Non-Governmental Organizations and Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance

1987 ◽  
Vol 27 (260) ◽  
pp. 501-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Macalister-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Civil Defence ◽  
Military Units

Humanitarian assistance in armed conflict and other disasters can involve a great variety of institutions and participants all operating simultaneously, including national civil defence organizations, military units, Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, international governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

From humanitarian assistance to “intervention on humanitarian grounds”?

1992 ◽  
Vol 32 (288) ◽  
pp. 228-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice Torrelli
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Sanitary Conditions

While States ever more ardently defend their sovereignty, which does little to improve international cooperation, and as the application of humanitarian law in armed conflicts declines, men of good will throughout the world are doing their utmost to reverse these trends. The century now drawing to a close has witnessed a plethora of private initiatives taken in an effort to temper reasons of State by more humane considerations. Many non-governmental organizations, some symbolically styling themselves “without borders”, have taken over where governments can no longer cope, organizing relief, combating drought, preserving the environment or improving sanitary conditions. These voluntary organizations whose vocation is to serve mankind are without question pursuing humanitarian aims as defined in the first Red Cross principle, which is “to prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found”, and whose “purpose is to protect life and health and to ensure respect for the human being”. Emergency medical assistance organizations, stating that they wish to remain independent of the powers that be, demanding freedom of action to help all victims and encouraged by the example set by Henry Dunant and the ICRC, do not hesitate to claim that their activities fall within the terms of an as yet unwritten body of law entitling them to bring assistance to needy civilian communities, even against the will of the government. Indeed, they believe that receiving proper care is one of the basic human rights of the individual, wheresoever and whosoever he may be. Such basic rights know no national boundary. While awaiting recognition of their activities, the duty to intervene is created by moral considerations.

From words to action

1993 ◽  
Vol 33 (296) ◽  
pp. 355-358
Author(s):  
Yves Sandoz
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Conference ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
To Come ◽  
War Victims

Eight hundred and fifteen delegates from 160 States, 39 Ministers, 20 Deputy Ministers and 12 Secretaries of State, the United Nations Secretary-General, the High Commissioner for Refugees and the Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement represented by the Presidents of the ICRC and the Federation and the Chairman of the Standing Commission, and all the major governmental and non-governmental organizations active in the sphere of armed conflict the Swiss government succeeded within the space of a few months in arranging for all these to come together in Geneva for a three-day meeting to discuss the protection of war victims and adopt a substantive declaration on the issue. The International Conference for the Protection of War Victims was undeniably a success.

The humanitarian imperative under fire

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin McKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Aid Workers ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Humanitarian Aid Workers ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Competing Demands ◽  
The One

This paper explores how speakers manage the dilemmatic tension between competing demands for accountability in mundane explanations of humanitarian assistance in settings of armed conflict. Taking as analytic data talk recorded in interviews with the personnel of aid agencies and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who work in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), we examine how demands for both non-partisan impartiality, on the one hand, and sympathetic alignment with the victims (or losing parties) of armed conflict, on the other, feature in the explanations that humanitarian aid workers formulate to account for their professional activities. While non-partisanship features as a source of legitimacy given that humanitarian assistance is regarded as a response to universal human suffering, the source of that suffering in armed conflict necessitates recognition of the antagonist-protagonist and victim relationship in order for aid recipients to be identified. Everyday accounts of aid work function to mitigate the otherwise mutually exclusive relationship between competing assumptions that inform the logic of humanitarian assistance.

INTERNATIONAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS: CONCEPT, TYPES AND ROLE IN MODERN WORLD

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 154-164
Author(s):  
A. N. Gutorova
Keyword(s):  
Internal State ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Expert Assessment ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
Global Management ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations

Non-state factors begin to play more and more significant role in processes of global management. The international non-governmental organizations are on a special place among them (INGO). In the last decade they are growing noticeably. In this regard it is necessary to study the role and the meaning of international non-governmental organizations in the process of global management. It is a vital need of modern science. Attempts to elaborate definition of the concept "international non-governmental organization" were made repeatedly but all developed concepts have certain shortcomings (don't reflect the legal nature of INGO, membership, activity purposes, etc.). The bulk of non-governmental organizations are created for the solution of specific problems or work within a certain perspective. Today these organizations actively deal with issues connected with humanitarian assistance, protection of human rights and environmental protection, providing peace and safety, participate in educational programs, sports projects. They provide analysis and expert assessment of various problems, including global problems, act as mechanism of "early notification" and promote control of international agreements execution. But, without looking, for rather positive role of MNPO in their activity there are also certain problems. INGO is often accused in internal state affairs. Their activity often has politized character.

The Great Eastern Crisis (1875–1878) as a global humanitarian moment

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Adrian Ruprecht
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Spread ◽  
Global Movement

Abstract This article explores the global spread of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement to colonial India. By looking at the Great Eastern Crisis (1875–78) and the intense public ferment the events in the Balkans created in Britain, Switzerland, Russia and India, this article illustrates how humanitarian ideas and practices, as well as institutional arrangements for the care for wounded soldiers, were appropriated and shared amongst the different religious internationals and pan-movements from the late 1870s onwards. The Great Eastern Crisis, this article contends, marks a global humanitarian moment. It transformed the initially mainly European and Christian Red Cross into a truly global movement that included non-sovereign colonial India and the Islamic religious international. Far from just being at the receiving end, non-European peoples were crucial in creating global and transnational humanitarianism, global civil society and the world of non-governmental organizations during the last third of the nineteenth century.

