Humanitarian Relief Operations

THE CONDUCT OF HUMANITARIAN RELIEF OPERATIONS:
PRINCIPLES OF INTERVENTION AND MANAGEMENT

Course Author
Yvan Conoir, MBA
Peace Operations Training Institute
Series Editor
Harvey J. Langholtz, Ph.D.
2008 Peace Operations Training Institute

Course Author
Yvan Conoir, MBA
Series Editor
Harvey J. Langholtz, Ph.D.

2008 Peace Operations Training Institute

1309 J amestown Road, Suite 202
Williamsburg, VA 23185 USA
www.peaceopstraining.org

First edition: 2002
Cover: UN Photo #192475 by Logan Abassi

The material contained herein does not necessarily reflect the views of the Peace Operations Training
Institute, the Course Author(s), or any United Nations organs or affiliated organizations. Although every
effort has been made to verify the contents of this course, the Peace Operations Training Institute and
the Course Author(s) disclaim any and all responsibility for facts and opinions contained in the text,
which have been assimilated largely from open media and other independent sources. This course
was written to be a pedagogical and teaching document, consistent with existing UN policy and
doctrine, but this course does not establish or promulgate doctrine. Only officially vetted and approved
UN documents may establish or promulgate UN policy or doctrine. Information with diametrically
opposing views is sometimes provided on given topics, in order to stimulate scholarly interest, and is in
keeping with the norms of pure and free academic pursuit.
iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents iii
Foreword vi
Format of Study viii
Method of Study ix

A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE 1

LESSON 1: REASONS FOR HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION 3
1.1 A Brief History Of Humanitarian Intervention
1.2 The Development of Humanitarian Action in the 20
th
Century

LESSON 2: ACTORS IN HUMANITARIAN RELIEF 15
2.1 International Humanitarian Organizations
2.2 Governments and Specialized Government Structures
2.3 Beneficiary Populations
2.4 Humanitarian and Non-governmental Organizations
2.5 Military Forces
2.6 Members of the Red Cross Movement
2.7 The New Peacekeeping Partnership

LESSON 3: PRINCIPLES OF INTERVENTION 63
3.1 Respect for Sovereignty vs. The Right to Intervene
3.2 Respect for At-Risk Populations
3.3 Basic Principles of International Human Law

LESSON 4: MANAGEMENT OF HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCIES 79
4.1 Analysis of Phases of Intervention
4.2 Population Security and Safety Rescue Teams
4.3 Principles of Managing a Refugee Camp

LESSON 5: MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH QUESTIONS IN
HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION 99
5.1 Health Problems in Humanitarian Situations
5.2 Intervention in an Emergency Phase
5.3 Assessment, Monitoring and Implementation
5.4 Control of Communicable Diseases and Prevention of Epidemics
5.5 Primary Health Care and Community Health Care
5.6 Wounds and Traumas

iv
5.7 Mental Health
5.8 Nutrition
5.9 Health Care in a Post-Urgent Phase

LESSON 6: LOGISTICS: CONVOYS, STORAGE, DISTRIBUTION OF AID
AND THE MANAGEMENT OF SHELTERS 115
6.1 Administration of Convoys
6.2 Storage Management
6.3 Administration of Distribution Operations
6.4 Administration of Shelters

LESSON 7: ADMINISTRATION OF FOOD AID 131
7.1 Principles of Allocation and Distribution
7.2 Principles of Logistics and Distribution
7.3 Special Programs

LESSON 8: WATER MANAGEMENT AND SANITATION 141
8.1 A Vital Question for the Survival of a Population
8.2 Management of Water as a Rare Resource
8.3 Principles of Collective Sanitation and Hygiene
8.4 Protection of Supply Sources

LESSON 9: SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS TO HUMANITARIAN
CRISES 155
9.1 Freely-Consented Repatriation
9.2 Resettlement in the Country of Asylum
9.3 Relocation to a Third Country
9.4 Demobilization and Reinsertion Programs
9.5 Elections and Democratisation Operations
9.6 Establishment of Civil Institutions

LESSON 10: PRINCIPLES OF THE SPHERE PROJECT AND THE
CODE OF CONDUCT 171
10.1 History and Origin of the "Sphere" Project
10.2 Objectives of the Sphere Project
10.3 The "Code of Conduct"

LESSON 11: CONCLUSIONS 179
11.1 The Growth of Needs and the Lessening of Support
11.2 The New Chameleons

v

APPENDIX 1 185
Directory of Humanitarian-Related Internet Sites

APPENDIX 2 190
The Humanitarian Charter

APPENDIX 3 194
Minimum Standards for Disaster Relief: Sphere Project

APPENDIX 4 202
Code of Conduct for the International Movement of the
Red Cross and Red Crescent and of NGOs for use in
rescue operations in disaster situations

END-OF-COURSE EXAMINATION INSTRUCTIONS 207

vi
FOREWORD

This manual on contemporary Humanitarian Action is the result of personal
reflection and professional practice conducted over 15 years of working with the United
Nations or international nongovernmental organizations. As one who engages
professionally in humanitarian relief and as an Instructor of Management Principles for
Humanitarian Projects at the University of Quebec in Montreal and HULL (UQAM), the
author has attempted to present an overview and some perspectives concerning the major
aspects of modern-day humanitarian action, drawing on the methodological principles
used in the works of the Peace Operations Training Institute series. This manual is not
intended to be an academic work and even less so a scientific one, but is rather a general
introduction to basic humanitarian procedures.

This text was written for a general audience. It adopts an approach to the material
that seeks to be both universally applicable and free of any political agenda. It makes no
claim to providing a comprehensive coverage of all subject areas making up the field of
humanitarian assistance, but instead refers the student to other references, organizations,
and web sites. Nor should it be considered a technical reference work; it does not attempt
to replace the excellent documents that have been produced over the last 15 years by the
various actors of the United Nations system and international non government
organizations.

A course on the subject of contemporary humanitarian action could easily be five
to ten times the length of this one if it attempted to present an academic perspective of the
historical background, the actor's environment, or the techniques of managing a
humanitarian operation. It could easily be equally as long if one wished to develop the
lessons on operational procedures in great technical depth. For any reader interested in
such details, the major humanitarian agencies (UNHCR, UNICEF, OXFAM, RDR, SCF
to mention only a few) have developed technical reference manuals for their personnel
that would satisfy any reader's curiosity.

This work, then, is intended to provide an introductory foundation. It is also
intended as a discussion of the stakes and challenges for the humanitarian actor who
has come over the past few years to question governments, to disturb and enrich the
world of international relations; and who has above all brought aid and assistance to tens
of millions of people in distress throughout the world. Humanitarians have also come to
question the causes of conflicts that have forced so many populations onto the seas and
highways, populations that have been wounded and shaken to their souls by the
aberrations of a world grown increasingly cruel and inhumane. It is important to note
that, as with many professions or vocations, reading a few chapters of a book can never
replace practical experience acquired in the field. We wish, therefore, that our readers
will have the opportunity to share their altruism and their compassion for others; for those
readers unable to do so, we hope to further their understanding of a phenomenon that is
essential to a fuller understanding of the latter half of the twentieth century and of the
twenty-first now beginning.
vii
It must be noted that lesson 5 of this manual was written by Dr. Rosamund
LEWIS, a long-time staff member of EPICENTRE, the centre of epidemiological
research for Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF). Research on available internet sites
related to humanitarian action was directed by Mr. Edouard BOCCOZ, M.A. of the
school of National Public Administration at Montreal. They have my heartfelt thanks for
their respective contributions.

Yvan Conoir,
J anuary 2002

viii
FORMAT OF STUDY

This course is designed for independent study
at a pace determined by the student.

Course format and materials permit:

MODULAR STUDY
EASE OF REVIEW
INCREMENTAL LEARNING

STUDENTS RESPONSIBILITY

The student is responsible for:

Learning course material
Completing the End-of-Course Examination
Submitting the End-of-Course Examination

Please consult your enrolment confirmation email or the end of
this course for examination submission instructions.
ix
METHOD OF STUDY

The following are suggestions for how to proceed with this
course. Though the student may have alternate approaches
that are effective, the following hints have worked for many.

Before you begin actual studies, first browse through the overall course
material. Notice the lesson outlines, which give you an idea of what will be
involved as you proceed.

The material should be logical and straightforward. Instead of memorizing
individual details, strive to understand concepts and overall perspectives in
regard to the United Nations system.

Set up guidelines regarding how you want to schedule your time.

Study the lesson content and the learning objectives. At the beginning of
each lesson, orient yourself to the main points. If you are able to, read the
material twice to ensure maximum understanding and retention, and let time
elapse between readings.

When you finish a lesson, take the End-of-Lesson Quiz. For any error, go
back to the lesson section and re-read it. Before you go on, be aware of the
discrepancy in your understanding that led to the error.

After you complete all of the lessons, take time to review the main points of
each lesson. Then, while the material is fresh in your mind, take the End-of-
Course Examination in one sitting.

Your exam will be scored, and if you achieve a passing grade of 75 percent or
higher, you will be awarded a Certificate of Completion. If you score below 75
percent, you will be given one opportunity to take a second version of the
End-of-Course Examination.

One note about spelling is in order. This course was written in English as it is
used in the United Kingdom.
x

This page intentionally left blank.
General introduction to the course The Conduct of Humanitarian Relief Operations 1

A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE SELF-PACED
CORRESPONDENCE COURSE
THE CONDUCT OF HUMANITARIAN RELIEF OPERATIONS

International humanitarian action, often occurring far from the media spotlight
and with no thought to public recognition, has become one of the most important social
and political movements of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This is not
to overlook the tremendous accomplishments of the pioneers in the field such as the
NANSEN Organization, which in the early 1920s created and delivered the first
passports for refugees, or the International Red Cross. We want only to emphasize that
from what began as a temporary situationthe UNHCR statute, for instance, only
mandates its activities for a period of three years!the institutional humanitarian
movement, through the actions of United Nations agencies and non-governmental
organizations both national and international, large and small, has established itself as a
major player and partner in contemporary international relations.

Yet this strong presence also has its downside. An aid community that has largely
viewed its work as neutral, impartial and humane must also on occasion admit, as did
Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, that humanitarian aid has for
too long served as a fig leaf camouflaging the absence of political will to tackle the root
causes of conflict.

This movement towards shifting the responsibility for action from politicians to
humanitarians does not necessarily represent a fundamental realignment of the actors in
contemporary international relations; such a shift would bring its own dangers. Yet the
fact remains that because humanitarians' voices have achieved growing significance in
recent years, they do not hesitate today to call more forcefully than ever on governments,
demanding their full and strong commitment in resolving political-humanitarian crises.
Such a position acknowledges on one hand the humanitarian obligation to intervene on
behalf of populations in distress; yet it also reflects a healthy awareness that while
humanitarians have their own sense of political expression and judgment, they cannot
solve everything. They can, however, seek greater interoperability with other actors in the
international systempoliticians, diplomats, and military personnel; as well as with new
actors such as international tribunals, organizers of elections and other aspects of the
democratisation process, and of course, the media!

In the following lessons we will examine several key topics in the conduct of
humanitarian relief: 1) the historical background and rationale for humanitarian action;
2) the mandates and the nature of the different actors working in this field of intervention;
3) the environment in which their work unfolds; and 4) the principles of intervention and
management that guide them.

General introduction to the course The Conduct of Humanitarian Relief Operations 2

We will also outline the practical foundations of humanitarian action through
basic descriptions of operations to be conducted in the areas of housing, water, food
supply and nutrition, as well as in health and clean-up projects. In addition, we will
examine the question of sustainable solutions that must guide and direct the efforts of
all actors in the international system if we are to find solutions to humanitarian questions.

Finally, we wish to give special attention to the establishment of uniform
standards of quality intended henceforth to govern operations of a humanitarian nature
(SPHERE Project); as well as the Code of Conduct for humanitarian operations, which
aims to hold members of international agencies such as the movement of the Red Cross
and the Red Crescent and others to a shared set of behaviours and minimum ethical
guidelines.

THE CONDUCT OF
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
OPERATIONS

LESSON 1

REASONS FOR HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION

1.1

1.2
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION

THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMANITARIAN ACTION IN THE 20
TH

CENTURY AND THE REASONS FOR ITS EXTRAORDINARY
GROWTH

Lesson 1/Reasons for Humanitarian Intervention 4

Objectives For Lesson 1: Reasons For Humanitarian Intervention

This lesson provides a broad overview of humanitarian intervention, traces some
of the historic background, and discusses the factors that necessitated the expansion of
humanitarian action during the 20
th
Century.

By the end of Lesson 1 the student should be able to meet the following objectives:

Provide a brief history of humanitarian intervention;
Discuss how developments in the technology of warfare in the 20
th
Century
necessitated changes to humanitarian interventions;
List three phenomena that appeared in humanitarian action following The First
World War;
Discuss the reasons for renewed growth in humanitarian action during the years
1970 to 2000.

LESSON 1: REASONS FOR HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION

1.1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANITARIAN ACTION

Can humanitarian intervention and humanitarian action be given a moment of
origin? Considered as the desire to lend assistance to one's fellow man, humanitarian
action is as old as humanity itself. To give personal help to others is an individual
behaviour that has dwelt in mankind from the beginning. These individual acts are often
inscribed in sacred texts or in religious practices such as the zackat in Islam or the
Christian concept of charity. Yet humanitarian action can be distinguished from such
acts in that it seeks to systematize the organization and mobilization of various human
and logistical resources in order to lend assistance to one or more specific population
groups. In this sense, every civilization has groups who have devoted themselves on a
small scale to acts of compassion and relief of the suffering of others. This extension of
the principle of individual assistance has also been magnified to become the basis for
organized groups, constituting both their coming into existence and their reason for
being, often under a religious guise.

Closer to home, the birth of this type of organization can be seen in the formation
of religious and military orders during the mobilization in the 11
th
and 14
th
centuries and
the first Christian Crusades. This period thus sees the appearance in Western
Christiandom of groups such as the Templars, the Knights of the Holy Spulchre, and the
Iberian orders (the latter including the orders of Alcantara, Montesa, Avis, Saint Jacques
of Compostella and Caltrava). Once the Crusades came to a close, these orders remained
in the territories conquered from the Moors and continued for several centuries to operate
establishments devoted to hospital care. It should be noted that today, more than 900
years after the end of the Crusades, an order such as the Sovereign Military and
Hospitaller Order of Saint Jean of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta (better known as the
Knights of Malta) continues its hospital operations and other humanitarian activities
around the world.

In keeping with this altruistic spirit, the West (and the Church in particular) built
establishments to receive the poor and indigent and to dispense health care and public
assistance. This system was the creation of St. Francis de Paul, but public hospitals have
arisen under various monarchs as well. Eventually, early precursors to modern
interventions could be seen on several continents. In 1793, the French aristocrats who
were chased from Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti) in a slave revolt were taken in like
true boat people by neighbouring Florida. In granting them aid by a vote of Congress,
the United States initiated its first program of humanitarian assistance. It continued by
launching a vast emergency rescue operation for those affected by the terrible Caracas
earthquake of 1812. Whether it was the Greeks struggling against the Ottomans or the
Irish dying of famine on their island, the world power to be that was the United States
organized the first international demonstrations of solidarity by a government to aid
members of populations whose lives were in peril.

In Europe the movement of full-scale colonization, sustained by the efforts of
France and Great Britain (and others to a lesser extent) to conquer and administer
immense territories in Asia and Africa, led to a new, quasi-apostolic mission among the
humanitarians of the daynamely, religious missionaries, colonial administrators, and
the medical and social services they created. One of the most famous examples of this
period is the celebrated Dr. Albert Schweitzer, founder of the Lambarene hospital in
Gabon. The humanitarian action of the colonial period was governed by a discourse
emphasizing the civilizing mission while masking the political and economic interests
of the colonizing powers.

More pragmatic and just as humanitarian were the areas of battlefield medicine
and army medical care, which also constitutes a specialized and emergent branch of
humanitarian action. Todays humanitarian workers may be far removed from the
discoveries of Henry Dunant at Solferino and the early roots of the Red Cross Movement,
but medical support for armies clearly aims at reducing the suffering of soldiers as well
as protecting the troops of armed forces deployed in combat.

It must be recalled that on the nineteenth-century battleground of Solferino in
Italy, Henry Dunant, citizen of Geneva, horrified after witnessing 40,000 men wounded
and moaning in pain after a murderous battle between the French and the Italians,
decided to fight for the establishment of a new idea: to impose on armed forces and the
states they represent a neutral space of intervention that would enable the wounded to
receive, with complete impartiality, the aid and medical care due them. Dunant's idea,
expressed in his famous book Memories of Solferino (Souvenirs de Solferino), gave birth
to the principles that would come to guide the international movement of the Red Cross:
impartial assistance, neutrality and independence.

The political and civil mobilization that followed the publication of Dunant's
book, as well as the promotional efforts of the first Red Cross Committee, gave rise to a
public campaign in support of the principles of the Red Cross, leading shortly afterwards
to the first Geneva Convention of 1864 for The Amelioration of the Wounded in Time of
War. On the basis of these principlesneutrality, humanity, impartialitythe Red Cross
movement (whose emblem is the Swiss flag with reversed colours) spread quickly among
each of the first 20 signatory nations and beyond. Due to the development of its
organizational methods, the Red Cross quickly became the first permanent humanitarian
organization in the modern world. Equipped with professional standards of intervention,
it was based on voluntary participation. Its goal as it developed was to possess the
technical capacity to mobilize sizeable human and logistic resources in order to assist
victims of conflicts, and by extension, victims of natural disasters and other such
calamities.

The Balkan and Asian wars at the end of the nineteenth century confirmed the
universality of the Red Cross movement, whose capacity for intervention was by then
widely recognized. Its efforts during the First World War, including the visitation of
prison camps, the creation of the International Agency for Prisoners of War, the
repatriation of 700,000 men, plus the assistance provided to civilian populations affected

by the conflict, earned the humanitarian movement its first Nobel Prize in 1917. The end
of the war also saw the division of the movement into two distinct parts: the International
Committee of the Red Cross (I.C.R.C.), which manages the movements wartime
operations; and the League of the Red Cross Societies, now the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which devotes itself to peacetime operations
such as public health initiatives, training of aid workers, response to natural catastrophes
and the like.

The First World War thus brought to a close a very rich episode in the
development of the humanitarian cause across the globe. Its main achievements include
the following:

Confirmation of the first international conventions for the protection of
wounded prisoners and civilian populations in wartime; the banning of some
types of weapons; and the birth of International Humanitarian Law (IHL)

The development of technical methods of assistance and mass logistical
support to protect and bring aid to these same groups in wartime

The creation of new research tools and work methods whose concepts are still
in use today, such as a research agency for locating prisoners, established
procedures for jail visits, development of wartime mobile surgical techniques,
launching public health campaigns or prevention programs (against
tuberculosis, for instance)

The universalization of a humanitarian movement with a mission to remain
neutral, impartial, and independent of established political and military
authorities

Despite the development of increasingly deadly weaponry and the ability of states
to make warfare even more horrific and inhumane than during WWI (which saw the
appearance of gas and tanks, aerial warfare, etc.), Western governments never stopped
preparing for the next war. Thus while the International Red Cross Societies continued to
improve their capacity for intervention, new instruments for humanitarian action
gradually began to appear.

1.2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMANITARIAN ACTION IN THE 20
TH

CENTURY AND THE REASONS FOR ITS EXTRAORDINARY GROWTH

1.2.1 NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN HUMANITARIAN ACTION

The start of the post-war era in the 1920s, followed by questions surrounding
rehabilitation and aid to populations devastated by the Second World War, marked the
appearance of three phenomena that were important to the future development of
contemporary humanitarian actors.

The first concerns the appearance of the first government agency for humanitarian
work, the NANSEN Organization, which was a precursor to the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) created 30 years later. Named for the
famous Norwegian explorer, the NANSEN organization was a manifestation of the
newly created League of Nations (L.O.N.) and was the first agency devoted to the
care of refugees, at that time principally Russian emigrs. Nansen created the first
travel permit for people who were unable to avail themselves of the legal authority
of their country of origin, thus enabling them to travel more easily. The defining
concept of this organization later became the premise for the International
Committee for Refugees, created by President Roosevelt (bearing in mind that the
United States refused to join the League of Nations). It also formed the basis for
the United Nations Recovery and Reconstruction Administration, (UNRRA) which
was established at the end of the war and finally undermined by the start of the
Cold War. This was followed by the International Organization for Refugees
(IOR) which was the immediate forerunner of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Mandated for only three years, the UN
High Commission for Refugees has continued ever since to adapt texts, resources,
and methods in order to confront the ever new challenges of managing nearly 50
million refugees and displaced persons around the globe.

The second phenomenon concerns the appearance of the first large non-
governmental agencies for international work. Save the Children was created in
response to the famine in the Ukraine during the 1920s in the newly formed
U.S.S.R. Both the Second World War and the war in Korea fed the impulse for
compassion and the exceptional generosity of the American people. Thus were
born some of this country's largest non-governmental international relief
organizations, many of them religious in orientation, such as World Vision,
International Rescue Committee, Catholic Relief Service, C.A.R.E. (Committee for
American Remittances Everywhere), Lutheran Worldwide Federation and
Adventist Development Relief Association. These giants of humanitarian aid
would later become giants of reconstruction aid, then of developmental aid in
newly decolonised countries during the 1960s. They were backed by effective
American policies that encouraged their development within several countries of
intervention, confirming close ties between NGOs and the government of their
state of origin. Conversely in Europe, the former colonial powers more often
favoured the development of bilateral politics of cooperation between States, to the
detriment of the emergence of large, government-endorsed international NGOs.

The third phenomenon concerns the revolt against the father initiated by a group
of young French doctors who rebelled against the uncompromising rules of
neutrality and absolute impartiality of the International Red Cross Committee. In
Biafra in 1969, a ruthless war was being fought amidst a civilian population that
was dying from severe famine. Denied access to the region by Nigerian officials,
the Red Cross could not relax its principles of strict neutrality in order to reach the
population in distress. Shocked by this veritable blackmail on the part of the
Nigerian authorities, a group of French doctors led by Dr. Bernard Kouchner

decided to create a medical organization that could not only get to populations in
need, but that would also abandon the obligation of restraint in order to testify
openly to the public and to any media outlet willing to hear them about what they
witnessed.

The first private
humanitarian medical
organization, Doctors Without
Borders (DWB; in French
Mdecins Sans Frontires, or
MSF), was thus born and with
it the expression without
borders. Under this
internationalist designation
emerged a whole new
generation of humanitarian
organizations with
interventionist aims, who
were expressly committed to
going directly to victims and
who were prepared to defy the
sacrosanct law of non-
interference in the internal affairs of a State. They opened a new dialogue with public
opinion and the media, producing a radical revolution in the field of humanitarian action
that would propel onto the world's television screens, radios and newspapers the
neglected causes and distant conflicts to which nobody else, governments in particular,
was paying any attention.

This wave of without borderism would enjoy phenomenal recognition and
growing success: Pharmacists Without Borders, Veterinarians Without Borders, Aviation
Without Borders, Lawyers Without Borders, Reporters Without Borders, Engineers
Without Borders, Psychologists Without Borders, even Clowns Without Borders! The
new champions of without borders gradually came to fill every new sector and
specialized field of humanitarian intervention. With the help of the media, the new
humanitarians found themselves supported by generations of young professionals who
no longer believed in multilateral political action and who saw in without borderism a
constructive and realistic way of aiding people in situations of distress in Third World
countries or in the West.

To briefly summarize the game rules adopted by the new without borderists,
they have several criteria in common:

A private and most often secular origin. The without borders organization seeks
funding largely among loyal public donors. The organization looks to minimize
national or multilateral public financing in order to best preserve its independence
and free judgment.

Zaire/Rwandan refugees. Medecins du Monde team
attending Cholera Victims, Mugunga Camp. UNHCR/P.
Deloche, 07.1994.

A professional membership largely based on volunteerism and personal
commitment rather than a careerist orientation.

A sometimes radical refusal of the rules of non-interference and neutrality as
defined by the International Red Cross, in order to guarantee unlimited access to
victims. Access and support are provided without discrimination by race, colour,
or religion, and increasingly take place with no negotiation with any political
power whatsoever. From this definition of intervention will later emerge the
concept of a right to intervention.

A rapid internationalisation of the national representatives of the large NGOs, a
movement which extends to all continents and which gives growing weight to
NGOs in international forums that debate contemporary humanitarian crises (from
the UN Security Council to the European Parliament) as well as providing access
to new funding sources.

A tendency, following from their much-championed and defended liberty, to
consider testimony as an intrinsic part of their mandate. This transforms certain
agencies into operating as much as defenders of just causes (the campaigns
against anti-personnel mines and child soldiers, for example) as humanitarian
fieldworkers.

A transparency in administration that demonstrates the profitability of funds
received while minimizing the expense of operations management.

1.2.2 REASONS FOR RENEWED GROWTH (1970 2000)

It is important to ask how this exceptional growth in contemporary humanitarian
action came about. This growth affected the institutions of the UN system as
significantly as it did the international NGOs. Several factors, some complementary and
others unrelated to each other, transformed contemporary humanitarian action into one of
the strongest currents in international relations of the past 30 years. Without being an
exhaustive list, here are several reasons:

A humanitarian consciousness. At the root of the revolt of the French doctors
who left the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) to create the first team of
Doctors Without Borders in 1968, the humanitarian consciousness of the need
for action and the duty to lessen the suffering of populations in danger certainly
remains one of the most powerful driving forces. Many organizations, from the
12
th
century Knight Hospitallers to modern NGOs, were born out of a sensed need
to respond to a particular tragedy, and out of the desire to bring help and a
determination to act in a different yet more effective way than through government
action. This consciousness remains strong and was at the origin of the explosion
of humanitarian NGOs that have been observed in the past several years.


The increase in number of conflicts: Since the end of the Cold War, the number of
conflicts on the planet has grown significantly, to the current level of 85 active
conflicts in the final days of the millennium. Ninety-five percent of these are of
internal origin. Sadly, the longest and most deadly conflicts often remain the
province of the world's poorest countries (Burma, Burundi, Chad, Congo, Sudan,
to name just a few).

Changes in the
nature of conflicts:
Modern-day
conflicts are no
longer only
conflicts between
armies, but have
increasingly
become conflicts
where civilians are
the primary
victimsin
number, in severity
of atrocitieswho
are then subject to
the most abhorrent
manipulations.
This new reality,
which concerns refugees as well as internally displaced persons, has significantly
enlarged the scope of humanitarian work. It has also encouraged other actors and
partners (jurists, police, human rights activists, etc.) to play a growing role in the
monitoring and management of humanitarian crises.

The change in the nature of needs: The proliferation of crises and conflicts as well
as the toll taken on civilian societies has progressively extended the definition as
well as the nature of needs. This growth has also engendered a demand for
increasingly specialized humanitarian services such as psychosocial services,
water management in urban centres, the management of shelters in Europe, or
assistance from flying doctors as in Kenya, for instance.

Humanitarianism as a political response: Humanitarian action is never an end in
itself. Yet it is true that in many recent conflicts, where the effort or the ability to
provide a political response (necessarily long-term) to a conflict or crisis situation
are lacking, a large number of Western governments have preferred to finance
humanitarian operations rather than find a lasting political solution to the
underlying problems (as in the case of the conflict in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995).
This phenomenon has been characterized as substituting humanitarianism for
politics.

Zaire/Rwandanese refugees, Rwandanese UNHCR worker
with Ethiopian UN soldier. Ruzizi Bridge, Bu Kavu. UNHCR/H.
Davies, 08.1994.

To coordinate this new political dimension of humanitarian action, several states
have officially established new administrative offices within the government to
carry out their policies in this domain

Financing humanitarianism: Despite the significant growth of private financing,
particular in moments of humanitarian crises, the growth of institutional financing
for humanitarian agencies has been an important stimulant for the multiplication of
new humanitarian agencies as well as the multiplication of initiatives that these
agencies are in a position to finance. Thus has Europe, with the creation of the
European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), become in the span of only a
few years the worlds leading lender of humanitarian funds.

Humanitarianism as a profession and an adventure: Humanitarianism's use of the
media has projected a very socially positive if not idealistic image of humanitarian
work. In societies where a growing number of people seek to combine adventure
and work, and a commitment to international as well as social change,
humanitarianism has often provided a ready-made response.

Internationalised humanitarianism: To meet the demand outlined in the above
points, humanitarian organizations have multiplied. Three underlying trends have
combined to contribute to the internationalisation of the phenomenon:

The creation of new structures: UN-sponsored (the UN Department of
Humanitarian Affairs and UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
see Lesson 2 Section 12) as well as agencies at the European and/or national level
(ECHO); and the appearance of new mandates: the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (UNICEF); the prohibition and destruction of anti-personnel mines (The
Ottawa Convention); the protection of displaced persons; the fight against AIDS,
child soldiers, etc.

The internationalisation of large humanitarian NGOs such as DWB, CARE,
OXFAM, Doctors of the World, World Vision, and others that are expanding the
international branches of their organization; and the involvement of new actors
participating in complementary humanitarian or civil operations such as the UN
Blue Helmets, NATO, OSCE (the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe), ECHO, the International Civil Police, etc.

Internationalisation of financing: the increase in volume and the growth of
financing sectors, as well as the appearance of new lenders.

LESSON 1: QUIZ

Q1: Henry Dunant is the original founder of the
a.) League of Nations
b.) The NANSEN organization
c.) CARE International
d.) The International Red Cross

Q2: Doctors Without Borders is:
a.) A creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross
b.) A private medical non-governmental organization
c.) A university organization in charge of international health questions
d.) A creation of the Nobel Prize in medicine

Q3: Typical features of the "Without Borders" movement are: (multiple)
a.) A voluntary commitment of professionals on the ground
b.) Funding emanating from private and public sources
c.) The freedom to bear witness to what each organization can see and share
d.) A partner relationship with the armed forces of each country

Q4: The growth of humanitarian actors and situations is due to (multiple):
a.) An increase in the number of conflicts
b.) The birth of new humanitarian needs
c.) Changes in the nature of conflicts
d.) The public financing of humanitarian NGOs by governments

Q5: The International Humanitarian Law has existed since:
a.) The first western crusades to the Holy Land
b.) The arrival of Without Borders and the Rights of Interference
c.) The creation of the International Red Cross
d.) The end of the Cold War and the arrival of new armed conflicts

Q6: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees is a creation of:
a.) The League of Nations
b.) A consortium of humanitarian NGOs
c.) The General Assembly of the United Nations
d.) The International Red Cross

Q7: All these actors are partners with contemporary humanitarian action:
a.) UNICEF yes no
b.) ECHO yes no
c.) OXFAM yes no
d.) NANSEN yes no


Q8: In honour of its humanitarian action, The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to:
a.) CARE International
b.) UNICEF
c.) The International Red Cross
d.) None of the above organizations

ANSWERS:

Q1: D Q2: B Q3: A, B, C Q4 : A, B, C
Q5: C Q6: C Q7: A. Yes B. Yes C. Yes D. No
Q8: C

THE CONDUCT OF
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
OPERATIONS

LESSON 2

ACTORS IN HUMANITARIAN RELIEF

2.1
2.2

2.3

2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS
GOVERNMENTS AND SPECIALIZED GOVERNMENT
STRUCTURES
BENEFICIARY POPULATIONS: REFUGEES, DISPLACED
PERSONS, WAR VICTIMS, CHILD SOLDIERS, VULNERABLE
GROUPS, AT-RISK PERSONS
HUMANITARIAN NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
MILITARY FORCES
MEMBERS OF THE RED CROSS MOVEMENT
THE NEW PEACEKEEPING PARTNERSHIP

Lesson 2/Actors in Humanitarian Relief 16

Objectives For Lesson 2: Actors in Humanitarian Relief

This lesson will acquaint the student with the existing government and non-
governmental organizations involved in humanitarian relief. The larger organizations will
be discussed, some of the conventions and protocols that protect refugees and others will
be mentioned, and the important mutually supportive functions provided by military and
non-military organizations will be explored.


List and briefly discuss some of the most prominent international organizations
involved in humanitarian relief;
List and briefly discuss the specialized government structures involved in
humanitarian relief;
Discuss some of the conventions and protocols that protect refugees, displaced
persons, war victims, child soldiers, vulnerable persons, and at-risk individuals;
Discuss the special role of national and international non-governmental
organizations (NGOs);
State the reasons why military organizations have proven to be effective providers
of humanitarian relief;
Discuss the special role the International Committee of the Red Cross plays in
humanitarian relief;
Discuss the New Peacekeeping Partnership, its background, participating
groups, and goals.


LESSON 2: ACTORS IN HUMANITARIAN RELIEF

2.1 INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS

The majority of organizations devoted to humanitarian work were formed within
the United Nations system. Many of these agencies, such as the UNHCR or UNRWA,
were created to respond to crisis situations; while others have been entrusted by the
General Assembly of the United Nations with limited mandates that have for the most
part been expanded to meet the increase in humanitarian situations over the course of the
1970s, 80s and 90s.

The strength of these agencies is that they are endowed with clear mandates that
give them authority and an unquestionable international legitimacy, even if this
legitimacy is often challenged by government policies. With the growth in number and
complexity of humanitarian crises, as well as the increased number of issues that
humanitarians now address, international organizations have seen a profound evolution
and transformation of their objectives, mandates, and operational methods. Nevertheless,
they are far from being able to have a mandate that encompasses all crisis situations, nor
can they address the totality of needs in each crisis. Their budgets are often subject to the
goodwill of the states that finance their operations; in addition, these states often possess
not only the right to oversee the management of the organizations' policies, but also the
right to invest financially in the crises that they deem most in their interest, to the
detriment of secondary or silent and non-mediatized crises.

Nevertheless, international humanitarian organizations, through the experience of
their national and international professional staff, the universality of their presence, and
their position as neutral actors in every theatre of humanitarian operations, remain along
with the NGOs one of the finest operational expressions of contemporary humanitarian
action. They have also learned important lessons over time in how to work more closely
with government and non-government actors in countries of the South, entrusting them
with greater responsibility for the management of local programs.

The challenge that remains partially unsolved, especially at the level of the United
Nations, is the integration of various aid functions in the management of a particular
crisis. Methods of coordination and cooperation have been deeply strengthened over the
past fifteen years, yet without ensuring that effective coordination of financial and human
resources consistently leads to optimal effectiveness in humanitarian relief management.
This is a challenge that will increasingly be taken up in the future by an organization such
as the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), created by the United
Nations in 1992.


2.1.1 THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSION FOR REFUGEES

GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Headed since 1 January 2001 by former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers, the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the largest agency in the
United Nations conducting humanitarian work today. With over 4,000 international
professionals working in 274 world offices spread throughout 120 countries, it is the most
operational agency and works closest to humanitarian crises caused by displaced refugee
populations or displaced persons.

The United Nations gave UNHCR the mandate to lead and coordinate
international action for the protection of refugees the world over, and to research
solutions to their problems. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees was created in 1950 by Resolution 428 (V) of the United Nations General
Assembly; originally established on a temporary basis for a period of three years, the
UNHCRs mandate has been renewed every five years ever since.

The UNHCRs primary mission is to guarantee the rights and well-being of
refugees. To this end, it strives to ensure that everyone has the right to seek asylum in
another country and to return of their own accord to their country of origin. While
helping refugees to return home or permanently settle in another country, the UNHCR
also seeks to bring about a lasting solution to
their problem. The UNHCRs actions are
governed by the Statute of the Office of the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the
United Nations Convention of 1951 Relative
to the Status of Refugees and by the Protocol
of 1967. International law pertaining to
refugees constitutes the essential normative
framework for the humanitarian activities of
the UNHCR. The Convention of 1951
Relative to the Status of Refugees and the
additional Protocol of 1967 define a refugee
as a person who owing to well-founded fear
of being persecuted for reasons of race,
religion, nationality, membership of a
particular social group or political opinion, is
outside the country of his nationality and is
unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to
avail himself of the protection of that country;
or who, not having a nationality and being
outside the country of his former habitual
residence as a result of such events, is unable
or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to
it." It should be noted that over the years,
several resolutions made by the General
Thailand, Voluntary repatriation of
Cambodian Refugees. UNHCR. K.
Singhaseni, 11.1997

Assembly and endorsed by the international community have requested that the UNHCR
intervene on behalf of people who find themselves outside their original countries as a
result of persecutions, military conflict, generalized violence, foreign aggression or other
circumstances that would provoke their flight.

In connection with its main activities on behalf of refugees, the UNHCRs
Executive Committee and the United Nations General Assembly authorized the UNHCR
to act on behalf of other groups such as repatriated settlers, internally displaced persons,
as well as stateless persons whose nationality is in dispute.

The UNHCR's principal mission is to try to prevent forced displacements by
encouraging states and other institutions to create conditions favourable for the protection
of human rights and the peaceful settlement of disputes. In this spirit, the UNHCR works
to smooth the reintegration of refugees returning to their country of origin in order to
avoid the recurrence of situations likely to provoke a new exodus.

PRINCIPLES OF INTERVENTION
The UNHCR is an impartial UN organization that provides protection and
assistance to refugees and others falling under its competence according to their needs
and without regard for race, religion, political opinion, or sexual preference. In all its
activities, the UNHCR pays special attention to the needs of children and is devoted to
promoting womens rights. An organization created by the crisis of post-WWII refugees,
the UNHCR works in partnership with governments, regional organizations, international
organizations, and non-governmental organizations in efforts to protect refugees and find
solutions to their problems. In its action in the field, the UNHCR firmly supports the
principle of participation, whereby refugees and other beneficiaries of its activities must
be consulted concerning decisions that have an impact on their lives.

Under the terms of its statute, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees is primarily charged with promoting international accords for the protection of
refugees and of supervising their application. Under the terms of the Convention of 1951
and the Protocols of 1967, the contracting states agree to cooperate with the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the exercise of its functions, and in
particular, to facilitate the duty of supervising the application of the provisions of the
convention.

