Ethical issues of humanitarian action

1. 'forgotten crises', 2. 'winning hearts and minds' and 3. 'representation of suffering

Please discuss these questions :

• Which ethical issues are present in those pictures?
• Have you ever faced similar issues?
• How have you managed or responded to those issues?
• Have you ever been confronted to other ethical issues when working in humanitarianism or in conflict? 

1. Forgotten crisis

The cartoon depicts how humanitarian assistance “cherry picks” crisis and choose to divert aid funding toward newest crisis - here a tsunami over the crisis in Darfur.

The humanitarian crisis in Sudan and in Darfur in particular is often labelled as a “forgotten crisis”.

In early 2003 full blown war came to Sudan’s western region of Darfur with the uprising of Darfuri tribes. The most intense phase of the violence involved a brutal, government-led counterinsurgency campaign carried out by mostly Arab militias, supported by the Sudanese authorities.  When the violence ebbed in early 2005, it left hundreds of thousands dead, more than 2.3 million people displaced. The crisis received a large media coverage and evidences of war crimes carried out by the Arab militias were brought up to the International Criminal Court while celebrities such as George Clooney took a stand for Darfur.

So why Sudan became a forgotten crisis?

The complex and protracted nature of the crisis in Darfur might be the answer to this question.

At the height of the humanitarian response in 2006-2008, hundreds of aid workers were deployed in Darfur. An African Union peacekeeping force was deployed in 2004 and remains in place to this day. The Darfur war has resulted in one of the longest and most expensive international emergency responses.  In a 2015 report, the International Crisis Group estimated that, since the onset of major violence in 2003, the conflict in Darfur is likely to have cost the international community US$20-25 billion, including annual averages in excess of US$1 billion for peacekeeping and around US$600-700 million in humanitarian aid.  

Yet, at the end of 2018 Sudan HNO estimates that 1,2 million Darfurian are still in need of humanitarian assistance, and 5,5 millions across Sudan.

Donors fatigue and public opinion limited attention spam can explain why Darfur receive today less attention. The crisis has been ongoing for 13 years and vast amount of tax payer money has been spent without generating tangible results in term of peace and stability. Darfur is in a state of protracted conflict the crisis is not forgotten but struggles to mobilize again public opinion while donors have difficulty to fundraise.

2. 'winning hearts and minds'

Foreign military forces intervening in conflict zone have often tried to gain acceptance from the local population by providing humanitarian assistance. This strategy has backfired to actual humanitarian workers who are not anymore perceived as neutral but associated with militaries forces. In various conflict zone aid workers are now targeted by belligerent of the conflict who believe that humanitarian organizations are in reality supporting one part of the conflict. Worst fake humanitarian interventions have been used as a cover for military operations. For example, the vaccination campaign carried on in Peshawar in Pakistan in order for US special forces to arrest Oussama Bin Laden which resulted in a resurgence of the Polio since local population did not trust anymore vaccination campaign. Maintaining humanitarian principle of neutrality is absolute key in order to maintain acceptance and access. As a personal example in June 2018 while I was working for a French NGO operating in Syria we were contacted by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs who requested us to facilitate the distribution of 50 tones of medical equipment to IDPs coming from East Ghouta near Damascus. A Russian military plane was supposed to transport the equipment and my organization was requested to accept a Russian military escort during the distribution. We had to explain that our principles of neutrality and impartiality did not allow us to carry this work and apologized.

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