Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-tnzcf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T02:02:41.791Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Humanitarian Responsibility and Committed Action

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

Joelle Tanguy and
Fiona Terry
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Far from rejecting the classicist approach, as Thomas Weiss claims, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) follows the fundamental principle of providing aid in proportion to need and without discrimination. Actions that on Weiss's political continuum would be termed solidarist are less an expression of political preference than a determination to claim and operate within humanitarian space as well as to maintain accountability to international civil society through testimony (témoignage) regarding mass violations of human rights. Although providing aid in conflict is implicitly political, involving humanitarian actors and aid in conflict resolution initiatives, as Weiss advocates, risks diluting the primary responsibility of humanitarian aid to alleviate suffering. It also further shifts the responsibility for conflict resolution and the respect of international legal conventions from accountable political institutions to the private sphere. Is this where we want to lead humanitarianism?

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 13 , March 1999, pp. 29 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1999

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1 Shawcross, William, The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust and Modern Conscience (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984Google Scholar).

2 Rufin, Jean-Christophe, Le Piège humanitaire (Paris: Édition Jean-Claude Lattès, 1986Google Scholar).

3 Becker, Jasper, Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine (New York: Free Press, 1997Google Scholar).

4 See Jean, François, “De l'interétatique au translational: les acteurs non-étatiques clans les conflits,” Recherches & Documents, no. 5 (June 1998Google Scholar).

5 Brauman, Rony, “Refugee Camps, Population Transfers and NGOs,” in Moore, Jonathan, ed., Hard Choices: Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998Google Scholar).

6 Destexhe, Alain, “Humanitarian Neutrality: Myth or Reality?” in Cahill, K., ed., Preventive Diplomacy (New York: Basic Books, 1996Google Scholar).

7 See Jean, François and Rufin, Jean-Christophe, Économies des guerrses civiles (Paris: Hachette Pluriel, 1996Google Scholar).

8 Brauman, Rony, Humanitaire: le dilemme (Paris: Les Éditions Textuel, 1996Google Scholar).

9 Terry, Fiona, “The Humanitarian Impulse: Imperatives versus Consequences” (paper presented at the annual convention of the International Studies Association, Washington, D. C., February 17, 1999Google Scholar).