Humanitarian Missions

Modern Humanitarian Ideology

Contemporary humanitarianism as a nonsectarian ideology probably began with the social reforms in Great Britain in the late 1800s and early 1900s including the antislavery and women's suffrage movements and the Factory Acts of 1833 and 1844. Changes in social attitudes in the 19th century were mirrored by concern for the suffering of wounded soldiers returning from numerous wars on the continent. The ICRC was founded from one man's humane gesture to assist wounded soldiers following the Battle of Solferino during the war of Italian unification in 1859.

In the 20th century, the encroachment of war on civilians during World War II saw the establishment of the United Nations in 1945 to address world peace and security and facilitate decolonization and self-determination. A series of Geneva conventions (1949) followed and are at the core of international humanitarian law, which places limits on how war is waged. Although it has no role in regulating the humanitarian sector, the United Nations has ratified the ICRC's activities, privileges, and immunity in alignment with the United Nations and other intergovernmental organizations granting the ICRC [Page 313]a unique position within the humanitarian world. It is exempt from judicial process, has observer status in the United Nations, and is entrusted with the responsibility of upholding international humanitarian law. Of greatest value is the ICRC's place of priority in troubled areas of the world long after other organizations have been asked to leave. Although its principles would seem self-evident, its ideological framework for humanitarianism was restated in 1965 as humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, universality, voluntary service, and unity.

In today's humanitarian world, there is much disagreement about ideological principles, particularly since the demise of the bipolar world of the cold war. Before this, humanitarian organizations were avowedly nonpolitical, without link to specific Western states or to economic or social policy. Relief was given free of political conditions or association and granted purely on the basis of need. By the 1990s, humanitarianism missions began to follow different ideologies and different interpretations in the field. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 challenged many organizations to reconsider their humanitarian codes and principles on whether to speak out against human rights infringements. Yet speaking out can have its own deleterious effects on all concerned. For the recipients of aid, often struggling for survival and oppressed by internal power struggles, the humanitarian agency may be their only advocate. For the humanitarian worker, the challenge is to find which ideology produces the best humanitarian practice, and which recipient is indeed the oppressed and most in need of assistance.

...