Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T04:33:11.391Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Humanitarians and their moral stance in war: the underlying values

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2010

Abstract

In this article, the moral values underlying humanitarian principles are analysed. What were these original moral values? Have they changed? To what extent are they in danger today? Has humanity itself become an instrumental value? To answer these questions, the author examines the humanitarian discourse: firstly, how these values have been described by humanitarians themselves, and secondly, how they are used by humanitarians in specific contexts.

Type
Selected articles on international humanitarian law
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Caroline Moorehead, Dunant's Dream: War, Switzerland and the History of the Red Cross, Harper Collins, London, 1998, pp. 41–42.

2 See for example Fiona Terry, Condemned to Repeat: The Paradox of Humanitarian Action, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 2002; Slim, Hugo, ‘Relief agencies and moral standing in war: Principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and solidarity’, Development in Practice, Vol. 7, No. 4, 1997, pp. 342353CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Larry Minear, The Humanitarian Enterprise: Dilemmas and Discoveries, Kumarian Press, Bloomfield, 2002; Weiss, Thomas G., ‘Principles, politics and humanitarian action’, Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 13, 1999, pp. 5069CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Eva von Oelreich is Executive Secretary of the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR), an alliance for voluntary action of major international humanitarian organizations and networks.

4 The author understands discourse as ‘both a specific form of language use, and a specific form of social interaction, interpreted as complete communicative event in a social situation’ – Teun van Dijk, ‘Social Cognition and Discourse’, in H. Giles and R. P. Robinson (eds.), Handbook of Language and Social Psychology, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1990, p. 163.

5 Henri Dunant, A Memory of Solferino, ICRC, Geneva, 1986, available at http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/p0361 (visited 20 November 2009).

6 Jean Pictet, Red Cross Principles, ICRC, Geneva, 1956. This was one of the first attempts to codify some of the principles of the Red Cross and the humanitarian community.

7 Bobby Sayyid and Lilian Zac, ‘Political analysis in a world without foundations’, in E. Scarbrough and E. Tanenbaum (eds.), Research Strategies in the Social Sciences, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998, p. 261.

8 Humanity is described as the Red Cross Movement's essential (moral) principle, although the same word is also commonly used to denote human nature or even the human species as a whole (Pictet, above note 6, p. 15).

9 Schweizer, Beat, ‘Moral dilemmas for humanitarians in the era of “humanitarian interventions”’, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 86, No. 855, September 2004, pp. 547564CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Pictet, above note 6.

11 Yves Beigbeder, The Role and Status of International Humanitarian Volunteers and Organizations: The Right and Duty to Humanitarian Assistance, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht, 1991, p. 9.

12 Dunant, above note 5, p. 13.

13 Ibid., p. 13.

14 Ibid., p. 17.

15 Moorehead, above note 1, pp. 42–43.

16 Ibid., p. 43.

17 Pictet, above note 6, p. ii.

18 Plattner, Denise, ‘ICRC neutrality and neutrality in humanitarian assistance’, in International Review of the Red Cross, No. 311, March–April 1996, p. 1Google Scholar; Pictet, above note 6, p. 14.

19 Pictet, above note 6, p. 12.

20 Schweizer, above note 9, p. 548; Hugo Slim, ‘Humanitarian ethics in disaster and war’, in World Disasters Report 2003: Focus on Ethics in Aid, 2003, Chapter 1 – Summary, available online at: http://www.ifrc.org/publicat/wdr2003/chapter1.asp (visited 20 November 2009).

21 Pictet, above note 6.

22 Ibid., p. 14.

23 Ibid., p. 16.

24 Ibid., p. 16.

25 In Ethica Nicomachea, Aristotle describes philia as a genuine friend, someone who loves or likes another person for the sake of that other person. Wanting what is good for the sake of another he calls ‘good will’ (eunoia), and friendship is reciprocal good will, provided that each recognizes the presence of this attitude in the other.