Partnerships between the UNHCR and NGOs were strengthened thanks to the
process of Partnership in Action, or PARINAC. Established in 1994, this process
defines the structures and mechanisms of this new cooperation and determines the areas
in which existing partners can be strengthened. The most important contribution brought
by the PARINAC process was to make the UNHCR more aware of potential resources
offered by local and national NGOs. As a result, in 1999 the UNHCR worked with 513
NGO executive partners. In the new plan of action that was adopted, it was thus
recommended that emphasis be placed on training NGO coordinators as well as on
disseminating information on established principles for building local and national
capacities.

INDIVIDUALS FALLING UNDER THE COMPETENCE OF UNHCR
The number of individuals who come under the competence of UNHCR
fluctuates continuously from one humanitarian crisis to the next, from one negotiated or
spontaneous process of repatriation to another. At the end of the 1990s, the total number
of individuals under the competence of the UNHCR had fallen from 27 million in 1995 to
22.3 million in January 1999. It should be emphasized that historically this number, as
well as the number of categories of persons falling under the competence of this
organization, has continued overall to increase. These categories are as follows:

Refugees (11.5 million) Refugees are people found outside their country of
origin and who are recognized as refugees by governments party to the various UN
or regional instruments relating to the legal status of refugees, or individuals who
have been recognized as refugees by the UNHCR according to the definition that
appears in the Statute of the Office of High Commissioner. The latter are
considered mandate refugees of the UNHCR. This category includes especially
people who have been accorded provisional protection as a group, but also
individuals who have not yet been recognized as refugees by the state of asylum
but who have been extended protection by the UNHCR.

Asylum-seekers (1.3 million) Those who seek asylum are persons who have left
their country of origin, who have requested refugee status in another country, and
who are still waiting for the relevant government or the UNHCR to come to a
decision concerning their request. These groups are especially found living in the
industrial countries of Europe and North America.

Repatriated persons (1.9 million) These are persons who came under the
competence of UNHCR when they lived outside their country of origin, and who
continue to fall under its competence for a limited time after their return home.
During that time, UNHCR helps with their reintegration and ensures that they are
living in suitable conditions. A large number of activities put in place by the
organization in their country of origin help make their return viable.

Displaced persons and others under the competence of UNHCR (7.5 million)
Internally displaced persons and others falling under the competence of UNHCR
are people to whom the UNHCR extends its protection and support even though
they were not included in its initial mandate, but for whom the UN General
Secretary of the UN General Assembly have requested the UNHCR's assistance.
Like refugees, these people have been occasionally compelled to leave because
their life and/or their freedom were threatened; but unlike refugees, these people
have been unable to cross an international border. As a matter of law, therefore,
they remain under the sovereignty of their own government, even if that
government cannot or does not want to protect them. Given its considerable
experience with large movements of people placed in situations of crisis, the
UNHCR has been asked increasingly in the 1990s to protect and assist some
groups of internally displaced persons. This situation was the case particularly for
hundreds of thousands of people living in southeastern Europe (in the territories of

the former Yugoslavia) as well as various groups in the community of independent
states.

2.1.2 OFFICE OF COORDINATION FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS
(OCHA) AT THE UNITED NATIONS

The Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, was created in
the early 1990s to replace the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA). The DHAs
task had been to try to globally coordinate all the complex humanitarian operations
mandated by the UN Security Council. For many reasons, largely related to the desire on
the part of the large UN agencies to maintain a certain operational autonomy, neither
DHA nor OCHA have historically wielded sufficient political authority to be able to
claim a real and direct role in the coordination of humanitarian operations.

Nonetheless, for a number of governments the two institutions have played an
important role in carrying out the following functions:

Gathering information on a large number of humanitarian crises for the benefit of
all humanitarian actors in many theatres of operation.

Preparation of information for issuing specialized appeals to donor states in order
to provide them with a complete overview of the actions launched by the United
Nations and the Red Cross in a given humanitarian crisis.

The chance to play a role in channelling international or private aid (financial or
material) sent for reducing a humanitarian crisis.

Training of professionals from national agencies and ministries from countries of
the South in techniques for the prevention of natural disasters, the preparation of
adequate humanitarian contingency plans, and the development of simulation
exercises.

Organization of seminars and specialized synthesis reports to absorb the lessons
learned from a specific humanitarian crisis.

Coordination of military or civilian elements made available to the UN for
operational support in humanitarian crises (for instance warehousing of goods on
the Brindisi base, charter flights made available to the UN, etc.)

2.1.3 WORLD FOOD PROGRAM (WFP)

MANDATE
The World Food Program is the UN organization that seeks, purchases, ships and
distributes all the food assistance provided by the United Nations during any
humanitarian crisis. This is not its main function, since its broad mandate is a world

where any man, woman or child can always have access to the food needed to lead a
dignified, active and healthy life. Without adequate food, the WFP maintains that there
cannot be any lasting peace, democracy, or even development.

It is important to note that for a long time the development of the WFPs policy
has relied on institutional agreements (Memoranda of Understanding) concluded with
large humanitarian actors like UNHCR, FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization),
UNICEF, as well as with a growing number of non-governmental organizations such as
ICRC, CARE, CRS, ADRA. These memoranda ensure the execution of cooperative
programs according to pre-established operational rules.

While these memoranda guarantee the WFP that it will have the support of the
major contemporary humanitarian actors, they also favour the latter with regard to
matters of contractual management or partnership in a given setting.

BENEFICIARIES OF WFP OPERATIONS
According to statistics for the year 1998, the WFP relied on operational offices in
80 different countries with more than 5000 employees. That same year, the WFP
distributed more than 2.8 million tons of food for about 75 million people. Such food was
served within the context of emergency operations, subsistence of populations in
humanitarian conditions, and also development projects. The resources made available to
the organization for such help amounted to $1.8 billion. They came from about 60
participating countries, and took the form of financial gifts, food, or others. An
approximate division of the recipients might provide a clear vision of the sectorial
distribution of the WFPs activities. Thus, the 75 million recipients of WFP assistance
included:

18.4 million individuals (25%) helped in the context of development projects. In
most cases, these people were helped as part of a program called Food for Work.
This program aims at providing food as compensation for people who work on
development projects like a road, a dam, improvement of the environment, or
most simply development projects for human resources: food distribution in
schools to keep students in the classroom, health or nutrition programs in
hospitals, community clinics, etc.

16.3 million (22%) refugees, internally displaced persons, or repatriated persons.
After having lost everything because of a civil or international war, and thus
forced to begin their lives anew, these people are especially vulnerable before their
situation finds a lasting solution.

40.1 million (53%) people who have been the victims of natural catastrophes like
earthquakes, hurricanes, floods or droughts.

It is important to note that the important effort undertaken by the WFP does not
represent the totality of food assistance made available to displaced populations or to
populations afflicted by disasters. Also involved with such efforts are national

governments and national or international non-governmental agencies, who are especially
active during the phase of mobilization that immediately follows a catastrophe and that
precede the WFPs ability to mobilize the resources needed for the management of an
important crisis. Significantly, the two largest donors and participating members of the
WFP are the United States (51% of the 1998 budget) and the European Union (11% in
1998, but not including bilateral gifts from EU members).

METHODOLOGY FOR WFP ACTION
The three categories of aid outlined above allow us to identify three operational
models for the WFP. These are:

Food for Life, whose goal is to rescue as quickly as possible the people affected
by a humanitarian catastrophe. The budgets earmarked for these operations
increased by a factor of 500 during the 1990s. In 1990, two out of three tons of
food were committed to putting recipients on the path to self-sufficiency, with the
remainder allotted for emergency relief. Today, the proportion has been reversed,
and more than four-fifths of such food is committed for emergency conditions.

Food for Growth, whose function is to give priority assistance to persons most
vulnerable due to an especially critical moment in their livesbabies, mothers
who feed these babies, school age children, and older people. The lack of
adequate nutrition prevents children's learning and inhibits the life chances of
unborn children. Food assistance can also provide support for public health
programs and literacy campaigns for women and girls, or bolster programs to
improve the nutritional quality of food available to households.

Food for work. The most creative and original of the WFP models, it consists of
payment in kind for the labour contributions of men and women who work on
development projects such as roads, dikes, excavations, reforestations or irrigation
canals.

2.1.4 UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY (UNRWA)

Following the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1948, UN resolution 302 (IV) created the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, to bring relief and assistance to
tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the conflict. Working under a provisional
mandate, the UNRWA began its activities on 1 May 1950; however, in the absence of
any permanent political solution to the Palestinian refugee question, UNRWAs mandate
has been renewed each year since then.

According to the legal definition of UNRWA, a Palestinian refugee is considered
to be any person whose ordinary residence was Palestine between June, 1946 and May
1948 and who was forced to leave home as a result of the Arab-Israeli hostilities of 1948;
and who found refuge in Jordan, Lebanon, the Arab-Syrian Republic, the Gaza strip, or
the occupied West Bank of Jordan. The definition of someone assisted by UNRWA also

covers all the descendants of those who became refugees in 1949. The number of
Palestinian refugees has thus significantly grown since this period: it has increased from
914,000 in 1950 to more than 3,600,000 in 1999, and continues to rise following the
natural growth of the population as well as the absence of political accord on their status
and permanent residence.

PEOPLE REGISTERED BY UNRWA IN THE NEAR EAST

Receiving State Official Camps Registered Refugees Registered refugees
in camps
Jordan 10 1,541,405 277,555
Lebanon 12 373,440 208,223
Syria 10 378,382 110,427
West Bank 19 576,160 155,365
Gaza Strip 8 808,495 442,942
TOTAL 59 3,677,882 1,194,512

Thus, since its creation the UNRWA has fed, clothed, and provided shelter to tens
of thousands of refugees, not to mention offering education and proper medical treatment
to thousands of young refugees. Like the UNHCR, UNRWA began with a temporary
mandate and found its extension repeatedly renewed. The agency, which is
headquartered in Gaza, is a unique example of an international organization dedicated to
the protection and material assistance of a single and same group of refugees over a
period that now equals four generations.

2.1.5 UNICEF

THE ORGANIZATION
UNICEF is a semi-autonomous organization that is an integral part of the United
Nations system. It has its own governing board, an Executive Committee of 36 members
that sets policy, reviews programs and approves budgets. With headquarters in New
York, UNICEF carries out its activities through some 200 offices installed in over 160
countries. UNICEF works in direct collaboration with governments, NGOs and other UN
institutions to identify the needs of children and to make use of the energy and talents of
individuals, families, communities, and governments, in order to help countries respond
to their needs. Nearly 85 percent of UNICEF personnel work in the field, evaluating
needs, reviewing projects and acting as liaison between government authorities and
development partners in order to provide services, gather materials and stimulate local
capacities. UNICEF also makes use of a supply division in Copenhagen that furnishes
material and logistical support to programs, shipping essential medications and oral re-
hydration salts, vaccines and vaccination material, as well as emergency relief supplies:
blankets, tents, pumping systems and water storage.


One characteristic unique to UNICEF in industrialized countries is the existence
of National Committees, now numbering 37. These committees are private organizations
that work alongside UNICEF, advocating for childrens causes and engaging in
fundraising to finance program activities. Thanks to large networks of donors, these
committees collect monies for UNICEF largely from the sale of season's greetings cards
and other fundraising activities.

OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES
UNICEF bases its interventions on collaboration with governments, other UN
agencies, and local and international NGOs. Due to its philosophy of cooperation as well
as its network of partnerships, UNICEF helps governments to create local projects
addressing the needs of children in the community, using simple, low-cost and
sustainable methods. One important sphere of these efforts consists of helping people
and communities effect the changes necessary in order to improve their living conditions,
notably through the acquisition of new skills and the acceptance of new ideas.

UNICEF focuses its actions on a certain number of key programs:

Immunization: A series of vaccinations protects children against measles,
tuberculosis, tetanus, diptheria, whooping cough and polio, illnesses that are
preventable but often fatal for children in developing countries. Without this
protection, 2.7 million children would die of measles; 1.2 million would succumb
to tetanus, and one million to whooping cough. Nearly 800,000 children would be
handicapped after having contracted polio. UNICEF, in partnership with
governments, contributes so that all children receive this critical series of
immunizations before the age of one year. The world community achieved a
significant victory in 1990 when it reached its objective of "universal
immunization of children," passing from 20% to 80% worldwide vaccination
coverage in just six years. From now on, eight out ten children on average will be
protected against six deadly childhood diseases, which allows three million young
lives to be saved every year.

Iodisation of salt: Iodine deficiency, which alone causes the majority of
preventable cases of mental retardation in the world, constitutes a significant
obstacle to development, yet one that is relatively easy to overcome. Nearly 1.6
billion people around the world are exposed to this risk. Suffering its most
extreme consequences, nearly 55,000 children are born each year with serious
mental and physical handicaps because their mother suffered from an iodine
deficiency. The lack of iodine could be quickly eliminated if all countries were to
produce and sell only iodised salt.

Oral re-hydration therapy: Many people are affected by diarrhoea in developing
countries; as many as two million children die each year from dehydration caused
by diarrhoea. A simple yet efficient measure for oral re-hydration could have
saved nearly all of those lives, such as the administration of a bag of salt for oral

re-hydration diluted in soluble water or a solution prepared at home made of water,
salt and sugar.

Vitamin A: Relatively weak quantities of vitamin A can effectively protect
children. Each year, up to 500,000 children living in developing countries are
affected with permanent blindness and millions of others with hemeralopia due to
a lack of Vitamin A. In addition, illnesses caused by diarrhoea, measles, and
pneumonia are even more common and more serious in children suffering from a
Vitamin A deficiency, a factor that contributes each year to twenty-five percent of
all deaths of young children in developing countries. UNICEF helps countries
anticipate such health problems by disseminating information on the necessity of
consuming fruits and vegetables rich in Vitamin A, and by distributing Vitamin A
capsules to children exposed to such risks.

Safe maternity and breast-feeding: Each year 585,000 women, many of whom are
adolescents, die of complications linked to pregnancy and childbirth; and millions
of other women suffer handicaps and lesions for the remainder of their lives.
Women are exposed to risks when pregnancy occurs at too young or too advanced
an age, at intervals too close to one another, or when they do not have access to
treatment and when pregnancy is not practiced in adequately sanitary conditions.
Faced with this reality, UNICEF has completed important work in training
community health workers and midwives in order to reduce this alarming rate, to
encourage an adequate spacing of births and to instruct mothers on infant
healthcare. Once the child is born UNICEF extols the merits of breast-feeding,
especially if the child can be fed exclusively from the breast during the first six
months of its life, a period during which it is least able to resist infections and
when it has the greatest need for the warmth and nutrition that only breast-feeding
can provide. Within the framework of the initiative Hospitalsfriends to
babies, WHO, UNICEF and other partners advocate nursing exclusively from the
breast in hospitals as well as at home because of its numerous advantages.

AIDS: Throughout the world, public health is experiencing a major humanitarian
crisis caused by Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). This disease
has already destroyed much of the progress achieved in the area of health and well
being for children over the course of the past decade and has spread at an alarming
rate, especially among the young. We estimate that approximately 2.6 million
children are infected by the virus that causes AIDS, while many others, without
themselves being infected, feel the impact of the disease when their parents die
from it. It was estimated that between 1998 and 2000, nearly 5 million children
lost one or two of their parents as a result of AIDS. Almost 10 million children are
considered to be affected by the virus. One young African in two currently at the
age of 15 will one day die of this disease. To fight against this plague, UNICEF
thinks that education, preparation for adult life, and access to health and
reproductive services are essential if we want to stop the progression of the disease
and its consequences.


EMERGENCY HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTIONS
UNICEF responds to the needs of children and women affected by war, internal
conflicts and natural disasters by sending food, medicine and potable water when
emergency situations arise. During the last decade, UNICEF estimates that more than
one million children were orphaned or separated from their parents, 12 million children
were removed from their homes and approximately 10 million children suffered
psychological trauma due to war and internal conflicts.

During wartime, UNICEF organizes deployments of emergency aid for children
on both sides of a conflict. The agency has been very creative in formulating concepts
intended to protect children in conflict situations. For instance, UNICEF launched the
idea of a peace zone specifically for the protection of children. In Salvador in 1984,
UNICEF obtained three national Days of Peace in which children could be vaccinated;
a strategy that was later used in several other countries. In other countries such as
Afghanistan, Congo, Libya, Sudan and Uganda, the organization conducted similar
operations around the concept of Days of Peace and Corridors of Peace. To provide
assistance and material aid, UNICEF has Emergency Program Funds available that allow
it to act quickly and generously to provide aid to countries in need, as well as to
strengthen regional capacities for emergency prevention and relief planning.

2.1.6 WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)

WHO does not oversee large operations when dealing with complex humanitarian
crises. However, its influence is important when it comes to organizing coordination
between specialized medical humanitarian agencies and the sanitation authorities of the
host country, particularly on issues such as the political management of prevention,
epidemiological analysis or particular treatment protocol. WHO provides technical
expertise to finance studies that precisely calculate the effects of various medical
treatments and the impacts of the presence of large humanitarian groups on human
territory, as well as the prophylactic or therapeutic measures that can be taken to keep
these possible effects in check.

The large humanitarian medical NGOs like Doctors Without Borders have
currently set up specialized units (such as EPI-Centre for MSF-France) that are prepared
to quickly perform their own epidemiological analyses of large humanitarian crises.
They share their results with the WHO offices in order to coordinate health policies that
can have important impacts on the national level.

2.1.7 UN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (UNDP)

The UN Development Program rarely has an operational role on the front lines in
complex humanitarian operations. It can fulfill this role when it comes to natural
disasters by coordinating the different UN agencies, which, according to its mandate, is
its role. As principal political representative to developing nations, the UNDP essentially
coordinates with the national representatives on behalf of the UN. In the case where a
UN agency isnt represented in a given nation, it can even fulfill that agency's role in its

place (a case for nations that arent represented in the UNHCR) but without directly
carrying out large-scale tasks.

In the management of humanitarian crises, the role of the UNDP is clearer and
more pertinent when it comes to formulation of post-conflict reconstruction policy. Its
role in support of national development policy planning logically makes it a favoured
representative when it comes to reconstructing a country. Faced with the offer of foreign
assistance, the UNDP, in conjunction with national ministries, is in the position to offer
coordination and technical expertise.

The UNDP is also a partner of national governments, in conjunction with the IOM
as well as other humanitarian agencies, in the context of demobilization, demilitarisation,
and reintegration. It works in close collaboration with governments weakened by civil
war or an international conflict and has several functions, including:
Containment and disarmament of combatants
Collection of heavy and light arms
Training and socio-economic reintegration of ex-combatants
Reinforcement of good governing structures and democratisation of civil society

2.1.8 INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION (IOM)

The International Organization for Migration was created in 1951 in post-WWII
Europe to facilitate the flow of migrants and refugees. For 50 years, the organization has
participated in the majority of the large humanitarian or migratory programs of the
second half of the twentieth century. Since its creation, the organization has displaced
some eleven million people, 430,000 of them in 1999 alone (due to the Kosovo and East
Timor crises), most of whom were in a precarious humanitarian situation.

Each year, the IOMs humanitarian immigration program provides direct
assistance to people fleeing conflict zones, refugees repatriated or resettled in another
country, persons seeking asylum having to return home or move to another country,
internally displaced persons, and operations for the reunification of families.

To do this, the IOM works closely with governments, the UNHCR and volunteer
agencies. Not only does the IOM work strictly on all aspects of immigration of those
affected by natural or human catastrophes, but it also recently developed reintegration
programs to help those in need once theyve returned to their homes. The IOM is thus
engaged in demobilization, demilitarisation and reintegration programs in countries
where the first step towards reconstruction is to transform former rebels into future
peaceful and productive citizens of a rebuilding society.

2.1.9 WORLD BANK AND INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF)

It might seem surprising to talk about actors in international finance in the context
of a humanitarian crisis, but recent crises have underscored the role they can play in

emergency financial adjustment programs. Their assistance benefits a government of
asylum in the following ways:

Emergency loans allow a host government to pursue humanitarian efforts on
behalf of refugees in its territory, such as financing a housing program for refugees
who have been living in the homes of citizens

Monetary adjustment measures to help a host government meet these same needs

In a post-crisis context, the World Bank also plays an important role in extending
loans to the country of origin as well as to the host country to finance rapid reconstruction
and rehabilitation operations in close collaboration with the governments.

In addition, the World Bank conducts in-depth studies on the contemporary
phenomena underlying the development and increase of conflicts and thus of
humanitarian crises around the world, such as economic causes of civil conflict; or the
role and incidence of organized crime in the proliferation of trafficking in arms, drugs
and humans.

2.2 GOVERNMENTS AND SPECIALIZED GOVERNMENT STRUCTURES

2.2.1 GOVERNMENTS

The pre-eminent role of the host government in managing contemporary
humanitarian crises has too often been overlooked, both in its legal dimension and in
actual fact. The media perspective often gives most of the credit to international
humanitarian or non-governmental organizations without considering the responsibilities,
the obligations, but also the enormous amount of work performed by local governments
and the decisive role they play in the management of refugees and displaced persons.

ASYLUM AND PROTECTION
In the management of a humanitarian crisis, the host country is the first to decide
on the admissibility of a request for asylum, whether it be individual or collective. The
large movements of populations (for example, the 800,000 people of Rwandan origin
who crossed the Zairian border in 1994, and the almost 900,000 Kosovars who crossed
into Albania, Macedonia or Montenegro in spring of 1999) have accustomed us to prima
facie recognition of collective refugee status, regardless of the merits of each individual
request. The obvious limit to this method of recognition, which often remains the only
available large-scale option, is that it allows those who may have committed war crimes
or other criminal activities that would automatically bar them from refugee status to pass
along with the "legitimate" refugees. Nevertheless, whatever the nature of the refugees
cases, the host government is ultimately responsible for deciding the eligibility of all
those requesting asylum on its soil, whether or not it is supported by the protective
services of the UNHCR (whose primary function, one must remember, is that of
assistance).


In the case where a government refuses to grant refugee status to the petitioners,
claimants may always argue that they qualify as a Humanitarian-Assisted Person (H.A.P.,
as in Macedonia in 1999); as legal immigrants; or simply as a tourist on an extended-stay
visa. Otherwise, the host country has a whole range of legal and prescriptive means
available to grant refugee status to asylum-seekers on its soil and to equip them with
basic administrative documents (registration, identity or travel papers, etc.).

The UNHCR remains particularly vigilant, as much in the West as in Third World
countries, that the principles of the right of asylum continue to be respected. Over the
past 20 years, these rights have experienced an appreciable decline due to the influence
of nationalist policies and restrictive measures concerning immigration. This retreat has
compelled a number of humanitarian organizations to campaign for improvement in
opening boundaries or for the improved handling of requests for asylum.

Beyond the granting of asylum, the host country has certain obligations
concerning the protection of asylum-seekers and refugees. These activities usually mean
additional security and policing responsibilities for the host country. For example, an
obligation specified by African countries stipulates that refugees must be located at least
50 kilometres from the borders of their home country in order to avoid the possibility of
armed incursions against them emanating from their country of origin. The conventions
on refugee status also stipulate that refugees have certain rights available to them before
they can be subjected to the laws of the host country.

ASSISTANCE
Though it may seem paradoxical, the UNHCR has no formal mandate to provide
assistance to refugees. It is only since the early 1970s and the emergence of large-scale
crises that the UNHCR saw its mandate become increasingly operational, and
consequently its budget increased to acceptable levels in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact,
the primary mandate for assistance continues to reside officially with the host
government, which, in addition to offering protection to refugees or displaced persons,
directly or indirectly offers a full range of services:

Places of residence and housing for refugees and displaced persons
Resources for water consumption
Wood or other energy resources for cooking and heating needs
Education and health services equivalent to those of the country's citizens
Food assistance
Administrative, police, security and even legal services when necessary

It is in fact the case that in the majority of contemporary humanitarian crises, the
short-term support given to refugees by the host country, both by national authorities and
the civilian population, was proportionally greater than all the services offered later by
humanitarian organizations. Without the Albanians food and shelter for their Kosovar
brothers, or the similar support by citizens of the Ivory Coast for the Liberian refugees in
their country, tens of thousands of refugees would have undoubtedly spent their exile in
much more trying and difficult living conditions.

We mention this not only to recognize the governments of both Southern and
Northern countries who have proved to be exceptionally generous in aiding refugees, but
also to make clear the reality facing all humanitarian actors over the course of an
assistance operation. These actors must attempt to:
Understand the depth of the institutional and humanitarian support provided by a
host government or its people to a refugee or displaced population
Systematically seek out connections or methods of offering support to exiled
populations by working through local organizations where feasible
Give as much support to the local populations as to the refugees and avoid creating
feelings of discrimination, frustration or jealousy over the nature of services
provided (collateral aid)
For Northern operators working in countries of the South, seek out ways over the
medium or long-term to progressively transfer responsibility for assistance to local
organizations (government or NGO) through the transfer of knowledge and
resources as well as training
In the end of crisis phase following the repatriation of refugees or any other
lasting outcome (local integration, for instance), help to return things to their state
prior to the crisis and thank the host population and government by restoring or
upgrading essential services, rebuilding transport infrastructure, reforestation and
the like.

To sum up the principles outlined above, it is useful to relate a comment often
voiced by African government officials who, after generously opening their doors to
refugees, observe: Refugees have water, clinics, schools and food. The population of
the host country has nothing. We fear a backlash. In other words, a backlash on the part
of the local population who begin to question the growing inequality being created often
in the same territory, where the assisted population and the local population end up
reaching disproportionate levels of development, solely by virtue of whether or not one is
a a mandated beneficiary of international assistance and protection.

The guidelines concerning the need to contemplate support of local populations in
the same way as refugee populations draw on two approaches:

The PARINAC (Partnership in Action) process, chartered by the UNHCR in
Copenhagen in 1994, seeks to further the takeover of assistance operations by local
agencies from large international agencies; whereas it is clear that in a great
number of developing nations, local structures are hardly capable of responding
adequately in the short term to serious humanitarian situations.
An economic and ethic type approach maintains that the continued management
of the majority of humanitarian situations by Northern agencies is unethical if it
does not allow national agencies (public or private) to learn and to assume control
once the first stages of an emergency are over. The economic approach aims to
lessen the high costs that Northern NGOs impose on national or UN donors in the
financing of their assistance programs.


2.2.2 SPECIALIZED GOVERNMENT STRUCTURES

The foreign policy of a nation is conducted by its government, which in turn uses
a certain number of specialized government agencies to carry out its humanitarian policy.
It is important to note a number of changes that have emerged between the years 1980
and 1990. During this period France pioneered protection in the United Nations of the
right to humanitarian interference, and was the first to create a specific governmental
structure responsible for humanitarian issues. The French Minister of Humanitarian
Assistance coordinates the roles of different entities acting in this arena and shapes
government policy on the subject. The first to hold this position was Dr. Bernard
Kouchner, who was also named by the UN Secretary General to be Civil Administrator
of Kosovo.

There is nonetheless no single agency model common to every country. The
major European and North American actors such as US AID and its partners, the Disaster
Assistance Relief Team (DART), or the European Community Humanitarian Office
(ECHO) based in Brussels, are equipped with organizations on the scale of their large
means. In every other Western country, there is traditionally an organizational unit for
the management and coordination of humanitarian affairs. This coordination is made all
the more necessary if one considers that in Western countries, actual bilateral agreements
of humanitarian intervention have been established (occasionally running counter to
policies coordinated at the regional level) bringing together men and women from several
national civil services, including civil security forces, police, public health, and
specialized military or civil units (engineering, health, epidemiology, mine clearance,
etc.).

Conflicts of competence or direction often arise among several international units
placed in the same territory, not to mention the competition created by various
exhibitions of flag politics, where each organization attempts to meet the criteria of
visibility and communication demanded by different countries in order to satisfy their
respective public opinions.

It would be wrong to conclude this section without mentioning the work
accomplished to strengthen humanitarian intervention policies by nations of the South
that welcome refugees and displaced persons. From Ethiopia in the 1980s to Nicaragua,
Pakistan, Rwanda, Sudan, or Vietnam, a large number of Southern nations have judged it
important to be able to:

Coordinate under a single structure policies for complex humanitarian intervention
that would cover long periods of time and often large areas
Manage the different national and international agencies in order to avoid errors
and duplications and to focus the actions undertaken
Begin replacement of foreign organizations through gradual takeover by State
entities of financing and humanitarian action
Strictly administer end-stage or exit operations and reinforce policies for
reconstruction once the humanitarian crisis has ended

To accomplish these goals, a large number of governments have seen fit to create
specialized agencies to administer the humanitarian policies listed above. These agencies,
along with the specialized ministries of the host country, are necessary partners in the
follow-through of a humanitarian crisis and must be respected by humanitarians for what
they represent.

2.3 BENEFICIARY POPULATIONS: REFUGEES, DISPLACED PERSONS,
WAR VICTIMS, CHILD SOLDIERS, VULNERABLE GROUPS, AT-RISK
PERSONS

As of the turn of the millennium there were more than 50 million refugees and
displaced persons in the world. The majority among them are displaced persons while
the rest make up the category of refugees. The difference between the two categories is
that one group benefits from international protectionrefugees are under the protection
of the UNHCRwhile displaced persons are not officially under any particular sort of
protection. The responsibility for persons falling under this category is referred either to
the host country or to a multilateral agency mandated by the international community to
deal with the problem.

CONVENTION AND PROTOCOL
To describe the beneficiary populations for humanitarian aid, we must go back to
the definition of the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of
Refugees. Citing these instruments, we can define a refugee as any person who "owing to
well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality,
membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his
nationality, and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the
protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country
of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such
fear, is unwilling to return to it."

The Convention of 1951 established temporal limits on this protection ("As a
result of events occurring before 1 January 1951"); as well as geographic limits in some
cases, due to States being able to specify at the time of their ratification whether they
accepted the terms of the Convention as applying to events everywhere or only to events
occurring in Europe. The Protocol of 1967 was able to expand the spatio-temporal
dimension of the Convention, even as it constituted a separate instrument. Nonetheless,
the Convention and Protocol should not be considered universal tools, because fewer than
150 nations are officially party to either one or both of these instruments. Some States
(for example, India) officially have their own policy of asylum not regulated by the
provisions of the 1951 Convention. These legal distinctions aside, the Convention and
Protocol constitute the major international accords on the protection of refugees, and their
fundamental character has been widely recognized both internationally and regionally.

Finally, we must recognize the efforts of African nations to establish a
Convention for the protection of African refugees within the framework of the African
Union (AU).

2.3.1 REFUGEES, ASYLUM-SEEKERS, AND DISPLACED PERSONS

REFUGEES
Technically, it is important to distinguish between the categories of refugee and
displaced person. A refugee is a person who, in order to flee persecution, decided to
cross an international border, whether by land, sea or air. A refugee may have crossed
over several borders before deciding to ask for asylum in the country of his or her choice.
No international normative stipulation forces a refugee to request asylum only in
countries neighbouring his own, where he might be subject to threats or pursuit by his
own government.

Before being declared a refugee, the person who requests asylum is classified as
an asylum-seekermeaning a person who presents a request for asylum to an
immigration authority or a public ministry. The response to this request is far from being
automatically affirmative, especially in cases of individual requests. More and more
States, Western
governments in
particular, have
adopted their
own legislation
regarding the
right of asylum,
often rendering it
more restrictive;
limiting, for
example, the
possibility of
asylum-seekers
to declare
themselves
refugees if they
have crossed
several borders
outside of their
countries of origin. On the other hand, prima facie declarations, which consider an entire
group of people as refugees without individual selections or interviews, have facilitated
immediate protection for large groups.

It must be kept in mind that even if a refugee is a beneficiary of certain norms of
international or national protection according to the provisions of the Convention signed
by the host country, that host country may still limit its responsibilities to a strict
minimum when determining the level of assistance the refugee is entitled to receive.

Hence an important distinction in the division of responsibilities concerning
intervention for refugees or asylum-seekers: the host country and the UNHCR have
exclusive responsibility for questions tied to the protection of refugees (this is true even if
Macedonian Refugees arriving from Kosovo, FRY. UNHCR, R.
LeMoyne, 03.1999.

a growing number of non-governmental human rights organizationsincluding Human
Rights Watchclosely monitor the application of these provisions); while traditionally,
national governmental agencies or national charities and international humanitarian
organizations take on a major responsibility in the management of assistance operations.

DISPLACED PERSONS
The concept of displaced persons is the historical result of a hardening of
international borders by a growing number of nations in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as
of a new vision of conflict that has emerged since the end of the Cold War. The great
majority of these conflicts are intra-state in origin and provoke large displacements of
civilians from one point to another within the same national territory, without their being
able to exit. The fact is as surprising as it is little-known, that the majority of persons
displaced by conflict in the year 2000 were displaced internally (displaced persons) rather
than internationally (refugees).

The dimension of this phenomenon is in some cases astonishing. It is estimated
that there are 1,200,000 displaced persons in Colombia, and several hundreds of
thousands remain displaced in, Burma, Burundi, Congo, Sudan, and other nations.

The important aspect of displaced persons is that they are not under the specific
protection of any international convention nor of the mandate of any international
organization. To study this phenomenon, the United Nations has created the position of
Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Displaced Persons. The role of
the Special Representative is limited to globally analysing the situations of displaced
persons in the world before offering recommendations to host countries and to the UN
General Assembly. These recommendations have no legal value.

The situation of displaced persons is ordinarily more volatile, complex, and
difficult to analyse than that of refugees for a number of reasons, some of which include:

Fear: Having fled their homes out of fear of persecution, but remaining in the
same country, displaced persons often seek the advantage of anonymity so as not
to be persecuted anew.
Anonymity: The obvious consequence of this anonymity, in contrast to the
situation of refugees, is that it is much more difficult for aid organizations as well
as governmental authorities to trace displaced persons and to provide minimal
assistance.
Precariousness: Due to fear and anonymity, the precariousness surrounding the
search for food, water, social services and health care is the daily worry of
displaced populations.
Lack of assistance: Owing to all the handicaps listed above, displaced persons are
poor consumers of aid and assistance programs. Given the dispersion of these
groups, the principle of universality of aid is impossible to achieve; and it is the
most vulnerable, the most persecuted, and the least informed groups who suffer the
most.

Lack of recognition: Many governments refuse to acknowledge the difference
between economic immigration and displacement of persons in fear of persecution.
Government service offices and aid organizations alike have great difficulty not
only in identifying the beneficiaries of a specific aid or protection program, but
also in locating them to provide assistance with return or reintegration, needs
which differentiate their situation substantially from that of immigrants.

This problem of distinguishing between immigrants and displaced persons also exists
at the international level. It is difficult for one nation to make another nation recognize
its responsibility on behalf of its own citizens without being accused of interference in the
internal affairs of a State.

REFUGEES, DISPLACED PERSONS, AND HUMANITARIAN AGENCIES:
Refugees, as we have seen, are under the protection of the UNHCR and the
country of asylum. But if no one, save the country of origin, has official responsibility to
see to the protection or management of humanitarian issues relating to displaced persons,
which are the organizations devoted to the care of displaced persons?

The 1980s and 1990s confirmed a new reorientation of UNHCR functions. For
instance, the Balkan conflicts of the early 1990s saw a large number of people become
officially displaced persons within the borders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at
the beginning of the conflict, only to find themselves transformed into de facto refugees
due to the erection of new international borders that radically changed the nationalities of
the territory's inhabitants.

By extending the work accomplished during those somber years, the UNHCR has
acquired a growing role in the management of problems linked to displaced persons,
particularly in the cases where the two categories of people inhabit the same area (for
example Sierra Leonian refugees and displaced persons in Liberia; repatriates, refugees,
and those displaced internally living side-by- side in Burundi or Rwanda in 1993-1994;
or Congolese displaced persons fleeing with Rwandan refugees).

This new approach ensues from several facts:

The two groups of populationsrefugees and displaced personsare more and
more closely associated during the unfolding of a complex humanitarian crisis

The UNHCR is de facto both the most operational and the most experienced of the
UN agencies.

The complementarity and the similarity of the tasks in protecting or assisting one
group or another makes these functions quickly compatible in aiding one category
or another of a population.


The UNHCR has seen itself on several occasions entrusted with an exclusive
mandate for humanitarian operations management in a given crisis, which included
de facto management of operations relating to displaced persons.

MANDATES OF HUMANITARIAN AGENCIES:
The exclusive mandate for management of complex humanitarian crises is not
automatically restricted to the UNHCR. The nature of the mandate clearly also depends
on the nature of the humanitarian catastrophe:

In the case of a crisis caused by natural phenomenon (such as Hurricane Mitch in
1999 that ravaged Honduras, Nicaragua, and parts of Guatemala, Belize and Panama), the
UNHCR has no particular responsibility. For assistance provided or channelled by the
United Nations, the coordination of operations is handled by a special crisis division
managed by the United Nations Development Program, with the support of experts from
the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Obviously, these
agencies' efforts are intended to support and not to directly manage aid operations, that
role having been allotted to different services of national authorities in each of the
countries involved.

The most difficult task is to ensure that national administrations, which may often
be undermined by corruption, administrative incompetence, or the influence of economic
or political interest groups, can impartially aid the entire population affected by a
catastrophe. There thus exists the eternal temptation on the part of international or non-
governmental organizations to quickly step in and take over to ensure that the highest
principles be respected.

In the case of other humanitarian crises, the responsibility for overseeing the
coordination of humanitarian operations could exceptionally be entrusted to either
UNICEF (as in the case of Operation Lifeline Sudan to aid the populations of southern
Sudan), or the World Food Program when the nature of the problem is essentially food-
oriented (as in the case of UN food aid program in North Korea or the Ethiopian famine
in the 1980s), or again to the Undersecretary General of Humanitarian Affairs of the
United Nations, even if the operational capacities of this last unit are very limited.

