The Politics of Humanity

Perhaps a deferral to and functional independence from the states-system is a small
price to pay?
Clearly it is rarely as simple as that. While few humanitarians would disown
the gains represented by IHL, Forsythe notes that “in places like Somalia, Liberia,
and former Zaire, few of those with weapons had ever heard of the Geneva
Conventions and protocols”.^16 "When ICRC representatives in Sierra Leone or
Liberia faced child soldiers on drugs armed with automatic weapons, the details of
IHL were about as relevant as theoretical physics."^17 In such situations, even basic
access may involve the dirtying of hands. Aid workers in Somalia such as Tony Vaux
were taken aback by the sight of heavily armed Red Cross vehicles, but noted that:
“[to] see an ICRC vehicle mounted with a heavy machine gun and a bunch of
gunmen is a sign of flexibility and compromise that has characterized their
operations in Somalia”.^18 Nevertheless, it would appear that IHL represents a
humanitarian space within law that humanitarians can defend on their own terms
against violations by belligerents. In setting out the distinct obligations and rights of
all parties, there is a clear formal independence.
However, the question then arises of the evolution of the legal humanitarian
space, where a progressive view of the relationship between state and
humanitarianism seems more plausible than either a conservative or radical one.
The humanitarian space in international law has been constructed and shaped by
state and non-state actors alike. The Ottawa Convention is an example of state
leadership, notably that of Canada, being crucial in taking the process beyond what
the broad coalition of NGOs that initiated the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines could otherwise have achieved.^19 So while a radical appeal to civil
society makes sense in hastening the formation of a piece of law, and detachment
16
17 Forsythe, The Humanitarians , 98.
18 Ibid., 243.
Vaux, The Selfish Altruist , 150. The episode is also cited in Conor Foley, The Thin Blue Line:
How Humanitarianism Went to War 19 (London: Verso, 2008), 54.
For an interesting account of the relationships between civil society organisations and
“sympathetic states”, and the questions of democratic legitimacy that accompany them,
see Kenneth Anderson, "The Ottawa Convention Banning Landmines, the Role of
International Non-Governmental Organizations and the Idea of International Civil Society",
European Journal of International Law 11, no. 1 (2000).