Articles

MSF doctor in a west Kabul maternity Amador Gullar Opinion

Humanitarian action victim of its own success

01/01/2003 Fiona Terry

The international aid regime tends to exaggerate changes over the last decade in the nature of so-called humanitarian crises. Neither violence perpetrated against civilian populations nor the dilemmas posed to aid organisations attempting to assist them have worsened since the end of the Cold War. 

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A group of refugees move on as they are told they can cross the border. Borja Ruiz Rodriguez Opinion

Codes of conduct: whose interests do they serve?

01/01/2003 Fiona Terry

As the USA announces its decision to suspend food aid to North Korea - one of the largest beneficiaries of global food aid - Fiona Terry reveals the true political issues behind the decision, and reminds us of how "humanitarian" assistance is used to bolster one of the planet's most oppressive regimes. 

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Vaccination contre le choléra dans le camp des réfugiés à Nyaragusu en Tanzanie La responsabilité humanitaire Analysis

Humanitarian Responsability

11/01/2001 Rony Brauman

Rony Brauman reminds us that humanitarian organisations cannot evaluate their actions solely by the yardstick of the means they implement, but that they have a responsibility to consider the real consequences of their actions.

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Un enfant fait la queue pour avoir de l'eau Ian Berry Analysis

Terror and Impunity in Rwanda

08/01/2000 Rony Brauman Stephen Smith

Not having seen the genocidal drift of Hutu Power in 1994 coming, the international community grants Paul Kagame's RPF the impunity of victims. Yet such power also lends itself to criminal acts. The authors express their indignance that NGOs and international organisations - invoking the duty of remembrance - join in the endless evocation of the past that masks the political phenomena at the root of the current violence.

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Au camp de Nyarugusu en Tanzanie Louise Annaud Analysis

Is Humanitarism a form of Political Commitment?

10/01/1996 Rony Brauman

Behind the question, "Is humanitarianism a commitment?", Rony Brauman warns against the use of humanitarianism in the public arena. Investing the political realm with the moral expectations of a better world, humanitarianism might unintentionally be helping to make "survival of the fittest" more palatable.

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Réfugiés en Tanzanie - novembre 2016 Louise Annaud Analysis

Humanitarian aid

05/01/1994 Rony Brauman

For the publication of the Dictionnaire d'Ethique et de philosophie morale, the former president of Médecins Sans Frontières, Rony Brauman, offers a definition of humanitarian aid. 

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Distribution alimentaire au camp de Rajo à Mogadishu, en Somalia Yann Libessart Analysis

Somalia: A Humanitarian Crime

09/01/1993 Rony Brauman

In 1993, Médecins Sans Frontières left Somalia and denounced the methods of UN troops who were violating the very humanitarian principles in whose name they intervened.

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