26 Huber, Max, The Good Samaritan: Reflections on the Gospel and Work in the Red Cross, Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1945, p. 44Google Scholar.

27 Ibid., p. 46.

28 Pictet, above note 6, p. 17.

29 Martin Buber, I and Thou, translated by W. Kaufman, T. & T. Clark, New York, 1970.

30 Pictet, above note 6, p. 17.

31 Ibid., p. 16.

32 Ibid., p. 16.

33 Ibid., p. 54.

34 Ibid., pp. 54–55.

35 Ibid., p. 56.

36 Ibid., p. 56.

37 Ibid., p. 74.

38 Ibid., pp. 59–61.

39 Slim, Hugo, ‘Relief agencies and moral standing in war: Principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and solidarity’, Development in Practice, Vol. 7, No. 4, 1997, p. 347CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 Plattner, above note 18, part 2B.

41 Pictet, above note 6, p. 48.

42 van Iersel, Fred, ‘De krijgsmacht: een voorbeeld voor de samenleving’, Militaire Spectator, Vol. 165, No. 11, 1996, pp. 516–524Google Scholar; van Baarda, Ted and van Iersel, Fred, ‘The uneasy relationship between conscience and military law: The Brahimi Report's unresolved dilemma’, International Peacekeeping, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2002, pp. 2550CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Beigbeder, above note 11, p. 147.

44 Pictet, above note 6, p. 79.

45 Ibid., p. 82.

46 Etxeberria, Xavier, ‘The ethical framework of humanitarian action’, in Humanitarian Studies Unit (ed), Reflections on Humanitarian Action: Principles, Ethics and Contradiction, Pluto Press, London, 2001, p. 89Google Scholar.

47 Pictet, above note 6, p. 82.

48 Peter Walker, ‘What does it mean to be a professional humanitarian?’, Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, 2004, available at http://www.jha.ac/articles/a127.htm (visited 20 November 2009).

49 Pictet, above note 6, p. 30.

50 Hugo Slim, Claiming a humanitarian imperative: NGOs and the cultivation of humanitarian duty, International Council on Human Rights Policy Working Paper, presented at the Seventh Annual Conference of Webster University on Humanitarian Values for the Twenty-First Century, Geneva, 21–22 February 2002, p. 3.

51 Pictet, above note 6, p. 14.

52 Etxeberria, above note 46, p. 79.

53 Slim, above note 50, p. 4.

54 Mary B. Anderson, Do No Harm: How Aid can Support Peace or War, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Colorado, 1999.

55 Moorehead, above note 1.

56 Beigbeder, above note 11, p. 167.

57 Anderson, above note 54.

58 Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell, Basic Books, New York, 2002, p. 82.

59 Moorehead, above note 1, p. 616.

60 Allan, Tim and Styan, David, ‘A right to interfere? Bernard Kouchner and the new humanitarianism’, Journal of International Development, Vol. 13, Issue 6, 2000, p. 300Google Scholar; Moorehead, above note 1, p. 625.

61 Schweizer, above note 9, p. 552.

62 Peter J. Hoffman and Thomas G. Weiss, Sword and Salve: Confronting New Wars and Humanitarian Crises, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Oxford, 2006.

63 Schweizer, above note 9, p. 552.

64 Slim, above note 39, p. 344.

65 African Rights. Humanitarianism Unbound, African Rights, London, 1994.

66 van Baarda, Ted, ‘The involvement of the Security Council in maintaining international humanitarian law’, in Netherlands Quarterly for Human Rights, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1994, pp. 157–152CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67 Hoffman and Weiss, above note 62.

68 Van Baarda, above note 66.

69 Philippe Mahoux and Guy Verhofstadt, Parlementaire Commissie van Onderzoek Betreffende de Gebeurtenissen in Rwanda, 1997, available at http://www.senate.be/www/?MIval=/Registers/ViewReg.html&COLL=S&POS=1&PUID=16778222&TID=16778570&LANG=nl (visited 20 November 2009).

