a set of minimum standards and a “Humanitarian Charter”;^16 a self-regulatory body,
the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership;^17 ALNAP, an Active Learning Network
for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action.^18 In conceptual terms,
Koenraad Van Brabant, when co-director of the influential Humanitarian
Accountability Project (the precursor to the Humanitarian Accountability
Partnership), set out the core elements of an accountability system from a
humanitarian perspective as follows. It requires: (1) an affected party; (2) an
articulation of the rights of the individual or group; (2) duty-bearers responsible for
respecting and fulfilling those rights; (3) standards for judgement of performance;
(4) autonomous duty holders to monitor the duty-bearers; (5) praise for responsible
performance and reprimand or redress for bad performance.^19 Van Brabant went
on to contextualise the pursuit of accountability, in the process neatly summarising
why accountability should be a major consideration for an international political
theory analysis of humanitarianism:
Accountability is an act of justice, and relates to power. At the core of the
contemporary debate about accountability are the questions of the social
contract between citizens and the State, and inter-State relationships. This
debate is not static: the terms in which ‘accountability’ is debated, and who16
Sphere Project, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response. A
revised version is expected in early 2011. Sphere has garnered a mixed response within the
humanitarian sector. See James Darcy, "Locating Responsibility: The Sphere Humanitarian
Charter and Its Rationale", Disasters 28, no. 2 (2004). Charlotte Dufour et al., "Rights,
Standards and Quality in a Complex Humanitarian Space: Is Sphere the Right Tool?"
Disasters 28, no. 2 (2004). Jacqui Tong, "Questionable Accountability: MSF and Sphere in
2003", Disasters 28, no. 2 (2004). Peter Walker and Susan Purdin, "Birthing Sphere",
Disasters 17 28, no. 2 (2004).
Humanitarian Accountability Partnership. Available at http://www.hapinternational.org/;
accessed on 17 June 2010. 18
ALNAP: Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian
Action. Available at http://www.alnap.org/; accessed on 13 July 2010. Its most recent
report is ALNAP, The State of the Humanitarian System: Assessing Performance and
Progress (London: Overseas Development Institute, 2010). Available at
http://www.alnap.org/pool/files/alnap-sohs-final.pd 19 f; accessed on 17 June 2010.
Koenraad Van Brabant, "Accountable Humanitarian Action: An Overview of Recent
Trends", in Forum: War and Accountability , ed. ICRC (Geneva: ICRC, 2002). Available at
http://icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/p0808/$File/ICRC_002_808_FORUM_WAR_A
ND_ACCOUNTABILITY.PDF; accessed on 17 June 2010.