In another scenario, even if the divisional direction of different humanitarian
sectors stays in the hands of each of the specialized agencies, the general direction of
humanitarian operations could be placed in the hands of the UN civil administration,
placed under the direction of a Special Representative of the Secretary General of the
United Nations, who would have all power over the guidance of civil and military
operations in a given territory, especially if it deals with an operation of reconstruction
and rehabilitation. The first integrated experience of this type was the decolonisation of
Namibia in 1989, or the repatriation and reconstruction operation in Cambodia in 1993.
This is currently the case in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo where, under the direction
of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for the Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK), four branches share the sectors of reconstruction in this province:


The humanitarian branch, managed by the UNHCR
The administrative branch, managed by the civil administration of UNMIK
The reconstruction branch, managed by the European Union
The democratisation and election preparation branch, managed by the OSCE,
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

2.3.2 VICTIMS OF WAR, PRISONERS OF WAR, CHILD SOLDIERS

VICTIMS OF WAR:
There are three categories of persons who fall under the category of victims of war:

Wounded soldiers: wounded on the field of battle, a wounded soldier is granted
protection due him according to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions that
protect soldiers wounded on the field of battle. The attention provided would
come either from military medical services, the national societies of the Red Cross,
or by neutral medical teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC).

Civilian victims: One of the most troubling aspects of the evolution of war in the
20
th
century was the reversal of the ratio of military and civilian casualties.
Statistically, one civilian was killed for every nine soldiers at the beginning of The
First World War. That statistic was reversed by the end of the century, when 90%
of the casualties were civilians. Civilian populations are not only becoming
indirect targets, killed through collateral damage in conflicts, but also deliberate
targets: hostages, victims of rape and physical abuse, objects of negotiation or
persecution, or even used in exchange for members of the state armed forces. This
tendency appears for the moment to be irreversible.

Civilian victims, in addition to being victims of both declared and undeclared
conflicts, are also potentially future refugees or displaced persons. The
responsibility incumbent on humanitarian agencies to alleviate the suffering of
these victims will be determined by whether or not it is possible to reach them and
by whether they are caught in the midst of the conflict or outside it.

For civilian populations caught in the conflict (as in the case of civilian
populations in the north of Sri Lanka) the ICRC will often remain the leading
agency in the organization of relief. If these populations are able to move near
other sites less exposed to the effects of war, then the national Red Cross, a UN
agency or other non-governmental humanitarian agencies will be able to organize
assistance programs for them.

Prisoners of War--The International Committee of the Red Cross holds exclusive
responsibility to track the conditions of detention of prisoners of war, whether they
are being detained by a "classic" or a non-traditional military force. Obviously,
the ICRC does not play the role of prison warden, but it regularly monitors

whether state military authorities follow the legal international provisions defined
in the Geneva Conventions guaranteeing minimal protection to prisoners.

CHILD SOLDIERS
No one is ready to accept the idea that children can be soldiers. Nevertheless, be
they drugged, enrolled by force, or brainwashed by their military or civil leaders
ideology, the number of child soldiers has risen steadily throughout the world. Some
efforts have been made to limit their participation in state military forces (the Convention
on the Rights of the Child and the dissemination and advocacy of its principles). But in
light of the growing number of non-state actors that precipitate contemporary conflicts, it
must be noted that child soldiers have increased among new armies, both as a percentage
and in absolute number. They are often sent to the front lines in mine fields or street
combat, drugged so as not to feel fear, used to carry out cruel and inhumane acts of war,
separated from their social environment (family, school, village, etc), sexually abused
and traumatized by scenes of horror.

At the end of a conflict, great attention must be paid to these child soldiers by specialized
humanitarian organizations, which are principally UNICEF, Save the Children, the
Federation of Red Crosses and other non-governmental organizations. A certain number
of tasks are shared by these long and difficult programs:

Search for parents or relatives or family and social support to help
Program to manage childrens trauma and psychological disorders
Health programs specific to those who have become handicapped
Training in the basics of education and progressive reinsertion into a school
environment
Training in occupations which permit their reinsertion into civil life

To ignore the question of child soldiers at the end of a conflict is to expose the society
that welcomes them to incalculable repercussions. Having only learned to kill or pillage,
these child soldiers can become lost children that spread terror and desolation as
individuals or in bands of organized criminals, ruining little by little any hopes of social
reconstruction.

2.3.3 VULNERABLE GROUPS AND PEOPLE AT RISK

A vulnerable group is a general term covering all parts of a population that appear
more vulnerable than others at a given moment during a humanitarian crisis. This
vulnerability is often chronic, meaning that it could have existed before the crisis and
there is a good chance that it will endure after the crisis has ended. Hence, the necessity
that programs addressing this category of beneficiaries be established both during and
after a crisis, and that measures to help with repatriation or the search for a permanent
solution consider specific provisions for these population categories.


Humanitarian agencies have, in this context, a very particular role to play in
identifying vulnerable groups, in creating specialized programs for them, and the
searching for lasting solutions for these types of populations.

NON-ACCOMPANIED CHILDREN ORPHANS
Due to situations such as population displacement caused by flight or mass
exodus; adult massacres leaving behind children without care; conflicts generating
masses of orphans; illnesses such as AIDS that have decimated adult populations in
certain countries or
population groups; the
issue of non-
accompanied children
(N.A.C.) has acquired
singularly vast
proportions over the
past 15 years. To such
children who are
without the aid and the
support of their parents
(either definitively or
temporarily), one can
also add the category
of orphans. The
difference between the
two groups lies in the
certainty in the case of
the orphan group that the parents or any other sort of direct familial support (uncle, aunt,
or grandparent, etc) have disappeared, and that one can no longer count on the possibility
of ever finding them.

This slightly macabre distinction illustrates the birth of a completely unique area
of programming; namely, the programs of search and identification of non-accompanied
children. This is an activity for which certain large agencies have become known, such
as the National Red Cross Societies, the International Red Cross Committee, Save the
Children International, and several other national organizations. In these actions it is
important to understand that spoken dialogue, an important tool in communication with
children, must take place principally in the child's maternal language. The vast majority
of non-accompanied children are young children who are only familiar with one
language.

Why do the above-mentioned agencies play such a central role in finding and
returning children to their parents? Most often it is because they are the only agencies
with the power to intervene in two or more distinct political or geographic areas, all the
while making their neutral and impartial status understood by all parties. A Bosnian-Serb
or Rwandan child can cross two or three borders before finding a camp where the Red
Cross can take care of him or her. Only the agencies who have effective logistical
Zaire/Rwandan Refugees, MSF collecting unaccompanied
children to bring them to orphanage in Goma. UNHCR, B.Press,

communication, the permission to work securely within one or more territories, logistics
permitting quick family reunification, and above all large and widely recognized national
networks are the ones who can lead an effective and prolonged program of this type.

What are the activities conducted by humanitarian agencies that deal with non-
accompanied children and orphans?

Identification, photo-taking, discussion with the child to ascertain as much
information as possible about his relatives, creation of temporary identification
documents
Promotion and spreading of information obtained through photographs, pamphlets,
radio, television or oral messages
Inter-agency or international searches in the country of origin, other refugee
camps, other sites, and foreign countries for known family members
Once the research is completed, material, administrative, and logistic preparation
for the return of the child to his family

For orphans, as for non-accompanied children during the transitional search period,
humanitarian agencies take charge of material needs, such as:

Shelter, food, water, and health services
Psychological support and psycho-educational activities
Training programs (for the older children who will have to return to active life)
Sponsorship and/or resettlement programs overseas

CHILDREN WITH PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HANDICAPS
Children with physical and mental handicaps are a category that particularly
suffers at the beginning or at the first signs of a conflict. They are most often
subjected or exposed to certain categories of abuse which might include:
Physical and mental exploitation and abuse
Loss of care necessary for their survival
Little interest or understanding of their situation on the part of international or
national humanitarian organizations
Limited potential to be able to provide them with stable surroundings during and
after a conflict or humanitarian situation

People suffering from a handicap also often suffer from a more hidden problem;
namely, living in isolation because of cultural or family traditions that consider them
second-class beings.

Nevertheless, the revelation of the tragedy of antipersonnel mine use in recent
conflicts, in the course of which hundreds of thousands of children died or were injured
by mines in Asia, Africa, and Central America, has also stimulated the creation of
specialized agencies whose job was to bring therapeutic and psychosocial solutions to the
victims. The most famous among them is Handicap International, winner of the Nobel
Peace Prize, which has developed prosthesis programs for those persons having lost a leg

or an arm (if not more). Other aid programs also deal with social and economic
reeducation and reinsertion of these victims into their original environment.

A special mention must be made of the organizations that provide physical and
psychological support to persons who were victims of torture or organized violence (at
the individual as well as group level rapes, tortures, or victims of deep psychological
trauma). These people are generally treated on an individual basis and often the UNHCR
provides special resettlement programs for them thanks to the generosity of certain
Western sponsor countries. For their part, UNICEF or ICRC (supported by the National
Red Cross) try to put into place at different national levels physical and psychological
support organizations for people who are readily able to reintegrate their own country or
the country of asylum in which they find themselves.

Even if a humanitarian agency does not specialize in this type of treatment, during
an intervention in a given territory it must systematically seek out those who have
physical or mental handicaps among the population for which it is responsible. With no
other national or international agency close by, the most constructive approach is to ask
the segment of the population responsible for that person what would be the best
measures to take to ensure that those who are close to him or her can ensure a minimum
of social and therapeutic supervision, ideally with the support of the community of origin.

WOMEN AND YOUNG GIRLS
For reasons that most often touch on the nature of cultural traditions and the
feminine condition in a particular social group, it may sometimes be necessary to accord
particular protection to groups of women and/or young girls. Generally speaking, a
humanitarian crisis, at the beginning of the crumbling of society due to the absence of
control, can bring about a significant rise in abuses (sexual, physical, psychological
trauma/torture, stricter social control, suppression of rights education, health)
committed against women and young girls. The control that can be exercised in these
situations can be very difficult to determine. To this end, it is often important to be able
to count on the establishment of structures to promote rights, provide psychological or
medical support services, even isolated structures to attempt prevention as well as cure.
It is most important to be able to identify the social and community forces and elements
that can help maintain or improve the conditions of support offered to women and young
girls.

In certain cultural situations, it might be appropriate to systematically create
separate structures, distinct from those for the general population, in order to be able to
approach, advise, and if need be, care for female victims of abuse. But the most
important efforts remain those of prevention and awareness, among the affected
populations as well as national authorities and the international organizations that oversee
them.


THE AGED
One ordinarily gives little thought to the aged in the context of a humanitarian crisis or an
armed conflict. The paradoxical fact remains that this group's presence has become an
increasingly significant aspect of contemporary humanitarian reality for several reasons:
The demographic importance of this section of a population is constantly growing
(and the average age is higher)
The changing of the traditional family structure isolates a growing number of the
aged, either in their own houses or in retirement homes
The social and therapeutic management of a number of aged persons, who turn to
specialized institutions for their daily needs
The disappearance of structural frameworks for these people as soon as a conflict
breaks out or appears imminent (identical to the situation of the handicapped)

This new reality, whether it be in a time of a humanitarian crisis or in an acute social
crisis, causes a growing number of aged persons to be at worst civilian victims of a
conflict, or more simply forgotten; and thus to become the first victims of the
consequences of a conflict due to disruptions in basic public services, food supply or
commercial services. This reality clearly must be nuanced. In numerous social groups,
traditional support remains strong for the oldest members of the family, clan or tribe. By
contrast, in a more westernised context such as the Balkan conflicts, the elderly are more
vulnerable; this has necessitated the establishment of specialized programs, such as:
Distribution of food and other basic products; health and medical follow-up
Offer of basic material services such as activities of a psychosocial nature
Tracing or research services for families dispersed by the conflict to further
exchange of messages, sending of goods, or family reunification
Eventual reunification activities, within the framework of resettlement programs
for immediate families

SPECIFIC ETHNIC, RACIAL OR RELIGIOUS GROUPS
The paradox is that within a group of people fleeing the same persecution or
having survived a natural catastrophe, inequalities in the distribution of aid or treatment
of different groups within a population can result from the existence within a certain
social group of hatreds or exclusions for reasons of ethnicity, race, religion or social
status. These considerations are ordinarily difficult to perceive for those who know little
about the populations with which they work. The identification of these problems relies
on cultural and anthropological subtleties that the speed of intervention in a humanitarian
crisis or the different cultural background of the interveners leave little room to
contemplate.

Nevertheless, since the establishment of a system of social follow-up of
populations for sanitary, medical or social reasons, it is important to locate the groups
who are always the quietest and most overlooked that are directly or indirectly victims
of internal discrimination. Due to fear of terrible consequences for their lives, the
impossibility of communication, the desire to remain anonymous, the habit of living
under some form of discrimination, active or passive exclusion from other groups, these
groups are silenced; and there is always a risk in a humanitarian situation that the people

most exposed to death are the ones who are most forgotten. The work that remains to be
done is that which can combine anthropology, police inquiry and social analysis, to track
those excluded from camps or a humanitarian zone of intervention. And, as we have seen,
these excluded persons are sometimes the same ones who come under the already-
mentioned categories of vulnerable groups.

STATELESS PERSONS
Stateless persons cannot claim the nationality of their country of origin, a
nationality acquired either by blood, by birth, by naturalization, or even by the country
occupying the territory in question granting nationality by extension of its administrative
and territorial prerogatives. Unfortunately, it happens that for reasons having as much to
do with international politics (a decision of a nation to remove the nationality of a group
of its citizens as part of the disappearance or annexation of a nation) as with the
individuals themselves (disappearance or non-existence of documents dealing with proof
of nationality), a person or a group of people cannot claim a nationality.

The humanitarian organization responsible for bringing legal assistance to this
group of people is the UNHCR. The UNHCR is in this role in charge of seeing that the
nations who signed the Convention of Stateless Persons of 1954 live up to their
commitment. This Convention confers upon the stateless people a certain number of
privileges in the countries that sponsor them, or allows them to travel (Granting of Travel
Status in the Convention of 1951).

In exceptional cases where a large group of people falls under the status of
stateless persons (the most exemplary case was that of Kosovo, where in chasing out the
population the Serb repression forces confiscated their identity papers) humanitarian
groups evidently have a duty to provide an equal measure of assistance as they do to
refugees. The most important point for them being to try to reissue as soon as possible
documents permitting their identification, as much for the benefit of the host country as
for the humanitarian organizations.

2.3.4 REUNIFICATION OF FAMILIES

Reunification of families is an activity at the heart of resettlement programs in
numerous receiving states. Whether in the context of emergency humanitarian programs
like the 1999 Kosovo crisis (over 90,000 people resettled in outside countries in only a
few weeks) or in so-called regular programs, the resettlement of members of the same
family (father, mother, birth-child, direct relatives) remains the priority of these kinds of
programs. These resettlement programs can involve up to 30 to 40% of a countrys
annual immigration quota and can be subject to financial constraints in certain countries.

In a less internationalised context, the reunification of family members separated
by the tragedy of humanitarian crisis remains a regular activity of organizations such as
the national and international Red Cross, the UNHCR, and other agencies.


2.4 HUMANITARIAN NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

What is a humanitarian NGO? A Non-Governmental Organization is very
difficult to define. There are thousands of them throughout the world, and the
humanitarian sector has not been exempt from the explosive growth of NGOs (also
known in the United States as PVO, or Private Voluntary Organization) in the last 30
years. In order to understand the phenomenon of national and international NGOs it is
important to first determine a certain number of traits that the majority of them share.

Associative in nature, NGOs are non-profit organizations. Excluded from this
category are service-related businesses that may, in particular instances, act in a
private capacity to offer specialized services (hydrogeology, communication, map-
making, logistics, etc.). Ideally, then, the members of NGOs are motivated by
certain humanitarian and social values that guide and inspire them in carrying out
their work.

NGOs can originate in the religious, civil, student, or even political sector, but they
all look to bring a specific response to humanitarian needs in a given area of
operation: a quick response in emergencies or a medium and long-term effort
during reconstruction.

National or international in scope, NGOs are eligible to receive financial support
from national or international private and public sources. These allow them to
become operational and enable them to offer specific humanitarian services.
Certain NGOs do humanitarian work only occasionally while others are
principally or exclusively devoted to humanitarian tasks.

The diversity of specializations and interventions by humanitarian NGOs assures
their complementarity, as does the fact that humanitarian NGOs have gradually
come to occupy all sectors and categories of intervention in the field. This
astounding diversity has resulted in humanitarian agencies that are specialized in
health, logistics, transportation, nutrition, management of camps, aviation, water,
clean-up operations, shelter, social services, children, psychology, international
transportation, communication, education, local economic programs, etc.

This proliferation of organizations guarantees the availability of many specialized
services all able to intervene at the same time in the event of a humanitarian emergency;
but in the event of a big crisis, it can also give the impression of a growing competition
between organizations occupying the same sectors. There were 130 NGOs present in
Albania in 1999 and more than 250 in Rwanda in 1994 after the genocide. And the
reality was that the majority of them hardly knew these countries or had little experience
in them before arriving on the scene for emergency humanitarian intervention.


2.4.1 LARGE AND SMALL NGOs

At the operational level, it is important to understand certain differences between the
different NGOs that may be encountered in humanitarian field-work. After having
underscored the diversity and universality of the world of NGOs, it is important to
distinguish certain historical trends that continue to shape this movement and which
favour large NGOs, giving them objectively greater influence, stronger presence, and a
wider range of operation than organizations of more limited means.

FEDERATIONS AND MOVEMENTS
Following the example of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies (a
movement that brings together all of the national societies subscribing to the principles of
the Red Cross), a number of NGOs originating in one country have since become
international and have joined together to form Federations and Movements. Several
examples can be used to illustrate this phenomenon:

Mdecins Sans Frontires (Doctors without Borders). Originally founded in
France in the late 1960s, MSF today is a movement composed of more than 17
organizations bearing the same name. According to a decision made by the
movements founding members, only 6 of the 17 chapters can actually conduct
operations (France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Basque country, Spain, and
Switzerland), and thus work in their own or another country while wearing the
movements colours. MSF's International Coordinating Bureau is in Brussels.

CARE International. This agency began as a cooperative of American charitable
organizations created to help European populations overcome the horrors of war.
Today CARE is a movement of over a dozen North American, European, and
Asian members, but only three of these members the USA, Canada, and
Australia have the right to initiate humanitarian/developmental operations or
programs under this name. Strict rules govern financial and operational relations
between different CARE groups in a given country.

These examples are representative of other important non-governmental
organization movements such as OXFAM, S.C.F. (Save the Children Fund International),
M.D.M (Mdecins du Monde), World Vision, L.W.F. (Lutheran World Federation),
A.D.R.A. (Adventist Development Relief Association).

Certain coordinating agencies can emerge from negotiations between different
organizations that decide to join forces to be more effective in the international arena.
Thus A.C.T. (Action of Churches Together), an organization increasingly present on the
humanitarian scene, is a coming together of various Churches throughout the world that
voluntarily elected to combine their efforts, skills, and finances in order to be stronger
and more present in the management of humanitarian crises. Other NGOs also have the
opportunity to assemble in federative bodiesfor example VOICE in Europe or I.C.V.A.

(International Council of Voluntary Organizations) based in Genevathat annually
represent the world of NGOs at the UNHCR Executive Committee held in Geneva.

Each of the large NGO federations has its own rules of operation, but there is no
question that these groups have certain comparative advantages over national NGOs.
These may include:

The possibility of signing framework agreements with specialized United Nations
agencies. For example, CARE or ADRA are part of a small group of agencies that
have framework agreements with the World Food Program (WFP).
The opportunity to access diverse and varied funding sources at the international
level (European Union, national government aid, United Nations, individual
donors, etc.)
The opportunity to draw on specialized recruitment pools in the countries where
they have an institutional presence
The ability to integrate funds obtained from different levels of fundraising and
direct them towards a common action in a single crisis (the lever effect)
The opportunity to bear witness on a worldwide level if the majority of the
members so wish

NATIONAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
This term is usually used to refer to the Northern NGOs that intervene in the event
of a humanitarian emergency and who possess the financing as well as the manpower and
materials to act rapidly and effectively. Yet that definition overlooks the fact that the
large majority of non-governmental organizations who work with the UNHCR (to give
one example) are smaller national NGOs. These organizations clearly possess invaluable
expertise and experience on the ground. In a significant number of situations, however,
they are hardly in a position to intervene rapidly in an emergency because the level of
intensity during the first weeks of action requires resources that they do not have at their
disposal.

The reasons for this situation, which will most likely continue for the next several
years, are fairly clear:

Lack of adequate financing as well as specialized personnel to create an effective
and sustainable income capacity
Lack of funding from foreign sponsors, who privilege their own national
organizations
Difficulty in maintaining a fixed structure specifically for intervening in
emergency situations
Difficulty, as nationals, of easily manoeuvring in a highly politicised context. This
can even be dangerous for certain personnel.
Difficulty, even for certain Red Cross agencies, of maintaining a totally neutral
and impartial profile


In the face of these problems, which concern the most critical (and the most
highly-publicized) weeks of a humanitarian crisis, some agencies, beginning with the
UNHCR, hope to prioritise work with national agencies in the future with the goal of:

Capitalizing on national resources capable of managing existing settlements
Maximizing the national response to the challenges of managing a humanitarian
emergency and giving national actors the tools to take charge again when the time
comes for reconstruction or rehabilitation
Reducing financial costs tied to the management of operations with international
agencies

This process is difficult to systematize, but it is the future of humanitarian
management in the 21
st
century. Above all, it has the merit of making responsible and
operational national humanitarian contributors who have historically had little
opportunity to make their mark. Much work of collaboration, partnership, exchange and
training policy remains to be done before a better balance of resources involved in
managing tomorrow's humanitarian crises can be achieved.

2.4.2 WITNESSING AS EQUAL TO HELPING

According to the principles of impartiality and neutrality, rendering or voicing
judgment about the unfolding of a conflict or its humanitarian consequences is either
forbidden (and sometimes dangerous for the field teams), or contrary to the founding
principles of an organization (as is the case with the Red Cross). It is in the spirit of
disagreement with this policy of silencewhich did guarantee free access to victims
that the most active humanitarian non-governmental organizations operating in the last 30
years were created: French Doctors, Doctors Without Borders, or Doctors of the World,
as well as militant organizations that seek a greater respect for human rights the world
over. Today, Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International have enlarged their spheres
of action to take a critical look at the conditions of populations that are at highest risk in a
given geographic space, namely the humanitarian space.

Doctors Without Borders even pioneered the concept of Populations in Danger
so that year after year, attention would be focused on groups that are more exposed to the
dangers of war, more subject to persecution or neglect by their governing authorities, or
other problems. From groups overlooked in a particular conflict to a change in attitude
towards a social group by those in power or to "silent" persecutions inflicted on another
human population, many humanitarian agencies have taken as their mission not only to
lend material and/or psychological assistance to "populations in danger," but also to bear
witness in order to encourage other powers and counterpowers to demonstrate, to bring
pressure, to keep watch and if need be force a government to live up to its
responsibilities. A well-known example occurred in 1984, when Doctors Without
Borders denounced a policy of population resettlement in Ethiopia that in their view
was in effect a deportation program organized for military and political reasons. Despite
the immediate expulsion of DWB from the country, the international pressure that

followed forced the regime of dictator Mengistu to make a partial retreat and to suspend a
large portion of this program.

Witnessing has therefore become a working tool: an obligation to tell, to
investigate, and to express. On the other hand, it has become a new threat to
governments that fear the interference of international organizations on their own turf,
and above all else, the excessive media publicity about actions contrary to their
international image. From Reporters Sans Frontires (Reporters without Borders) to
Human Rights Watch, both of which have greatly surpassed other reporting groups,
witnessing has become as vital an action of humanitarian assistance as material aide.
With rare exceptions, the duty to witness remains limited to non-governmental
organizations. It often requires clear, graphic, and irrefutable evidence for international
organizations to raise their voices and take a stand, for in doing so they risk damaging the
relationship that they are building with a particular government or with actors on the
terrain (opposing parties, rebels, or others).

With the new range of tools available to international organizations, it is also
important to note the creation of International Tribunals for International Humanitarian
Law in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, as well as the International Criminal Court
(ICC). The latter will have jurisdiction to determine guilt, as well as to indict
international criminals and hear victims of large scale humanitarian violations. The
accusation of Slobodan Milosevic, the leader of the Republic of Serbia, is the most clear
example of the configuration of this new international court: military officials, political
leaders, and humanitarians are called upon to testify and to furnish prosecutors with
evidence and testimony that will allow for the indictment of war criminals, in the hope of
forcing human barbarity to retreat a bit more each day.

2.5 MILITARY FORCES

It is the new paradox at this turn of the century to have seen the armed forces play
such an increasingly important role in the management of humanitarian operations,
whether they act on their own or in conjunction with national or international
humanitarian partners.

The role of the military in the management of Peacekeeping Operations dates
from the 1950s, when the first UN Blue Helmets were positioned on the field in response
to an idea of Mr. Lester B. Pearson, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Since that
time, a great many nations and military contingents have participated in peacekeeping
missions. Some of these have been ongoing for years (Kashmir, Cyprus, southern
Lebanon, the Golan Heights) while others have fortunately been able to shut down once
their mandate was accomplished (Cambodia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sinai). In
exceptional cases (Congo, Korea), military forces have had to play the role of
peacemaking, physically committing troops to re-establish peace in a given territory. Yet
rarely before 1990 did one see military forces become involved in UN mandates with
specifically humanitarian goals.

It is clear that the military have quickly put their logistic, humanitarian, and
operational capacities to good use to help resolve humanitarian crises. Wearing UN Blue
Helmets in Somalia and Bosnia, they supported humanitarian agencies by assuring the
safety of roads and distribution routes, thus working for the benefit of starving and
besieged populations. Under the auspices of NATO in Kosovoor more precisely in
Albania and Macedonia and then in Kosovo itself (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
troops lent assistance to both the Albanian government and humanitarian organizations,
alleviating the suffering of Kosovars and helping them temporarily resettle in
humanitarian-run camps. More than any other agency the military possesses the
following key advantages:

Outstanding logistical capability in the form of trucks, cranes, water and sanitation
equipment, etc.
A proven sense of organization and discipline
Rapid mobilization, whether by sky, land, or sea, superior to that of any civil
organization
Skilled men and women, trained in large numbers, and operational in all fields of
humanitarian practice (health, logistics, camp administration, water and sanitation)
The defensive capability to protect themselves as well as the teams and equipment
of other agencies present
Exceptional communication systems internal and external
A lack of financial interest in the contractual agreements with the agencies of the
UN system because they are supported by state funding

When these capabilities are put to use in major humanitarian crises, they make an
enormous difference. However, it often remains to channel this capacity in order to
respond to clear and well-defined objectives. Military collaboration with humanitarian
agencies is essential in order to facilitate a process of handing over-taking back at the
end of their mission, for most often these missions have clear and relatively short-term
mandates (this is the case with the majority of the American and Canadian-modelled
Disaster Assistance Relief Teams). It is therefore necessary to begin preparing early
the conditions for power to be passed on to an NGO or to the state.

Finally, it is important to note that today the military is also frequently supported
by civil or semi-military forces which can include:

National domestic security forces
Associations organized under a quasi-military model (Hospitaler Orders, the
Salvation Army, etc.)
National or international gendarmerie or civil police forces

It is important also to emphasize the growing role played by the International
Civil Police (CIVPOL) in the humanitarian arena. The need to quickly yield handling
of security questions to civil forces a responsibility previously held by the military
makes the International Civil Police increasingly essential in situations where all public
order has completely disappeared (i.e., Kosovo, Timor), or where police forces are

subject to complete reorganization of their structures and personnel (i.e. Guatemala,
Haiti).

2.6 MEMBERS OF THE RED CROSS MOVEMENT

2.6.1 THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS MOVEMENT

The International Red Cross movement is comprised of the International
Committee of the Red Cross (I.C.R.C.), the International Federation of Societies of the
Red Cross and the Red Crescent, and the National Societies of the Red Cross and the Red
Crescent. There is a Red Cross Society in virtually every country in the world (about 189
in 2001).
National societies act as auxiliaries to the authorities in their own countries and
furnish a vast array of services; these range from providing emergency disaster relief to
conducting first aid training courses to providing medical and social assistance. In
wartime, national societies assist the army medical services. In order to become part of
the movement, a society must first meet certain criteria for recognition. Once they are
recognized by the ICRC, they can become members of the International Federation, the
organization that oversees the national Societies.

The international movement meets every four years to examine humanitarian
questions of common interest and other relevant issues. In its statutes adopted in 1995,
the movement reiterates its seven fundamental guiding humanitarian principles:

Humanity: Born of the concern to bring emergency relief without discrimination
while striving to prevent and alleviate the suffering of man in all circumstances.

Impartiality: To make no distinction on the basis of national origin, race, religion,
social condition, or political affiliation.

Neutrality: To refrain from taking sides in hostilities, as well as at all times to stay
out of political, racial, religious, and ideological controversies.

Independence: While acting as auxiliaries of public powers in their humanitarian
activities and being subject to the laws that govern their respective countries, the
national societies must preserve an autonomy that allows them to act according to
the principles of the movement at all times.

Volunteerism: It is a movement of voluntary and disinterested assistance.

Unity: There can be no more than one Society of the Red Cross and Red Crescent
in the same country. It must be open to all and extend its humanitarian action to
the entire territory.


Universality: The international movement of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent
is universal. Individual Societies within it have both equal rights and the
responsibility to help one another.

We will now examine in turn the distinctive characteristics of the ICRC and the
Federation in regard to their role in the coordination of humanitarian operations.

2.6.2 THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS
(I.C.R.C.)

HISTORY AND FUNDAMENTAL OPERATIONING PRINCIPLES
We have already referred to the battle of Solferino and the charitable action of
Henry Dunant, which eventually led to the founding of the International Red Cross. With
the 1864 adoption of the first "Convention for the Amelioration of the Wounded in Time
of War, the Red Cross laid the foundation for International Humanitarian Law. Since
that time the ICRC has remained the principal driving force in the development of IHL,
with the goal of responding to ever-growing humanitarian needs (too often, after the fact)
stemming from the evolution of armaments and the nature of conflicts. In this respect, it
is important to recognize that the facts always preceded the law. Rules prohibiting the
use of asphyxiating or toxic gases in wartime went into effect seven years after the end of
the first World War; rules protecting civilians (the Fourth Geneva Convention, 1949)
only after the atrocities of the Second World War. This tireless promotion of
humanitarian law was validated once more in 1997 with the adoption of the Convention
on the Prohibition of Use, Stocking, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines
and Their Destruction, where the ICRC's role as catalyst was critical. On March 1,
1999, following the deposit of the 40
th
instrument of ratification with the Secretary
General of the United Nations, the convention came into force.

From its origins to the present, the ICRC remains the guarantor of the
fundamental principles upon which International Humanitarian Law is based: namely, the
principles of humanity, impartiality, and neutrality.

It remains essential that, in accordance with the principle of humanity,
humanitarian action in conflicting situations keeps as its sole motivation the concern for
helping the victims of these situations; that this action, in accordance with the principle of
impartiality, does not select victims according to criteria other than their needs and
their vulnerability, nor fall into the trap of racism and discrimination; and lastly, in
accordance with the principle of neutrality, that this action stay removed from political
debate, so as to ensure that these actions remain acceptable to all of the parties in an
armed conflict and thereby preserve their effectiveness.
1

1
See Yves Sandoz, Director of Doctrine, Law, and Movement Relations, Le Comit International de la
Croix Rouge: Gardien du Droit International Humanitaire, CICR (Genve, 1998).

ORGANIZATIONAL MANDATES
2

The ICRC is a complex organization that often responds to very different orders.
Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to grasp its coherence and to understand the different
facets of its role in a logical sequence. Below is an interpretation of its different
functions as put forward by the ICRC:

Watch function: the constant monitoring of compliance with humanitarian
norms in conflict situations, with an eye toward preparing for their adaptation and
development

Catalyst function in International Humanitarian Law. Inviting reflection from
groups of experts both governmental and private, on problems they are facing with
the goal of finding solutions for them, whether these be normative or not

Promotion function: Making the case for International Humanitarian Law,
helping to diffuse and teach it, and inciting governments to take the necessary
measures on a national level for its implementation, whatever the circumstance

Guardian angel function: Direct and concrete contribution to the application of
International Humanitarian Law in armed conflict situations

Watchdog function: In the case of serious violations of this law, alerting first
the governments and other parties directly involved in an armed conflict, then the
international community as well.

HUMANITARIAN GREY ZONES
In relation to this watchdog function, where the ICRC most closely exposes its
front line representatives to the parties in conflict, more and more scenarios are
developing where a growing number of parties refuse to respect the fundamental rules of
humanitarian law. Because of this, humanitarian grey zones are developing where
relief action is no longer possible in the whole or in sections of a territory covered by an
armed conflict. This is particularly the case in two types of situations:

Those where at least one of the hostile parties does not accept the essential
principles of IHL because it is hampered by them. This is the case in conflicts
based on racism or exclusion: there is little room for humanitarian action when the
objective is to exterminate a race or ethnicity (for example, Cambodia in 1975, or
Rwanda in 1994) or when a large-scale ethnic cleansing is taking place
(Yugoslavia from 1992-1995);

Those where states have failed or fallen into decay. Law, like humanitarian
actions, rests first and foremost on the possibility of a dialogue with the authorities
in power. When these authorities no longer exist, it gives way to unbridled

2
Ibid.

conflict; anarchy and banditry fill the space vacated by the absence of power. In
this type of situation, humanitarian action reaches its limit insofar as humanitarian
agencies do not want to deliberately risk the lives of their representatives in
situations where nothing is respected (Somalia 1993-1995, Liberia or Sierra Leone
1995-2000; Democratic Republic of Congo 1997-2000)

INTERNATIONAL ACTIONS OF THE ICRC
The international actions of the ICRC are as diverse as its mandates.
Strengthened by a permanent presence in 61 countries around the world (but intervening
in 80), the ICRC employs over 10,000 people, 95% of whom are involved in field work.
In 1998, the organizations budget was close to 600 million Swiss Francs (400 million
US Dollars). A simple analysis of the humanitarian actions of the first six months of
1999 give an excellent picture of the scope and uniqueness of the ICRC's role in
international action:
Visits to 184,000 political or war prisoners in over 1400 places of detention in 50
countries
Distribution of over 200,000 family messages, thereby permitting family members
separated by conflict, other troubles, or tensions to find each other and exchange
news
Locating of more than 2000 people in response to a specific request to find them
from families that had remained without news from them
Reunion of more than 3000 people in families. The production of travel
documents allowing 6000 people to return home or be resettled in a third country.
Distribution of 55,000 tons of aid in 45 countries (food, clothing, blankets, tents,
etc.)
Provision of essential medicines, medical material, and equipment to 11 hospitals
in Africa and substantial assistance to 193 other hospitals throughout the world;
surgery and out-patient care for hundreds of millions of individuals
Participation in about thirty orthopaedic projects in 14 countries to provide 4500
people with prosthetic limbs, orthopaedic devices, wheelchairs, etc.

2.6.3 THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF SOCIETIES OF THE
RED CROSS AND THE RED CRESCENT

While the ICRC, created in 1863, protects and assists victims of internal or international
conflicts and their direct consequences, the International Federation, founded in 1919, has
for its task:

Coordinating international assistance to national Red Cross Societies for
catastrophe victims.
Encouraging and promoting the creation and development of national Societies
Acting as permanent organ of liaison, coordination, and study for the national
Societies


In the context of its first mandate, then, we see that the Federation works in
different contexts than those of the ICRC. A rough breakdown of this division of labour
shows that the ICRC acts during conflicts while the Federation acts when natural
disasters hit: earthquakes, floods, droughts, poverty. Nearly two billion people were
affected in one way or another by disasters of all kinds between 1990 and 1999
3
.
Moreover, more than 90% of natural disasters struck developing countries where the
consequences are often more serious and more enduring than in industrialized countries.
Disasters also hit countries that are already undergoing serious socio-economic
difficulties and whose public structures and services are in a fragile state. Ideally, the
Federation works in a partnership with a national Society, and often directly with the
support of national Societies of Northern countries.

The Federation focuses its intervention on the following four principal objectives:

Response to disasters: basic, direct humanitarian assistance to more than 30
million persons per year (food, water, shelter, clothing, blankets, etc.)
Preparation for disasters: in cooperation with national Societies, developing
contingency plans for catastrophes, preparation (stocking, planning , etc.)
Reinforcement of health infrastructures: lessening the populations vulnerability to
diseases and reinforcing basic health structures so that communities can take
charge of health issues
Training: strengthening and development of the national societys capacity in the
preparation for catastrophes, the institutionalisation of structures throughout the
entire territory, training of personnel, programs on gender awareness, etc.

Under these auspices, the fundraising appeal launched for operations management
projected continued activity for the year 2000-2001 in 42 ongoing emergencies and 35
global or reinforcement programs. In addition, each year the Federation launches on
average 30 targeted emergency appeals each time a natural disaster hits, and supports
between 20 and 30 lower intensity operations from its reserves of emergency response
funds.

2.7 THE NEW PEACEKEEPING PARTNERSHIP

The concept of the New Peacekeeping Partnership (Nouveau partenariat pour le
maintien de la paix) was developed by a Canadian institution, the Lester B. Pearson
Canadian International Peacekeeping Training Centre (P.P.C.), in Nova Scotia. The
principle of the new partnership, developed and promoted in the mid 1990s among
hundreds of foreign military and civilians in advanced training at P.P.C., analyses and
promotes the principles of a new collaboration between institutional and private forces
who had not always previously been accustomed to working side-by-side. During the
Cold War, the idea that soldiers from one camp or another could work together with
private humanitarian associations was considered unlikely at best. One had to wait for the
thaw at the beginning of the 1990s before a new type of collaboration could be

3
Source: Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters

imagined, a collaboration that would begin to recognize all the synergy and efficiency
that could be wielded by partners united in a single effort of organization and
reconstruction.

SYNERGY AND MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING
With the humanitarian management of the 1992 Somalian crisis Restore Hope,
which followed the management of the Iraqi refugee crisis in 1991, the world suddenly
realized the importance of operational assistance from the military in the event of a major
humanitarian crisis.