70 Filip Reyntjens, De Grote Afrikaanse Oorlog: Congo in de Regionale Geopolitiek 1996–2006 , Meulenhof/Manteau, Antwerp, 2009, p. 91.

71 Hugo Slim, ‘Military intervention to protect human rights: The humanitarian agency perspective’, Background paper for the International Council on Human Rights' Meeting on Humanitarian intervention: Responses and dilemmas for human rights organisations, Geneva, 31 March–1 April 2001, available at http://www.jha.ac/articles/a084.htm (visited 20 November 2009).

72 Larry Minear and Philippe Guillot. Soldiers to the Rescue: Humanitarian Lessons from Rwanda, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, 1996, p. 148.

73 Terry, Fiona, Condemned to Repeat: The Paradox of Humanitarian Action, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 2002, p. 6Google Scholar.

74 Ibid., p. 2.

75 Ibid., p. 22.

76 Interahamwe is a Hutu paramilitary organization. In Kinyarwanda the name means ‘those who stand/work/fight/attack together’.

77 Terry, above note 73, p. 1.

78 Cahill, Kevin M., Traditions, Values and Humanitarian Action, Fordham University Press, 2003Google Scholar.

79 Reyntjens, above note 70, p. 94.

80 Dauphinée, Elizabeth, The Ethics of Researching War: Looking for Bosnia, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2007, p. 33Google Scholar.

81 Terry, above note 73, p. 202.

82 Van Baarda, above note 66, p. 138.

83 NATO, AJP-9 NATO Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) Doctrine 2003, available at http://www.nato.int/ims/docu/AJP-9.pdf (visited 20 November 2009).

84 Eva Wortel and Desiree Verweij, ‘Inquiry, criticism and reasonableness: The Socratic dialogue as a research method?’, Practical Philosophy, July 2008, p. 64.

85 Dennis Dijkzeul (ed.), ‘Between Force and Mercy; Military Action and Humanitarian Aid’, Bochumer Schriften zur Friedenssicherung und zum Humanitären Völkerrecht, Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin, 2004, p. 322.

86 Ibid., p. 331.

87 Hoffman and Weiss, above note 62, p. 145.

88 Schweizer, above note 9, p. 555.

89 Dijkzeul, above note 85; Jane Barry and Anna Jefferys, ‘A bridge too far: Aid agencies and the military in humanitarian response’, Humanitarian Practice Network Paper, No. 37, 2002, available at: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900sid/LGEL-5FKHH5/$file/odi-bridge-jan02.pdf?openelement (visited 20 November 2009).

90 Georg Frerks, Bart Klem, Stevan van Laar and Marleen van Klingeren, Principles and Pragmatism: Civil-Military Action in Afghanistan and Liberia, Bart Klem Research/Universiteit Utrecht, May 2006, available at http://www.cordaid.nl/Upload/publicatie/RAPPORT%20CMR.pdf (visited 30 November 2009).

91 Sebastiaan J. H. Rietjens, ‘Providing relief: The case of the Dutch engineers in Kosovo’, in S. J. H Rietjens and M. T. I. B Bollen (eds.), Managing Civil-Military Cooperation, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Hampshire, 2008, p. 99.

92 Johan de Graaf, ‘Shaky grounds: Civil-military response to the Pakistani earthquake’, in Managing Civil-Military Cooperation, in Rietjens and Bollen (eds.)ibid., p. 83.

93 Bart Klem and Stefan van Laar, ‘Pride and prejudice: An Afghan and Liberian case study’, in Rietjens and Bollen (eds.), ibid., p. 139.

94 Jacques Derrida, On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness (Thinking in Action). translated by M. Dooley and M. Hughes, Routledge, London, 2001, p. 44.

95 Simon Critchley and Richard Kearney, Preface, in Derrida, Ibid., p. xii.

96 Ibid.

97 Slim, above note 39, p. 350.