a problem primarily for humanitarians.^12 Brauman’s point is an important one, and
warns us against the overzealous deployment of humanitarian rhetoric.
Certainly, there are strong arguments for a more limited deployment of the
idea of humanitarian crisis, corresponding to what might be a more rigorous usage
in Brauman’s terms. Indeed, this is how humanitarianism as a practice has
developed. For instance, we might think of Henry Dunant’s engagement with the
context of the battlefield, and the hors de combat soldiers left to die in agony.^13
What Dunant saw here was a space where it might be possible to bring a measure
of humanity and alleviate suffering (without, incidentally, having to do battle
himself to defend that space). The hors de combat soldier was located in a space
effectively abandoned by other actors. In this context, humanitarians could define
both an independent humanitarian space, and a recognisable type of humanitarian
emergency, consistent with what humanitarians could realistically aspire to achieve.
The humanitarian emergency became, not the institution of war as such, but rather
one of the consequences of war that humanitarians could engage with: battlefield
wounded.
The pattern is similar when it comes to meeting the needs of refugees,
another sphere in which the Red Cross movement has been a crucial actor. And
again, there is a great deal of coherence in the idea that we can best identify and
engage with this problem if we are prepared to define the human suffering at stake
in quite a narrow way. If several million people cross a border at the same time,
they will present a set of basic physical needs in terms of food, water, sanitation
and medication. They need these things if they are to continue to live. Local and
international humanitarian organisations may well be able to provide these things,
while they most likely will not be able to organise the safe return of all the refugees
to wherever they wish to return to.
As such, the vocabulary of emergency, as deployed in such contexts, does
create a space in which to, for example, gather funds to acquire the means to keep
the people alive, and to engage in the action to do so. The deployment of the
12
In this understanding of humanitarianism, relief workers are effectively the only possible
kind of humanitarians. 13
Dunant, A Memory of Solferino.
marcin
(Marcin)
#1