In each case, by using the concept of humanitarian interference to its full extent,
troops under orders from the United Nations were able to bring vital logistical and
operational support to alleviate the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people
displaced by famine or conflict. From securing logistics, transportation, and food
distribution in Somalia; to securing safety zones and bringing unique logistical support to
Kurdish refugees; soldiers proved, if proof was needed, the importance of entrusting them
with specific tasks of incomparable support within the chain of duties of a complex
humanitarian crisis. However, at the start of these difficult operations, things were not
easy with the humanitarians. These professional groups are by nature less structured,
younger, less hierarchically organized, do not respond to political orders of their
governments, and are not inclined to place themselves under military authority that will
tell them every move to make in order to work in a safer environment.

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world suddenly realized that a large
number of actors that barely knew each other before would have to work side by side.
From then on, these groups would work simultaneously and continuously to manage
different phases of a complex humanitarian crisis or the reconstruction of a state. In this
environment, different actors share precise and connected tasks. Schematically, these
are:

Humanitarians: Manage humanitarian assistance procedures that allow a
particular group of the population to receive medical attention, food rations, water,
and shelter, in a given area. The management of a humanitarian question can be
the main goal of intervention in a complex operation where humanitarians are
heavily involved (Iraq 1991, Somalia 1992, Bosnia 1992-1995, Zaire and Rwanda
1994 and 1996, Kosovo and East Timor 1999-2000).

Military: Usually present to secure territorial and physical space where beneficiary
populations (refugees or repatriates, displaced persons, civil servants and local
administrations) as well as humanitarian or civil actors can operate. The military
can have complementary roles, and temporary roles in periods of demobilization
or the creation of a new army; or they can even play a role in management if the
conflict is not stabilized. From mandate to mandate, the military can carry out
peacekeeping or peacemaking functions, or simply act as observers of a cease fire
between different parties. Their orders are given by the United Nations, their own
governments, regional coalitions, or are determined by special concerns.

Police: They are present in the role of replacements, to manage the local or
national police. Under the auspices of a United Nations or regional mandate, the
police take charge of supervising local forces in their activities of population
control, criminal investigations and training. At the beginning of a crisis police
activities are often carried out by the military.

Media: Observers to the unfolding of a crisis, the media enjoy a singular and close
collaboration with all other partners. They seek out the support of these partners to
obtain information and to verify what they have before releasing it. They may also
become critical observers of what they see. Under strict codes of professional
ethics, the media must give an impartial and objective account without becoming
the spokesman for actors with whom they have privileged relations.

Politicians: Politicians are the national and international decision-makers who
judge and determine the evolution of a complex humanitarian and political crisis.
Some of these include the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the
United Nations, the Civil Administrator who represents him, the Special
Committee for tracking crises, accredited diplomatic representatives,
representatives of special UN agencies, and representatives of regional agencies
(ECOWAS, League of Arab Nations, OSCE, European Community). Politicians
analyse political, humanitarian, and strategic information they receive and make
decisions to continue, suspend, or pull out of a particular operation. They have
power over a certain number of actors (particularly soldiers or members of the
judiciary) and their decisions involve the continuation as well as the orientation of
some of their activities.

Diplomats: State representatives or members of the United Nations political staff,
diplomats try to reach agreements on the principles that were proposed by
politicians. They negotiate with the aim of accomplishing the objectives fixed by
the Security Council, the General Assembly, or a consortium of States or an
organization that they represent (OSCE, NATO, OEA, OUA, UE, or others)

Justice/Courts/Law: The International Court of Justice in the Hague has existed
since the end of WWII, but it has never occupied a specific place in the
management of politico-humanitarian crises where short-term interests are at
stake. The Court needs a great deal of time to determine law between States,
especially if at least two parties have agreed in advance to obey the judgment that
is rendered.

On the other hand, since the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda and the former-Yugoslavia, as well as the creation of the International
Criminal Court, international justice has acquired new tools to compel States to
investigate, pursue, and bring before the court war criminals that the court wishes
to see presented. International justices are often called to fill a substitutive or
support role to compensate for a lack of judges or qualified judiciary personnel.
Finally, in the context of state reconstruction, they can also function in training or

advising capacity to new courts little trained or practiced in the current
management of judicial affairs.

Civil Administrators: They are charged with the re-establishment of the functions
of the State in its reconstruction or rehabilitation phase. During a fixed period, the
administrators assume coordination of functions related to the management of a
civil society and are responsible for training state personnel that will eventually
replace them (police, administration, education, health, customs, etc.)

Election Organizers: These members of the New Partnership organize and
manage the entire election process as it is fixed and decided by politicians and
diplomats. They comprise a professional body of poll watchers, electoral judges
and other nationals qualified to manage the electoral process. Along with
observers from all nations, they supervise the proper unfolding of elections and
report their observations directly to political directors of an operation.

The concept of the New Peacekeeping Partnership is first of all to take
account of this new environment; and second, to train and sensitise the leaders of
each of these professional bodies (particularly the armed forces, the police, and
humanitarians) to this new reality, so that their members may learn to understand
each other's functions and above all, to be more operationally effective once
returned to the same field of operation. After joint simulation exercises and
sharing experiences in the field, the New Peacekeeping Partnership had an
unusual series of humanitarian crises in the 1990s in which to test these
principles and see them applied under optimal conditions.

It is also important to note that the collusion of common interests and
objectives is pushed to an extreme when humanitarians, politicians, and the
military of a same country decide to work together. The politics of the flag,
combined with collaborative contractual and financial accords, has the advantage
of creating national synergies that favour the complementarity of work performed
by each entity in a given territory. On the other hand, it weakens the image of
humanitarian independence that a large number of organizations wish to
preserve; some groups thus have difficulty imagining themselves in such a
common pooling of specific interests.

OTHER STRUCTURES FOR MANAGEMENT AND COLLABORATIVE WORK
Having discovered the complementary synergies that existed between
different parts, each of the actors tried to define along with the others particular
modalities of collaboration. Politicians and diplomats have worked together for a long
time. But it has only been since the start of the 1990s that humanitarians and the military
have united forces to work toward a solution for a humanitarian crisis. This cooperation
between military and civilian organizations has come to be known as CIMIC (Civilian
Military Cooperation). In order to do this, tools for coordination were put in place. The

basic concept or operations remains that of the CIMOC Civilian and Military
Operations Centre. The mission of CIMOC is:

To daily share existing information and to inform field workers and other members
of the Partnership

To define conditions and rules for safety as well as movements in a given territory

To identify existing humanitarian problems and to define common intervention
strategies to resolve them

There are also other structures for coordinating the management of large-scale
humanitarian crises. If a role of Director of Operations were chosen from one
agency of the system, this person would regularly convene all the NGOs and other
humanitarian actors for regular meetings and general exchanges about specific
topics (food, health, shelter, logistics, protection, etc.). Other meetings often
concern only the NGO itself, while others specifically concern political and
diplomatic members of the crisis management. For example, upon the arrival of
hundreds of thousands of Kosovar refugees in Albania, a special inter-institutional
unit, the Emergency Management Group, bringing together several specialized
entities under the aegis of the UN (Food for the WFP, Health for WHO, Shelter
and Protection for the UNHCR, Social services for UNICEF), was housed in the
Prime Ministers quarters to keep him informed about the daily progress of the
humanitarian operations. Daily meetings decided on the direction of ongoing
operations on behalf of 450,000 refugees that had found refuge in Albania during
the spring of 1999.

In addition to these exchanges, UN agencies also established Information
Centres for non-governmental agencies hoping to acquire maximum information
without having to resort to the services of the Programming Units in each
specialized agency. The Supply-Demand model of specialized services allows
humanitarian agencies to define exactly which sectors of demand for
humanitarian services remain important in relation to existing needs. This
facilitates the phase of identification of initial needs in each intervention.


LESSON 2: QUIZ

Q1: The UN High Commission for Refugees usually protects (multiple):
a.) Refugees
b.) Internally displaced persons
c.) Repatriates
d.) Seekers of asylum

Q2: The Convention of 1951 regarding the status of refugees:
a.) Deals also with prisoners of war
b.) Deals also with child soldiers
c.) Deals also with stateless people
d.) Deals also with orphan minors displaced by WWII

Q3: The UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
a.) Systematically coordinates all UN agency humanitarian operations on behalf of
the Secretary-General
b.) Supervises and coordinates the activities of governmental organizations and of the
International Red Cross Movement
c.) Prepares specialized appeals to donors in the name of the United Nations
d.) Coordinates joint humanitarian operations between the United Nations and
Regional international organizations

Q4: The method of Food for Work:
a.) Allocates humanitarian food rations only to people who work
b.) Is an operational tool to distribute food in exchange for work on development
projects
c.) Is a food distribution program to internal prisoners of war during a conflict
d.) Is aimed at workers in developing countries who prefer to be paid with food
instead of money

Q5: The UNRWA is an agency which works only:
a.) With economic refugees in West Africa
b.) With people displaced by apartheid in southern Africa
c.) With Palestinian refugees in the Middle-East
d.) With none of the above populations


Q6: Invented by UNICEF, the concept of Days of Peace represents:
a.) The days of rest for humanitarian workers in the context of a crisis
b.) The days required of all mothers in order to rest after a pregnancy
c.) The days which aim to respect the religious and cultural obligations of affected
populations
d.) The days of cease-fire between two conflicting parties to proceed with
vaccination programs

Q7: The International Organization of Migrations (IOM)
a.) Helps governments who request it to escort populations deemed undesirable out
of their country
b.) Facilitates the movements and voluntary transfers of refugees, repatriates and
displaced persons towards their country of origin or to a new host country
c.) Coordinates international migration of populations desiring to emigrate from the
South to the North in conjunction with the United Nations
d.) Works specifically on the politics of resettling former rebel and demobilized
soldiers abroad

Q8: The PARINAC process:
a.) Places Southern NGOs under the direction of Northern NGOs in order to improve
their capacities for humanitarian action
b.) Aims for the gradual takeover of management of humanitarian assistance
operations by local agencies in the place of large international agencies
c.) Seeks to gradually transfer the management of humanitarian operations by large
international NGOs to the appropriate local government agencies
d.) Is an automatic mechanism to put contracts of Southern agencies under the
direction of Northern agencies

Q9: Internally displaced persons are protected by:
a.) The Convention on Refugees of 1951
b.) The Protocol of 1967
c.) International Humanitarian Law and the Resolutions of the General Assembly of
the United Nations
d.) The Treaty of Ottawa

Q10: The category of vulnerable groups includes (multiple):
a.) prisoners of war
b.) orphans
c.) elderly people
d.) pregnant women


Q11: The military have become important humanitarian actors:
a.) thanks to the development of the Law of War
b.) thanks to developments in the nature, the complexity, and the mandates of Peace
Missions
c.) following the explicit public demands put out by the International Red Cross
Movement
d.) by putting their equipment and logistic resources directly to work for
humanitarian NGOs

Q12: The fundamental humanitarian principles of the International Red Cross
Movement are:
a.) solidarity, neutrality, partnership, unity, universality, transversality and volunteer
service
b.) universality, humanity, impartiality, engagement, inter-cultural dialogue, human
rights and neutrality
c.) independence, volunteer service, builder of peace, respect for International
Humanitarian Law, neutrality, unity and humanity
d.) humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, volunteer service, unity and
universality

Q13: The New Peacekeeping Partnership
a.) represents contractual agreements established between the military and private
humanitarian actors for the realization of complex humanitarian operations
b.) is a Treaty of the United Nations developed to hail the entry of nations in the new
Millennium and their new partnership for peace
c.) is the title given to the coalition put in place to restore the sovereignty of Kuwait
in 1990
d.) is the concept which represents the new partnership alliances existing between
military and political forces, humanitarian groups, the media, legal and other
bodies constituted in the context of a peacekeeping operation.

ANSWERS:

Q1: A, C & D Q2: C Q3: C Q4: B

Q5 : C Q6 : D Q7 : B Q8 : B

Q9 : C Q10 : B, C & D Q11 : B Q12 : D

Q13: D

THE CONDUCT OF
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
OPERATIONS

LESSON 3

PRINCIPLES OF INTERVENTION

3.1

3.2

3.3

RESPECT FOR STATE SOVEREIGNTY VS. THE RIGHT OF
INTERVENTION
RESPECT FOR AT-RISK POPULATIONS: ANALYSIS OF SWOT:
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES AND
THREATS
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN
LAW

Lesson 3/Principles of Intervention 64

Objectives for Lesson 3: Principles of Intervention

This lesson provides the student with an introduction to some of the legal and
social principles of humanitarian intervention and shows the student how in some cases
these principles may oppose each other. The student will understand how the principle of
State Sovereignty and the right of each nation to govern within its own territory, may
sometimes contradict the right of nations to intervene in a humanitarian crisis. The
student will understand how such principles may be considered regarding at-risk
populations. There will be a discussion of how important social activities are disrupted by
humanitarian crises. The lesson includes a brief introduction to some of the basic
principles of International Humanitarian Law and the protections accorded to civilian
populations during times of armed conflict.


Explain and contrast the concepts of respect for State Sovereignty with the Right
of Intervention;
Understand the special need for respect for at-risk populations;
List and briefly discuss the important social activities of a group prior to a
humanitarian crisis and explain how these change during a refugee situation;
Discuss the vulnerabilities of displaced or affected populations;
Explain the basic principles of International Humanitarian Law.


LESSON 3: PRINCIPLES OF INTERVENTION

3.1 RESPECT FOR STATE SOVEREIGNTY VS. THE RIGHT OF
INTERVENTION

Respect for State Sovereignty is the cornerstone of the contemporary system of
international relations. Since the end of the last world war, this principle has remained
inviolate in the constitutive texts of the United Nations and the conventions or resolutions
that produced it. It remained intact during the periods of decolonisation in the 1960s and
70s, and the sovereignty principle was also reinforced in regional conventions in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America. Never since the birth of international humanitarian
organizations like the Movement of the Red Cross has this principle been compromised.
Respect for the internal sovereignty of States was confirmed in the Geneva Conventions
(of which the ICRC is the warden), as well as in the actions of UN organizations with
mandates to bring assistance to refugees or people in distress throughout the world. It
affirms the fact that the State is the first power of law in a given territory. The State has
the right to judge the pertinence of whether or not to bring emergency relief to
populations in danger, the pertinence of providing them with assistance, as well as the
means which are to be used to deliver appropriate aid to its nationals.

The problem that has vexed the humanitarian community for the last 40 years has
been finding answers to the following questions:

What happens if a State decides not to bring assistance to populations that are
living in its territory and are objectively in danger of death or in need of
humanitarian assistance? What happens if the State deems that the type of
assistance offered is neither good nor appropriate nor proportional to the identified
needs of the population?

At worst, what happens if this same State categorically denies the existence of a
humanitarian problem within its borders or that is affecting a part of its
population? What happens when the state confirms this decision by refusing to
allow an international or national organizations (such as the national Red Cross
Society) to provide the necessary assistance? What happens if this same State is
objectively responsible, either by its deeds (as with the Khmer Rouge in
Cambodia) or through voluntary inaction, for the suffering being endured by all or
part of the population that is under its responsibility?

Especially in the Cold War context before 1990, where humanitarian stakes were
also political, States could bring but partial solutions to these questions. International
organizations of the UN system, bound by this absolute respect for the rules of non-
interference, had to follow these same rules, reserving the possibility of occasionally
inventing opportune and creative negotiated solutions, which nonetheless received the
acceptance of States and/or parties in an armed conflict. In particular, we can cite the
case of Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) directed by UNICEF, where for many years,

UNICEF has worked out of its logistical base in Kenya to provide humanitarian and
impartial care and aid to populations of southern Sudan.

From this effort were born several innovative concepts in contemporary
humanitarian intervention. These include Corridors of Peace, Safe Havens, "Peace
Zones," Open Relief Centres, Child Vaccination Days, and more. All of these are
negotiated openly by an international humanitarian organization in the presence of each
party to a conflict. UNICEF in particular has been outstanding in its creativity and its
effort to develop new approaches in difficult and delicate humanitarian contexts, where
the most vulnerable populations were the first affected by the lack of curative or
palliative care for young children or pregnant or breast-feeding women.

Nevertheless, these new approaches did not provide an adequate response to at-
risk populations that did not have the benefit of easy access. Whether from lack of will on
their part, or the denial of assistance by the State or dominant territorial groups in their
area, many at-risk groups did not receive even minimal assistance. The need for prior
negotiation a difficult, time consuming exercise that is easily revoked by one party or
the other did assure universality or guarantee operational continuity to humanitarian
workers.

It must finally be noted that of the great principles of the International
Humanitarian Law, namely impartiality and neutrality, the latter equally subjects
humanitarian assistance and access to at-risk populations to the goodwill of the
established power. It is in this context, in the middle of the Biafra conflict in 1969, that a
group of young French doctors working for the International Committee of the Red Cross
were confronted with the fact that a State or an armed group could deliberately use the
non-interference rule to refuse access to populations in danger of death. Moreover, the
members of the International Committee of the Red Cross could not do anything
whatsoever to circumvent the rule, nor even use negotiation, opinion, or the media in
order to alert the international community in an attempt to change the situation.

It was in revolt against this principle of absolute respect for the sovereignty of
States, which in their view was unacceptably costing the lives of entire populations who
were being denied relief, that the modern concept of humanitarian interference was born.
Begun by the French Doctors, the goal of humanitarian interference was and still remains
to bring immediate humanitarian assistance to populations that cannot be helped by their
country of origin or another aid institution. French Doctors brought assistance to Soviet-
occupied Afghanistan, in the waters of the Sea of China, to diverse bush rebellions, and
even deep into territory where ill-will or at worst State negligence had prevented
humanitarian groups from intervening. They respected the fundamental principles of
their mandate, which is to bring assistance to others without consideration of race,
opinion, or gender.

This initiative, coming from the humanitarian organizations heavily involved in
the most difficult (and often most dangerous) spheres of operations, found a symbolic
validation in 1988, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution

establishing the right of humanitarian interference when it was deemed that without the
exercise of this right, groups of civil populations would be cruelly exposed to death or
other suffering.

The sanctioning of the right of humanitarian interference in order to save human
lives is now an established part of the work of humanitarian intervention organizations.
This was reinforced by the increased presence of international military forces on
humanitarian missions during the 1990s, from the 1992 Somalian crisis to the 1999 crisis
in Kosovo. It was in the name of humanitarian interference that NATO decided to start
its humanitarian intervention in Kosovo; it was due to an unprecedented famine within
territory dominated by tribal conflicts and the absence of any State that operation Restore
Hope was initiated in Somalia under the flag of the United Nations, in 1992.

Humanitarian interference, a concept initiated by several bold and courageous
NGOs, is thus becoming a normative, universally recognized operational principle. This
right can be exercised by a group of States (Kosovo 1999); by a State under a mandate
from the United Nations (France's Operation Turquoise in Rwanda in 1994); by
organizations operating under negotiated accords (Operation Lifeline Sudan); and most
often by anonymous humanitarian NGO operations supported only by their determination
to bring assistance to unassisted populations in danger.

However, the principle of humanitarian interference also has its limits. From a
concept initially limited in practice to a few humanitarian organizations who combined
the duty to witness with that of assistance, the widespread popularisation of this principle
is irritating a large number of governments and civil associations in host countries that
wish to protect themselves against potential abuses of the right from organizations who
have tarnished the concept by using it without discernment and for ends often far
removed from that of assistance. It is therefore desirable that the concept of interference
continue to make itself the object of great transparency concerning its objectives and
motivations once it is invoked. It should in no way detract from the search for solutions
that continue to privilege negotiated paths; sometimes such negotiations are the only way
to get approval for humanitarian intervention by the largest number of parties in a conflict
or humanitarian crisis.

3.2 RESPECT FOR AT-RISK POPULATIONS: ANALYSIS OF SWOT:
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS
(Diagram by Mary Anderson)

The image, or at least the media view, of humanitarian intervention is often one of
compassion and deliberate dramatization. Frequently the image of populations in need of
assistance is reduced to one of victims without means, completely dependent on outside
assistance to provide assistance and relief. For field workers, the reality is often
different. This is sometimes even in contradiction to messages conveyed by their own
organizations in an attempt to raise funds and resources that will allow them to intervene
efficiently.


In reality, at-risk populations are not all at risk to the same degree. Certain groups
arrive collectively or individually, in a state of demoralization and such physical and
psychological exhaustion that the establishment of a relief structure that completely
replaces local services where they already exist appears justified. In many other
situations, when time allows (which is rarely the case in the eruption of a major
humanitarian crisis) humanitarian assistance organizations should take the time to do a
precise analysis of the capacities and the vulnerabilities of the populations that are
receiving help, of their strengths as well as their internal weaknesses, with the goal of
adapting assistance in a context of working together and not in a context of unilateral aid.
Too often interventions are characterized by this one-sided assistance, without any
consideration given to the potential of beneficiary populations.

The fruit of these analyses were amply developed in the studies of North-
American researcher Mary Anderson. She constructed a Capacity and Vulnerability
Diagram, a practical tool for analysis that allows relief workers to understand the context
of human intervention in which they are called upon to intervene.

What are the fundamental reasons for applying this kind of tool?

Respect for the dignity of populations. Though often-forgotten, the principle of
respect for others is and remains one of the keys of humanitarian intervention,
especially as it concerns the condition of people in distress, but also regarding their
identity as individuals or a social group. The objective of humanitarian
intervention is not only to keep people alive, but to seek to restore their dignity, in
exile as well as in their return home.

Adaptation of intervention. Understanding better in order to help better, heal
better and serve better. Large international organizations often solicit the services
of anthropologists to understand the best way to live among the populations with
which they are working. Better understanding of the groups that are benefiting
from intervention allows for:

Adapting intervention to suit cultural or social criteria of a particular group.

Avoiding committing errors of social diagnosis that risk endangering all or
a part of a population, excluding certain action groups, or inciting practices
that are contrary to societal principles of a group.

Adjusting quantities or qualities of service delivery to better serve the
beneficiaries.

Taking advantage of synergies. Between operating and beneficiary groups,
improving operational synergies to make the humanitarian action in process more
effective, more efficient, and more productive.


Identifying resources for future repatriation. Even at the beginning of a crisis,
humanitarian reflection must be able to capitalize on the most pertinent resources
of social groups that are the beneficiaries of an intervention. This allows them to
identify what particular actions would be needed to prepare for the return of
populations when repatriation is deemed possible.

Refusing the exclusion of unidentified groups. Logically, and by the internal
dynamics unique to each type of population, a social group tends to deliberately or
implicitly eliminate one or more social groups in the process.

What are the steps that must be taken in order to facilitate the identification of
capacities and vulnerabilities of refugee populations? Mary Anderson proposes to
managers in the field two frameworks for reflection and analysis to guide them in
decision-making. These analyses must be carried out according to a participatory
method, by using focus group or other techniques to ensure that the majority of local
societal members are not excluded.


TABLE I : ORDINARY ACTIVITIES OF THE SOCIAL GROUP

Situation Prior to the Humanitarian Crisis

ACTIVITIES WHO(Sex/Age) WHERE WHEN
Production of goods
Crafts
Construction
Extraction
Etc

and services
Teaching
Public works
Health
Social Services
Etc

Agricultural Work
Planting
Crop maintenance
Harvest
Storage
Care of livestock
Etc

Domestic economy
Childcare
Water collection
Vegetable gardening
Etc

Protection
Unaccompanied children
Women alone
Persons alone
Children of combat age
Etc

Social/Political/Religious
Community organization
Traditional ceremonies
Distinct social characteristics
Territorial organization
Etc


Table I establishes a frame of reference that allows humanitarian workers to
understand the daily life of a group before a crisis or natural calamity (drought, flood,
etc.) disrupted their way of life. Table II provides an analysis allowing us to identify the
potential and resources of displaced peoples or refugees that will help them confront their
new way of life.


TABLE II : CONTROL AND USE OF RESOURCES

Case of a Refugee Situation

LOST
Resources
Lands
Livestock
Shelters
Tools
Educational System
Health care
Income
Etc

DEVELOPMENT
Resources
Skills
Agricultural
Labour
Crafts
Herding of livestock
Domestic economy
Construction
Etc

Knowledge
Level of literacy
Instruction
Health/community and social
organization
Training and development
Etc

PROVIDED TO
REFUGEES
Resources
Food
Shelter
Clothing
Education
Legal services
Medical care
Etc

Who uses
(Sex/age)

Who possesses
(Sex/age)

Who has the right
(Sex/age)

Who controls
(Sex/age)

Who uses
(Sex/age)

Who/When/Where
(By men? women? the
community?


Table II allows us to understand the new dynamic that is being established in
refugee camps or in beneficiary zones of a humanitarian assistance program. It is
extremely important to do a rigorous analysis of these conditions in order to determine
whether they optimise the existing potential in the community or if they will, to the
contrary, create social or economic distortions that generate inequalities in the treatment
of persons or in the attention brought to the most vulnerable groups. Being careful not to
concentrate all the organizing functions in the hands of a few, reinforcing women's role in
the distribution of goods as well as in socio-economic organization, and guaranteeing fair
access to everyone are important techniques in managing displaced populations.

The ensemble of data received can be operationalized in a final matrix that we call
the Capacity and Vulnerability Analysis Matrix.

TABLE III : ANALYSIS OF THE CAPACITIES AND VULNERABILITIES OF A
DISPLACED OR AFFECTED POPULATION

VULNERABILITIES CAPACITIES

PHYSICAL AND
MATERIAL CAPACITIES

SOCIAL AND
ORGANIZATIONAL
CAPACITIES

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND
MOTIVATIONAL
CAPACITIES

Conceived as an analytical tool, the matrix allows us to work section by section
on the vulnerabilities and capacities of the population. It is close to the SWOT model,
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats with which managers are already
familiar. It is but the first step in a process that will allow managers to deepen their
search for the best responses to the most important problems facing them.

Other techniques to identify problems and solutions can be used, such as the
Problem Tree or Analysis of Stakeholders. But all of these tools for reflection and
methodological organization are meaningless unless they are used on the basis of open
and frequent discussion among the principal individuals concerned.


3.3 ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN
LAW (IHL)

We have seen the primary relief functions of the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC). In addition to its role in providing humanitarian assistance, the ICRC,
mandated by the international community, monitors the protection of human rights by
parties in conflict. In a world characterized by a post-Cold War proliferation of low and
medium intensity conflicts, the concept of International Humanitarian Law retains its full
importance. Despite this, an increasing number of parties in conflict ignore its principles
and the most vulnerable members of societywomen, children, and the elderly
comprise the vast majority of the victims of war crimes and objectives.

International Humanitarian Law (IHL), also known as the right in armed conflicts
or the right of war, is geared towards protecting non-participants or former participants in
hostilities, and at placing limits on the methods of war. These combined provisions,
developed since the mid-nineteenth century, today comprise the four Geneva
Conventions of 1949, as well as the two additional Protocols of 1977, which are the
principle legal instruments of International Humanitarian Law. Other accords on specific
subjects complete these fundamental texts.

3.3.1 BASIC PRINCIPLES

It is important for an intervening party to understand the basic principles
underlying the actions of the ICRC during an armed conflict. The constant concern to
maintain ones neutrality makes it sometimes difficult to understand certain decisions
made by the ICRC in weighing whether or not to act. These decisions are best understood
once one knows the fundamentals of International Humanitarian Law as compiled by the
ICRC. These principles are universal and can thus guide the actions of intervening parties
in a situation where no direct presence of the ICRC is manifested.

Individuals displaced by fighting and those not directly involved in hostilities have
the right to the respect of their lives and physical well-being. These individuals
will be, in all circumstances, protected and treated humanely, without prejudice.

It is not permitted to kill or harm a surrendering enemy, or one who is not directly
involved in hostilities.

The sick and wounded will be gathered together and cared for by the party gaining
authority over that region. Health officials, their establishments, transportation
equipment and health materials will be protected.

The emblems of the Red Cross and Red Crescent set against a white background
are the signs of that protection, and must be respected.

Captured combatants and civilians have the right to the respect of their lives,
dignity, personal rights, and convictions (political, religious, or others). They will

be protected from all acts of violence and vengeance. They will have the right to
exchange news with family and will be permitted to receive aid.

All individuals will benefit from fundamental judicial guarantees. No one will be
held responsible for acts he or she did not commit. No one will be subjected to
physical or mental torture, nor to corporal punishment or degrading treatment.

Parties in conflict and members of their armed forces do not have unlimited choice
as to their methods of warfare. Use of weapons and methods of warfare that cause
useless losses and excessive suffering is not permitted.

The parties in conflict will do their utmost to identify the civilian population. The
civilian population as such, and civilians individually, will not be targets of attack.
Attacks will only be against military objectives.

This last principle is fundamental. During the First World War, only 10% of those
killed during the conflict were civilians. This figure rose to 50% during World War II.
With the proliferation of conflicts of low intensity since the late 1980s, this figure often
reaches 90-95%. This characteristic of intense violence directed against civilians (for
example, in the cases of the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone) actually becomes the
most common shared feature of these (so-called) low-intensity conflicts.

3.3.2 INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE

Regarding the international assistance provided by the ICRC, IHL is based upon
the following elements:

1) Parties involved in conflict do not have the right to starve the population of their
adversary, and must, as all states must, allow free passage of needed international
assistance.
2) Parties in conflict are obligated to provide food, medicines, and other essential
goods necessary to survival to populations in the territories which they control
including their own population.
3) In cases where parties in conflict are unable to provide goods to those populations,
they must accept international assistance measures within controlled territories,
including their own area.

At the normative level, the right to assistance is recognized in IHL and in its core
instruments. The main operational limit on this right, for the ICRC, is obviously in
securing the agreement of the concerned parties in conflict to allow for an international
assistance effort. It is in cases where this consent is not given that a large number of
international organizations began to develop principles of the right of interference
discussed at the beginning of this lesson.


LESSON 3: QUIZ

Q1: The principle of the Right of intervention
a.) permits all international organizations to decide to act
b.) is a principle of developed intervention by humanitarian NGOs when it seems like
the populations in danger are not being helped by their legitimate government
c.) is a principle of the International Humanitarian Law developed by the Red Cross
to multiply their interventions
d.) is a principle developed by the International Tribunal of The Hague in response to
the multiplication of interventions conceived outside the authority of the United
Nations

Q2: Mary Anderson's Capacities Vulnerabilities analysis (multiple):
a.) permits the counting of strengths and weaknesses of a displaced population by a
crisis
b.) permits the maximization of interventions by basing it on the particular strengths
of a given population
c.) permits the refining of assistance given to the most vulnerable people
d.) is a model of integration which serves the government before naturalizing the
refugees present on their territory

Q3: The International Humanitarian Law (IHL):
a.) draws up the lines of acceptable conduct when war is declared against civilians
b.) fixes the material and physical limits which should use the armed forces on land,
sea and air in combat
c.) articulates the norms of behaviour of the armed forces and treatments of the civil
populations, the wounded and prisoners of war
d.) governs the conditions of intervention of peace missions in intra-national civil
conflicts

Q4: The Right to Intervention and the International Humanitarian Law:
a.) are complementary because they address the military and humanitarians in
operation
b.) are both Rights fixed and diffused by the United Nations
c.) The right to intervene predominates over the IHL in humanitarian crises affecting
civil populations
d.) None of the above definitions


Q5: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
a.) Works conjunctly with all the armed forces on a military operation ground to limit
their warlike actions
b.) Is the guarantor of the application of the Right to intervene when civil populations
are affected by conflict
c.) Ensures the good application of the International Humanitarian Law to all the
engaged parties in a conflict
d.) Makes its first priority to provide protection to humanitarian intervention
organizations working in the midst of conflict

Q6: In the care given to displaced populations, it is important to:
a.) Treat the beneficiaries as empowered victims
b.) Commit to erasing the cultural specificities of populations to avoid creating any
possible discrimination
c.) Treat the populations as a whole without giving attention to the differences of
gender, age or origin
d.) Reinforce the principle of dignity of the populations as a constructive element in
the method of intervention

Q7: To guarantee direct access to populations in danger, the UN endorsed the Right to
Intervention as:
a.) A right to guaranteed military access protected by the International Humanitarian
Law
b.) A right to humanitarian access by NGOs as a last resort in case of the possibility
that a sovereign state fails to provide needed assistance to its own population
c.) The possibility for the International Red Cross movement to intervene in all
circumstances when lives are threatened
d.) An operational concept put into operation in conjunction with the International
Red Cross and humanitarian NGOs on a given ground

Q8: Distinction on the basis of race, sex, age and origin allows NGOs and others:
a.) A proper operational application of International Humanitarian Law
b.) The adequate material treatment of affected populations by a humanitarian crisis
by arbitrary and functional political selection
c.) To plan and justify the degree of differentiated treatment as a function of the
differences of the affected populations
d.) To construct an equitable strategy of humanitarian intervention which holds to
particular specifics of the violated population

ANSWERS:

Q1: B Q2: A, B & C Q3 : C Q4: D

Q5: C Q6 : D Q7 : B Q8 : D


THE CONDUCT OF
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
OPERATIONS

LESSON 4

MANAGEMENT OF HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCIES

4.1
4.2
4.3

ANALYSIS OF PHASES OF INTERVENTION
POPULATION SECURITY AND SAFETY OF RESCUE TEAMS
MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OF A REFUGEE CAMP

Lesson 4/Management of Humanitarian Emergencies 80

Objectives For Lesson 4: Management of Emergency
Humanitarian Situations

Lesson 4 covers the management of emergency situations and provides an
overview of the importance of the analysis phase of intervention, aspects of population
security, security for the humanitarian workers,


Understand the importance of the analysis phase of intervention as well as the
sub-phases of analysis;
List and briefly discuss aspects of population security, including safety of
humanitarian teams, logistics, weapons, and personal security;
Understand the principles of the management of a refugee camp, including
coordination between the actors, aspects of geography, promotion of social and
educational activities in a refugee camp, and anticipation of stress and PTSD.

4.1 ANALYSIS OF PHASES OF INTERVENTION

4.1.1 PRECURSORY SIGNS AND CONTINGENCY PLANS

Humanitarian situations rarely appear spontaneously. All refugee situations are
originally fuelled by a series of precursors that humanitarian agencies must be able to
interpret in order to be prepared. It is unfortunate that the largest humanitarian crises of
the 1990s were also those that completely defied the most prominent political predictions.
Such was the case during the Iraqi crisis of 1990; the crises of the Great Lakes region in
central Africa, in which almost 1,000,000 Rwandans fled to Zaire in just a few days in
July, 1994; or the crisis in Kosovo, when 700,000 Kosovars fled to Albania over several
days at the beginning of the war in Kosovo.

How does one interpret precursor signs? When dealing with a natural disaster, it is
often possible to anticipate a hurricane or possible flood and take protective measures as
a result. When dealing with crises provoked by humans, the question is more complex
and no response or scientific model will entirely address all aspects of the problem, such
as how many people will be involved, and where and how a crisis will develop.

The important thing then is to remain vigilant and to attempt a detailed analysis of
breaking point factors that can push populations into exile. Before such a moment there
often exist triggers, whether major or minor, often followed by social or economic
responses which together make up the indicators announcing a crisis. Understanding
these triggering mechanisms sometimes enables agencies to anticipate large-scale human
movement and to prepare contingency plans to be ready to meet these people.

A contingency plan consists of the following elements:
Mobilization and pre-positioning of material or goods necessary to face a crisis.
Mobilization and pre-positioning of national and international human resources.
Establishment of verification and analysis systems which aid in better examining
the situation from a closer point of view.
Installation of logistic and communication systems.
Establishment of provisionary coordinating structures between different
participants (UN, governments, or intervening agencies).
Elaboration of scenarios and possible intervention plans.
Preparation of facilities and logistical points (shelter, water, kitchens, stocks, etc.)
ready to be used and applied in the event of a crisis.

The success of a contingency plan depends on several factors:
The understanding of phenomena or indicators that will allow the most rapid
response in situations of large-scale population movements.
LESSON 4: MANAGEMENT OF EMERGENCY HUMANITARIAN
SITUATIONS

A positive and constructive participation on the part of government authorities in
the host country where the crisis will unfold.
An adequate and timely mobilization of human, financial, and material resources.

The preparation of contingency plans and the analysis of different scenarios greatly help
humanitarian agencies in the speed of their responses to humanitarian crises. There exists,
however, a certain danger in too much preparation, in that such preparation could
possibly serve as an invitation for large-scale population movements. The plan can thus
become an attracting element and encourage the movement of people. This compromises
the supposed neutral character of the preparation of contingency plans; these plans are
therefore generally prepared in secret.

4.1.2 SCENARIOS AND SEQUENCES OF A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

We will now focus our attention on a schematic presentation of the sequences of a
humanitarian crisis, as presented by the UNHCR.

This presentation illustrates the importance that international protection has in a
system of assistance. Whether it be to benefit refugees, internally displaced populations,
children orphaned by AIDS, or the elderly in the centre of an armed conflict, the
protection of the ICRC or of another agency as mandated by the UNHCR remains the
most cross-cutting activity in humanitarian action. It has no time-limiting mandate and
continues to have an important role in the establishment of long term solutions.

The following diagram presents in detail the different phases of an international
humanitarian operation.

Principal Aspects of Refugee Operations Management

The first phase reiterates the important points presented in the lessons entitled
Evaluation; the Capacity of Intervention; and Observations. This phase corresponds to
one of a State on the Brink, which allows humanitarian actors to understand the
political and social environment, the work environment and potential partners, the
capacity for the creation of a credible intervention and the establishment of necessary
preparatory mechanisms (see previous section).

The second phase corresponds to that of the Early Warning, as well as the
implementation of the Special Intervention Plan. Following this, the Advanced
Detection Phase is proceeded by the Final Preparations during which Liaison
Activities and the coordination of NGO activities will take place, as well as the pre-
selection of sites and the Establishment of Welcoming Procedures.

The third phase is related to the actual work performed in humanitarian crises.
The Operational Emergencies are categorized in groups of ten, each corresponding to
one of the lessons in this manual, whether it be Health, Logistics and Transport,
Communications, Food and Nutrition, Protection, Water Provision, Sanitation, Camp
Development, and Storage and Recording Activities. The development of these activities
is ideally simultaneous with activities that aid in the survival of populations. We examine
the details of these activities in each of the following lessons.

