Humanitarian Action Essays - Book Report/Review Example

Humanitarian Action Book Review – Humanitarian Action This book has compiled some of the best essays written on humanitarian action in the Oxford Brookes University and Centre of Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva. Oxford and Geneva though not at the end of disasters and human sufferings, have once been the contribution to the expansion of some great humanitarian organizations such as Red Cross Movement started by Geneva and Oxfam produced in Oxford. Thus, the essays that have been compiled are those that bring out the values and ethics that are provided ethically about the humanitarian actions to reflect the academic view on the evolution of the challenges faced by the humanitarians at the times of the social attacks, natural disasters and international affairs. These essays are not merely about the technique of humanitarian nor is it about the operations in humanitarianism that were taken to reconnect the people and to shape the international humanitarian. The essays are rather a philosophical approach to humanitarianism which talks about the meaning of having a humanitarian attitude. “Idealism and Realism in Humanitarian Action” is a paper which highlights the Australian moral philosophy. They say that ethics has been one of those concepts that have to be present in every action taken by the people considering the good and bad; the right and wrong and not only restricted to the philosopher’s concepts. In the framework of the humanitarian community, the ethics have long played an important part where it is analyzed what is the wrong doings of the wars and disasters worldwide. Humanitarians have looked into this and provided a set of approaches and values that could be applied to their work to aim for the right. These values are set according to the beliefs of one of the Australian moral philosophers John Finnis. He believed that the existence of good values should be highly protected because it ignites the sense of humanity in each of us which is of immeasurable value. But despite having humanitarians who have worked under the standard setting of moral values, the international movement makes it obvious that they are working in a horizon where there is an existence of other moral views as well. Thus, they should know that they have their ideas but there is also reality. Where everywhere ideals and reality exists in tension to each other, it is the same case for humanitarians as well, so we need to understand the relationship between ideals and reality. Our ideals are what reflect our perfection in human affairs and they become something that we live up to, we aim to and we hold tightly. We make sure that these ideals are those that can make the world a better place. An ideal is always marked as unrealistic once it’s applied. To call someone idealistic means to call a person who does not live in the realities of life and fantasizes everything. Human beings tend to live in the gap between the ideals and reality. Humanitarians have ideals of living up to their practice and often talk about the ideals and the reality. Self knowledge and empirical observation of the world shows us that not every ideal can be realistic. The sense of realism makes us feel down and many activists suppress it and deny it as being disloyal to the cause. But it should rather be cherished instead of being suppressed. Reality is a great challenge to ideals. Reality may get in the way of ideals and render them impossible to practice. However, despite these obvious difficulties existing between ideals and reality in humanitarian action, it is often argued that ideals and reality do mix up and influence people’s life’s changes. But the way that they mix in is neither simple nor permanent. Humanitarian workers tend to be having a passion for ideals and reality as a mixture. Like many other professions, they have loads of both; ideals and an amount of reality experiences. Both aspects of humanitarian work should be discussed; the real and the ideal. We should look at the current state of the humanitarian ideals and how they are set in the Humanitarian Charter and the Code of Conduct. And then the ways in which reality may challenge these ideals and how the best way to respond to them is to form realistic relations and organizations. Developing a keen sense of reality is the best way, however, to make sure that they are operating both realistically and ideally. The ideas which are valued and believed by the humanitarians are clearly set out in the articles of the Humanitarian Charter and Code of Conduct which have been drafted by the agencies in the recent years. These are six kinds of ideals: ideal values which make up the humanitarian ethic, ideal activities which constitute humanitarian action, ideals of good practice for how humanitarian action is best done, ideal individuals and organizations that can best be humanitarian, ideals of humanitarian accountability and an idealized notion of rights and obligations. Values of humanity and impartiality are the first two fundamental values of humanitarian values. The third one is the belied in the ideal of a civilian or non-combatant in war as affirmed by the humanitarian law in the principle of distinction. The ideal of humanity states that the human life is in itself of immense and precious value. Humanitarians believe that the human beings are not just physical creatures but also social, moral, philosophical, spiritual and emotional creatures. The ideal of impartiality for the humanitarians tells that we should not just help people we know and love but we should help anyone who needs it. Lastly, the ideal of a civilian tells us that every person engaged in a war should not be attacked equally; their contribution in the war should be considered. In the professional, there are four fundamental forms of humanitarian actions which have been developed in modern times, these are: Assistance, Protection, Livelihood and Advocacy. Further, the morality of humanitarian goes farther than just identifying the actions. There are methodologies assessed that identify how the actions are to be practiced. These values assess the ideals what works best rather than the universal moral values. Next, the ideal of humanitarian suggests that along with the assessment of how the activities should be practiced, it should also be idealized that who is the best one to carry them out. In the profession of humanitarians, it has become really important in the recent past to assess who is best to carry out the activities. Ideals of humanitarian accountability are formed to improve the accountability in recent times and it emphasizes upon agency intention, performance, effectiveness, and appropriate relationships with affected populations, impact and transparency. The ideal of rights and obligations have been introduced to make sure that the agencies who talk about people’s experience in wars and disasters, now talk about the laws and duties as well. This was a deep look into the ideals of humanitarians, and now we talk about the reality with which it operates. The reality of humanitarian work seems to be very unclear, where the ideals are much clearer and focused. Ideals describe how we want things to be, whereas the realism shows how the things actually are. A reality needs to be discussed to understand what dominates the war and disaster for the humanitarians. The three priorities are the realistic relationships, realistic organizations and the realistic people. These three should be strategically addressed to make sure their able to realize their ideals. The humanitarian agencies idealize the humanity and impartiality in war and disaster, but the reality is that they cannot practically apply them because they are simply not powerful enough. To try to bring these ideals in practice, the agency needs to; negotiate and influence the behavior of the anti-humanitarian groups, make alliances with other state powers or international forces to stop violation and secure the access to humanitarian, generate enough confidence in the affected communities to gain their cooperation and collaborate and compete openly with other agencies. Once the external relations of the agency are balanced, there is a need to look into the internal management relationships as well. The ideals that are given to improve the practices and activities in the agency should also be effectively implemented under realistic dealings. The standards and accountability are important for the organization and these should be implemented in moderation. In modern times we can see many unrealistic measures taken in the agencies through which no one can benefit nor handle them. Thus, the humanitarian work should be realistically handled so that the workers are able to absorb them and take full benefit from them. The third and the major priority for the humanitarian agencies are to take the people who are employed into special consideration. In order to make sure that the humanitarian ideals are implemented, the agencies should make sure that realistic people are employed who can understand the sense of reality in their work. These agencies need people who are creative and realistic and more to just managers and scientists. Thus, there should be a sense of idealism and realism which is essential for humanitarian work. We must bring the ideas and implement them realistically in this world. References Slim, H. (2012). Essays in Humanitarian Action. Oxford: Oxford Institute of Ethics. Read More