1. Humanitarian Principles
Attempts to define humanitarianism tend to contain two elements: they indicate
the kind of action at stake, such as the provision of relief in war zones or in the
aftermath of natural disasters, or, in a more general sense, the alleviation of
extreme suffering. They then enunciate the principles that should condition the
undertaking of such action. As we shall see, it is often ambiguous as to whether the
principles being enunciated are ethical principles of general resonance, applied
ethical principles, or simply operating principles. Furthermore, it will be argued that
the persistent ambiguity stems from two different interpretations of how best to
ring-fence and protect humanitarianism as a privileged endeavour. A focus on the
universal ethical applicability of humanitarian principles presents the promise of a
privileged moral claim or authority, while a rigorous set of operating principles
suggests the possibility of a clear and unambiguous practical purpose. This is the
first core tension of humanitarianism, one that will run through the thesis and is
arguably ultimately irresolvable, due to the constant dual grounding of
humanitarianism in the worlds of practice and ethics, and the necessity of
negotiating that through politics.
The most famous, and dominant set of humanitarian principles is that of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), an institution that still retains an
unsurpassed degree of moral authority within professional humanitarianism.^43
These have been evolving since the publication of Henry Dunant’s seminal A
Memory of Solferino.^44 One of the first descriptions of Red Cross principles by
Gustave Moynier, then president of the ICRC, in 1875, stresses four: foresight,
solidarity (among Red Cross societies), centralisation (within each country) and
43
On the politics of moral authority, see Stephen Hopgood, "Moral Authority, Modernity
and the Politics of the Sacred", 44 European Journal of International Relations 15, no. 2 (2009).
Henry Dunant, A Memory of Solferino (Geneva: ICRC, 1986). Available at
http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/p0361/$File/ICRC_002_0361_MEMORY
_OF_SOLFERINO.PDF; accessed on 22 June 2010. This version of the text is unpaginated, as I
will indicate in subsequent footnotes when quoting directly from it.