Care and Maintenance is a phase which follows the first six months subsequent
to the emergency deployment. It entails the survival support work for refugee or
displaced populations through the provision of basics services, namely Food, Health, and
Shelter. Of all the activities performed by UNHCR, this phase is least covered by the
media and is perhaps the most difficult to finance due to lack of donor interest and
commitment on the part of those responsible for the repatriation of these populations.

At this stage of assistance, it is therefore important to not only assure the survival
of the population, but also to encourage the development of social and income-generating
activities designed to encourage self-sufficiency once the populations return home.
Development of skills, learning of new trades, and the creation of new educational and
social activities are needed at this point. Also, if the exile situation lasts too long, or the
level of population integration is too high, the Care and Maintenance activities become
limited to a minimum and sometimes cease to exist. Only certain social services
permitting the most vulnerable members of the population to continue to receive
particular kinds of assistance remain. Unaccompanied minors, the elderly, pregnant
women, female heads of household and minorities thus receive material support or
protection. It is also in this relative calm that activities aimed at reuniting families can
take place.

The remaining management phases concern Sustainable Solutions which we
will discuss in greater depth in Lesson 9 of this course.

One must also realize that the processes we have presented are ongoing and
dynamic. In a spiral reading of this diagram, we must emphasize the importance of

constantly returning to the first phases of "Evaluation, Capacity to Intervene, and
Observation" even as we find ourselves primarily in situations of Care and
Maintenance or preparing Durable Solutions. Being constantly ready to intervene or
continuously analysing ones environment are important aspects of humanitarian
management.

4.1.3 OPERATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS AND OPERATIONS
MANAGEMENT

Theoretically, only the government receiving refugees has full responsibility for
all aspects related to the protection or material assistance to beneficiary populations. Such
is the case in India, for example, which does not recognize the authority of the UNHCR;
or in Columbia, which only requested the organizations aid after 1998. These cases
remain the exception, however, and do not guarantee the affected population the full
recognition of their rights as refugees or as victims of conflict. Ordinarily, it is within a
cooperative framework existing between UN agencies and host states that international
humanitarian activities are organized.

We have previously seen the classic division of humanitarian responsibilities in
terms of statute or the nature of affected peoples: the UNHCR oversees all refugee
operations, repatriation and most questions related to displaced peoples. That is not to say
that other agencies do not have any principal coordinating role in a given operation (such
as UNICEF, the UNDP, WFP or ICRC). In a situation where human right are called into
question and are at the centre of a problem, a regional organization such as the OSCE or
the AU can have the primary role in liaising with the host state.

In situations of conflict, the ICRC normally plays the primary role, without taking
on a politically coordinated mandate so as to not endanger its strict neutrality. In
situations where multilateral actors are not involved, NGOs can organize themselves into
larger units, designating one of their own to act as that groups representative. In the case
of escalation of a humanitarian crisis, the financing of different actors is aided by the
following:

states make available their logistic and financial resources
international organizations join to launch consolidated appeals (in which ICRC
often participate)
international and non-governmental organizations launch appeals to the public or
to the government to intervene as quickly as possible

After this first phase of mobilization, UN agencies conclude contractual accords
(Letters of Instruction, Letters of Engagement) with the NGOs, committing the latter
to continue, under their technical and political direction, the assistance work remaining to
be done, conforming all the while to the schema we have presented. These accords
usually involve the need for financial compensation or payment in kind on behalf of
NGOs wishing to continue their involvement. They therefore link humanitarian agencies

to the political direction assumed by the UN during the operation, unless the agencies
have their own resources to continue their support without outside aid.

4.2 POPULATION SECURITY AND SAFETY OF HUMANITARIAN TEAMS

The protection of populations as well as the protection of humanitarian teams
during assistance operations has become increasingly important over the past 15 years.
Rebel attacks on refugee camps carried out across international borders, assassinations of
humanitarian workers in their sleep or in the field and the taking of humanitarian workers
as hostages are examples of the type of threats that have tragically multiplied to the point
where they can no longer be ignored. Let us examine the two aspects of security:

4.2.1 POPULATION SECURITY

All individuals who have fled their country of origin as refugees, or displaced
individuals forced to hide in another location within their own country need a form of
protection which ensures that their stay in their new environment or host state is not a
source of new dangers. These dangers take the form of hostile actions on the part of their
former governments or organized bodies (such as police or administrative agencies) of
the host government which may not want to welcome or support the refugee population.

We have stated that population safety is and should remain the highest priority of
the UNHCR once it is deployed. In order to do this, a certain number of actions can be
taken immediately, in conjunction with other intervening humanitarian agencies:

registration of individual refugees, family by family, town by town, etc. An
example would be the collaborative model demonstrated in 1999 between the
UNHCR and the software company Microsoft for the registration of Kosovar
refugees who had had their identification papers stolen.
movement, if needed, of populations towards welcoming centres (the AU specifies
that refugees should be located at least 50 kilometres from the border of their
country of origin in order to protect them from any hostile infiltration from that
country).
negotiation with local authorities regarding the physical security measures around
the refugee camp.
negotiation with the refugees regarding measures which would permit some
element of self-government in the management of their own personal safety.
installation of UNHCR or NGO offices near the camp to ensure a physical
presence.

Other types of actions, especially within the context of a complex operation, can
also be envisioned:

placement of international military personnel charged with the protection of the
camps (or deployment and financing of military units from the host statein cases
of closed camps where refugees do not have the possibility to leave their camp).

engaging of the UN Blue Guards, UN civil policemen who can be deployed in
certain circumstances to ensure the protection of groups of individuals in danger
(in refugee cases such as in Iran or Iraq).
separation of at-risk elements (vulnerable or handicapped individuals, the most
recognizable political refugees, civil or political figures, former military
servicemen, etc) and thinking of possible alternative solutions (from installation in
separate camps to relocation).

These measures are not exhaustive, but prove that the physical protection of an
individual is the first task to be undertaken, much as is the security of the group.

4.2.2 SAFETY OF HUMANITARIAN TEAMS

The job of aiding has become more and more dangerous. The principal reason is
that humanitarian agencies intervene more frequently in zones of conflict, where there is
neither order nor law and where terrorists and mercenaries have no regard for
international humanitarian law protecting civilians in times of war. The impartial nature
of humanitarian work can sometimes make it as dangerous as war, its opposite. While
aiding civilians, a humanitarian worker can be perceived as an enemy. The most
traditional and widely recognized symbols such as the Red Cross are often not respected
and expose the teams to new and dangerous threats.

Between 1992 and 1999, no fewer than 160 civilian personnel of the UN have
been killed. More than 90% of disappearances have not been followed up by true
inquiries, and in many cases no one was brought to justice. NGOs have almost certainly
experienced losses of the same proportions, but their effects are less easily quantifiable.
In 1997 the ICRC lost six individuals who were murdered in cold blood while they slept
in Chechnya, and three more that same year in Burundi. Other NGOs have had the
misfortune of losing personnel in tragic situations in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, or in Burma;
their only crime the mere fact that they were witnesses to the atrocities of the
environment in which they worked, and for that reason, targets to be eliminated.

On the UN side, it is important to stress the recent institution of the 1999
Conventions on the Security of the UN Personnel. This convention outlines the terms
which should be followed by States and conflict parties to ensure the security of national
and international humanitarian personnel. Unfortunately, UN budgetary limitations
support only a minimum of security training for UN personnel. This lack of security
training and protection within a hostile environment forces personnel to consider a
number of techniques to improve what little security exists. Some of these elements
become basic measures to take in situations of difficult work.

VISIBILITY AND TRANSPARENCY
Visibility is not only an idea invented to do humanitarian marketing, but is
indispensable for self-identification and to make oneself known in a complex
environment when an organization is relatively unknown. The Red Cross remains the
most universally recognized symbol in the past century and at the ICRC, certain

specialized delegates are responsible for the dissemination and promotion of the value of
this symbol so that it may be recognized and respected.

For other humanitarian agencies, colours, symbols, whether they be on cars,
planes, trucks, T-shirts, cassettes, vests or others, are necessary elements that clearly
make their identity known and improve the chances of protection in all circumstances. A
symbol is both an element of communication as well as an element of protection. The
disrespect of this protection by a party should ensure their loss of all benefits deriving
from the presence and work of humanitarian agencies. Retreat and/or evacuation
procedures in these circumstances send strong signals as actions necessary to ensure
maximum protection of personnel in the field.

Visibility should also be associated with an effort at transparency (via local
media, public presentation, ongoing dialogue between all groups of a population)
regarding the objectives and mandates of the entire organization, so that other intervening
agencies, both national and international, have a clear vision of why and how the
organization is intervening. Humanitarian work is not a secret science! It must know its
capacities and its limits, and make known its position through constant representation of
cooperative symbols associated with its actions in the field.

COMMUNICATIONS
Communication within and without remains a high priority. The conditions of
humanitarian operations are highly volatile and information control remains an essential
element in strategic or tactical decision-making. Two priorities exist at this level:
ensuring optimal communications methods at the internal level: walkie talkies,
base and mobile radios, regular communications within security teams,; the
coordination and maximization of actions in the field thus depend on excellent
information management.
ensuring the fluid and constant communication of information between intervening
organizations, national and international, which should represent known
information and aid in the decision-making process. Daily or weekly meetings,
section meetings, meetings between civilian coordinating agencies, military
meetings (see the role of the CIMIC) with different authorities, and security
meetings are all good for the regulation of the constant flux of communication
necessary for helping teams, media, and social organizations chairs (uniting
programming and fund-raising).

UN AND NGO INTERAGENCY COORDINATION
To realize their efforts at adequate internal political security, the United Nations
can turn to specialized personnel (often ex-military officers) to organize their security
plans. These security officers should be able to conceive and envision methods which
would allow them to organize and realize an evacuation of international personnel in the
worst of cases. These methods should work in harmony with similar plans of other
NGOs.


LOGISTICS AND TRAINING
In view of what has been stated, it is clear that a good logistic plan is
complimentary to a good security policy. Review of vehicles, exchange of normal
materials for superior ones, anti-mine protection under vehicle chassis, helmets and
bullet-proof vests or bullet-proof vehicles in high risk situations. Some humanitarian
agencies take physical risks which justify the use of such extreme logistic measures in
order to protect themselves and act in complete security.

Logistics do not only denote individual measures. Logistics are said to be the
sum total of material activities permitting the realization of a mandate or objective in
optimal security conditions. Good logistics will enable the military and civilian personnel
on a mission to realize joint goals and bring them to fruition (for example, a vaccination
campaign in a war zone). In this sense, logistical success of the operation is tied to the
professionalism of the team, the accumulated experiences of that team, and the rigorous
planning of the combination of operations to be executed.

This logistic aspect is either acquired in the field by experience, or is the result of
training and planning. In Europe, and to a lesser extent in North America, education
programs in technical universities aimed at students desiring to enter the humanitarian
field have risen over the past 15 years. Directed towards enhancing knowledge of
environmental analysis techniques in complex situations as well as the practical aspects
of ongoing logistic operations (vehicles, water and distribution), the institutes which offer
this training (such as the BIOFORCE Institute in Lyon-France, or the multi-sector
courses offered by the operational sections of DWB, or the Basic Training Courses of the
Red Cross) offer young professionals knowledge of the most technical and practical
aspects of humanitarian work.

Fieldwork training, however remains the poor step-child of humanitarian work,
as more than half of the professionals working in the field learned their jobs while
deployed on mission. Emergency departures allow very few individuals to become
specialized. On another note, training is a large investment that rarely gives quantitative
results or elevated qualitative results in terms of recruitment. The dilemma is then to be
able to provide training needed for new humanitarian workers scheduled to replace the
departures of others on short-term contracts.

WEAPONS AND PERSONAL PROTECTION
The question of individual or collective protection for humanitarian teams is the
subject of constant debate between NGO operators. Images of Somalia demonstrate the
need for some adequate assurance of protection for food distribution operations and
encouraged a certain number of agencies to accept physical protection. But protection can
easily make one a potential target, thus justify the arming of previously unarmed workers.
In situations of confrontation, this can only lead to disaster.

For humanitarian organizations, the position is very clear: the possession of
weapons, or the individual or collective use of or threat to use weapons for defence in
order to ensure the success of humanitarian work can only have negative repercussions. If

political negotiations, visibility and communications between the present parties in an
operations zone do not have an effect on the acceptance of a humanitarian team working
on a particular job, then it is best that the team withdraws or continues to negotiate. The
choice of arms is a worse choice that aids neither the humanitarian agency nor the people
it hopes to serve.

ACCREDITATION SYSTEMS OF NGOS
The system of accrediting NGOs runs counter to the principles of liberty and free
determination of when, where and in what circumstances to take action that the most
activist of NGO's so passionately defend. Such a system means that in a particular crisis
or a particularly dangerous environment, only those NGOs or agencies who have
received formal accreditation from a coordinating relief organization (or the host
government) would be authorized to remain operational, and as a result, to enjoy
effective protection. This vision of operations would guarantee that in case of emergency
there would be no more personnel needing emergency evacuation than airplane seats to
evacuate them, or that there would be a sufficient number of vehicles to evacuate an
entire international team.

This system can evidently be instituted progressively. The best way to terminate
the operation of a humanitarian NGO once its funds have been exhausted is to deny it any
renewal of funding and to direct these funds to another national NGO. Another way is to
ask the local government to request the NGOs departure.

On a basic level, the system of accreditation has the merit of rationalizing the
supply and demand of humanitarian agencies in a given operational field, by proceeding
to a professional selection of the agencies most qualified to address the needs of a given
situation.

4.3 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OF A REFUGEE CAMP

In Lessons 6, 7, and 8 we will examine in greater detail the concepts of Nutrition,
Health, Shelter, Water and Purification and Storage. It is important however to list
certain precise criteria for organizational conduct in the context of refugee camp
management. Refugee camp management remains the only activity which affects the
majority of refugee lives, or those of displaced peoples around the world. Whether in
open camps where authorities allow free movement or in closed camps where
authorities do not permit exits, each type of camp has its own human and social
dynamics. The management of each should follow simple management guidelines and
entail coordination between the different participants such that the refugee population can
live with relative ease.

4.3.1 COORDINATION BETWEEN ACTORS

The UNHCR is the official authority with the responsibility of managing sector
duties in a refugee camp. One must remember that the UNHCR does not direct a single

activity directly in a camp unless it is managing security activities. The UNHCR
delegates sector responsibility to operational partners with which it has signed a M.O.U
Memorandum of Understanding which is a contract defining the conditions of
execution and allocation of assigned duties. This is done with an institutional partner (a
governmental Agency of Office, or national or international NGO).

The UNHCR can decide to work with either a single partner or several. The
management of these agreements is pro active, that is it is often the responsibility of the
organization to define the activities to be launched, and then to have them approved by
the UNHCR managers. Any change in direction or content of activity must be submitted
to the UNHCR for approval, as well as to the national governmental authority in case it
wishes to have an effect on the goings-on of an assistance operation.

Agencies working in camps can also sign accords of cooperation and financing
with other donors (a national donor agency, UNICEF, etc.), but the UNHCR reserves the
right to examine this cooperation if it affects operations to be undertaken in camps for
which it is responsible.

Can there be camps that do not fall under the operational responsibilities of the
UNHCR (such as a case where the state takes complete charge of the camps
management and does not want the presence of other organizations and their services)?
The answer is YES, on the condition that the UNHCR can at least exercise its legitimate
right regarding questions related to the protection of refugees.

In the management of important and complex refugee situations, it is common for
the UNHCR to decide to work with a regular number of agencies that have each
developed a particular expertise in one activity or another, such as OXFAM UK for water
distribution management, CARE International for camp management, Doctors Without
Borders or Doctors of the World for health management, etc. Though an unwritten
agreement, this enables the UNHCR to work with organizations that have great
experience in activities they direct. The UNHCR can also work with a wide range of
partners, no less that 400 of them world wide. These organizations thus have wide and
varying levels of experience, but are not always familiar with the work standards
expected of them by the UNHCR. As a result, section heads work often as consultants to
direct and control the organizations work.

4.3.2 GEOGRAPHY OF A CAMP

Today, ideal camp plans correspond to precise quantitative studies of the needs
of a given population such as water, latrines, and individual and communal living spaces.
The UNHCR gives the average measurements for an individuals living space as being 45
square meters, while including space for access roads and infrastructures necessary for
common services. This measure is valid in organized areas or where space is readily
available. Most of the time however, the UNHCR does not have the time to plan for a
given situation.


We will see the range of techniques necessary to ensure a minimum of comfort,
security, and dignity for individuals in difficult conditions in the following lessons. Large
agencies, such as the military forces of superpower nations, have developed standard
camp installation plans that strongly resemble military camps supported by all necessary
equipment (see for example the model form of intervention in Albania in 1999 on a scale
needed to prepare 700,000 people for the winter!).

Humanitarian agencies try to consult local populations to ensure that their camp
operations techniques respond to the culture of refugee populations. This taking into
account of the nature of the displaced population (such as whether the majority of the
population is comprised of women or children or ethnically different families) must be
considered when plans are made concerning the spatial organization of a camp. This
humane approach to the creation of a camp explains why the standardization of camp
models may sometimes conflict with anthropological and cultural realities of any given
population.

PROMOTION OF SOCIAL, EDUCATIONAL AND GENDER ACTIVITIES
Once the initial stages of emergency have passed, it is important to rapidly initiate
educational and recreational activities, in particular for the groups of children and
adolescents that often make up 50 to 60% of a camps population. It is imperative that a
camp be planned keeping in mind space for games and physical activities. It is also
important to recruit people capable of directing educational activities for all classes and
ages. Ideally, activities should mix the refugee population with the local population, on
the condition that the local population can somehow benefit directly or indirectly from
the support of the assisting organization.

The worst-case scenario is still one where development of activities within a camp
promotes jealousy or frustration in the local population which has welcomed the refugees
on their territory. Hence, it is imperative that there be a maximum amount of integration
between the two populations.

In regards to education, the host state must theoretically do its best to grant
refugees the same treatment as it does to nationals in regards to primary education (Art.
20 of the CV of 1951). The participation of humanitarian organizations (beginning with
the UNHCR) is often necessary to ensure this minimum level of education. More difficult
is the providing of secondary as well as college education. Free of contractual
obligations, the host state is free to set conditions against the refugees hoping to access
these educational services. Humanitarian agencies can therefore support the development
of structures specifically for refugees, either based upon their original states curriculum
or that of the host state. The UNHCR can also favour the placement of refugee students
in universities abroad or in their host state in order to further their higher education.

In the context of a participatory and community approach to social activities in a
refugee camp, other lines of work can be pursued:


create as many activities as groups.
facilitate the participation of all social groups, including women, adolescents, and
the elderly.
respect traditional social and cultural structures while assuming that they
themselves respect the participation of all members of a group.
identify internal or external revenue-generating activities and favour productive
micro-investment that can help refugees in their host country as well as upon their
return.
seek out social components that might have been neglected or excluded by the
larger social group and work at incorporating them.
encourage local development of activities.

The development of gender activities, or more simply, activities directed towards
benefiting women and adolescents is important. It is important to make a distinction
between activities specifically targeting women and activities that seek to include women
in general camp activities. This approach is the most productive way to further the
integration of women and adolescents in the management of on-going camp activities.

One must remember that women and children often make up 80% of the
population of a camp, and that they are quickly socially dominated by traditional
community structures lead by men. It is often very difficult to change cultural habits that
discriminate against women.

The de facto power of humanitarian organizations can allow them, without
forcing traditions of established rules, to actively push for female representation in
different structures of discussion and camp decisions. One must not hesitate therefore to
practice what some call affirmative action or positive discrimination for women.
Paradoxically, in certain long-term situations, the time that is reserved to them in
participatory community activities is the first time where changes in attitudes take place.
It is therefore also possible to believe that these attitudes will last once the refugees return
home.

In certain cases, it is impossible to easily go against cultural traditions that leave
little room for women. Certain measures can thus be taken that will grant women equal
access along with their male counterparts:

access to health goods in different locations.
access to educational programs and revenue generating programs based on
traditional production.
impose regular visits by children to health or social services to communicate
women-oriented messages (such as the need for birth control, health materials for
young children, childcare, etc) to women and young girls.
education of women refugees in the management of activities benefiting them.


4.3.3 MANAGEMENT OF POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

In the work of psycho-social activities, post-traumatic stress disorder is often an
invisible, but highly important thing to consider. Stress is a hidden evil, progressively
destroying the morale and health of those it affects. It particularly affects all those who
were victims of or witness to horrific acts (for example, civilians in Rwanda during the
genocide of 1994, in Kosovo in 1999, or in Sierra Leone during the civil war are part of
the human groups most deeply affected psychologically).

The management of PTSD is not strictly therapeutic. It often comes to pass that
group meetings or one-on-one encounters force victims to relive or extract all their
negative memories in order to avoid the obsessing on these traumatic memories which
will haunt them for long periods of time. If this process is not undertaken, affected
individuals will live with their hatred for a long time to come, sowing the seeds for the
next conflict and the next atrocity.


LESSON 4: QUIZ

Q1: A contingency plan permits:
a.) The mobilization and pre-positioning of material and human resources prominent
at the end of the crisis
b.) The mobilization and pre-positioning of material and human resources prominent
in an emergency crisis
c.) To assure that the current stocks of food and non-food goods will always be at
least at a minimum level in refugee camps
d.) To plan the conditions of evacuation of humanitarian personnel in the case of
grave medical problems

Q2: International protection consists of, among other things :
a.) The judicial preparations with the host State while waiting for an influx of
refugees
b.) Taking a census of the refugees once they have arrived in the country of asylum
c.) The investigation of durable solutions for those refugees who are unable to return
back home
d.) All of the above

Q3: It is important to check the conditions of the refugees, the repatriates or displaced
persons:
a.) Once they arrive in a new country of asylum
b.) Once they repatriate to their country of origin
c.) Once they have been registered by the authorities in the country of asylum
d.) At each stage above

Q4: The UNHCR can yield its principle responsibility of refugee protection to:
a.) The operational NGOs who are present in the field with UNHCR
b.) The Committee of the International Red Cross in a situation of conflict in the
name of the principles of the International Humanitarian Law
c.) To UNICEF when the population is composed primarily of children
d.) To none of the above organizations


Q5: The Convention on the security of personnel of the United Nations:
a.) Authorizes techniques for the protection of the United Nations personnel (light
arms, detection equipment etc)
b.) Outlines the terms which should be followed by States and conflict parties to
ensure the security of national and international humanitarian personnel
c.) Is an addendum to The Convention on the Status of Refugees of 1951
d.) Cannot enter into force if the States party to the Convention agree to create a
Special UN Force for the protection of humanitarian workers

Q6: The usage of firearms by humanitarian personnel:
a.) Permits the individual to ensure his/her own personal safety
b.) Enables the humanitarian personnel to defend themselves in the legitimate
completion of humanitarian activities
c.) Permits UN personnel to complete UN missions with the assistance of NGOs
d.) None of the above

Q7: The creation of favourable conditions for on-site integration as a sustainable
solution to exile is the concern of:
a.) The Country of asylum
b.) UNHCR and the refugees
c.) The local populations
d.) All the actors mentioned above

Q8: A Memorandum of Understanding is:
a.) A code of conduct which regulates the work conditions between the UNHCR and
its operational partners
b.) A procedure of the PARINAC process governing the behaviour between the
Northern and Southern NGOs
c.) An agreement passed between the refugee populations and the operators of
refugee camps
d.) An agreement passed between the UNHCR and one or more operational partners

Q9: According to international convention, the receiving State should do all that it can
to:
a.) Quickly find economic activities which enable the refugees to provide for their
needs
b.) Guarantee access to university registration to student refugees
c.) Promote high school registration of girl and boy refugees
d.) Apply the same national standards for primary school to refugees as for the rest of
the population


Q10: The specific programs designated for women and girls are imperative because:
a.) They are discriminated against physically and psychologically if they are single
parent mothers and they have the rights guaranteed by the Convention of 1951 at
their disposal
b.) They are often subject to harassment and/or violence
c.) It is important to intervene and change their culture
d.) They often make up a third of the refugee population

Q11: The exclusive responsibilities of UNHCR in the management of an operation
remain those of:
a.) Material assistance to displaced populations
b.) Specific assistance to vulnerable populations (women, the elderly, young children,
non-accompanied minors)
c.) The protection of minority groups (ethnic, the sick etc.)
d.) The general protection of all populations recognized as refugees

Q12: Internally displaced persons:
a.) Benefit from the arrangements of particular legal protection if they stay in their
country of origin
b.) Cannot benefit from the same durable solutions as recognized refugees can by the
Convention
c.) Do not benefit from the same standards of international protection which legally
registered refugees do
d.) Should seek to change their status as displaced person to refugee in order to
be protected by the UNHCR

ANSWERS:

Q1: B Q2: D Q3: D Q4: D
Q5: B Q6: D Q7: D Q8: D
Q9: D Q10: A Q11: D Q12: C



THE CONDUCT OF
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
OPERATIONS

LESSON 5

MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH QUESTIONS IN HUMANITARIAN
INTERVENTION

5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4

5.5
5.6
5.7
5.8
5.9

HEALTH PROBLEMS IN HUMANITARIAN SITUATIONS
INTERVENTION IN THE EMERGENCY PHASE
EVALUATION, SURVEILLANCE AND IMPLEMENTATION
CONTROL OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES AND PREVENTION
OF EPIDEMICS
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE AND COMMUNITY HEALTH CARE
WOUNDS AND TRAUMAS
MENTAL HEALTH
NUTRITION
HEALTH CARE IN THE POST-URGENT PHASE

Lesson 5/Management of Health Questions in Humanitarian Interventions 100

Objectives For Lesson 5: Management of Health Questions in
Humanitarian Intervention

Lesson 5 provides an overview of the management of health questions as part of
humanitarian interventions. The lesson discusses health problems typically encountered
in humanitarian situations and some of the possible interventions in the emergency phase
of humanitarian interventions. The lesson discusses measures for evaluation, surveillance,
and implementation of measures to control communicable diseases and epidemics. The
lesson covers primary and community health care. It also covers wounds and traumas,
mental health, nutrition, and health care following the emergency phase.


List and briefly discuss some of the typical health problems encountered in
humanitarian situations;
Discuss interventions in the emergency phase;
List and briefly discuss the steps of evaluation, surveillance and control, and what
some of the essential indicators are for monitoring the health of the population;
List some of the most common communicable diseases and how epidemics of
these diseases may be prevented;
Briefly discuss the roles of primary and community health care;
Discuss what approaches some NGOs take to the treatment of wounds and
traumas;
Briefly discuss the concept of mental health in emergency situations;
Discuss some of the considerations in providing a food supply for a refugee
population;
Discuss health care in the post-urgent phase.

LESSON 5: MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH QUESTIONS IN HUMANITARIAN
INTERVENTION

5.1 HEALTH PROBLEMS IN HUMANITARIAN SITUATIONS

War and natural disaster will interrupt the social and economic life of a society
and will cause an increase in the health and mortality problems of its population. The
amplitude and the types of health problems generated will vary as a function of the
affected population, what life was originally like, the new situation of displaced
populations (war, internal conflict or natural disaster), and the available local resources to
respond to disasters and to maintain health services. The principle risks undertaken
during a humanitarian emergency include physical wounds, contagious diseases,
malnutrition, and the exposure of populations to bad weather. Other health risks include
pregnancy complications, child birth, and the aggravation of chronic illnesses. Mortality
rates increase during an emergency, with children and the elderly being the most
vulnerable.

For example, children removed from a location with weak vaccination coverage
are exposed to a greater number of contagious diseases while they are in overpopulated
camps, inadequate health systems, no vaccination program, and poor nutrition programs.
Displaced populations can bring with them infectious diseases such as measles, cholera,
or malaria, which will naturally affect the health of populations towards which they are
moved. The natural environment also plays a critical role in the health of populations in
distress. Cold or near-freezing temperatures can significantly increase mortality rates, as
was the case of Kurdish refugees in Iraq in 1991. Rain, mud, and floods can also limit
access to fresh water sources and adequate health conditions.

Health priorities are identical in all emergencies, as has been explained in this
lesson, but each specific situation carries with it additional risks. Displaced populations
are habitually torn from their traditional systems of economic and social support. They
can immediately fall victim to medical problems that normally would not have affected
them in their traditional lives. In a war or civil conflict, wounds are important problems,
for both the civilian populations and for those involved in the actual conflict. In natural
disasters, wounds, burns, or famine are added to the list of potential health risks, while
the communities have to come to terms with the disappearance of their homes as well as
the destruction of vital infrastructures. And finally, following the genocide in Rwanda in
1994 as well as the successive wars in the Balkans, medical intervention agencies in
humanitarian crises have become more and more aware of the mental health of
populations.

The possibility of responding to health problems during a humanitarian crisis
depends on the affected populations, the host state territories where they are located, as
well as the response of the international community. Basic health services need to be
installed. The resources for these types of action are often extremely limited in the first

hours or days of an emergency, and the responses are often inadequate. A response
coordinated between all actors, organised based upon a basic evaluation of needs, is the
best hope of reducing illnesses and deaths in a population in an emergency warranting
humanitarian intervention.

5.2 INTERVENTION IN AN EMERGENCY PHASE

In the hopes of preventing the deterioration of the health of a population in
danger, a quick but thorough examination of the situation must be carried out. Health
intervention priorities must be identified, a follow-up and evaluation system prepared,
and health services installed or reinforced in response to the nature of needs. This step
necessitates an analysis of local health by experts in public health and a strict
collaboration between local health authorities and the agencies operating in the field. The
needs and their responses will vary greatly depending on the situation, and will change as
a function of the development of the situation and the emplacement of essential services.
Doctors Without Borders, an international medical NGO and Nobel Peace Prize recipient
in 1999, has identified 10 health priorities in humanitarian crises:
1) preliminary evaluation;
2) measles vaccination;
3) water and distribution;
4) food and nutrition;
5) shelter and site installation planning;
6) health care during crises;
7) control of contagious diseases and epidemics;
8) surveillance of public health conditions;
9) human resources and education;
10) coordination.

Even if all needs are resolved simultaneously, the order of priority chosen by
Doctors Without Borders demonstrates a prioritisation for fundamental human needs such
as water, purification, food and shelter as well as the management of public health issues
like possible epidemics of measles and other transmittable diseases. The sections of this
lesson below will further discuss the evaluation of needs and the surveillance of public
health, the control of transmittable diseases and primary and community health care,
wounds and traumas, nutrition and post-urgent care.

5.3 EVALUATION, SURVEILLANCE AND IMPLEMENTATION

5.3.1 PRELIMINARY EVALUATION

At the onset of a humanitarian relief effort, the first priority is to complete a
preliminary evaluation of the needs and resources of the affected population. The
principal objectives of this evaluation are to analyse the state of health of the people, to
determine the pertinence of an intervention, to identify the health priorities and the basic
needs and to initiate the planning of a health program. The evaluation of heath needs
must include a description of the population (size, age and sex distributions, and

proportions of men, women and children) if this has not already been done. The main
health problems must be accounted for and potential problems should be anticipated. The
amount of human resources and required materials for the health systems that will be
deployed should be estimated. The preliminary evaluation includes a description of
social, cultural, political and environmentally critical contexts such as the welcoming
conditions for the refugee populations.

The methods utilized for the preliminary evaluation include interviews, sanitary
investigations and visits of the area for the collection of local data. Interviews with
community leaders and personnel from local health organizations or international
agencies on location furnish the qualitative information concerning the socio-political
atmosphere as well as critical health or environmental conditions, cultural rules regarding
health questions, as well as services of the existing local health organizations.

The investigations constitute an epidemiological tool for the analysis of health
conditions. A representative sample of the population is selected on the basis of census
lists or of mapping the sites of habitation, for example, of a refugee camp. It is necessary
to ensure that the sample is as representative of the population as possible, especially
when particularly vulnerable groups are concerned, while sufficiently maintaining a small
sample in order to complete the investigation rapidly. For example, it might be useful to
identify the refugees at the centre of a local population because their health conditions
can vary considerably from the population outside the centre. Likewise, the extrapolation
of information from the investigation must be done carefully with respect to the global
population. The structure and interpretation of results of the investigations usually
require the expertise of epidemiologists to assure their scientific validity.

Furthermore, visits to existing structures of health centres are essential, permitting
the visual inspection of the space for available material resources, the identification of
water sources as electrical energy, available medicines, and the number of available beds.
Structuring this information before arriving is useful in preventing anything being left to
chance. The medical registers are consulted to evaluate the most common reasons for
consultation and treatment. The personnel of the health centres may be interviewed about
the development of health conditions as well as their own competencies and
qualifications and their formative needs.

5.3.2 SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL

The epidemiological surveillance is the systematic process of collecting,
analysing, interpreting and communicating essential health information to the planning,
implementation and evaluation of health programs. The surveillance system furnishes
information on a regular basis to allow the health system administrators to make
decisions on the health problems and programs underway. The surveillance of certain
criteria permits the system to detect the appearance of infectious diseases or epidemics.

The data for the medical surveillance concerns the demography (size and structure
of the population,) the mortality (number of deaths and their causes,) the morbidity

(frequency of specific illnesses,) the fundamental needs (water purification, shelters,
blankets, food distribution,) the nutritional status of the people and the information on the
activities of the program (the numbers of medical consultations, of vaccinations and
admissions to the hospital). The data may be obtained from medical registers at the
health centres, from members of the health community, from coroners, and other
pertinent sources. The specially made development forms are used to facilitate the fast
calculations of health indicators on a daily or weekly basis. When the health programs
are operational, it becomes important to be able to evaluate the quality as well as the
quantity of available services.

It is a waste of time and energy to collect data that will not be used. The
collection of data should be limited to the correct minimal level in order to facilitate
decision-making and subsequent action.

5.3.3 ESSENTIAL INDICATORS

In the initial phases of an emergency, the most important indicator to analyse is
the mortality rate of the population. To obtain the mortality rate, it is necessary to have
an estimation of the population as well as a technique for counting the deceased. This
can be accomplished retrospectively and with the development of a surveillance system.
In developing countries, the mortality rate (MR) is approximately 0.5 deceased/10,000
people/day. When the MR exceeds 1.0 deceased/10,000 people/day, the situation is
considered as serious and it is important to find the causes of mortality. The mortality
rate for children under 5 years old (U5MR) is also a useful indicator and will usually
represent double the general mortality rate. The attainment objective in an urgent
situation is thus to maintain the MR below 1.0 deceased/10,000 people/day and the
U5MR below 2.0 deceased/10,000/day.

The incidence of certain diseases, as far as being estimated on the basis of
collected data can be collected at the base of the health centres. Nevertheless, the
information is limited because many sick people do not show up at health centres and can
escape statistics. All increases in the number of cases of a disease with potential for an
epidemic, like the measles for example, should be accompanied by an active research of
other potential cases at the centre of the affected community.

5.4 CONTROL OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES AND PREVENTION OF
EPIDEMICS

5.4.1 MEASLES

Measles is one of the most contagious transmittable diseases and a frequent cause
of infant mortality in developing countries. The risk of infection is aggravated by
deplorable sanitary conditions and overpopulation. Complications and mortalities
associated with measles are higher at the centre of vulnerable and malnourished
populations. Mass vaccination against measles is thus a priority of public health in the
majority of emergency situations. The target population for a vaccination against

measles is usually between 6 months and 15 years. The vaccine should be refrigerated
until its utilization and the maintenance of a chilled environment must be protected. The
logistical aspects of the organization are also crucial and the population should be well
informed in advance to facilitate the distribution of the vaccinations. A vaccination team
can vaccinate 500 to 700 people per hour and several teams can work simultaneously.

5.4.2 DIARRHEIC DISEASES

Epidemics of diarrheic diseases can easily break out in situations in which a
population has been displaced or where natural catastrophes have destroyed drinking
water sources and there are poor purification conditions. The most dangerous diarrheic
disease is cholera, which can spread very rapidly, and without treatment can kill more
than 50% of those who develop the classic syndrome of liquid diarrhoea and vomiting.
This can be reduced to 2% thanks to an adequate treatment of rehydration and sometimes
antibiotics. Epidemics of cholera can strike very rapidly so medical services in an
endemic zone should always be prepared to treat a very large number of patients.

Shigellosis is a form of dysentery or bloody diarrhoea accompanied by
abdominal cramps and fever that can also be the cause of serious diseases. It has also
become difficult to treat shigellosis because of the resistance to antibiotics in numerous
zones. Other more common forms of infantile diarrhoea can be caused by a variety of
viruses or pathogenic bacteria that are an important cause of mortality and infantile
morbidity.

The prevention and control of all diarrheic diseases rely on the provision of
adequate sanitary conditions and drinking water. The treatment protocols rely on
adequate oral rehydration of the patients.

5.4.3 MALARIA

A frequent cause of disease
among children and adults, malaria is
also responsible for more than a
million deaths a year in developing
countries. Malaria, characterized by
fever, shivering, anemia, and
prostration is caused by one of the
four parasites transmitted by the
female mosquito, Anopheles. The
mosquito larvae find nourishment in
stagnant water. The risk of
contracting malaria in an endemic
environment increases during the
movements of a population. Refugee
camps are often excellent sites of
multiplication and growth for the
parasite during the rainy season when

Myanmar, Cerebral Malaria patient at UNHCR-
renovated Bothidauag General Hospital,
Rakhine State, A. Hollman, 01, 1997.

people without convenient shelter are more exposed and vulnerable. The public health
measures to control malaria include the covering of drinking water sources and drainage
systems, spreading insecticide at the centre as well as other shelters to reduce mosquito
bites. The medical treatment of malaria requires adequate medical services with staff
capable of identifying the disease and prescribing the appropriate medicine.

5.4.4 ACUTE RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS

Acute respiratory infections are a major cause of morbidity as well as mortality in
developing countries where they account for 25 to 30% of deaths in children under 5
years old. ARI includes acute infections of upper respiratory tracts such as the cold,
pharyngitis, and ear infection as well as acute infections of lower respiratory tracts such
as laryngitis, bronchitis, bronchiole and pneumonia, which is fatal in 10-20% of untreated
cases. ARI can be defined by a variety of viruses or pathogenic bacteria including some
that are avoidable with a vaccine such as measles, diphtheria and whooping cough. The
ideal treatment of ARI rests on proper diagnosis and treatment with appropriate
medications.

