The Politics of Humanity

I Humanitarian Identity and Independence: Humanitarian Space and the State............

The chapters so far have argued that however we examine the ethical character of
humanitarianism, we are always necessarily drawn back towards politics. Even the
simplest act of rescue involves a complex, contingent and often highly
presumptuous negotiation of different conceptions of suffering, humanitarian
concern and appropriate action. This was seen to be ultimately a strength rather
than a weakness in defining any conception of humanitarianism, as it fits rather well
some of the fuzzy, less certain spaces within our international ethico-political space.
Different crystallisations of the humanitarian impulse can represent different
versions of humanitarian politics. Yet as we turn to the question of collective agency
within humanitarianism, we are faced with the problem that, even among the
sections of humanitarianism that are generally recognised to be more “political”,
the label is still seen as a charge to be denied. Why is this move being made and
what does it tell us? The argument here is that it is a device for distancing
humanitarianism from the state, which obscures the different possibilities inherent
in that relationship.^4 To bring this out, let us return briefly to the same text
examined at the beginning of Chapter 2, James Orbinski’s Nobel Lecture.

Humanitarianism occurs where the political has failed or is in crisis. We act

not to assume political responsibility, but firstly to relieve the inhuman

suffering of failure. The act must be free of political influence, and the

political must recognize its responsibility to ensure that the humanitarian

can exist. Humanitarian action requires a framework in which to act.^5

Several key tropes can be detected here: the idea that an apolitical response to
political failures is possible, the possibility of detachment from “political influence,”
the requirement for a humanitarian space existing outside of politics, yet

4
Edkins makes a similar point in her review of Rieff’s A Bed for the Night. Edkins,
"Humanitarianism, Humanity, Human": 255. 5
Orbinski, "Nobel Lecture".