International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law

1993 ◽  
Vol 33 (293) ◽  
pp. 94-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Doswald-Beck ◽  
Sylvain Vité
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The United Nations

International humanitarian law is increasingly perceived as part of human rights law applicable in armed conflict. This trend can be traced back to the United Nations Human Rights Conference held in Tehran in 1968 which not only encouraged the development of humanitarian law itself, but also marked the beginning of a growing use by the United Nations of humanitarian law during its examination of the human rights situation in certain countries or during its thematic studies. The greater awareness of the relevance of humanitarian law to the protection of people in armed conflict, coupled with the increasing use of human rights law in international affairs, means that both these areas of law now have a much greater international profile and are regularly being used together in the work of both international and non-governmental organizations.

scholarly journals Do non-governmental organizations bring change or maintain the status quo in times of crisis? A case study of the Marikana massacre in South Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malose Langa ◽  
Steven Rebello ◽  
Linda Harms-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Psychosocial Interventions ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Crisis Events ◽  
The Status

Abstract This article reflects on the Marikana massacre of August 2012, subsequent violent strikes and responses by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as a case study, and provides an analysis about whether these interventions bring transformative change or maintain the status quo in times of crisis. Events associated with Marikana are seen to be embedded in social structures of the time and part of deeper frictions and fractures of social transformation. The role that NGOs might play in this context must be interrogated as to their facilitation or hinderance of such social transformation. Interviews were conducted with representatives of NGOs intervening in Marikana that provided services of humanitarian assistance, and legal and psychosocial interventions and with mine workers and residents of Marikana about their experiences and views of these services. Findings from the study are illustrative of how NGOs were not primarily motivated to bring about lasting, transformative change but rather attempted to address immediate or short-term needs which, while important, did not account for underlying causes of the crises that they set out to address. Both ideological underpinnings of NGOs and structural conditions produced by state and capital impact on outcomes of interventions. Given these limitations, it is argued that there is a need for deep critical interrogation through praxis, for NGOs to intervene differently in times of crisis to bring ‘real’ change and transformation in the lives of those who are marginalized.

Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities for IGO-Like Entities

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-406
Author(s):  
Davorin Lapaš
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Committee ◽  
International Federation ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Intergovernmental Organizations ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Public Purpose ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations

Contemporary international relations have resulted not only in the establishment of intergovernmental organizations (‘IGOs’), but also in the emergence of certain IGO-like entities which are entering into ‘diplomatic-like’ relations with states, characterised by privileges and immunities similar to those provided under classic diplomatic law. This paper analyses such diplomatic-like relations between states and a number of these IGO-like entities primarily in relation to so-called ‘trans-governmental organizations’ (‘TGOs)’. In addition, organizations composed of formally non-state entities, but with an undoubtedly public purpose, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (‘ICRC’) or the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (‘IFRC’), as well as other so-called ‘advanced’ non-governmental organizations (‘NGOs’), will also be discussed due to their participation in legally regulated international, diplomatic-like relations with states and IGOs.

Draft Model Declaration on Internal Strife

1988 ◽  
Vol 28 (262) ◽  
pp. 59-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodor Meron
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Governmental Agencies ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The World ◽  
Draft Model ◽  
Specific Country

The tragedy of internal strife affects a large and growing number of countries throughout the world. The situations in many of these countries have been studied by UN bodies, governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations and, of course, by the International Committee of the Red Cross. On the basis of their reports, it would be possible to describe the symptoms of internal strife specific to these particular countries. However, this paper focuses on the general features characteristic of internal strife, without reference to particular countries, since accounts of the situation in any specific country inevitably prompt debate over conflicting factual allegations. Such debate would deflect us from our tasks of developing and understanding of the nature of internal strife and suggesting the necessary remedies.

Changes in Mortality Rates and Humanitarian Conditions in Darfur, Sudan 2003–2007

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 496-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Garfield ◽  
Jonny Polonsky
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Dramatic Decline ◽  
The Us

AbstractThe Darfur region of Sudan has been an intense focus of humanitarian concern since rebellions began there early in 2003. In 2004, the US Secretary of State declared that conflict in Darfur represented genocide. Since 2003, many sample surveys and various mortality estimates for Darfur have been made. Nonetheless, confusion and controversy surrounding mortality levels and trends have continued. For this project, results were reviewed from the highest quality field surveys on mortality in Darfur conducted between 2003 and 2008. Trend analysis demonstrated a dramatic decline in mortality over time in Darfur. By 2005, mortality levels had fallen below emergency levels and have continued to decline. Deaths directly due violence have declined as a proportion of all of the deaths in Darfur. Declining mortality in Darfur was not associated with other proximate improvements in well-being, such as improved nutrition. Without large-scale, humanitarian intervention, continuing high rates of mortality due to violence likely would have occurred. If mortality had continued at the high rate documented in 2004, by January 2009, there would have been 330,000 additional deaths. With the humanitarian assistance provided through the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, these people are alive today. A focus on excess deaths among non-combatants may draw attention away from other needs, such as establishing better security, improving service delivery to the displaced, and advocating for internally displaced persons to be reached today and to re-establish their lives and livelihoods tomorrow.

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