Although tuberculosis is a serious major health problem in developing countries,
the control programs for this disease are difficult to implement in a crisis situation. To
treat tuberculosis and prevent its appearance at the centre of a community with resistant
strains to multiple antibiotics, patients should be treated continuously for at least 6
months. A poorly managed tuberculosis control program in an instable environment or at
the centre of a transitioning population can have more negative effects than positive
effects.

5.4.5 SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were not traditionally considered as a public
health priority in the sphere of displaced groups of people. With the arrival of AIDS
(Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) attitudes changed. The displacement of
communities frequently leads to social chaos, including the destruction or separation of
families as well as sexual violence and rape. The access to preventative measures like the
treatment of STDs is severely compromised in these precarious situations. Male
contraception, or condoms, is rarely available in refugee situations.

STDs include syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia as well as many others that can
lead to serious handicaps and diseases in men and women. Moreover, it is recognized
that STDs constitute an important risk factor in the transmission of AIDS. The
prevention of AIDS like STDs is henceforth considered an integral part of reproductive
health services and should be offered at the onset of emergency intervention and
continued during the post-emergency phase.

AIDS can also be transmitted by blood transfusions, the use of non-sterilized
medical instruments as well as traditional medical practices using contaminated
equipment. It is imperative to attempt to halt these transmitting practices by using

appropriate medical material and applying strict medical protocols even in the centre of
an emergency. This is henceforth the rule for medical agencies to employ single-use
auto-blocking syringes as well as to follow strict protocols of sterilization for all reusable
material. Some additional strategies include the limitation of the number of injections
and of transfusions, the adequate treatment of medical waste products as well as the
application of universal precautions during the manipulation of infectious material.

5.4.6 OTHER INFECTIOUS DISEASES

There are numerous other transmittable diseases that can affect populations during
an emergency. These last include diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and even
poliomyelitis in certain regions that can all be treated with a vaccination. Other diseases
like yellow fever
and meningococcal
meningitis may be
frequent in certain
regions and can
require the
organization of
vaccination teams
to prevent an
epidemic. Certain
pathogenic agents
can be transmitted
by the fecal tract,
the oral tract (like
Hepatitis A) or by
a mosquito (like
yellow fever or
dengue) and the
transmission of
numerous other tropical bacterial diseases, viral or parasitic, will usually increase during
conditions of overpopulation or poor hygiene.

5.5 PRIMARY HEALTH CARE AND COMMUNITY HEALTH CARE

Primary health services in refugee camps or other similar situations should be
composed to offer care of primary health curatives of acceptable and first quality care to
the populations. Regular consultation services for the implementation and the treatment
of common affectations require qualified medical personnel, nurses or medical assistants,
coming from the local population or refugee population when possible. A primary health
post with 2 to 5 employees should be in place to offer curative aid to a population of 3000
to 5000 people. Secondary health services should be available on a limited basis for the
hospitalisation and treatment of seriously ill patients. A health centre or a hospital with at
least one doctor should be able to offer emergency care and first aid, minor surgery, basic
obstetrics, laboratory facilities and analysis for 10,000 to 30,000 people. Local
Figure 1Zaire, Rwandan refugees, Goma, Vitamin A given to
unaccompanied children, UNHCR, B.Press, 09.1994.

operational health services should be helped to face an influx of population. If the
situation requires it, a provisionary on-site hospital could be installed. In any case it is
necessary to identify the local hospitals that can serve as a centre of reference for
secondary or tertiary care like emergency care or high-risk obstetric care. It will also be
necessary to identify a mechanism for the financing of care given to refugees.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and other principal intervention agencies
have developed a system of ready-to-go kits that can effectively respond to a variety of
situations. For example, it is possible to order a standard medical kit that will respond to
the estimated medical needs of a population of 10,000 people for a period of 3 months.
The kit contains essential medications like analgesics, antibiotics, anti-convulsive
products and the majority of medical supplies necessary to diagnose and treat emergency
medical situations like cerebral malaria, convulsions, shock and anemia. Standard
protocol procedures should include pre- and post-natal consultations and deliveries as
well as high-risk pregnancy screenings and care of newborns. Other specialized kits
furnish everything necessary for establishing vaccination companies on a large scale or
the early preventive treatments of epidemics like cholera. In a stable or post-urgent
situation, the most part of medications should be available at the local market or can be
ordered following routine procedures.

Appropriate treatment protocols and lists of essential medications should be
placed at each level of service. In an emergency, donated medications coming from
people or pharmaceutical companies in developed western countries are rarely useful. In
many cases, the mountains of donated medicines are not appropriate for local health
reasons. Some of the medicines are in poor condition, expired, or the simple political
result of a dumping of medications on the part of pharmaceutical companies that then
gain a tax deduction for their humanitarian action.

Agents of community health can be educated to give essential services in refugee
situations. They have an important role to play in identifying and referencing children
suffering from diarrhoea, malaria, measles, conjunctivitis, malnutrition or any other
condition pertinent to the circumstances. They can also serve an essential role in the
health education in their community. Agents of community health can report on births,
deaths, arrivals and departures at the centre of the community on a daily and weekly
basis. This vital information thus provides demographic and mortality statistics. Agents
of community health do not need to be specialized medical personnel. Individuals with a
basic education and who are respected in the community can serve as a link between the
people and the agencies that assist them in camp, and to encourage the children and
adults to use the existing basic services.

5.6 WOUNDS AND TRAUMAS

When local surgical services are inadequate, international agencies can oftentimes
resort to installing supplementary surgical programs for primary health care activities or,
in the areas of conflict, installing programs for surgeries associated with war. Besides the
exceptions that constitute the NGO like Doctors Without Borders or the International

Committee of the Red Cross, few agencies bring direct medical care to war victims, until
after the hostilities have ceased. The International Committee of the Red Cross, defender
of the Geneva Conventions, seeing to the protection of military personnel and civil
victims in conflicts, works within conflict zones and maintains channels of aid for victims
on both sides of the conflict. Doctors Without Borders, always on the principle of
impartiality, will often work on the two sides of a conflict, favouring the civilian victims.

Surgical programs should also cure the direct consequences of war long after the
hostilities have stopped because of the dissemination of millions of mines in a large
number of rural and urban zones. The wounds from mines have dramatic effects and
surgeons must often amputate the victims (mostly civilian, with a large part being
children) at the thigh, leaving them handicapped for life.

5.7 MENTAL HEALTH

Following the genocide in Rwanda and different wars in the former Yugoslavia, it
is now recognized that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as well as other secondary
psychological disorders can affect people that have been through psychologically
traumatic situations. Today there are few humanitarian agencies with experience taking
charge of mental diseases but there is an increasing number of NGO programs near
surviving civilian populations that consider this aspect of care.

5.8 NUTRITION

5.8.1 NUTRITION AND FOOD SUPPLY

Malnutrition rates lower than 5% of infants in developing countries are relatively
common but any higher number would constitute a very serious message. A malnutrition
rate higher than 10% indicates an emergency, calling for immediate action

In an emergency, the access to sufficient and appropriate quantities of food can be
compromised in that people are displaced and refugees or victims of civil unrest may
impede commercial activities and agricultural production. Extraordinary situations such
as drought, floods or excessive rains can aggravate the situation and accelerate the rapid
exhaustion of available resources. In natural emergencies, international agencies strive to
furnish refugees with adequate food rations to maintain the nutritional status and the
health of the population. In the event that the crisis is not identified early or the
management of programs does not prove to be effective, severe malnutrition or even
famines can develop. This is what occurred in Ethiopia in 1984 and in Somalia in 1992.
During the famine in southern Sudan in 1998, malnutrition rates exceeded 50% in several
regions.

In a refugee situation, the daily caloric needs per person are estimated at 2,100
calories that can be composed of cereal, oil, sugar and protein such as fish or dry
vegetables (beans, peas). Nevertheless, the experience showed the general distributions
are often insufficient and do not meet the most vulnerable groups. When food is

individually distributed to families instead of passing through the community leaders, the
quality and caloric content of the food rations can often be determined through a survey
investigation of food distribution. Following this method, a randomly selected group of
families are interviewed at the exit of a distribution centre and the received goods are
weighed and measured to determine if they are adequate for all the members of the
family. It is sometimes difficult to supervise this type of investigation because of local
political and local administrative pressures.

In situations where the food rations and available local food resources are
inadequate, symptoms of malnutrition can rapidly appear, particularly among the most
vulnerable members of a group: infants, nursing children, pregnant women and elderly.
Protein malnutrition can be moderate or severe and takes several forms, including
depression. There are also different forms of malnutrition that stem from the lack of
micronutrients, due generally to deficiencies of vitamins or other specific nutrients.
There are a variety of clinical consequences for these deficiencies. Some examples of
diseases caused by micronutrient deficiencies include night blindness or a diminished
resistance to infections (vitamin A), beriberi (vitamin b-1), pellagra, scurvy (vitamin C),
rickets (vitamin D), goiter (iodine) and iron anemia.

5.8.2 EVALUATION OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF POPULATIONS

If there is any doubt regarding the functioning of the food distribution system or
signs of malnutrition among infants, a nutritional investigation could be conducted to
correctly determine the proportion of children suffering from severe or moderate
malnutrition. This technique requires some epidemiological expertise and can take two
weeks or more to organize and put in place. The prevalence of malnutrition is obtained
by weighing and measuring a random sample of children between 6 months and 5 years,
calculating an index based on a weight/height relationship, then extrapolating the results
of the investigation of the rest of children of the population. A child under the expected
weight for his or her size may be malnourished.

In certain cases a brachial perimeter analysis could also be used. Unfortunately,
this method cannot replace that of weight/height and often makes a complete study
necessary. The results of all studies will be utilized to plan programs to ameliorate the
general food rations or to begin supplementary or therapeutic food programs.

5.8.3 TARGETED FOOD PROGRAMS

Targeted food programs are designed to increase the nutritional level of the
members of the most vulnerable groups of a given population. These interventions can
take the form of therapeutic or supplementary food programs.

Supplementary dry food programs take the form of dry ration distributions like
additional cereals or highly caloric biscuits. A systematic blanket program can be the
distribution to all the members of a vulnerable group, such as children, pregnant women
or older people without respect to their particular nutritional status. On the other hand,

targeted supplementary food programs respond to entrance as well as exit conditions, in
favour of malnourished children. Children with a weight/height relationship between
70% to 80% of the median of the population are usually considered as being moderately
malnourished and eligible for supplementary health programs. The youngest children
between 6 and 24 months are the most vulnerable and for multiple reasons cannot plainly
benefit from weekly distributions of dry rations. Thus, it can be appropriate to start a
moist program that furnishes a cooked meal daily for all child beneficiaries, assuring
that each will obtain the 500 to 700 additional calories that are needed.

If a large number of children are suffering from severe malnutrition (children with
a weight/height relationship of 70% of the median reference population), it is good to
initiate therapeutic food programs. Children at this stage of malnutrition can be on the
verge of death and need to be renourished in a deliberate manner. Therapeutic food
programs usually provide 24-hour attention on the basis of 6-12 highly caloric meals each
day, continuous medical check-ups, immunization and prescription of a therapeutic dose
of vitamin A.

Signs of malnutrition should be detected at the centre of populations before it
becomes a serious problem. As for all other health problems, it is easier to prevent
malnutrition than to treat it. Other preventative measures can also be taken. For
example, vitamin A supplements can often be given at the same time as the measles
vaccination.

5.9 HEALTH CARE IN A POST-URGENT PHASE

In post-urgent phase, curative health care can be reinforced. The quality of
services can be ameliorated through formation and the therapeutic protocols can be
adjusted for the local needs. The reproductive health area can be more efficiently treated
because of the supply of services of family planning, prenatal and postnatal care,
delivery, as well as the improvement of STDs and AIDS prevention programs.

The label of preventative health services can be enlarged by the operation of an
Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). The EPI immunizes against diphtheria,
whooping cough, tetanus, polio, measles and in certain zones, hepatitis B and yellow
fever. The role of community health agents can be enlarged to sensitising activities and
health education. In the context of stable refugee populations having access to good
quality health care services, a control program for tuberculosis can be put into place.
Mental health questions can also be considered, particularly if they experienced
especially traumatic events.

In a post-urgent phase, it is very important to stay vigilant for any sign of
deteriorating health conditions and to maintain an epidemiological surveillance system of
diseases and mortality of the populations.

LESSON 5: QUIZ

Q1: The primary health priorities in a humanitarian crisis situation are:
a.) Initial assessment, measles vaccination, water and sanitation, food aid and
nutrition
b.) Shelter and design of settlement sites; health care during the emergency phase,
control of communicable diseases and epidemics
c.) Monitoring of public health conditions, human resources and training,
coordination
d.) All the above priorities

Q2: In epidemiological analysis, the mortality rate is considered serious if it reaches:
a.) 0.5 deaths per 10,000 people/per day
b.) 1.0 deaths per 10,000 people/per day
c.) 2.0 deaths per 10,000 people/per day
d.) 5.0 deaths per 10,000 people/per day

Q3: The infant mortality rate for children under 5 years old usually represents two
times that of the general mortality rate. The objective is to stay below:
a.) 1.0 deaths per 10,000 people/per day
b.) 2.0 deaths per 10,000 people/per day
c.) 4.0 deaths per 10,000 people/per day
d.) 10.0 deaths per 10,000 people/per day

Q4: Because of the high contagiousness of this disease, it is necessary to initiate one of
the following within the first days of the humanitarian situation:
a.) A vaccination program against malaria
b.) A vaccination program against Tetanus
c.) A vaccination program against the Spanish flu
d.) A vaccination program against measles

Q5: The health service programs are offered even during emergency situations to fight
against (multiple):
a.) HIV/AIDS
b.) Syphilis
c.) Gonorrhoea
d.) Chlamydia

Q6: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder affects:
a.) Refugees, humanitarian workers, and military personnel who have experienced
psychologically traumatizing situations
b.) People in business with high-stress jobs
c.) Women who have had difficult pregnancies
d.) Anyone under pressure


Q7: The caloric needs per day per person in a refugee camp are estimated at:
a.) 2,500 calories per day
b.) 1,800 calories per day
c.) 2,100 calories per day
d.) Much more

Q8: A supplementary dry nutritional program is a regimen:
a.) Based on the consumption of solid vegetables without the absorption of water
b.) Based on the consumption of dry rations of food such as cereals or high energy
biscuits
c.) Is particularly adapted for children suffering from severe malnutrition

ANSWERS:

Q1: D Q2: B Q3: B Q4: D

Q5: A, B, C, D Q6: A Q7: C Q8: B


THE CONDUCT OF
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
OPERATIONS

LESSON 6

LOGISTICS: CONVOYS, STORAGE, DISTRIBUTION OF AID AND THE
MANAGEMENT OF SHELTERS

6.1

6.2

6.3

6.4

ADMINISTRATION OF CONVOYS

STORAGE MANAGEMENT

ADMINISTRATION OF DISTRIBUTION OPERATIONS

THE ADMINISTRATION OF SHELTERS

Lesson 6/Logistics: Convoys, Storage, Distribution of Aid and Management of Shelters 116

Objectives For Lesson 6:
Logistics: Convoys, Storage, Distribution of Aid and Management of Shelters

Lesson 6 provides an overview of how humanitarian relief convoys are planned
and conducted to bring food, clothing, medical equipment, and shelter to a distressed
population. The topic of proper storage will be discussed. Some of the problems of
distribution will be considered. And there will be a discussion of the different types of
shelters refugees may use.


List and discuss the steps and formalities that must be considered as part of
advance planning for the conducting of a relief convoy;
List some of the risks that may be expected when conducting a relief convoy;
Discuss some of the considerations to be observed regarding the storage of
food intended for a population at risk;
Be familiar with and be able to discuss the considerations and specific
techniques needed for the proper administration of the food-distribution and
food-allocation process;
Discuss some of the myths and realities regarding the administration of
shelters;
List and briefly describe some of the different types of shelters commonly
used to assist a refugee population;
Discuss principles of managing shelter creation;
Discuss the special considerations for urban shelters;
List the points to be considered regarding the reconstruction of habitats in
reparation or reconstruction.

LESSON 6: LOGISTICS OF CONVOYS, STORAGE, DISTRIBUTION OF AID
AND MANAGEMENT OF SHELTERS

A complete chain of provisions ideally encompasses the purchase, documentation,
transportation, stocking and handling of provisions between the original point and the
final destination of distribution. Few humanitarian agencies are capable of completely
offering this service and the technical aspects of the operations often imply engaging very
specialized and qualified personnel to assure the diverse responsibilities of planning and
control, imports and passage of customs, primary and secondary logistics, management of
warehouses and stocks, planning and management of transportation, conclusion,
supervision and liquidation of contracts. Here we will present several aspects of this
logistical chain.

6.1 ADMINISTRATION OF CONVOYS

The management of convoys must be designed and executed to overcome various
potential obstacles and to reach the final distribution point with food items and non-food
items to save and support the life of populations in danger. The convoy is not the sole
element of a transportation operation. It is the middle of a long chain where nothing can
be treated lightly between the preparation and final distribution. Between the north of
Kenya where the Somalian refugees arrive and the south of the country at the port of
Mombassa, it is sometimes necessary to drive 10 days to reach the port. It is often the
same in North Africa or in Central Asia. It is often necessary to have recourse to local
professionals to assure all the formalities are accomplished before and after an operation.
Here is a quick summary:

Customs formalities: If there is a border crossing, port exit or customs zone, it is
necessary to anticipate having a very precise description of merchandise, of duty
tax on items, letters of recommendation if they are humanitarian goods exempted
from taxes, etc.

Police and administration formalities: To document the identity of vehicles, of
their insurance, and all others involved in the operation including drivers,
interpreters, and mechanics. Make photocopies of all the documents and prepare a
list detailing the goods contained in each vehicle in order to present them or indeed
to leave them at different checkpoints that you will be crossing as may be required.

Mechanical formalities: Be sure that all of the vehicles have a minimal supply of
repair parts, spare tires (2 better than 1), chains for pulling, water or food reserves
and food utensils in the event you have to spend the night, etc.

Security formalities: Ideally a convoy is escorted in front and behind. The two
vehicles are constantly connected by radio and the personnel must be able to
communicate with walkie-talkies. The vehicles must be clearly identified by
symbols of the agency leading the convoy, the order of the trucks should be clearly

established before the departure, the drivers must receive precise instructions
regarding different stages of the trip, what to do in the event of delicate passages,
and a map of the route must be distributed to the whole team. The use of weapons
in vehicles is not recommended, but it may be useful for the convoy to negotiate
an escort from the beginning until the end of the trip.

As a case study of convoy management in a hostile environment the following
example is presented. Adapted from an experience in Sri Lanka involving convoying
logistical convoys between two war zones to bring supplies to displaced populations
through the centre of a Tamil rebel conflict in the controlled zone, it illustrates the risks
incurred by a humanitarian team in a space of open conflict.

In this example, Colombo is the political capital of Sri Lanka, Anuradhapura is
the regional capital divided by a border that marks the limit of access between the
occupied zones and the forces in conflict, Vavuniya is the town of transit between one
zone and the other, the C.P. is the Check Point of rebel forces (the Eelam Tigers) and the
site of Madhu is a holy place serving as a refuge for the displaced population. There is a
particular risk associated with each of these areas that exposes the lives of the national
and international personnel and that also threatens the survival of displaced populations
that can only survive with expected humanitarian aid.

Liberia, Logistics Truck stuck on bridge, UNHCR, P. Stomberg, 03, 1998.

LOGISTICS OF UNHCR CONVOYS IN SRI LANKA (1991)
Yvan CONOIR-1992

COLOMBO POLITICAL AND
ADMINISTRATIVE RISK

LOGISTIC RISK

ANURADHAPURA ADMINISTRATIVE RISK

LOGISTIC RISK

VAVUNIYA C.P ADMINISTRATIVE RISK

EXTREME DANGER - MINES
UNCONTROLLED ZONE

TIGERS C.P ADMINISTRATIVE
RISK

LOGISTIC RISK

MADHU SHRINE POLITICAL RISK
(SEIZURE OR HIJACKING)

6.2 STORAGE MANAGEMENT

Storage management can be directly assigned to a humanitarian agency, whether
for material goods or for the care of a food depot at the entrance or centre of a refugee
camp. Good storage management depends on the continuity of the provisions, the
stocking, and the constitution of the reserve stocks that are very useful in dangerous
zones with difficult access. Additionally, there should be measures taken to ensure that
the stored goods will not be subject to spoilage due to humidity, harmful animals,
repetitive theft or other mishaps.

Below are presented several basic rules that will enable proper management of
storage under various circumstances
4
:

4
See Project SPHERE, p.173 and 174

The stock is in secure and hygienic conditions and food products are protected
against spoiling and losses.

The food provisions are regularly inspected and those that are unacceptable for
human consumption are reported and destroyed according to established
procedures.

Verification between inventory and food forms is periodically checked.

Systems are established for the management of stocks and the preparation of given
accounts: this knowledge permits the documentation of transactions; large books
contain the summaries of entries and exits and food forms; all the losses are
recounted and reported, and regular inventory reports are established and made
available.

6.3 ADMINISTRATION OF DISTRIBUTION OPERATIONS

The administration of a distribution operation is not as easy an exercise as it may
appear. We have all seen the extreme emergencies on television in Somalia, Bosnia or
Iraq, where humanitarian workers on trucks or helicopters throw large, full sacks of
assistance, bread, and plastic for tents, hopelessly unable to organize the dozens of hands
that are grabbing at them.
Angola/Huambo, WFP lifeline, food flights from Luanda, UNHCR, C. Sattleberger, 5,
1994.

The management of a distribution operation essentially depends on two factors:

First: The ability to previously organize complete and precise lists of the
beneficiaries. This implies collecting important information and especially
validating and verifying it with competent, local authorities (UNHCR or others).

In order to prepare for a good distribution, it is important to prepare cards that take
into account certain elements i.e. the civil state of the person, the time and
schedule of the distribution, etc. These cards carry the logos of the executing
agency or of the lender (like UNHCR) and will be stamped or punched at the time
of each distribution.

The beneficiaries of food aid are aware of the quantities and the type of rations that
should be distributed around the time of each distribution cycle and ideally they
are consulted on the decisions concerning the most effective and equitable
methods of distribution: women are consulted and contribute equally as men in the
decision making.

The frequency of the distributions is a function of:

The cost of transporting the supplies from the distribution centre
The time devoted to travel in order to go to the distribution centre and
return

Second: The capacity to deliver the allotted quantities to each person on the list in
calm and secure conditions.

To accomplish this operation it is necessary to think about:

The entrance and distribution spaces. Many professionals suggest closed
spaces where the people, forming a line, pass from one point of entrance
to another point of exit, not being able to stop in the middle of the route,
nor begin exploiting the external crowd, nor complain and slow down the
process. Outside, the crowd should ideally be placed in a controlled
waiting line.

Position the personnel in front of each good or provision. Assign a person
in charge of distribution that will regulate the inevitable requests and
potential conflicts.

Carefully prepare and calculate the number of people present and the
number of bags, kilos, buckets and other goods that will be distributed at
the time of this operation.


Prepare external and internal security, constituted ideally of people from
the community who can exercise necessary authority and can guarantee a
minimum level of security.

Keep a complete and detailed register of each distribution and do not
forget to make the beneficiaries of the operation sign appropriate records
to indicate they have received the aid.

To prevent any sale of goods after the distribution finishes especially
when in the presence of rationed food provisions, make the people accept
the fact that female heads of the family must come for the food. This way
there is less of a chance of individual embezzling organized by men.

Generally the participation of women from diverse segments of the
population should ensure representation of all segments of the community.
This should also ensure access to resources profiting homes led by women
or adolescents, the exceptionally vulnerable people.

The validity of a
distribution process often
depends on the ability to adjust to
the increase or decrease in the
number of beneficiaries. It is
very easy to lose a good
reputation or credibility as a
humanitarian interventionist on
the basis of manipulating names
in a group of lists, the
manipulation of quantities or the
resale of goods or allotted foods
by beneficiaries on the free
market, etc. The credibility of
the process depends on the
ability to consistently verify,
adjust, and have validation by
competent authorities on the number of beneficiaries and the distributed quantities and to
have humanitarian personnel carry this out free of intimidation.

Historically, humanitarian agencies state that the manner in which the
beneficiaries estimate whether they are in a position to be associated with distributions
depends on the catastrophes impact on their social structures. The more destructive the
impact, the less likely they are to be concerned with the processes of controlling
distribution.

Macedonia, FYR, Refugees from Kosovo, UK/NATO
soldiers, Stankovac 2 Camp, UNHCR, HJ Davies,
04,1999.

6.4 THE ADMINISTRATION OF SHELTERS

6.4.1 A DIVERSIFIED REALITY

The images
carried by media
coverage of a
humanitarian crisis
often portray the
image of the poverty
of the shelters that
protect refugees or
displaced people:
plastic, sheets or trash
bags adjusted with
branches, torn
corrugated sheet metal,
tents for the luckiest.
The humanitarian
crises in Africa
familiarized us with
the sight of camps
sheltering thousands of
families under blue plastic tarps, the famous plastic sheeting, delivered by UNHCR to
the refugees so that they could build their individual home or their bunker as the
humanitarians called them.

The reality is often more diverse and the shelters form a key element in the
settlement of a refugee population. Nevertheless, this reality knows several variants that
can be summarized as follows:

The camps of plastic tents: in this situation, the UNHCR distributes some
sheeting kits, consisting of a large tarpaulin with the symbol of the organization
and in the best of approved cases, natural building materials (wood being essential)
or recycled materials (framework built from hard recycled materials)

The traditional camps: In another situation, camps are composed of tents
purchased by the UNHCR on the international market or offered by different
States: military tents, emergency tents, even camping tents that are adapted to the
circumstances.

The hard shelter: in this option, the UNHCR and government authorities consider
the possibility of lodging the refugees or displaced people under hard shelters after
their rehabilitation. These shelters are designed to shelter families and give
separate space to each individual (old buildings, barracks or abandoned factories).
Macedonia, Refugees from Kosovo, NATO Camp Stankovac 2,
UNHCR, H.J. Davies, 04, 1994.

Sanitary and hygienic kitchen facilities are arranged inside and outside the
shelters.

Individual shelter: In the case of space, remarkably illustrated close to the
humanitarian crisis of Kosovo where more than 80% of the refugee population had
found refuge in Albanian host families in Macedonia or Albania, the refugees
found asylum in families that opened their doors. This experience demonstrates
there can be three cases that figure into this practice:

In the first, the host family welcomes the refugee family.

In the second, the refugee family decides to voluntarily pay a normal rent as would
be the case under normal circumstances.

In the third, the refugee family is required to pay a rent to compensate the host
family for costs incurred during its trip.

The individual habitat remains ideally, at least for a short period of time, the
situation that permits the refugee family to benefit from the moral and psychological
support that compensates for fatigue, fear, and stress caused by escape and the human and
material losses that they face. To support this type of figure, it is not exceptional that the
host State and the UNHCR negotiate Cash for Rent programs that help and support the
financial efforts consented to by the host family.

Prefabricated shelters: Used in situations where the refugees, the majority being
urban, are unwilling to spend the winter living in conditions different from their
previous lifestyles. Prefabricated shelters are expensive, but offer a protection
against the rigors of winter in the Balkans or other regions where winter can be
cold. In order to make possible the settlement of refugees in the winter,
prefabricated shelters become Emergency Mobile Shelters which will one day be
deconstructed and taken to the original countries or saved to help the host country.

6.4.2 PRINCIPLES OF MANAGING SHELTER CREATION

The management of shelters for refugees relies on a proper understanding of
conditions of the settlement of a population. Time criteria and cultural criteria such as
climactic, social, sanitary and of health are taken into account in each type of situation.
Often, the conceptual choice for the shelter that will be used depends on external factors
at the will of site planners that a government or the UNHCR has made available to the
crisis managers. A camp without control can rapidly take the form of a dispersed habitat,
or at the opposite the form of an excessive human concentration that is difficult to
reverse.

In the event that humanitarian agencies can establish selection criteria, a certain
number of parameters should be taken into account: See Lesson 4, Section 4.2 on
Population Security and Safety of Humanitarian Teams.

Land regime: Gaining access to suitable land for the establishment of a refugee
camp can appear to be the least urgent priority in a crisis but it is critical to identify and
negotiate properly for access to land. In theory, it is the responsibility of the host state to
give refugees adequate access to suitable land and with minimum of conditions.
However, it is important to consider the existing local land laws and customs. It may be
preferred to legally expropriate (with financial compensation), needed local property or to
rent such a property. When selecting such a site, consideration should be given to the
condition of the site, protected or agricultural zones, distance to the borders, and other
legal and geographic aspects.

Access to
essential services:
The location of the
site and the
installation of shelter
should take into
account the need for
each refugee to have
access to basic
services including
water, sanitation,
access to food
distribution services
and others on a year-
round basis.

Superficial
habitation: The
World Health
Organization considers the absolute minimum for inhabitable space to be 3.5 to 4.5
square meters (approximately 11.5 to 15 square feet) per person in emergency shelters,
excluding spaces necessary for other human activities. For the norms advocated by the
UNCHR in the sphere of furnished plastic rolls and other surfacing materials, it is
specified that a foyer type should receive at least one plastic sheet of 4 by 6 meters
(approximately 13 by 20 square feet).

Reaction to the climate: In hot and dry climates, shelter construction materials
should be thick enough to protect occupants from the heat. If only plastic tarpaulins or
tents are available, supplying double roofs or an isolation layer is preferred. In cold
climates, the materials used and mode of shelter construction provides needed insulation.
In order for the occupants to reach a comfortable temperature, shelter is completed by
furnishing clothing, blankets, bedding, and heating mechanisms and caloric contributions
in sufficient quantity.

Positioning of site: If site selection is not properly planned, important natural
features such as drainage, running water, landslides, proximity of contaminated rivers and
Zaire/Rwandan refugees, Inera Camp, Bakavu Region, South Kiuu,
UNHCR, M. Buhrer, 09, 1994.

water sources, will not receive proper attention. It is essential to make a proper
topographical study before making a final choice of site selection.

Protection of the environment: The immediate pressure placed on environmental
resources is a function of the number of people occupying the place of asylum. The
situation varies greatly from one situation to another, but in Africa, forests or prairies are
rapidly transformed into desert if substitution measures or energy consumption control
(distribution and promotion of improved ovens or the adoption of collective kitchen
regimens versus individual kitchens) are not quickly taken.

Environmental protection also means attention to hunting, to the protection of
water sites, the treatment of used water, choice of funeral sites, etc.

It also means attention to a site in function of healthy criteria (to avoid zones
where disease carriers such as mosquitoes easily multiply), the altitude or climate in
terms of geographical origins or the refugees.

6.4.3 URBAN SHELTERS

The crises of Chechnya, The Caucuses, Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia as well as
Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia have posed challenges to humanitarian organizations.
The complex situation facing administrators
is to have a more global vision of the
services that supply refugee populations and
locals. It is important to begin with the
minimal maintenance of electricity, running
water, living conditions to satisfy the needs
to cook, heat and to avoid an overcrowding
with serious psychological effects on the
local populations.

The best responses to these
questions must go beyond collaboration
with the available local technical authorities.
These issues pose numerous problems to
humanitarian teams that require the
expertise of urban planners and other
professionals specialized in the analysis of
civil planning for large and medium sized
cities.

Georgia, IDPs from Abkhazia Hotel
Iuerna, now a communal centre, Tiblisi,
UNHCR, A. Hollman, 06, 1999.

6.4.4 RECONSTRUCTION OF HABITATS IN REPATRIATION OR
RECONSTRUCTION

The issue of shelter takes on a similar set of questions when refugees or displaced
people reintegrate into their original neighbourhoods and homes and often need to
reconstruct them following the disaster that forced them to flee.

Diverse formulas are envisioned by humanitarian organizations to help the
repatriates in similar circumstances:

Constitution and gift of standard individual kits, adapted to local necessities in
terms of reconstruction. An important point will be the possibility of making local
purchases for the constitution of these kits.

Constitution of local work teams that will participate in the planning and the
execution of reconstruction programs. This approach allows the distribution of
financial resources at the centre of the community.

Course of development for specialized teams before undergoing all or any of the
plans enumerated above.

In reconstruction operations, particular attention should be placed on the
beneficiary community participation. The reconstruction process, even applied by a
humanitarian agency, should identify and participate in the engaged actions. The men of
the beneficiary families should be the first to help furnish unskilled labour in this type of
work. It will also be necessary to pay particular attention to families that do not have
adequate physical resources to build homes (single women in charge of families or the
elderly).


LESSON 6: QUIZ

Q1: In a humanitarian convoy operation, the most important precautions are
(multiple):
a.) To have mechanical parts and spare tires available
b.) To make certain to have many copies of the required documents
c.) To make certain that the security plan ensures constant communication and that
all the personnel know the instructions
d.) That all unregistered personnel are hidden at the back of the truck

Q2: A successful distribution procedure must have (multiple):
a.) Completed and verified distribution cards and lists of beneficiaries at their
disposal
b.) The capacity to distribute in calm and secure conditions
c.) The possibility to be able to perform spontaneous and targeted distribution
d.) The possibility of relying on female groups as beneficiaries of rations and
controllers of the distribution process

Q3: A program called Cash for rent aims to:
a.) Give money to refugees who are looking for a house in the city
b.) To financially compensate host families for hosting refugee families
c.) Finance real-estate agencies to plan for lodging of refugees or displaced people

Q4: Certain principle parameters that need to be taken into account for the creation of
emergency lodging are (multiple):
a.) Access to essential services within near proximity
b.) Guarantee a habitable space of 3.5 to 4.5 m
2
per person
c.) Guarantee individual showers for each family
d.) Position the site far from zones inhabited by disease vectors

Q5: In the event of a distribution of rolls of plastic for the construction of temporary
shelters, UNHCR determines that a household should receive:
a.) A plastic sheet of 8 by 12 meters
b.) A plastic sheet of 10 by 15 meters
c.) A plastic sheet of 4 by 6 meters
d.) Two plastic sheets of 8 by 12 meters

Q6: Each of the following considerations is important for the placement of refugee
camps in Africa (multiple):
a.) To have non-contaminated groundwater at ones disposal
b.) The possibility to chase wildlife to obtain fresh meat
c.) The ability to find work within local populations
d.) That the construction material should be adapted to variations in climate

Q7: Certain of the following operational parameters are important during the
management of warehouses (multiple):
a.) That the stocks are in good condition and are secure and hygienic
b.) The warehouse guards are given night vision glasses
c.) Verification between the inventory and the stock papers are periodically checked
d.) Regular measures are taken to fight against disease vectors

Q8: The importance of the representation of women in a distribution operation is based
on the fact that women are in a position to:
a.) Ensure representation of all segments of the community
b.) Use the food most effectively themselves
c.) Store the food where it will be safe
d.) Tell aid workers how much food is needed

ANSWERS:

Q1: A, B & C Q2: A, B & D Q3: B Q4: A, B & D
Q5: C Q6: A & D Q7: A, C & D Q8: A


THE CONDUCT OF
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
OPERATIONS

LESSON 7

ADMINISTRATION OF FOOD AID

7.1

7.2

7.3

PRINCIPLES OF ALLOCATION AND DISTRIBUTION

PRINCIPLES OF DISTRIBUTION LOGISTICS

SPECIAL PROGRAMS

Lesson 7/Administration of Food Aid 132

Objectives For Lesson 7: Administration of Food Aid

This lesson provides the student with an understanding of some of the
administrative approaches to the distribution of food aid. The student will understand the
principles of food distribution, caloric minimums, and some of the approaches to the
distribution of food aid.


List and briefly discuss the principles in the allocation and distribution of food;
State the daily minimum number of calories needed for survival and the necessary
sources for these calories;
Discuss some of the organizations involved in distribution of food;
Discuss three food-distribution techniques and the circumstances under which
each of these might be preferred;
Discuss the pros and cons of food for work and cash for food.


LESSON 7: ADMINISTRATION OF FOOD AID

7.1 PRINCIPLES OF ALLOCATION AND DISTRIBUTION

When a humanitarian emergency is declared, one of the first functions of the
emergency team is to identify the immediate nutritional needs of the populations and to
identify ways to meet them by:

An analysis of the local supply of products and food rations

The general nutritional status of the displaced populations

Eventual sources of revenue and the survival strategies developed by the people.

Behind this analysis it is important to understand that all humanitarian situations
do not require the same investment in terms of food quantity and assistance on the part of
humanitarian agencies. The time is also an important consideration because the
populations needs, the local and international supply, the sources of revenue of the
displaced populations and the nutritional status of the people varies greatly with time.

Finally, it is necessary to understand that there are a variety of sources of rations
for food assistance: the lending or re-administering of preplanned provisions for
programs in progress (programs accomplished by agencies or programs running on cereal
reserves of certain countries); loans in accordance with commercial enterprises, or
exchanges organized with them; purchases on the local, regional or international markets;
the direct furnishing of food supplies by donors (in the frame of bilateral or multi-lateral
accords).

The goals and principles of food assistance can be varied according to the nature
of the situation (natural or human catastrophe). The principles are:

To save lives, where the nutritional status is threatened by the immediate change in
living conditions

To reinforce the nutritional security of the populations and/or the local economy

To protect the medical and nutritional status of particular groups, especially the
most vulnerable people

To preserve the assets of families (in the goal of not selling their assets in the
short-term and losing the means to replace them in the long-term)

To protect those who are forced to resort to food assistance as a result of socio-
political conflicts.

This being done, the goal is to offer food assistance at the centre of an emergency,
as defined by three categories:

Ordinary rations: a complete supply of approved necessities on a temporary basis
(week or month) and that must satisfy the energy needs defined below

Complementary rations: furnishing additional food that complements the ordinary
ration (for example oil or dry vegetables)

Supplementary ration: offered in supplement to general, in the goal of covering the
specific needs to particular groups (malnourished children, young children,
pregnant women). This last should be high in protein value.

