are expected to act as guardians of their citizens’ security, but what happens if states behave as criminals towards their own people, treating sovereignty as a licence to kill? Should tyrannical states be recognized as legitimate members of international society and accorded the protection afforded by the non-intervention principle? Or, should states forfeit their sovereign rights and be exposed to legitimate intervention if they actively abuse or fail to protect their citizens? Related to this, what responsibilities do other states or institutions have to enforce human rights norms against governments that massively violate them? Armed humanitarian intervention was not a legitimate practice during the cold war because states placed more...
Words: 5806 - Pages: 24
...States (US) plans to continue to deploy the US military to assist in humanitarian and disaster relief, significant investment toward training and planning for that mission is needed. On Sept. 16th 2014 the White House announced that it would send over 3,000 US military personnel to assist in the Ebola Response in Liberia. These troops were deployed from and commanded by the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) (1). The military teams built 11 Ebola treatment units (ETU), 9 of which never treated a single patient (2). While international leaders, including Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf downplayed the lack of efficacy of the military response, the response’s signature accomplishment, the construction of the ETUs, turned...
Words: 764 - Pages: 4
...In the 1990s the UN was involved, through action or inaction, in a number of humanitarian interventions. It started with the creation of a safe haven in Iraq for the Kurds and the decade ended with Australian intervention in East Timor. The lack of effective action in Rwanda leading to the killing of 800000 people in 100 days has means that very few people today support a complete non-interventionist approach. It is more or less agreed upon that humanitarian intervention can be justifiable in the extreme circumstances to end massive human suffering . After Rwanda the main cause for concern and debate has been about who should intervene and when. Eventually the divisiveness of Kosovo encouraged Secretary General Kofi Annan to ask for a new way of looking at this issue...
Words: 3533 - Pages: 15
...Like all of my fellow students headed off to post-secondary destinations, the media has had an influence on my life thus far. I, however, intend on returning the favor. My name is Aaron Goodman, and I believe that Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson is my true calling. From the cartoons I enjoyed watching as a kid to the movies I pay twelve dollars to see, I have always been fascinated by the production of media; not simply how it is made, but also how it makes its way into my living room. I am a man with many hobbies: Playing guitar, collecting comic books, following my favorite hockey team, and watching movies are all passions of mine, among many others. Though my interests are diverse in nature, they share one common element: none of them would be possible without the media. Without radio, I wouldn’t have been inspired to learn that new song I recently heard; without television and the CBC, I wouldn’t be able to watch the Maple Leafs every Saturday night. These are things that have helped define who I am, which is I have developed a reputation as a skilled writer and articulate individual, having great success in all areas of English and French studies. I earned the Civics award in grade 10 as well as the English award in grade 11. Many of the elective courses I have taken over the past three years, including communications technology, media studies and history through film have greatly contributed to my interest in media production...
Words: 993 - Pages: 4
...Humanitarian Intervention Humanitarian Intervention in Kosovo - 1999 Edmund Tan (2014461102) Introduction On 24th March 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) launched a 78 day long air campaign Operation Allied Force (OAF) over former Yugoslavia, with the intent to stop the Milosevic regime from committing human rights abuses and ethnic cleansing of the Kosovo Albanians in Kosovo. This was a significant event with regards to humanitarian intervention in recent history as it was seen as a new international phenomenon. It was the first time that a group of states intervened without the authorization of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and it was also the first time that NATO used military force to prevent a humanitarian disaster. This event divided the world in their support for or against NATO’s humanitarian intervention in Kosovo. Critics of the intervention felt that NATO was breaking international law in acting without the authority of the UNSC and this could have jeopardized international order should any state or group of states decide to act on their own accord in intervening in a foreign territory in the future. Supporters of the intervention argue that the war gave human rights precedence over the rights of states. According to then Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel, even though NATO acted without a direct UN mandate for intervention, they have not acted out of license, aggressiveness or disrespect for international law. NATO has...
Words: 5151 - Pages: 21
...most people see the name Angelina Jolie they only think of the talented actress, the significant other of Brad Pitt or the celebrity with the very diverse children but she is so much more than that. Since 2001 Jolie has been working alongside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to bring awareness to the unfortunate situations of refugees from around the world. She has traveled to and volunteered in many third world countries such as; Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Iraq and North Caucasus. In addition to this, she along with Brad Pitt founded the Jolie-Pitt foundation which is dedicated to eradicating extreme rural poverty, protecting natural resources and conserving wildlife. This foundation also donates to many other humanitarian groups, one being Doctors without Borders. In 2009 Angelina Jolie gave the opening speech for a World Refugee Day event being held at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington D.C. Throughout this speech Jolie concentrates not on the horrible conditions that refugees endure but on the spirit that they have from being in these situations. When speaking to millions of Americans she doesn’t rely on facts or statistics but instead she uses anecdotal evidence, visualization and pathos to get her point across. The purpose of this speech is not to persuade but to inform the people of America about the amazing people she has met while traveling to third world countries. Furthermore, she is trying to show people that you should...
Words: 925 - Pages: 4
