Humanitarian Aid on the Move No. 25
Humanitarian aid today: ‘the end of political innocence?
Our Spring School on Humanitarian Aid, which took place in June, once again questioned the very nature of humanitarian action, but this time from a much more political angle. After more than half a century of existence in its ‘modern’ form, there is currently a great deal of criticism of the humanitarian sector, including criticism of the concepts of neutrality, impartiality and independence.
In the words of Haitian film-maker, Raoul Peck, could this be the “end of political innocence” for our sector? We borrowed this quote from one of the speakers at the Spring School, Bertrand Bréqueville, who also features in this issue of Humanitarian Aid on the Move. Many of the other speakers at the various round tables have also written articles for this 25th edition: representatives from French NGOs (ACF, MDM and MSF), from Haiti (GAFE), from the Burmese diaspora in France (Doh Atu – Ensemble pour le Myanmar) and from Groupe URD. We hope you enjoy the new issue!
Three new episodes of the Groupe URD podcast
The neutrality of aid
For a number of years, certain humanitarian actors and observers of the humanitarian sector have begun to question the principle of neutrality and whether it is applicable to all actors. This questioning of one of the founding principles of international aid inherited from Henry Dunant is notably due to the emergence of alternative forms of localised aid and solidarity all over the world. The recent events in Ukraine, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories have made this questioning all the more necessary, so that aid organisations can find the right approach between operational constraints and the risk of being manipulated.