7.1.1 BASIC QUANTITIES PER PERSON BY CATEGORY
5

The necessary quantities for the survival of a person by day, according to the
World Health Organization are the following:

2,100 calories per day (certain agencies consider 2,400 daily calories, as it covers
the needs of supplementary rations)

10-12% of total calories are from protein

17% of total calories are from fats

Regular contributions of micronutrients from fresh or fortified foods

Supplement programs: evidently depend on the nutritional state of the beneficiary
but must carry at least 350 calories and 15g of protein each day

7.2 PRINCIPLES OF DISTRIBUTION LOGISTICS

The coordination of logistical activities and distribution to populations is the final
product of a long chain of interdependent but well-defined roles. The logistical chain can
be thought of as a pipeline where the logistical network functions like a network of canals
in which food provisions move. The Pipeline analysis establishes an estimation of the
length of time for the existing food stocks and prepares a calendar of shipments to avoid
stocks from being depleted. In the majority of situations, the pipeline is as follows:

5
The technical conclusions presented here below are detailed in the Sphere Project Minimum Standards
in Food Aid, Ch.4.

THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAM
This is a general accord with the UNHCR but can also, in cases where
beneficiaries are not refugees, negotiate with the Red Cross, the ICRC or any other
agency with which they have partnered (See Lesson 2). It is responsible for purchases
and international logistics, and the shipment of food quantities by sea, land or,
exceptionally, air. UNHCR will acquire food in quantity on international markets and
dispenses large quantities of food which are replaced in part by States wishing to
participate in a humanitarian crisis (such as Canadian wheat or American oil).

Generally, the World Food Program has the responsibility to direct food until it
reaches the closest point of final distribution (what one calls the Extended Delivery
Point), often with the cooperation of non-governmental agencies (for example Care
International in Kenya that is concerned with the food delivered to the port of Mombassa
by the WFP before proceeding to the Somalian refugee camp 3 days of travel away in the
north of the country).

THE UNHCR AND NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

It is the responsibility of these two actors to determine the number of people to be
served. This question is often highly political and hidden intentions may not be based on
humanitarian goals alone. The most important aspect is to be in agreement on a final
number that will form the orders as well as the amount of food to be brought to the site of
the disaster. Once the agreement on the number of persons needing assistance is made,
charts of individual or family rations are produced and distributed to the beneficiaries.

THE FINAL DISTRIBUTORS

The final distributors may be of different origin and varying levels of reliability:
representatives of the government, national or international NGO and organized refugee
groups in distribution committees.

The key features of these available choices are the questions of the beneficiaries
responsibility as well as the resources that can be mobilized to accomplish a distribution
operation:

WORKING OUTLINE FOR FOOD DISTRIBUTION
6

Distribution to beneficiary
groups by way of group
leadership
Distribution to groups of
heads of household
Distribution to individual
heads of household
Description of the system
Commodities are given in
bulk to a group of
beneficiaries who divide it
among themselves

All the commodities for the
family groups are given to a
group representative by the
partner agency
The commodities are given
directly to each head of
household by the partner
agency
Types of situations where these systems have been used
First days of an emergency

Massive influx of refugees

Absence of registration

Large population

Urban Population

Eastern Zaire (1994)
Former Yugoslavia
When the people are settled

When registration is done and
ration cards are available

Homogenous population
groups

Usable in large or small
camps

Ethiopia
Tanzania
Kosovo
Population settled and
registered

Beneficiaries living in camps,
in settlement areas or
integrated among the local
population

Somalia, Malawi
Cambodian repatriation
Macedonia

Low Beneficiary Participation High
-------------------------------------------
Distribution Distribution to Distribution to
to individual groups of heads of groups of benefi-
heads of household household ciairies through group leaders
1 2 3
-------------------------------------------
Resources needed to accomplish the task of distribution
High Low

7.3 SPECIAL PROGRAMS

A number of special programs allow certain labour or civilian groups at the centre
of a population to benefit from additional resources.

6
See Community Distribution, UNHCR, 1996

7.3.1 FOOD FOR WORK

Food for Work programs are one of the most creative of the World Food Program.
Because of their flexibility and their originality, the Food for Work programs can often
transform into important tools for the reconstruction, rehabilitation, or economic
development of developing countries. The idea behind the programs is simple: the
salary of workers who work on a given site are paid in the form of a food basket,
usually dry rations distributed by the W.F.P. The recipients of the food baskets can do
what they wish with the packets, whether it be consuming the packets themselves or
selling them on the local food market, etc.

What are the key areas identified for the Food for Work programs? A priori, they
could have no limits. However, priority is generally given to the programs for public
works i.e. road construction, reconstruction or rehabilitation of houses or public
buildings, and the digging of dikes, canals, or land for cultivation. In addition, in special
cases a situation where the flow of capital in an economy is weak we can finance
the salaries of an administration, humanitarian program workers, etc.

Therefore, the range of Food for Work activities can be limitless and can touch a
number of sectors with several effects. However, it is important to note some limits to
the process as follows:

The availability of regular and sufficient food stuffs on the local economy to feed
the necessary beneficiaries.

The guarantee that the flow of foreign food products into local food markets will
not produce sizeable economic volatility or imbalances, particularly regarding the price,
but also on the sale of identical nationally produced products. Also, that the products
sold are not beyond the reach of local salaries, which would create a new distortion on
the local labour market.

7.3.2 CASH FOR FOOD

Another special program is Cash for Food. In these programs, an organization or
a government decides to grant checks, goods, or hard currency so that a group of
beneficiaries can meet their food needs. Such a situation is relatively rare, but can be
justified under certain circumstances, such as:

The absence of sufficient quantities of international products to distribute.

A lack of variety in the international products distributed.

Complications and delays in the local distribution system or the comparatively
elevated costs of distribution to too great of a degree.


The local availability of abundant local products (in particular for extra help
programs).

The decision of a government to favour the economy and local products.

7.3.3 MONETIZATION

Monetization is a complicated process from the point of view of the amount of
operations that it brings about. It is only realizable on scales of an important volume and
only a few large agencies today undertake the risk of instituting this type of operation.
Yet, monetization remains an uncommon tool of development, because it can satisfy
several functions and needs in a joint manner.

Briefly, monetization is the indirect transference in development programs of an
important quantity of food granted by a sponsor but introduced through the local
economy. This food, by the virtue of national and international commercial mechanisms,
is sold at local market price (or less) to local buyers. Therefore, it permits the
maintenance of the prices of the goods involved to correspond to prices locally accepted
by the majority of the population, to eventually constitute the national stocks to combat a
possible food shortage as well as to activate the commercial chain of food distribution.
At the same time as the food assistance is being worked out, the settlement of a financial
fund counterpart is being negotiated, which is composed of the revenue (once the
logistical and administration costs are met) of the sale of the donated food stuffs to
national intermediaries. The revenues and interest generated by these counterpart funds
are reinvested locally in development projects that profit the local populations.


LESSON 7: QUIZ

Q1: The principles which guide the putting in place of food aid could (multiple):
a.) Protect the status of vulnerable groups
b.) Reinforce primary education programs by the organization of breakfasts in the
schools
c.) Save lives in the context of humanitarian or food crises
d.) Support a structural reform process piloted by the IMF and a government

Q2: If it is generally accepted that the basic ration should be 2,100 calories, it should
be composed of:
a.) 3 to 5% of energy originating from protein and 10% constituted of fat
b.) 10-12% of energy originating from protein and 17% constituted of fat
c.) 20-22% of energy originating from protein and 17% constituted of fat
d.) Much higher percentages than mentioned above

Q3: An Extended Delivery Point is:
a.) The furthest point of final distribution or the beginning of the logistic chain
b.) The meeting point between two communities of beneficiaries and the UNHCR to
look for their own food rations
c.) The negotiated point between the WFP and the beneficiaries for the public
distribution of food rations
d.) The closest point of transportation of food by the WFP of the final distribution
before being distributed by another operational agency

Q4: A program of Monetization aims to be:
a.) A financing program of development projects
b.) A procedure of directly financing projects through banks or local loans
c.) A program of indirect financing of development projects through the selling of
important quantities of food on the local markets
d.) A program of public sales of important quantities of food benefiting the poorest
people

Q5: The Cash for Food programs are efficient when (multiple):
a.) The availability of local food is abundant
b.) International products distributed are lacking in variety
c.) The government wants to favour local buying and selling outside the free
distribution at refugee camps
d.) The local costs of buying goods are largely inferior to the logistical costs of
importing food and other goods


Q6: A process of distribution to individual heads of families in refugee camps would
ideally occur:
a.) During the first days of an emergency
b.) In the case of a massive influx of refugees
c.) With a settled and registered population
d.) In a camp comprised primarily of families

Q7: In a structure of pipeline logistics:
a.) Only the WFP decides the definite number of beneficiaries and directly distributes
food once they have reached the destination
b.) Only the UNHCR or the government decides on the number of beneficiaries and
directly distributes to the beneficiaries
c.) Only the UNHCR and the government decide on the number of beneficiaries and
chooses an operational agency to distribute food to the beneficiaries
d.) The private companies chartered by WFP directly transport the food to the
beneficiaries under the control of the government

Q8: The management of food assistance programs should be careful to (multiple):
a.) Not create distortions on the market of local food products
b.) Respect the cultural customs and local foods
c.) The degradation of logistical conditions of transport and of stocking in the host
country
d.) The implications of food aid for the host country's balance of payments

ANSWERS:

Q1: A & C Q2: B Q3: D Q4: C

Q5: A, B, C & D Q6: C Q7: C Q8: A, B & C

THE CONDUCT OF
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
OPERATIONS

LESSON 8

WATER MANAGEMENT AND SANITATION

8.1

8.2

8.3

8.4

A VITAL QUESTION FOR THE SURVIVAL OF A POPULATION

MANAGEMENT OF WATER AS A RARE RESOURCE

PRINCIPLES OF COLLECTIVE SANITATION AND HYGIENE

PROTECTION OF SUPPLY SOURCES

Lesson 8/Water Management and Sanitation 142

Objectives For Lesson 8: Water Management and Sanitation

This lesson provides the student with an understanding of some of the points to be
considered in the management of water and sanitation for a refugee population. When
large numbers of people are forced into a confined space, adequate provisions must
quickly be made for the provision of these services. Failure to do so will quickly lead to a
health emergency through dehydration and the spreading of communicable diseases.


State why the provision of an adequate water supply is vital for the survival of a
population;
Discuss the concept of management of water as a rare resource;
List the quantities of water needed for vital functions of health and sanitation;
Recognize the acceptable and unacceptable levels of fecal coliform bacteria;
Discuss the principles of sanitation and hygiene;
List the facilities needed to manage human excrement and solid waste material;
Discuss some of the measures that can be taken for controlling the sources leading
to the propagation of disease;
List some of the steps needed for the protection of supply sources.

LESSON 8: WATER MANAGEMENT AND SANITATION

8.1 A VITAL QUESTION FOR THE SURVIVAL OF A POPULATION

All humanitarian agencies agree that water management is a priority and a central
issue in humanitarian operations. People affected by natural disasters or man-made
catastrophes are more likely to fall victim to either unsanitary water or unsanitary
conditions than any other cause. The most important consequences in number and in
effect are those who are effected by either diarrhoea or contagions transmitted by oral-
anal means. Contaminated water, deplorable hygiene and sanitation conditions, or even
non-existent sanitation conditions, are ideal means for the spread of epidemics of
transmissible diseases (See Lesson 5: Management of Health Questions).

The objectives of potable water management programs, such as a sanitary
environment, are to allow the assisted population to benefit from at least a minimum
amount of drinkable water, to reduce the transmission of air-born illnesses, and finally, to
decrease the sources of carriers (such as mosquitoes) needing water for their growth and
reproduction.

From the start of an emergency situation, it is essential to focus on the
provisioning of water. A disruption in the supply of water can have disastrous
consequences; therefore, it is often a question of creating storage capacities and auxiliary
systems (individual or collective reservoirs, trucks, basins, pumping systems, canals, etc.)
to minimize the effects of any interruption in the supply. The lack of water at the
Myanmar Returnees, AICF tubwell in Tha Yai Gone Boung Village, Maungdaw,
South Rakhine State, UNHCR, A. Hollman, 01, 1997.

beginning of disasters sets off the worst epidemics of cholera and other infectious
diseases. In the most extreme cases, when all logistical capacities have been exhausted
and have been insufficient in managing the situation, one must resort to moving the
affected population in order to avoid the disaster that could result from an insufficiently
restricted sector.

There are several water sources that can act as a supply in urgent situations--
surface sources of water (rivers, ponds, seas, lakes, dams), springs (run through pipes to
avoiding contamination), underground sources (often collected by systems of wells or
pumps), and rain water (particularly important in dry and arid areas).

Whatever the means of retaining the water, a number of standards will underlie
the definition of the humanitarian intervention, such as:

Analysis of capacities, taking into account the seasons, the demands, and the local
logistics, etc.

Analysis of the rapidity with which the supply source is functional, as well as the
technical viability of the selected system (cost/opportunity analysis, population
education, and protection of the source and security of the site).

The purity level of the water and the
management of obvious pollution risks
that will likely result

8.2 MANAGEMENT OF WATER AS A
RARE RESOURCE

In the short period directly following
the establishment of an emergency
humanitarian operation, the first step remains
the identification of available local resources
in relation to the needs (food network, wells,
lakes, distribution elements, available trucks,
protected springs or those further away, etc.).
Ideally, all of these are able to guarantee the
supply of the threatened population that is
dependent on the identified water source. It
is imperative that the provisioning of water
does not place the water supply of the local
population in peril and that the risks linked to
the supply of water, like the spread of disease
or sources of disease, are identified. The
information will be treated in the means of
particular criteria of access to points of water,
Macedonia, FYR, Kosovo refugees,
Cegrane Camp, OXFAM water tanks,
H.J. Davies, 05, 1999.

of the available quantity (and the estimated consumption by the newly arrived
population), the quality of water, the access to toilet facilities (and the distances of these
from the previously mentioned items), as well as the management of sanitation activities
made necessary by the new concentration of people in a given location.

The formation, establishment, and functioning of a system of water acquisition
and distribution must be planned and managed, with the goal of safely delivering clean
water directly to the displaced population. Several specialized agencies have developed
technical expertise in dealing with the problem of water distribution: OXFAM UK,
M.S.F., M.D.M., UNICEF and UNHCR. The difficulties to be faced in large-scale water
acquisition will vary based on specific geographical conditions, topographical locations,
and the consumption practices of the population. Whatever the identified water source
running water, river, pond, lake, dam or reservoir or urban system the water will rarely
be pure enough to be consumed without additional treatment to ensure ideal, risk free
consumption.

Considering these differences, a number of common points on the conditions of
use as well as of water quality are
7
:

Availability of a minimum of 15 litres of water per person per day Each
family should have at their disposal a minimum of two containers with a
capacity of 10 to 20 litres as well as a storage capacity of 20 litres

A flow at each water source of at least 0.125 litres per second

Ideally, at least one water source per 250 persons

The maximum distance to a water source from a resettlement site is 500 meters

The rights and well-being of local populations are respected

Technical simplicity of water removal, distribution or transportation as well as
ease in system maintenance

There are no more than 10 fecal coliforms per 100 ml at each distribution point

For distribution systems at a large level, (more than 10,000 people) water will
be treated with a residual disinfectant of an acceptable standard (i.e. the
chlorine residual at the tap will be 0.2 0.5 mg per litre and the turbidity less
than 5 NTU). If the water has too strong a taste of disinfectant, there is the risk
that people may decide to consume unhealthy water instead.

Availability of 250g. of soap per person per month

7
The technical conclusions presented here after are those detailed in the SPHERE Project Minimum
Standards in Water Supply and Sanitation, Ch. 2

Availability of separate baths for men and women in such a way that each can
bathe with reasonable regularity to prevent skin diseases that quickly develop
in the absence of regular hygiene

Availability of a washbasin and dry line for every 100 people. Clothing
cleanliness is an integral part of education efforts that are the responsibilities of
the camp sanitation authorities

ESTIMATED NECESSARY QUANTITIES OF WATER
(Source: SPHERE Project See Lesson 11)

Public Toilets 1-2 litres per day for washing of hands
Flush toilets 20-40 litres per user per day for flushing
Anal Cleansing 1-2 litres per person per day
Health Centres and Hospitals 5 litres per outpatient
40-60 litres per inpatient
Additional quantities must be added for flush
toilets, laundering of sheets, clothing, etc.
Cholera Treatment Centres 60 litres per patient per day
15 litres per virus carrier per day
Therapeutic Nutrition Centre 15-30 litres per person per day
15 litres per patient per day
Livestock 20-30 litres per large or medium-sized animal
per day
5 litres per small animal per day

To test water quality, when it is possible to specify, the tests most commonly
employed are those that enumerate and count the fecal coliform. The concentrations of
the bacteria are ordinarily expressed per 100ml of water. Below is an index of control.

Fecal Coliform Bacteria Water Quality
0 10 Good/acceptable quality
10 100 Beginnings of pollution
100 1,000 Strong pollution
1,000+ Extremely high pollution

In the tests undertaken to halt the start of pollution from fecal matter, principally
by the addition of chlorine, specialists recommend measuring the presence of the
chemical element rather than that of the coliform. A chlorine level equivalent to 0.2 mg/l
at the point of distribution indicate that the bacteria have been eliminated and that the
water cannot be polluted by fecal material or other organisms.


It should be noted that in the first phases of an emergency situation, the purity
level of water distributed is not immediately attainable. It is, therefore, more important to
ensure that everyone can receive a medium quality of water (the principle of equal
distribution) rather than to decrease the quantities of water for an immediately higher
quality. If there are serious doubts as to the microbiological quality of the available
water, the best solution still remains in the first emergency to treat the water with
disinfectant to increase the quality.

8.3 PRINCIPLES OF COLLECTIVE SANITATION AND HYGIENE

There are several themes listed under this subject that we will study separately.

8.3.1 MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN EXCREMENT

The management of human excrement is the most important component of risk
management linked to the spread of infectious diseases transmitted by human fecal
matter. In addition to the inherent risks of poor management and the health problems that
will result, socio-cultural issues linked to the defecation practices of the population must
be considered. It is important to consult the population involved to ensure that the
systems to be installed can satisfy the minimum expectations and cultural practices of the
population. The cultural and anthropological aspects of their use of latrines must quickly
be studied prior to deciding the model or models that will be installed for the
communities (common practices, conditions of isolation or proximity, separation of
sexes, positions, taboos or particular practices, orientation, use of water or paper, etc.).

Emergency situations are characterized, in their first hours, by the general
dispersion of individuals for urination and defecation. This must quickly be changed;
facilities must be quickly constructed that meet a certain number of criteria, such as:

Foresee approximately one latrine per 20 persons.

The latrines should be situated no more than 50 meters from the housing of the
individuals, easily accessible and out of danger (especially for children, the
elderly, pregnant women, and the handicapped) and provide at least a
minimum of privacy.

The latrines are situated at least 6 meters from the housing, and even further in
the case of dispensaries, food centres, and even further from wells or water
sources (30 meters). The base of the latrines is ideally placed 1.5 meters above
the water table.

Latrines are lit at night, to ease the washing of hands after going to the
bathroom. The latrines are easily built and maintained, most frequently using
local materials.


The facilities are reserved so that the women can dispose of feminine products
and can wash and dry their clothes during menstruation.

There are three formulas applicable for latrines:

single-family latrines
latrines for a group of houses
collective latrines

In function of the system ultimately adopted, the techniques of construction will vary.
The following are examples of systems:

Camp latrines and large trenches: these systems are primarily used in initial
emergencies, dug at variable depths and must be closed over after use. The
principal problem linked to these open systems is the control of the danger of
disease that results from the material that remains at the bottom, as well as the
management of these in conditions of excessive rain.

Dry pit toilettes or dug holes: more sophisticated, they serve for individual or
semi-collective use. Well ventilated and protected, they avoid the spread of
disease carriers before being sealed.

Water latrines: available systems with water facilities (must include around 5
litres per use per day)

Compost latrines: these latrines make the excrements inoffensive with time
and produce fertilizer that is recyclable for agricultural activities after a two
month period.

The privacy and comfort available to the individuals using the latrines will be a
function of the degree of maintenance performed on the facilities.

8.3.2 MANAGEMENT OF SOLID WASTE MATERIAL (GARBAGE,
REFUSE, ETC.)

The risks linked to the poor management of solid waste are obvious: the
proliferation of harmful elements carrying diseases, such as flies, rats, feral dogs, and
certain birds. The control of solid waste material can also have other negative
consequences on the quality of surface water as well as on the environmental quality of
play space for children or the social life of adults. The management of solid waste of a
community and the elimination of the risks, depends above all, on the measures the
community itself is ready to take to combat and eliminate them. Therefore, the
population must be made aware of the need to store the waste in the designated areas, to
sort the waste if necessary, to ensure the adequate treatment of recyclable waste (using
vegetable waste in gardening, i.e.) and to take measures so that the deposit or burial
locations do not become locations for the growth and spread of infectious diseases.

Following such measures, a specific number of programmes should be put in
place:

Selection of natural waste, dangerous waste (medical and contaminated waste
material), isolation or special treatment of certain categories of waste
materialfor example, slaughter-house waste, market waste or industrial and
mechanical waste materials)

All the arrangements are made so that the deposit sites do not become high risk
zones; incineration facilities destroy the most dangerous materials

Each individual family or each group of people will dispose at one deposit site
(of a capacity of 100 litres for 10 families). Ideally, the refuse will be collected
on a daily basis

No living space will be located less than 15 meters from a disposal site, or 100
meters from a communal disposal site.

In addition to these arrangements for solid waste material, it is important install a
drainage system to carry away dirty water from washing, ablutions, food preparation, and
other domestic uses. If they are not emptied, they will quickly turn into stagnant pools of
water ideal for the development of mosquito and other insect larvae. The design of the
canal or drainage systems should be worked out with the design of the camps so that dirty
water does not, at any point, contaminate sites of potable water, wells, or ground water.

8.3.3 CONTROLLING THE SOURCES LEADING TO THE
PROPAGATION OF DISEASE

The sources that lead to the spread of disease in unusual circumstances are
numerous. For a list of the principle vectors (carriers), see the table below:
8

Vector (Carrier) Risks
Flies Eye Infections (particularly in infants and children); diarrhoea
Mosquitoes Malaria, filariasis, dengue, yellow fever, encephalitis
Mites Scabies, typhus
Lice Endemic typhus, recurrent fever
Fleas Plague (due to infected rats), endemic typhus
Ticks Recurrent fever, scarlet fever
Rats Fever due to rat bite, salmonella

The first line of defence in the fight against the spread of disease is in the
environment of the site. This includes the best management of household refuse, human
excrement or animal stock, overpopulation of the camps, better water sanitation and
drainage, improvement of bodily hygiene, and protected storage of foodstuffs.

8
Manuel des Situations dUrgence, by the UNHCR, 1982.

The introduction of these control measures is therefore linked to the activities of
informing and educating food workers, environmental managers (surveying zones at risk)
and the promotion of good habits of collective living. These measures are also reinforced
by taking simple material measures, such as eliminating the habitats that host pests, using
mosquito nets, controlled spraying of chemical products or insecticides in living areas,
and biological control of latrines, etc.

The control of dust is also an important element in the fight against the spread of
certain diseases, especially respiratory illnesses. One form of prevention against this is
not tilling soil or removing vegetation around houses or collective living sites. A second
approach is the spraying of any dirt roads with water or oil, especially around susceptible
areas like sanitation centres or schools, or banning the use of motorized vehicles in
certain areas.

8.3.4 BURIAL PROCEDURES

At the beginning of a humanitarian crisis the question of burial often becomes
important. Burying the dead remains the simplest and best method to follow if it is
acceptable for the community and is physically possible. In many cases it is also
important to note the epidemiological causes of death to better understand the health
status of the population and to plan any medical interventions that may be needed

In certain special cases immediately following a disaster but where a minimum of
stability and social organisation have not yet been achieved, it is sometimes necessary to
carry out mass, anonymous burials. The goal in such a case will be to bury a large
number of dead and to fight against the possible spread of infectious disease. From the
first days following a disaster, it is important to decide with the community, the facilities
that will be present or available for the burial or cremation of the dead. Clearly, the
community must be allowed the power to express and mourn their dead, following their
own cultural and spiritual practices.

8.3.5 TRAINING AND AWARENESS OF THE PRINCIPLES OF
HYGIENE

One could not succeed in managing water and maintaining cleanliness in living
areas without placing an effort in training and awareness activities. In hygiene, as in
nutrition, a certain number of good practices exist that one must try hard to apply. The
population should be informed about the need to guard against contamination of food and
water. They should also be made sensitive to problems of deterioration of their
environment. Women and children should be included in any training or awareness
programme. At the heart of controlling disease is the principle of shared responsibility
between the population and the agencies that develop the sanitation structures. Through
such cooperation will come success of policies for controlling the sources that lead to the
propagation of pathogenic agents, as well as the other diseases linked to poor or improper
use of toilet systems and water systems.


The promotion of the basic principles of hygiene, like the cleanliness of an
environment, is the result of the agreement and commitment between the population and
those working with it. A certain number of principles
9
guide the politics of promoting
hygiene:

The concerned persons effectively use toilets, and dispersed excrements (by
children, for example) are eliminated.

Toilets, either public or private, are used in a hygienic fashion, respecting
others and the health of everyone.

The communities are made conscious of the issues, by participating in the
digging of pits, or the gathering of waste, at the appropriate level. The
maintenance programs are given to teams locally organized and motivated.

Children and adults have access to water for washing after the use of the toilets
and can wash themselves before either preparing or eating food.

The public hygiene facilities (showers, wash basins) are used in an equitable
and appropriate manner.

All of the areas where stagnant water is collected are either eliminated or
covered to avoid the possible breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The clothes of the population are washed and dried on a regular basis.

The layout for the management of solid waste is made possible by the
arrangement of adequate facilities (trash, waste pits, incinerators, etc.).

8.3.6 SUPPORTING COMMUNITY AWARENESS OF HYGIENE

The physical environment and psychological conditions in which the displaced
populations find themselves are not the best conditions to support the rules of collective
living, at the family level or at the community level. It is important to immediately select
people from the population who hold the moral authority and the education necessary to
begin raising awareness about the importance of adhering to collective rules of good
hygiene. A certain number of priorities can be named:

Calling attention to persons with a high level of schooling, leadership skills, social
stature or pertinent technical know-how of the subject (paramedical personnel,
group or community leaders).

9
Ibid.

Maximizing the use of either local or institutional intermediaries by way of
institutions or structures in place: dispensaries, gynecological or maternity centre,
schools, food-aid centres, public toilets.

Spreading the message with mass media transmission (radio or loud-speakers) and
print (posters or pamphlets).

Valuing local cultural approaches or approaches of the displaced population and
placing an emphasis on the most vulnerable groups (children, pregnant women,
etc.).

8.4 PROTECTION OF SUPPLY SOURCES

In the first instances of an emergency or crisis, refugees or displaced persons will
logically use the water sources that are the closest to their arrival site or encampment.
Therefore, it is important in these instances to take a few simple measures, such as:

Protection of the sources of the water supply from both human and animal
excrement and fecal waste material. In the case of rivers, reserve areas to be kept
clean and if needed these areas should be protected or guarded from humans as
well as animals. Do not hesitate to place armed guards if it is necessary to enforce
these measures.

Use of individual devices for withdrawing water to avoid micro-biological
contamination.

Arrange to distribute water at points of distribution away from the source itself.
This is to decrease the distance the population must travel to go to get water and to
protect the water source itself. The best approach to this is a system called
bladders, which are placed at specific points distributed within the camps.

From the time a refugee camp is established, a clear distinction should be made
between the different functions of water use: family consumption, animals, toilets,
washing, and childrens recreation. The distinction of one activity from another is
made by the physical separation of the different functions. The goal of these
measures is to minimize the impact on the principle source of water and on the
other applications and uses of the water.

LESSON 8: QUIZ

Q1: In a situation of humanitarian crisis, the minimum for all people for their daily
survival should be:
a.) 15 litres of water per day and a capacity to stock 20 litres
b.) 35 litres of water per day and a capacity to stock 70 litres
c.) 5 to 8 litres of water per day and a capacity to stock 10 litres
d.) Higher amounts than what is proposed above

Q2: Two of the following statements are correct:
a.) The minimum is one water source per group of 250 people
b.) The minimum is one water source per group of 750 people
c.) The maximum distance between a campsite and a water point is 500m.
d.) The maximum distance between a campsite and a water point is 2,000m.

Q3: Two of the following statements are correct:
a.) Each person should be able to use 50 grams of soap per month
b.) Each person should be able to use 250 grams of soap per month
c.) A cholera patient should use 60 litres of water per day
d.) A head of livestock should use 60-80 litres of water per day

Q4: The quality of water is judged acceptable when:
a.) There are fewer than 10 fecal coliforms per 100ml. at the point of distribution
b.) There are fewer than 100 fecal coliforms per 100ml. at the point of distribution
c.) There are fewer than 1,000 fecal coliforms per 100ml. at the point of distribution
d.) The concentrations above are too high

Q5: One of the following statements is incorrect:
a.) The latrines should be situated more that 6 meters from the houses
b.) It is good to plan for at least one latrine for every 20 people
c.) The one-family latrines need more ventilation than collective latrines
d.) The depth of the latrines should ideally be 1.5 meters above groundwater

Q6: The vectors (carriers) of disease in humanitarian situations are (multiple):
a.) Rats carrying salmonella
b.) Mites carrying typhus
c.) Mosquitoes carrying the virus of HIV/AIDS
d.) Flies which cause eye infections in young children and newborn infants


Q7: The management of solid waste deposit sites must ensure (multiple):
a.) That families to have access to a capacity of 100 litres for 10 families
b.) That the waste of slaughterhouses or from the market is recycled as food for
domestic animals as quickly as possible
c.) That the incineration facilities are near to water to facilitate the seeping in of the
ashes
d.) To separate natural waste and medical or contaminated waste

Q8: The hygiene and sanitation awareness programs emphasize (multiple):
a.) The usage of water after the usage of toilets
b.) The elimination of stagnant water to avoid the breeding of mosquitoes
c.) Clothing which is washed and dried on a regular basis
d.) Control of dust to fight against the propagation of respiratory diseases

ANSWERS:

Q1: A Q2: A & C Q3: B & C Q4: A

Q5: C Q6: A, B & D Q7: A & D Q8: A, B, C & D

THE CONDUCT OF
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
OPERATIONS

LESSON 9

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

TO HUMANITARIAN CRISES

9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
9.5
9.6

FREELY CONSENTED REPATRIATION
RESETTLEMENT IN THE COUNTRY OF ASYLUM
RELOCATION TO A THIRD COUNTRY
DEMOBILIZATION AND REINSERTION PROGRAMS
ELECTIONS AND DEMOCRATIZATION OPERATIONS
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INSTITUTIONS OF CIVIL ORDER,
THE POLICE, AND CIVIL SOCIETY

Lesson 9/Sustainable Solutions to Humanitarian Crises 156

Objectives For Lesson 9: Sustainable Solutions to Humanitarian Crises

Lesson 9 addresses two areas. First, the chapter examines some of the difficult
issues that face refugees and humanitarian workers regarding repatriation to their original
nation, remaining in the nation where they are, or placement in a third nation. All of these
solutions have some potential problems. Second, the lesson offers a discussion of the
steps that must be taken to return a society to self-sufficiency through the reinstitution of
civil institutions and the fabric of civil life. It cannot only be the goal of humanitarian
relief missions to provide food and shelter. Rather, long-term solutions require that a
society go through a transformation from dependence to independence. There are some
very important thresholds in this process and these are discussed in this chapter.


Discuss why freely consented repatriation is the preferred solution to a refugee
crisis but why this solution may sometimes not be possible;
List some of the issues and considerations involved in settlement in the country of
asylum;
List and briefly discuss some of the problems that can make resettlement in a third
country the only alternative, but also explain some of the obstacles to this
solution;
State why demobilization and reinsertion programs are essential and how these
programs can be carried out;
State the special importance of the conduct of elections and some measures
needed to bring a population through this transition;
Discuss the reinstitution of civil society, civilian police, the rule of law, and the
return to civil life following a conflict or natural disaster.

LESSON 9: SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS TO HUMANITARIAN CRISES

9.1 FREELY CONSENTED REPATRIATION

Consensual, free repatriation remains the first definitive solution for the persons
who were forced to flee their country out of fear of persecution. Since the creation of the
UNHCR, there have been millions of refugees who have been repatriated to their native
countryby foot, by bus, by plane, or by boat. Unfortunately, the conditions of
consensual, free repatriation are not universally realizable, for various reasons, such as:

The refusal by the state of origin to consider the return of populations that had
left their country (the case for Rwanda for certain categories of refugees from
1959 to 1994) or the lack of political arrangements permitting the return of the
refugees under dignified and safe conditions

The disappearance of the native state or the structures that favour and permit
the reintegration of refugees (the case for Somalia)

The maintenance of socio-economic conditions that make impossible the
repatriation of refugees in a dignified manner, like adequate economic
reintegration (the case of Eritrean refugees still living in the Sudan)

The existence of non-secure conditions that make a safe and secure return of
the refugees impossible (mined countries, return zones without viable return
conditions, chronic insecurity, etc.)

The impossibility for the UNHCR to be able to justify the freely consenting
character of the refugees returning home

This list is certainly not exhaustive, but the historical reality of refugees in the
world allows one to perceive two ideas:

The time in exile of populations has risen considerably in the last 20 years,
therefore making, on average, the refugees time in exile longer and more
difficult (the record today being held by the Palestinians)

The time in exile varies considerably by the geographical origin of the refugees
and the political time necessary for the solution of the crisis leading to the
refugee situation.

But in the context of another analysis, one can also recognize that:

The end of the Cold War permitted in the 1990s the resolution of certain
conflicts riding solely on the continuation of the Cold War (Mozambique,
Namibia, etc.)

The growing role of military interventions, covered or not by the United
Nations, to facilitate, secure or organize repatriation operations on a large scale
(the case of Rwanda in 1996-97 or Kosovo in 1999)

SOME TOOLS AIDING IN REPATRIATION
Repatriates constitute a relatively privileged population. They are at the end of a
cycle that caused their flight into exile, before finally being able to return to their native
lands. Waiting for them, they often find a countryside decimated and destroyed by war,
unemployment, the necessity of having to rebuild the services and life they were
habituated to before leaving their native land, and accustomed to in their refugee camps.

Repatriation must be accompanied
by immediate physical and economic
reconstruction measures that permit the
rapid re-composition in socio-economic
means. The massive aid programs of
Kosovo and East Timor demonstrated that
through support for reconstruction,
successful repatriation programmes could
be achieved. These two programmes were
both official pilot programs of the United
Nations, and both programmes were
supported by regional organisations.

This is particularly the case in
Kosovo, where the humanitarian pillars of
the project are directed and coordinated by
the UNHCR, the political aspects are
directed by UNMIK (UN Mission in
Kosovo), while the two other constitutive
pillars are exclusively regional, the
O.S.C.E. (Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe), that concerns itself
with the principle of democratisation and
elections, and the European Union, that
concerns itself with all the facets of
physical reconstruction.

9.2 SETTLEMENT IN THE COUNTRY OF ASYLUM

Settling in the country of asylum allows a legitimately recognized refugee, to
benefit equally from the same rights and duties of other nationals in the country of
asylum. Some of the justifications for settling in the country of asylum are:

Zaire/Rwandan refugees, repatriation flight
to Kigali/Kisangoni Airport, UNHCR,
R. Chalasani, 02, 1997.

The possibility that a refugee may never be able to return home, principally
due to the refusal of the government of the refugees native country

In the event that a refugee is prevented from returning home, settling within
the country of asylum can provide equal benefits and equal rights as those
granted to the citizens of that country

The possibility for a refugee to benefit, due to being settled for the long-term,
from particular arrangements (marriage, birth of children while in exile,
adoption, etc.)

In a large number of situations, the settlement in a country of asylum is
realized in a de facto way, in that either the country welcoming the refugee
authorizes without reserve that the refugees in their territory can practice a
number of economic and social activities, or that the country of asylum
expressly authorizes certain things for the refugees, granting them particular
rights.

What are the arrangements that best facilitate the integration of persons resettled
in a country of asylum? They are:

Granting of identity documents equal to those of legal immigrants in the
country, or naturalization documents, or residency documents granted because
one or several members of a refugee family can benefit from them (whether by
marriage, adoption, birth of a child, etc.)

Granting of favourable arrangements for refugees, the possibility to legally
pursue economic activities (access to credit, the right to buy or sell and other
economic or financial activities)

Granting of rights permitting refugees or newly naturalized persons the
privilege to vote, to be elected, to form or participate in political, civil, or civic
activities

Rights permitting refugees to be able to have equal access to primary,
secondary, or university level schooling

When the government of a country welcoming refugees works towards creating a
lasting living situation as a definitive solution, the UNHCR will incrementally withdraw
its protection of the refugees.

In the context of long-term living arrangements of refugee populations in a
country of asylum, humanitarian organizations often play an identical role to that played
in repatriationknowing how to support economic and social integration efforts for the
refugee populations in the process of situating themselves in their new environment. This
effort must continue through cooperation with local economic actors, without creating

disparities in the treatment between the local population and the newly arrived refugees.
In this sense, projects benefiting both the local native community and the community of
refugees should be a top priority.

9.3 RESETTLEMENT TO A THIRD COUNTRY

Resettlement to a third country is ordinarily a last resort, available to those
refugees who do not have a realistic option of free and consensual repatriation or the
possibility of being able to relocate and settle in their first country of asylum.

Ordinarily, it is the responsibility of the UNHCR to coordinate all movements of
refugees legally registered in one country of asylum to a new country of asylum and/or
definitive settlement. This occurs regularly in coordination with the immigration services
of both the first and second resettlement/asylum countries.

