Abstract
Is there a relationship between world politics and humanitarian action, and if so, what does it look like? Whereas humanitarian action is a tool for protection and assistance, the term world politics relates to the behaviour of international political actors in a global setting, encompassing human and economic as well as physical and territorial aspects.
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Notes
- 1.
Decolonisation reached its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, with a large number of States gaining independence.
- 2.
Southern Rhodesia, having self-proclaimed independence from the UK, with a system closely resembling apartheid, as well as Angola and Mozambique, still Portuguese colonies at the time.
- 3.
Art. 1(2) Addis Ababa Convention.
- 4.
Kachin, Chin, Arakan, Shan, Kayan, Kayin, Mon. However, there is another minority within these larger groups of minorities, whose unclear status derives from an issue of contested boundaries: the Rohingyas. Originating from the western side of the Burmese border—today’s Bangladesh, formerly part of the British Empire—they were first brought to Burma under British rule. When Burma was granted independence, Rohingya on Burmese territory were separated from their brethren in Bangladesh, then Eastern Pakistan, and became a Muslim minority within Buddhist dominated Burma, mostly concentrated in the Arakan/Rakhine State.
- 5.
Alija Izetbegovic was the President of Bosnia-Herzegovina during the wars of independence that led to Yugoslavia’s end as a unified State. In the 1980s, he had promised to make Bosnia an Islamic Republic.
- 6.
A large number of valleys, and the location of the biggest cities in valleys alongside the rivers, enabled Bosnian Serb troops to surround Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital and Gorazde and expose them to heavy shelling from the slopes of these valleys.
- 7.
The SPL with its armed branch, the SPLA, was the main movement representing the South Sudanese. It struggled for years to put an end to the domination of the Khartum government. This decade-long conflict raged independently of the situation in Darfur, except for the utilisation of Northern Darfuri semi Nomads by the central government.
- 8.
The Ivory Coast, a former French colony, was one of the most successful post-colonial States in Africa, under the Presidency of Felix Houphoët-Boigny. After his death, no successor was able to muster the same charisma or to hold the State together the way he did; Konan Bédié even made use of the concept of ‘ivoirité’, which could have been used in order to overcome the divides between the Muslim North and the Christian South. Instead, it was used to disenfranchise the northern population.
- 9.
This was in large part due to their superior knowledge of English, whereas the Northern Haussas had for the most part only attended coranic schools.
- 10.
UN General Assembly Resolution 2790 (XXVI), 6 December 1971 states: ‘considering that the international community, […] has seldom been confronted with a refugee problem of such enormous dimensions as that of the refugees from East Pakistan in India; Endorses the designation by the Secretary-General of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to be the focal point for the co-ordination of assistance to East Pakistan refugees in India, from and through the United Nations system’.
- 11.
It is estimated that between 1975 and 2000, three million people fled from Cambodia and Vietnam.
- 12.
During this crisis, approximately three million Afghans fled to Pakistan and two million to Iran.
- 13.
‘Bosniak’ is a term used for Bosnian Muslims. ‘Bosnian’ is used to refer to any Bosnian.
- 14.
Sarajevoe, as the capital, was of particular importance. In the Drina Valley, the cities of Zepa, Gorazde and Srebrenica were highly contested due to the historic importance given to this valley by the Bosnian Serb population and militia. Tuzla and Bihac were Muslim strongholds surrounded by Serb strongholds which reinforced their value as stake in the war.
- 15.
This approach, often put forward as a possible alleviation measure for the human suffering in Syria, is not favoured by most humanitarian actors. See for example IRIN, Why humanitarians wary of ‘humanitarian corridors’, 19 March 2012.
- 16.
The latter was overwhelmingly French. ‘Operation Turquoise’, the mission to protect the refugees who fled to eastern Congo, had been mandated by the UNSC.
- 17.
Compare concerts organised in the name of the diaspora by Charles Aznavour: ‘Arménie, tu vivras’.
- 18.
Compare with Sect. 6.1 below.
- 19.
It was created in February 1992 to supervise the cease-fire in Croatia and, then, reinforced for Bosnia-Herzegovina in August September 1993. All battalions were seconded by European countries, namely France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, and American troops guarded the strategic bridge of Bosanski Brod.
- 20.
UNPROFOR II was not the inactive force that some observers made it out to be; it was active for example in Gorazde to resist an attack against the Security zone, in cooperation with the NATO air strikes.
- 21.
NATO imposed a no-fly zone over the conflict area, issued an ultimatum to the Serb militias in Sarajevo (1994) to hand over their weapons, and, finally, enforced the end of the Sarajevo siege (1995).
- 22.
Adopted in September 1998, the resolution welcomed a cease fire between the Serb army and the Kosovar Liberation army, creating a monitoring mechanism (the OSCE-led Kosovo Verification Mission), allowing for stronger measures to be taken. Yet, this resolution could not prevent the slaughter that was to take place and eventually gave rise to a NATO intervention.
- 23.
Nearly one million ethnic Albanians from Kosovo had fled to Albania and Macedonia at the beginning of the NATO air strikes.
