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publications

Rights and Justice

Practices and critiques of international humanitarian law

The development of contemporary humanitarian action has historically been associated with international humanitarian law. Viewed as a framework and scope for humanitarian action by certain players and as ambiguous (necro)ethics to be used as a political resource whenever necessary by others, humanitarian law has played a pivotal role in various controversies roiling MSF and the aid community. The studies contained in this volume explore these controversies, delving into the relationships between humanitarian organisations, international criminal justice, the right to intervene, the law-making process and the various ways the law is used.

illustration la criminalisation de l'ennemi Analysis

Criminalising the enemy and its impact on humanitarian action

12/15/2010 Fabrice Weissman

Could a doctor working for a humanitarian organisation be sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States for having offered his “expert advice” to people linked to a “terrorist organisation”? That is what is feared by a number of civil rights’ organisations in the US since the Supreme Court declared on 21 June that the legislation known as the Material Support Statute was constitutional. 

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campagne de vaccination à Majok William Martin Opinion

Darfur: the International Criminal Court is wrong

09/10/2010 Rony Brauman

Rony Brauman criticises the International Criminal Court's indictment of the Sudanese president for genocide. If the prosecutor's argument is followed, humanitarian organisations working in the displaced people's camps should be charged with complicity in genocide.

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A tank moves towards the frontlines as people are fleeing Dominic Nahr Analysis

"Not in our name": Why Medecins sans frontières does not support the "responsability to protect"

08/01/2010 Fabrice Weissman

Argued in the 1990s in the name of the "right or duty to intervene", the application of military might to rescue populations in danger is now debated with reference to the "Responsibility to Protect" paradigm (or "R2P" for those in the know). In this article Fabrice Weissman explains why MSF refuses to adhere to this doctrine of ‘just war', whose legalisation would effectively be legalising a new form of imperialism.

 

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Un hôpital Médecins Sans Frontières au Soudan Jacob Kuehn Analysis

Humanitarian Aid and the International Criminal Court. Grounds for Divorce

10/01/2009 Fabrice Weissman

This essay points out the fragility of the arguments most often used by humanitarian organizations to justify their support for an international criminal court. Questioning NGOs' infatuation with punitive justice, Fabrice Weissman argues that humanitarian organizations should advocate for politics of aid and mediation rather than for a global moral order based on judicial punishment and just war.

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Camp au Congo Lynsey Addario Opinion

Zones to Protect

03/01/2009 Rony Brauman

Humanitarian law was designed as a normative framework, not as an indictment. With this in mind, Rony Brauman tries to define what constitutes a human shield.

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MSF distribue du matériel en Afghanistan Tim Dirven Cahier

MSF and protection: pending or closed?

04/01/2008 Judith Soussan

To embark upon a study of this theme is to enter a field strewn with contradictory representations linked to a highly sensitive issue – the limits of our responsibility – that has generated endless disagreements and debates on our “identity” and the existence or nonexistence of a role for MSF “beyond care”. 

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