Letter in support of Richard Horton (original) (raw)
Related papers
Ethics, Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law
The War & Peace Journal addresses issues across the whole spectrum human relations from Utopian peace to nuclear war. Its goal is to promote understanding of underlying issues of war in order to support peace. Academics, post-graduate students and operators of peace studies and of military arts and sciences are welcome to submit articles, notes, book reviews or comments on any subject related to these issues. The journal has three sections:
A special comment on this special issue on international ethics and values, by Senior Editor
2009
I write this as a welcoming statement for those attending the Conference on International Social Work. Approximately 8 years ago, when the Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics was still in the planning stages, the Editorial Board discussed the desire to offer a special issue on international ethics. Since then, I have been introducing the possibility at every appropriate venue in which I had an opportunity to speak. Over the Internet, I met Jason L. Powell, an Associate Dean at the University of Liverpool in the UK, who expressed a strong interest in joining the Editorial Board. Besides having an impressive résumé, after an energetic discussion with Jason, he "volunteered" take the helm as Special Guest Editor for our Special Issue on International Social Work Values and Ethics. Receive free e-mail notification of each new edition of the Journal.
- The use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war and the international response to this has exposed fundamental differences of opinion in the UK regarding the legitimacy and legality of using armed force to alleviate human suffering. It has also demonstrated significant confusion regarding the principle of a Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and the so-called doctrine of humanitarian intervention. The UK government's legal position on humanitarian intervention is highly controversial and arguably not in line with prevailing international political and legal norms. Moreover, the parliamentary debate of 29 August 2013 on the use of chemical weapons in Syria indicated that many parliamentarians mistakenly believe that R2P allows military intervention when the United Nations is not able to actor even that R2P is a principle to be invoked when UN action is stymied. It is not. An informed debatewhich reflects broader global politicsis needed in order to build consensus on how to respond internationally to terrible abuses of human rights. Well-intentioned but illfounded national positions on humanitarian intervention will, in the longer term, weaken the R2P principle, possibly irrecoverably. Moreover, injudicious action in this area can also have negative repercussions for the UK's broader relationships and diplomatic credibility with important states (such as China, Russia, India and Brazil) which take a more conservative position on the subject of humanitarian intervention.
Iyad Sabbah's Worn Out installation in Gaza Alas, it does not go without saying…. The words in the two paragraphs below from Hugo Slim, alas, are not an exemplum of the expression, "it goes without saying," although I used to believe-naively and ignorantly-that such thoughts, feelings or sentiments were, more often than not, at least intuitively grasped if not consciously affirmed by most of us! The fact that this is not the case should move us to recall that the manner of our upbringing-its conditions and opportunities, its good fortune, its time and place and so forth-are not similar, let alone the same, to that of (many) others. Indeed, for 2 this or that reason, reasons which may be inexplicable or elusive, amenable to explanation or excuse, mitigating or absolving, entailing responsibility disavowed or neglected, in conjunction with all manner of felicitous or deleterious mental, psychological and emotional mechanisms, processes or phenomena, are a firm reminder that we can take very little for granted, that we must remain open-hearted and open-minded, and do our utmost to eschew self-satisfaction and arrogance, all the while struggling arduously to "practice what we preach," keeping in mind that there are myriad modes of suffering, and that all of us, by virtue of being human animals, are caught up in its net, and yet some of us are more obviously entangled and suffocating in that net than others. Amelioration or relief of these more horrific and needless forms of suffering is, we should admit, eminently possible, and thus we should do whatever is in our power, however modest, to realize that possibility, given our knowledge, talents, skills and capacities (alongside a keen appreciation of our limitations). Determining the precise character of such an obligation or duty, or what it should or might entail, is up to each of us to ascertain, given whatever measure of moral psychological autonomy it is our privilege to have within our reach. "Humanitarian action is about respecting, protecting and saving human life. At its best, it is a very practical affirmation of the value of human life and its unique character in each human person. Trying to help someone who is suffering is a fundamental gesture of care. It shows us that we feel something very precious in our own lives and so recognize this preciousness in the lives of other people too. Wanting to help someone reveals that they mean something important to us. We want them to stay alive because they are valuable. We believe that the destruction of a person is a tragedy that must be prevented, and we also believe that people can live through and after suffering. Their live may be changed forever by damage, loss and pain, but we hold that renewal of life and some form of fulfillment are possible after war and disaster. Trying to help other people is a very good thing to do, but it is not always easy to do. Because it is difficult, helping can go wrong. Helping people requires some kind of access to them and a certain freedom of operation. More than this, helping people well takes knowledge, skill and resources. It also requires a counter-intuitive move towards cooperation rather than control. Good help enables a person or a community to remain the subject of their lives, not objects in the lives and purposes of others. Good humanitarian action makes people its goal but does not objectify them as 'beneficiaries' or commodify them as 'recipients' of aid. On the contrary, good humanitarian aid and protection increases people's autonomy and agency as human beings. The best humanitarian action is that which respects people and works with them to prevent suffering, repair harm, and enable them to come through their suffering and flourish."-Hugo
A Response to Talal Asad's 'Reflections on Violence, Law and Humanitarianism'
Critical Inquiry, 2015
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Disasters, 1998
The humanitarian crisis which followed in the wake of the genocidal regime in Rwanda in 1994 generated massive media attention and an unprecedented outpouring of international public and private assistance. In late 1997, the Rwanda refugee population in Zaire was subjected to a disaster of similarly epic proportions as a result of military action. Yet this crisis went relatively under-reported and failed to attract substantial aid funds, particularly from official donors. This paper seeks to document and account for the demise of the humanitarian imperative. It confronts a number of the criticisms of humanitarian action, concluding that, rather than being flawed, traditional humanitarian values remain valid and should be defended wherever there are situations of conflict.