- 24.
Kai Eid Report (2005), followed by Ahtisaari Proposal (2007).
- 25.
Examples of such missions include the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en RD Congo (MONUSCO) and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
- 26.
These constructs have been disputed in the humanitarian community. Humanitarian workers have been mostly hostile to integrated missions, fearing for their independence. When humanitarian action becomes part of an inherently political mission, it may become more difficult for humanitarians to be accepted on the ground. Consider the example of Bosnia Herzegovina: even though the creation of Republika Srpska was meant to provide Bosnian Serbs with an autonomous region within Bosnia, Serbs remained hostile towards the UN and the international community.
- 27.
IHL remains applicable in post-conflict situations involving occupation and the continuous holding of prisoners of war.
- 28.
Security zones, according to IHL (Arts. 14 and 15 GC IV), should be established in areas without any stake in the conflict. However, the Bosniak army used Srebrenica as a rear basis for its troops. The Bosniak retreat from the city must have seemed to the Bosnian Serb militias to be a welcome opportunity to go on the attack.
- 29.
The safety zone of Srebrenica was created without precisely defining its topographic specificities and geographic extension, which made it impossible to identify the zone’s exact borders to determine where infringement by troops outside the zone began.
- 30.
Such discontent is exemplified by the origin of the Red Crescent Society. In the late nineteenth century, when the Bosnian Serbs—at the time making up the majority of Bosnia’s population—and the Bulgarians rose against the Ottoman Empire, the ICRC asked the Ottomans to allow them to establish a National Society for rescuing the sick and wounded. The Ottoman Empire refused to host an official Red Cross society, creating a Red Crescent Society instead.
- 31.
Art. 1 of UNGA Resolution 43/131 provides for the ‘primary responsibility’ of the local State.
- 32.
UN Security Council Resolution 688, para.1: ‘Condemns the repression of the Iraqi civilian population in many parts of Iraq, including most recently in Kurdish-populated areas, the consequences of which threaten international peace and security.’
- 33.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the term was used to describe a short military operation aimed at saving people whose lives were immediately threatened. On this basis, a sort of legal regime built on practice emerged, a customary exception to the major rule of sovereignty. It encompassed a collective approach—authorisation or ratification of the ‘Concert des Nations’—proportionality, prohibition of using intervening for any other reasons than to save lives. This customary exception to the major rule of sovereignty has been theorised in the last years of the period (Rougier 1910).
- 34.
Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, Aggression.
- 35.
UN Security Council Resolution 1769 (2007).
- 36.
UN Security Council Resolution 1778 (2007).
- 37.
‘L’Arche de Zoe’, which had organised the transfer of a group of ‘Darfuri orphans’ who proved to be neither Darfuri, nor orphaned, but a Chadian citizen.
- 38.
In light of the violence committed in Jaffna (Sri Lanka) in 2009 by government troops, Ban Ki-Moon launched an inquiry and created the initiative ‘Rights Upfront’, with the aim of improving the sensitivity of UN staff towards human rights violations. In December 2012, he launched the World Humanitarian Summit process, which concluded with the Istanbul summit of May 2016.
References
Dunant H (1862) A Memory of Solferino. Geneva
Organization of African Unity Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa (Addis Ababa Convention). http://www.achpr.org/files/instruments/refugee-convention/achpr_instr_conv_refug_eng.pdf
Rougier A (1910) L’intervention d’humanité. Revue Générale de Droit International Public, Paris
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2790, 6 December 1971. http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/2790%28XXVI%29
Further Reading
Domestici-Met M-J, Frognier A-P, Nordquist K-Å, Roosens C, Runblom H, Swain A, Wallensteen P, Öberg M (1998) NOHA volume 3, Geopolitics in humanitarian assistance. EU bookshop
Donini A (2010) The far side: the “meta functions” of humanitarisms in a globalized world. Disasters 34-s2(12)
Drapac V (2010) Constructing Yugoslavia. A transnational history European studies series. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke
Flin C (2011) Introduction to geopolitics. Routledge
Ismail O, Sköns E (2014) The security activities of external actors in Africa, SIPRI monographs. Oxford University Press, New York
Lowe V, Roberts A, Welsh J, Zaum D (2010) The United Nations Security Council and War the evolution of thought and practice since 1945. Oxford University Press, New York
Malone D (2007) The international struggle over Iraq. Politics in the UN Security Council 1980–2005. Oxford University Press, New York
Mazower M (2002) The Balkans. A short history. Modern Library, New York
Sempa FP (2002) Geopolitics: from the cold war to the 21st century. Transaction Publishers
Seybolt TB (2008) Humanitarian military intervention. The conditions for success and failure, SIPRI monographs. Oxford University Press, New York
Tuathail GÓ, Dalby S, Routledge P (2006) The geopolitics reader, 2nd edn. Routledge
United Nations Security Council Resolution XXXX
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Domestici-Met, MJ. (2018). World Politics and Humanitarian Action: Mutual Influences. In: Heintze, HJ., Thielbörger, P. (eds) International Humanitarian Action. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14454-2_3
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