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Introduction The modern global humanitarian system takes the form it does because it is underpinned by liberal world order, the post-1945 successor to the imperial world of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the global political and economic system the European empires created. Humanitarian space, as we have come to know it in the late twentieth century, is liberal space, even if many of those engaged in humanitarian action would rather not see themselves as liberals. To the extent that there is something constitutively
don’t have the power to make good on whatever has been agreed. And this is assuming major Western governments still believe it to be important to support relief agencies. The political landscape in which the humanitarian movement took current form has changed radically. Even a ‘centrist restoration’ in the US and Europe might not be enough to prevent this movement’s relative decline. In Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s The Leopard , one of the principle characters says of the revolutionary era in which the novel is set: ‘For things to remain the same
observe that the age of child marriage is rising ( Koski et al. , 2017 ). Different to South Asia, where most of the research on child marriage has occurred, girls in some African countries have greater autonomy in choosing a spouse ( Petroni et al. , 2017 ). Humanitarian agencies have frequently framed CEFM as a form of gender-based violence (GBV) ( Plan International, 2018 : 1; CARE, 2014 ), and this framework has also been presented by others ( Belhorma, 2016 ). The practice of child marriage is influenced by multiple drivers which vary depending on the context
This is the second general issue of the Journal of Humanitarian Affairs , following in the wake of two themed issues on Extreme Violence, and Gender and Humanitarianism respectively. It comes at a time when COVID-19 has resulted in rising global inequalities, including those based on gender, and the spectre of famine has returned to public consciousness – for example, in northern Ethiopia. Gender and violence – the latter of a more indirect form – both feature in this issue, as do
be found? And what could they learn from each other? This special issue uses the past and present of humanitarian communication as a point of departure to begin a joint reflection on the possibilities and potentials of more collaboration. Our focus is particularly on visual media. Together, historians and practitioners discuss the role of visual media in humanitarian communication, ask how this role has formed out historically, and explore what changes it may be undergoing currently. The forum
. This issue also marks our entry into the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of the previous general issue introductions have used the pandemic as a thread; this one will be no exception. As we enter a new phase of ‘opening-up’ (I write in February 2022) and ‘return to normalcy’ in the Global North, we mark heightening tensions and renewed violence geopolitically, with new forms of misinformation, posturing and political division. The pandemic continues to heighten inequalities in wealth and quality of life, both within and across national borders. Nevertheless
approach to innovation in humanitarian action, and other calls have been made specifically to devise principles for ethical humanitarian innovations. The need to make innovation ethical implies that unethical forms exist, which raises the questions of who is to judge and at what point in time ( Elhra, n.d. ; University of Oxford, Refugee Studies Centre, 2015 ). Arguably, innovation in the humanitarian field has always been contested, with over-optimistic assumptions about technological fixes matched by
this violence. 2 Misconception 1: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence against Men and Boys Is Almost Always Perpetrated in Detention and Imprisonment A common misconception is that conflict-related sexual violence against men and boys is almost always perpetrated in detention and imprisonment, often as a form of torture. Yet where and when sexual violence against men and boys is perpetrated is dependent on the setting, the type of conflict, the parties to
Víctimas, RUV) and self-entrepreneurship projects ( Aparicio, 2012 ). In addition, research indicates how waiting for government responses can lead to passivity and resignation or to forms of resistance ( Meza and Ciurlo, 2019 ; Schouw Iversen, 2021 ). However, little has been said about the standardisation of these practices. In this direction, I want to contribute to the debate by examining the intersection of these devices through the rhetoric of humanitarianism, particularly by proposing the case of psychosocial assistance to the displaced being based on the concept
cover for governments and institutions to co-opt and channel criticism ( de Waal, 2015 : 31–6). In humanitarian action, activism manifested in the form of the Cambodian March for Survival, in 1980, when many aid representatives organised a demonstration at the Thai-Cambodian border to allow cross-border assistance into Cambodia ( Weissman, 2011 : 179). While activism is a confrontational form of realising change, advocacy relies on building relationships