The reasons that can create a block to realizing the two primary durable solutions,
and thus justify an eventual relocation are numerous:

IMPOSSIBLE REPATRIATION:

The continued fear of persecution of individual or particular groups having fled
their native country

Impossibility of repatriation due to the collapse or transition of the country of
origin or the existence of a particular political situation (e.g. Palestine or Somalia)

The refusal by the native country to repatriate and/or reintegrate their ex-citizens
(the refugees)

The refusal of the second country to allow the refugees to leave

Individuals having lost proof of citizenship to their native country

The refusal by the state now occupying the territory of the ex-country of the
refugees to allow the return of the nationals of the old political regime

LOCAL SETTLEMENT

The continued refusal on the part of the welcoming state to recognize the refugee
status to those requesting asylum (while respecting the principle of no-send back)

The refusal to grant the minimal conditions of economic and social survival that
allow the refugees in exile to integrate themselves in a lasting manner in their new
society


The refusal by the welcoming country to grant the minimal documents covered in
the Geneva Convention of 1951 on the status of refugees having found asylum in
their country

An administrative regime of expulsion of refugees or those requesting asylum,
threats toward their security, request to the specialized organizations or the
international community to find them a third country (country for resettlement or a
new third country)

The case of vulnerable populations (handicapped, wounded, abandoned children,
isolated women) having, objectively, only a very small chance of finding a
definitive solution in their country of asylum

The above list is certainly not exhaustive, considering the multiple conditions
making relocation necessary. It is important to note that the minimum conditions for
resettlement are the following:

Agreement of a third country (a country of immigration, a country having a regular
welcome program for refugees or those requesting asylum, a friendly country
offering its services) to receive the refugees recognized by the UNHCR

Agreement of the refugees to go to the proposed country of asylum (welcome) and
the agreement of the first country of asylum to allow the departure from their
territory

Adequate physical conditions to proceed with the physical transfer and movement
of persons under the responsibility of the UNHCR for their papers and protection,
and more often, physically by the IOMthe International Organization for
Migrations

Guarantees of adequate material and judicial protection and benefits within the
new country of relocation

The annual statistics of the UNHCR on repatriation attest that at the international
level, the politics of the countries of asylum/welcome, primarily North American and
European, have largely changed over the course of the last 20 years. The end of the Cold
War decreased the interest of certain states to undertake large-scale transfers of refugee
populations, in the past more often founded on international political considerations than
on a political balance.

However, the international community also proved that in response to critical
refugee crises (e.g. the expulsion of the Uganda Indians in 1976 or the Kosovars in
Macedonia in 1999), it is still possible for it to open its doors. The international
community recognizes that a massive and uncontrollable influx of refugees can create a
dangerous situation. The result can be social explosion, hostilities, or a humanitarian
catastrophe. Even when the international community does collectively accept the influx

of a large number of refugees, this does not prohibit the possibility the refugees will
eventually decide to freely repatriate and return to their country of origin.

9.4 DEMOBILIZATION AND REINSERTION PROGRAMS

Why? Why are demobilization and reinsertion programs included in the set of
humanitarian actions undertaken to increase the chances for success of peace operations
and the ceasing of hostilities? The answer is simple: if the ex-soldiers or rebels of
military or paramilitary forces involved in the past conflict do not arrange an end to the
conflict, and quickly arrange the conditions necessary for a long-term reinsertion of the
refugees in their original society, these elements risk being the origin of the destabilizing
forces within a fragile society that is in the process of reconstruction and stabilization.
These actions can often be either small or large, criminally serious or not, from the
refusal of the conditions of the cease-fire and the revival of violent armed conflict, to
creating socially destabilizing events, without omitting a significant increase of the
cohorts and without employing and/or social assistance, such as the costs associated with
their social management, etc.

9.4.1 DEMOBILIZATION PROGRAMS

Demobilization is a step that usually follows the signing of a cease-fire
agreement, before leading to the negotiations for a long-term and definitive peace. It
consists, generally under the control of an armed international force (Blue helmets,
NATO forces, or regional) of the physical demobilization of the combatants, regular
soldiers as well as irregulars or rebels, who participated in the armed conflict of the
previous years. Demobilization physically consists of the creation of sites for grouping
together, of recording and registering the soldiers presenting themselves as individuals or
within actual units. Demobilization also includes, the registration of all arms or weapons,
light or heavy, that makes the recommencing of hostilities a possibility during a cessation
of the agreement between the two groups in conflict.

During a determined period of time, these soldiers, men, women, and children as
well, are separated and reeducated to the rules of civil society to which they are
supposed to be able to return to with the least amount of delay. Most often, save the
possibility to integrate the best elements of each of the camps in a new National Army
(for example, the successful case of South Africa), a large number of ex-combatants will
be administratively demobilized and returned to civilian life. The most important thing,
therefore, is to prepare them for their new life.

The humanitarian organizations, along with the national authorities, have a crucial
role to play in the demobilization phase, in supporting those demobilized individuals
during the transitory period that lasts from their exit of the military world until their
reintegration in civilian life. These organizations not only put in place the simple, base
services (food, shelter, medicines, organization) in the demobilization sites, but also help
the beneficiaries of the programs through the organization of various reinsertion
programs.

9.4.2 REINSERTION PROGRAMS

What are the programs that can be offered in the framework of reinsertion?

Civil educationHistory of their country and the peace accords
General education and offering reinsertion in national academic circuits (returning
to primary schools up to universities) or the international academic system
Professional formation programs (manual labour, business, management
schooling)
Credit programs when it is decided to set up for the demobilized persons a capital
return to facilitate their reinsertion into civil society

The special programs incorporating specifically the members of the former
organized armed groups are also sometimes considered because they permit a progressive
reintegration in activities of a civil nature, such as:

Activities of demining to assist the civilian population with the resumption of
normal land use
Activities of reconstruction, reforestation, and civil construction
Activities of physical support or social support to members of the ex-armed forces
having the most difficulty reintegrating themselves in society or to those groups
the most destabilized groups during their return to civilian life (child soldiers,
soldiers without family to support them, etc.)

Beyond those activities of a physical or operational character, it is clear that the
success of this type of program depends on a number of key factors, such as:

The solid structure of civil society and local political and administrative structures,
and the ability to absorb the new elements within these structures; the armed
forces, the educational system and the national economic community

Clear and ambitious measures, addressed in the peace accord or the cease-fire
agreement, to engage in reconstruction activities profiting demobilized persons, in
a uniform, universal, impartial, and equitable manner

A climate of national reconciliation, confirmed by normative changes, economic
and social changes as well as fair elections of a democratic and representative
nature. Such conditions permit the beneficiaries to genuinely feel a part of the new
society so that they will no longer fight against it, but help it develop. In this
regard, the political and social symbolism is often more important than the
material


9.5 ELECTIONS AND DEMOCRATIZATION OPERATIONS

It may be surprising to present democratisation and election activities in a manual
on the management of humanitarian operations. Yet, they are the logical continuation of
the actions to undertake in trying to reestablish the bases of civil society and political life
destroyed by violent conflict. Democratisation operations and the organizing of elections
are sometimes a logical continuation of the negotiations of the peace accords concluded
between two opposing parties. The two principles are nevertheless different:

9.5.1 ORGANIZATION OF ELECTIONS

The organization of elections is either the result of negotiations between parties
reaching a political agreement or it is the result of a decision made by the international
community as a condition for the revival of civil society and the political life of a country
(the case for Cambodia and Namibia). The purposes of such elections include:

The organization of the forces of civil society in the form of political parties being
able to claim the votes of the population

To creation of a democratic and institutional legitimacy to the new political and
civil forces that will have to assume the responsibilities of power

The elections often precede
the constitution of the new
governments whose mission it is to
progressively take the reins of the
direction of a civil society. The
international observers that
accompany the process do so under
the control of specialized
international organizations or the
mandate of their states, ensuring the
equitable and democratic character
of the elections. Humanitarian
organizations can give important
logistical support, like transporting
the voters or, more importantly,
supporting the process of the
formation of national electoral
agents/workers (organizers, tellers, publicity, and information) that will ensure the
smooth running of the ballots.

FAn electoral worker explains voting procedures at
the mobile polling station in the Ovitoto Reserve,
Okahanja, Namibia, November, 1989, M. Grant.

9.5.2 THE DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS:

Democratisation is a more complex and less tangible process than the
organization of elections. It implies the establishment of programs whose goal it is to
reorganize, reinforce, or facilitate the emergence of a constitution and the reinforcement
of political parties. These political parties ordinarily represent the different ideological
tendencies, partisan, or sectors of civil society. Coming out of a conflict, the role of these
parties is tremendously important but their structures are generally weak. The role of the
organizations working to support the development of civil society is to reinforce the
formation of these political parties at important stages of the local political life (elections,
referendums, preparation of law texts, etc.), allowing them to progressively take the place
in society that is rightfully theirs.

In organizing these newly emerging civil structures, the role of humanitarian
organizations is often to consolidate the organizations or civil structures, either national
or local, whose job it is to work with the parties of the most vulnerable parts of the
population (orphans, abandoned elderly people, education and social structures, single
parent families, handicapped, persons displaced by the conflict, etc.) The role is so much
more important because these populations are usually those most often abandoned or
forgotten in the context of national reconstruction. With neither a voice nor any other
mode of expression, weakened by their particular handicap, the groups have greater
difficulty in getting their specific demands heard at large. However, their demands
deserve even more attention. The role is usually given to national structures of the
national Red Cross, but the organization, despite all the support that it can create in
regards to the structure of the movement, cannot meet all the needs for all the potential
beneficiaries.

9.6 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INSTITUTIONS OF CIVIL ORDER, THE
POLICE AND CIVIL SOCIETY

The establishment of the institutions of civic order, the police and civil society, is
a logical corollary to the process of democratisation and the organization of elections. A
society that is coming out of years of conflict in which the national police is generally
corrupt and on the side of one of the two powers, necessitates an operation to recreate a
police force typified by integrity, credibility, professionalism, and faith in their
professional character to the service of public order. Thus, we see more and more in the
management of complex crises, sections completely dedicated to the formation of the
police force and public order. Bosnia, Kosovo, Haiti, Guatemala, and Cambodia are
some recent examples.

The new indigenous police forces progressively replace the old forces or the
foreign police forces serving a United Nations mission, and initially aim to reestablish
order in a given territory. The same international police forces often take over from the
international military forces that directly deal with operations aimed at maintaining

public order in the weeks directly following the end of a conflict (as was the case in
Bosnia or Kosovo).

The guarantee of recreating a legitimate and effective police force is a necessary
condition for improving security conditions and to facilitating the return of refugees and
displaced persons, the resumption of essential public services (within which humanitarian
organizations will play a large role) as well as the progress of democratisation and
elections in total security.

In the context of a society in which essential public services were either partially
or completely destroyed by a violent conflict (e.g. Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Cambodia), it
is necessary, if the international community is ready and prepared to invest in the
country, to recreate the proper conditions to restart these important activities. The
services of which we speak are not ordinarily the services commonly assured by
humanitarian organization, except in the period of immediate rehabilitation (like health
services), but rather administrative services or other services offered by specialized
institutions. These institutions goal is to put together or create, with the help of the new
local authorities (or UN) the broad outline, and subsequently the detailed structure, of the
services for the population, local authorities, and firms that will allow the new society to
overcome its current problems.

Looking at a recent example, we can mention the four pillars of the civil
presence immediately set up following the arrival of KFOR in Kosovo in July of 1999:

Civil administration, designated for progressively creating public services for the
autonomous Kosovar entity (under the direction of UNMIKUnited Nations
Mission in Kosovo)

The return of the refugees and the humanitarian assistance programs (directed by
the UNHCR)

The democratisation of the institutions and the preparation for future elections
(under the supervision of the OSCE)

The process of reconstructing Kosovo (under the direction of the European Union)

The establishment of these services implies the temporary assignment, sometimes
long term, of international experts specializing in the management of a variety of civil
functions ranging from land registration, the management of municipal water, tax system,
administrative law, justice, waste management and others.

Humanitarian organizations can continue to play an important role in this phase of
the reconstruction of civil society. The principle tasks that they can undertake, in either
the long or short term, are:


Substitution for fragile services for those that no longer exist (health, education,
support of vulnerable groups, water management, waste or environmental
management, etc.)

Formation, framework, and support to the institutional reinforcement of
administrative organizations or newly forming associations

Participation in the elaboration of the national and/or local political services and
their role with the public

Information, diffusion, and promotion of the finished programs and those still in
the early stages

The general philosophy of the process is well understoodthe substitution phases
should ideally have only one limited role at a time. The clear objectives of the
progressive recovery/resumption of the local authorities, services, or politics toward self-
sufficiency should be one of the key goals of humanitarian organizations working in this
field.

LESSON 9: QUIZ

Q1: The resettlement of a developing country is:
a.) An automatic process used by many States to fill their annual immigration quotas
with refugees
b.) The first of the sustainable solutions favoured by the UNHCR for refugees
recently returned to their country of origin
c.) A process of re-integration piloted by the International Organization for
Migrations on behalf of States requesting immigrant refugees
d.) A solution offered to certain refugees when other sustainable solutions prove to be
impossible (repatriation or settlement in a country of asylum)

Q2: The UNHCR is relieved of its responsibility for protection of refugee populations
when (multiple):
a.) Refugees have been resettled into another country
b.) Refugees have been successfully and permanently repatriated to their country of
origin
c.) Leaders of refugee groups decide to refuse the international protection which is
due them to defend their own interests
d.) A country of asylum which has signed the Convention of 1951 announces to the
UNHCR that it will handle the protection of refugees on its own soil

Q3: Voluntary repatriation is made possible when:
a.) The material, climatic, and logistic conditions permit the rapid transfer of
refugees back into their country of origin
b.) The conditions of security and of protection were reunited with the State of origin
for the return of refugees
c.) The country of asylum negotiates the immediate return of refugees with the state
of origin of the refugees
d.) The Security Council of the UN decides to return refugees to their countries of
origin

Q4: The following measures are part of a policy of sustainable local settlement of
refugees in their country of asylum (multiple):
a.) The host government authorizes the refugees to work in the camps to which they
are assigned
b.) The government grants refugees their legal papers of immigration before their
naturalization
c.) The government authorizes the student refugees to register for all levels of
national schools without discrimination
d.) The government invites the UNHCR to take charge of all the social support
services of future naturalized people


Q5: The programs of demobilization and resettlement consist among others of
(multiple):
a.) Demilitarise all armed parties in a conflict before their reintegration into civil life
b.) Conduct programs of basic language, civic re-education and activities which
generate revenues benefiting demobilized men and women
c.) Invite all the former war parties to engage in land mine removal operations on the
old battle fields
d.) Develop micro-credit programs for all the nationals who want easy access to loans

Q6: Democratisation operations and elections:
a.) Allow the preparation and revision of electoral lists after a civil war
b.) Give an acceptable political cover to the governments which tend to be autocratic
c.) Support the emergence of civil society groups and new representative political
parties
d.) Rapidly reorient demobilized former soldiers in leadership and militants of
political parties

Q7: The training and putting in place of new civil police forces in a developing State
has as its goal (multiple):
a.) Increase control of roads to increase fiscal receipts
b.) Re-enforce the security conditions of the population after an internal or
international conflict
c.) Create the security conditions for repatriation of refugees or the resettlement of
displaced persons
d.) Increase the security conditions of the Peacekeeping Force in the country

Q8: Which of the following are among the common principles of humanitarian non-
governmental organizations in the post-conflict environment (multiple):
a.) The protection of supply routes to refugee camps or displaced persons
b.) The putting in place of health and social structures for the rural communities
c.) The putting in place of oil extraction systems and refineries to permit the growth
of economic activities of prime importance
d.) The putting in place of programs to identify and assist children and minors
separated from their parents during conflict

ANSWERS:

Q1: D Q2: A & B Q3: B Q4: B & C

Q5: A, B, C & D Q6: C Q7: B & C Q8: B & D


THE CONDUCT OF
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
OPERATIONS

LESSON 10

PRINCIPLES OF THE SPHERE PROJECT

AND THE

CODE OF CONDUCT

10.1

10.2

10.3

HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF THE SPHERE PROJECT

OBJECTIVES OF THE SPHERE PROJECT

THE CODE OF CONDUCT

Lesson 10/Principles of the SPHERE Project and the Code of Conduct 172

Objectives For Lesson 10:
Principles of the SPHERE Project and the Code of Conduct

Lesson 10 examines the standards for performance developed in recent years: the
SPHERE Project and the Code of Conduct. While each disaster and humanitarian
emergency is unique, the SPHERE Project and the Code of Conduct attempt to set
universal standards for conducting humanitarian interventions.


Discuss the origins, purpose, and ultimate objective of the SPHERE Project;
Understand the provisions for the Code of Conduct as used in rescue operations
and disaster situations.

LESSON 10: THE PRINCIPLES OF THE SPHERE PROJECT AND THE
CODE OF CONDUCT

The 1990s saw profound changes in humanitarian action. Between 1970 and
2000 hundreds of new actors, often very specialized, joined the important institutional
actors that existed since the end of the Second World War and even earlier (for example,
Aviation Sans Frontires, Veterinarians Without Borders, Handicap International,
and many others). This proliferation of actors has reinforced contemporary humanitarian
action in its capacity to offer services to victims more rapidly, in a way that involves
more sectors of intervention, and in a greater number of locations. It has also led to
confusion among the donating public, receiving states, media, the military, as well as
sponsors and other ground partners about the rules of conduct and action in a
humanitarian environment.

In fact, the individual members of some NGOs have sometimes distinguished
themselves by conduct or attitudes that range from amateurism to a lack of respect for
their beneficiaries or for the local populations. Others have assumed more political
attitudes or ignored universally recognized principles of neutrality or impartiality. This
has given their presence a more sensational image than their actual engagement, often
with the intent of eliciting greater resources from their private donors (a practice that the
well-known author, William Shawcross, has called the Charity Business). Few have
put enough confidence in their partners or in the local populations to secure their
cooperation and effect a smooth transfer of responsibilities at the end of their
involvement, most often out of fear of losing the financial and material advantages that
exist from renewing a contractual arrangement that is profitable for themselves and for
their agency. Finally, the great majority of NGO members are without the necessary
tools of evaluation that would allow them to make objective technical judgments and to
decide if their criteria of intervention in the key sectors of fundamental needs are
sufficient or not.

The SPHERE Project has responded to the need to provide the international
humanitarian community with the pertinent analytical and start-up tools, before, during,
and after an emergency intervention. The Code of Conduct, for its part, deals with the
necessity of developing ethical norms and norms of conduct for agencies, with the goals
of providing their personnel with basic rules which respect the beneficiaries of actions
and presenting a moral background for international humanitarian action that has
heretofore sometimes gone astray from lack of ethical foresight.

10.1 HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF THE SPHERE PROJECT

The SPHERE Project, begun in 1997, is the most recent attempt to give to the
humanitarian community the minimum of standardized tools that it requires to manage a
humanitarian situation with a maximum of homogeneity and responsibility. In the
technical lessons of this course, we have presented the principles and criteria which guide

the activities of the SPHERE Project because we consider it important to share the
reflections of professionals of various areas of expertise that have, from their practice,
their experience, and the lessons they have learned in the course of crises, shared their
knowledge for the benefit of professionals in all humanitarian agencies.

It is important to mention the participants of the SPHERE Project to realize the
importance of the actors that have conceived and drawn up the criteria of standardization
for the project. The Project is the fruit of efforts of a group of NGOs organized around
InterAction (uniting more than 150 American NGOs) as well as around the Steering
Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR), an alliance of organizations dedicated to
improving the coordination and cooperation among humanitarian agencies. Its members
are CARE International, Caritas Internationalis, the International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Save the Children International, the Lutheran
World Federation, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam International, and the World
Council of Churches.

Moreover, the SCHR is also the author of the Emergency Code of Conduct of the
International Red Cross and of the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
and of NGOs.

Other agencies that have participated in the elaboration of the project include:
VOICE, a consortium of European NGOs engaged in humanitarian operations, the
International Committee of the Red Cross, and the International Council of Volunteer
Agencies (ICVA), another consortium of northern and southern NGOs based in Geneva.

At the present time, the project embarks on a phase of worldwide dissemination of
the SPHERE Principles to international NGOs, UN agencies, civil protection services,
and to the humanitarian assistance organizations of governments of the North and the
South alike.

10.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE SPHERE PROJECT

The ultimate objective of the SPHERE Project is the standardization of the
operational principles of intervention in emergency humanitarian situations. The
principles must therefore guide the involvement of governments as well as international
agencies. In adhering to these standards, the agency agrees that the beneficiaries of
humanitarian assistance should receive sufficient aid to preserve their rights to life and
dignity. The standards provide a useful description of what beneficiaries have a right to
expect from humanitarian assistance. They specify the minimum standards in regard to
the provision of water, sanitation, nutrition, food aid, shelter, receiving centres, and
health services. Behind each standard or norm is a set of key indicators which serves to
verify the correct application of the standard. Technical appendices will support the
pertinent technical information.


Nevertheless, the application of these standards will remain subject to the capacity
of a state or agency to fulfill them (the capacity criterion). For every operation, the
standards are constrained by the flexibility that a difficult context allows. They must also
be able to guarantee the respect for the traditional customs of the beneficiary and local
populations at all times and in all places.

10.3 THE CODE OF CONDUCT

The Code of Conduct is readily interpreted as The Code of Conduct for the
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and for Nongovernmental
OrganizationsNGOs for use in rescue operations in disaster situations. The Code,
developed at the beginning of the 1990s, was sponsored by a number of large agencies
and federations, such as Caritas Internationalis, the International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies, International Save the Children Alliance, the
Lutheran World Federation, the World Council of Churches (all of these agencies
being members of the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response that has piloted
the SPHERE Project), and by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The Code of Conduct does not deal with any of the operational questions that
formed the objective of the SPHERE Project but was begun with the intent of recognizing
ethical norms and norms of conduct that are acknowledged as universal and observed by
the participating organizations. It is important to mention that a great number of states
have adopted the principles of the Code of Conduct for themselves and require agencies
soliciting institutional financing to prove that they have attempted to apply the
regulations of the Code.

The aim of the Code is therefore to safeguard the important criteria of
independence and efficacy to which NGOs that provide emergency relief aspire. The
code is voluntary, and its application rests on the determination of each organization to
adhere to its guidelines and respect the norms that it defines. In the case of armed
conflict, the Code of Conduct will be interpreted and applied in compliance with
International Humanitarian Law.

Though lacking the normative quality that would make it applicable to
humanitarian agencies deployed in emergencies as national or international law, the Code
provides a moral and ethical base for those who adhere to its principles. It is not
unimaginable that the Code will lead to the formation of general principles of
International Humanitarian Law. For now, the principles are given as a starting point, but
in the minds of the founders, They are presented in a spirit of openness and cooperation
to communicate to our partners our vision of the relationship we wish to establish with
them.

Although we will only describe the main themes of the principles here, we
encourage the reader to examine more closely the principles of the Code found in the
Annex.

1 The humanitarian imperative, the highest priority The right to receive and offer
humanitarian assistance is a fundamental right from which every citizen of every
country ought to benefit

2 Aid shall be delivered without any consideration of the race, creed, or nationality of
the beneficiary and without discrimination of any sort The priorities in matters of
assistance shall be determined exclusively as a function of need. The guiding
principles shall remain those of impartiality, universality, and of proportionality, as
well as emphasis on considerations of the condition of women in humanitarian
operations

3 Aid shall not be used to advance political or religious convictions, whatever they may
be In no case shall assistance be dependent on the adherence of the beneficiaries to
the opinions or beliefs of an international agency

4 We shall make all possible effort to avoid serving as an instrument of the foreign
policy of governments the reaffirmation of the principle of neutrality: We shall not
apply the policy of any government except insofar as it coincides with our own,
formulated completely independently

5 We shall respect cultures and customs

6 We shall seek to use local capacities as the foundation for intervention Even in the
event of a catastrophe, all populations and communities retain some capacity to react,
even if they seem vulnerable. We endeavour to reinforce those capacities whenever
possible Emphasis shall also be placed on the coordination among different
agencies in the disaster area

7 We shall try to find ways to involve the beneficiaries in the management of relief
operations The potential beneficiaries must be included in the conception,
organization, and execution of the assistance programme

8 Relief programs must strive to limit future vulnerabilities as well as satisfy immediate
needs Moreover, We will do everything to keep the negative effects of
humanitarian assistance to a minimum, while seeking to prevent a situation of lasting
dependence of the beneficiaries on external aid

9 We shall hold ourselves responsible both to the potential beneficiaries of our
activities as well as to our donors the application of the principles of responsibility,
transparence, and accounting. In addition, Our programs will be based on the
rigorous criteria of professionalism and competence in order to keep the depletion of
precious resources to a minimum

10 In our information, promotion, and publicity activities we shall present the victims of
disasters as human beings worthy of respect and not as objects of pity Victims
deserve respect at all times and must be considered as equal partners in our activities

LESSON 10: QUIZ

Q1: What is the SPHERE Project?
a.) an attempt to give to the humanitarian community the minimum of standardized
tools that it requires to manage a humanitarian situation with a maximum of
homogeneity and responsibility
b.) a means for allocating funds among NGOs
c.) an effort to more closely link government programs with NGOs
d.) a way to increase profitability in the charity business

Q2: The ultimate objective of the SPHERE Project is the ___________of the
operational principles of intervention in emergency humanitarian situations.
a.) efficiency
b.) supervision
c.) verification
d.) standardization

Q3: The Code of Conduct of the SPHERE project:
a.) was created to deal with operational questions
b.) applies only to signatories
c.) was begun with the intent of recognizing ethical norms and norms of conduct
d.) was intended to be integrated into national law

Q4: The Code of Conduct is:
a.) Mandatory
b.) Voluntary
c.) Binding
d.) Obligatory

ANSWERS:

Q1: A Q2: D Q3: C Q4: B



THE CONDUCT OF
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
OPERATIONS

LESSON 11

CONCLUSIONS

11.1

11.2

THE GROWTH OF NEEDS AND THE LESSENING
OF SUPPORT

THE NEW CHAMELEONS

Lesson 11/Conclusions 180

Objectives For Lesson 11: Conclusions

Lesson 11 concludes the course with a brief discussion of the growing shortfall in
the funding level needed to meet humanitarian needs. The lesson also examines the
implications of the recent trends toward professionalization of humanitarian aid workers.


Understand the growing gap between humanitarian needs and the level of funding
available;
Be able to discuss the impact, both positive and negative, on the
professionalization of humanitarian relief in recent years.


LESSON 11: CONCLUSIONS

11. 1 THE GROWTH OF NEEDS AND THE DECREASE OF SUPPORT

The international humanitarian movement has changed and evolved much since
the first relief operations of Henry Dunant in 1864. International humanitarianism has
grown in the number of actors, sectors, and countries of intervention. Natural and
humanitarian disasters regularly invade our television screens while national and
international organizations attempt to raise funds in growing number to execute programs
of relief and reconstruction. Paradoxically, international humanitarian aid continues to
decline and inequalities between the different populations affected by disasters continue
to rise.

The International Red Cross estimates that in 1988 335 million peoplefive
percent of the worlds populationlost their homes because of climatic disasters. More
than one out of 280 persons on the planet is either a refugee, a displaced person, or has
been repatriated. This is even without speaking of the humanitarian consequences of the
AIDS epidemic in the poorest African nations.

At the same time, the funding level for official development aid of the most
industrialized nations has declined to less than 0.22% of their Gross National Product.
Humanitarian assistance represents no more than US$5.00 per person in the OECD
countries and only two days of global military expenditures for the planet (US$4.5 billion
in 1998)
10
. This is not to say that solution lies entirely in the humanitarian realm.

It is however necessary to recognize that international humanitarian aid is
profoundly insufficient in the face of current needs and also profoundly inequitable. The
response to the United Nations Joint Appeal reveals that the funding per estimated
number of beneficiaries was US$8.40 in Sierra Leone, US$47.98 in Angola, and
US$207.28 in the former Yugoslavia in 1999. The humanitarian aid expedited to Kosovo
by the European humanitarian agency, ECHO, represented 50% of its annual budget in
1999, a sum four times greater than the amount of aid sent to the 70 nations of the ACP
zone (Africa, Caribbean, and the Pacific).

There is a risk that international aid will remain inequitable and politically
oriented as long as donating governments prioritise assistance based on criteria that are
more political than humanitarian, quietly abandon humanitarian situations that are less
well publicized, and do not confer more responsibilities of direct initiative on
international humanitarian aid agencies to respond to forgotten humanitarian disasters
by bringing more resources to bear.

The large independent humanitarian agencies must continue to increase their
appeals and their efforts toward fostering the consciousness that human life has the same
value everywhere and that humanitarian action ought temporarily to permit affected

10
An End to Forgotten Emergencies? OXFAM UK, May 2000.

peoples to recover progressively and to seek political solutions to guarantee conditions of
durable peace and security. An improvement in the conditions and mechanisms of the
allocation of financial and material resources on the part of donating states and
institutions ought to provide future support for these political regimes.

11.2 THE NEW CHAMELEONS

Humanitarian aid has been professionalized. Humanitarian personnel must
receive training which allows them to understand thoroughly the social, economic, and
political environment of the societies in which they intervene and, moreover, the
international context in which they function. In this way aid agencies must henceforth
ensure a multidisciplinary education for their associates that they might be at once
historians, anthropologists, and economists, that they have an understanding of political
factors, and naturally, that they be conscientious technicians and humanitarians.

Economic development, human rights, and international law are notions that
should be familiar to humanitarian personnel, who must also learn to be wary of
manipulation at local, national, or international levelssometimes even at the hands of
donating governmentsand to understand which actors stand to gain or lose from relief
efforts, whether strictly commercially or in terms of power. The humanitarian workers of
today must also be fundamentally motivated by ethical principles and solid personal
values.
11

Professionalism, ample comprehension of the environment, of the local and
international stakes, and of ethical principles are therefore the three most important
attributes of the contemporary humanitarian professional. Humanitarian workers must be
able to emphasize their abilities and competencies in a continually changing environment
without forgetting the most important: to save lives when it is time and to ensure that the
persons who benefit from their support can continue to live as human beings with dignity.
This double satisfaction will continue to be the mission of contemporary humanitarian
action.

11
Feinstein International Famine Centre, Chronicle of Philanthropy, John HAMMOCK and Sue
LAUTZE, Tufts University, Jan. 2000 USA.

LESSON 11: QUIZ

Q1: According to the International Red Cross, how many people lost their homes
because of climatic disasters in 1988?
a.) 135 million
b.) 235 million
c.) 335 million
d.) 435 million

Q2: Under what scenario might the international community quietly abandon
humanitarian situations that are less well publicized?
a.) In the event of a world-wide depression
b.) If donating governments prioritise assistance based on criteria that are more
political than humanitarian
c.) If the international community returns to the polarization of the Cold War
d.) If humanitarian disasters begin to more directly impact the developed nations

ANSWERS:

Q1: C Q2: B
Appendices 184

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Directory of humanitarian-related Internet sites

Appendix 2: The Humanitarian Charter

Appendix 3: Summary of minimum standards for disaster reliefSPHERE
Project

Appendix 4: The Code of Conduct for the International Movement of the Red
Cross and Red Crescent and of NGOs for use in rescue operations in
disaster situations

Appendices 185

APPENDIX 1

DIRECTORY OF HUMANITARIAN-RELATED INTERNET SITES

1. INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

1.1 THE UNITED NATIONS AND ITS SPECIALIZED ORGANS:

Office of Humanitarian Affairs: http://www.un.org/ha/index.html

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA-Online):
http://www.reliefweb.int/ocha_ol/index.html

Reliefweb: http://www.reliefweb.int

United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF): http://www.unicef.org/french/

World Food Programme (WFP): http://www.wfp.org/index.htm

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: http://www.unhcr.ch/

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: http://www.unhchr.ch/

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:
http://www.fao.org/default.htm

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): http://www.undp.org/

1.2 OTHER SPECIALIZED INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED NATIONS

United Nations Volunteers (UNV): http://www.unv.org

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development: (UNCTAD):
http://www.unctad.org

United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM):
http://www.unifem.undp.org/

Humanitarian Aid Office of the European Community:
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/echo

Appendices 186

1.3 ORGANIZATIONS FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND
DEVELOPMENT:

Development Assistance Committee: http://www.oecd.org/dac/

World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/

2. INTERNATIONAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org

Belgian Branch: http://www.amnesty.be/
Canadian Branch: http://www.amnesty.ca
French Branch: http://www.amnesty.asso.fr

Alternatives: http://www.alternatives.ca/eng/index.html

Action Against Hunger: http://www.acf-fr.org/eng/homefm.htm

CARE: http://www.care.org/

Catholic Relief Services: http://www.catholicrelief.org/

Centre international de solidarit ouvrire (in French): http://www.cam.org/~ciso/

Club 2/3: http://www.mlink.net/~2tiers/

Comit franais pour la solidarit internationale (in French):
http://www.globenet.org/cfsi/

International Committee of the Red Cross: http://www.icrc.org/

Canadian Centre for International Studies and Cooperation:
http://www.ceci.ca/ceci/info/eng/aindex.htm

Global Development Centre: http://www.globaldevelopment.org/

Dlgation Catholique pour la Coopration (in French): http://www.cef.fr/dcc/

Dveloppement et paix (Organisation catholique canadienne pour le
dveloppement et la paix) (in French): http://www.devp.org/francais/Fframes.html

Dveloppement international Desjardins: http://www.did.qc.ca/intro.asp

Appendices 187

Emmas international: http://emmaus-international.org

In Common: http://encommun.web.net/

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies:
http://www.ifrc.org/index.asp

ENDA Third Word: http://www.enda.sn/

Handicap International: http://www.handicap-international.org/

Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/

Institut international du dveloppement durable:
http://iisd1.ca/about/frenchcorpbroch.htm

International Crisis Group: http://www.crisisweb.org/

International Service Agencies: http://www.charity.org/

Canadian Red Cross: http://www.redcross.ca

World University Service of Canada: http://www.wusc.ca/home.html

International Organization for Migration: http://www.iom.int/

Lutheran World Relief: http://www.lwr.org/

Doctors Without Borders: http://www.msf.org

For France: http://www.paris.msf.org
For Canada: http://www.msf.ca

Mdecins du Monde (in French): http://www.medecinsdumonde.org/

For France: http://www.paris.msf.org
For Canada: http://www.msf.ca

OXFAM: http://www.oxfaminternational.org/

Belgium: http://www.oxfamsol.be/
Canada: http://www.oxfam.ca/
Qubec: http://www.oxfam.qc.ca
United Kingdom: http://www.oxfam.org.uk

Appendices 188

Save the Children: http://www.savethechildren.org

Solidarits (in French): http://www.solidarites.org/

World Vision International: http://www.wvi.org/ or http://www.worldvision.ca

3. THE NGO NETWORK

AlertNet: http://www.alertnet.org/

Disaster Relief: http://www.disasterrelief.org/

Global Health Disaster Network: http://www1.pitt.edu/~ghdnet/GHDNet/

InterAction: http://www.interaction.org/

Relief and Rehabilitation Network:
http://www.oneworld.org/odi/rrn/index.html

ReliefNet: http://www.reliefnet.org/

Rseau dInformation Tiers-monde (RITIMO):
http://www.globenet.org/ritimo/

SPHERE Project: http://www.sphereproject.org

VOICE: http://www.voice.org/

4. GOVERNMENTS

Belgium:
Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade, and International
Cooperation: http://diplobel.fgov.be/Politics/policy_FR.htm

Canada:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade: Director of Human Rights,
Humanitarian Affairs, and International Womens Equality (AGH):
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/human-rights/

Canadian International Development Agency:
http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/aid-f.htm

France:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Coopration internationale et dveloppement (in
French): http://www.france.diplomatie.fr/cooperation/index.html
Appendices 189

United States of America:
US Department of State: http://www.state.gov/
US Agency for International Development: http://www.usaid.gov/

Great Britain:
Foreign & Commonwealth Office: http://www.fco.gov.uk/
Department for International Development (DFID): http://www.dfid.gov.uk/

Qubec: http://www.mri.gouv.qc.ca/index_an.html

Switzerland:
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs:
http://www.dfae.admin.ch/eda/e/home.html

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation: http://www.deza.admin.ch

Appendices 190

APPENDIX 2

THE HUMANITARIAN CHARTER

Humanitarian agencies committed to this Charter and to the Minimum Standards will aim
to achieve defined levels of service for people affected by calamity or armed conflict, and
to promote the observance of fundamental humanitarian principles.

The Humanitarian Charter expresses agencies commitment to these principles and to
achieving the Minimum Standards. This commitment is based on agencies appreciation
of their own ethical obligations, and reflects the rights and duties enshrined in
international law in respect of which states and other parties have established obligations.
The Charter is concerned with the most basic requirements for sustaining the lives and
dignity of those affected by calamity or conflict. The Minimum Standards which follow
aim to quantify these requirements with regard to peoples need for water, sanitation,
nutrition, food, shelter and health care. Taken together, the Humanitarian Charter and the
Minimum Standards contribute to an operational framework for accountability in
humanitarian assistance efforts.

1. PRINCIPLES

We reaffirm our belief in the humanitarian imperative and its primacy. By this we mean
the belief that all possible steps should be taken to prevent or alleviate human suffering
arising out of conflict or calamity, and that civilians so affected have a right to protection
and assistance. It is on the basis of this belief, reflected in International Humanitarian
Law and based on the principle of humanity, that we offer our services as humanitarian
agencies. We will act in accordance with the principles of humanity and impartiality, and
with the other principles set out in the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross
and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Governmental Organizations in Disaster Relief
(1994).

It is on the basis of this conviction, reflected in International Humanitarian Law and
upheld by the principle of humanity, that we offer our services as humanitarian agencies.
We will act in conformity to the principles of humanity and impartiality, as well as to the
other rules elaborated in the Code of Conduct for the International Movement of the Red
Cross and Red Crescent and of non-governmental organizations for use in rescue
operations in disaster situations (1994).

Appendices 191

The Humanitarian Charter affirms the fundamental importance of the following
principles:

1.1 The Right to Live with Dignity

This right is reflected in the legal measures concerning the right to life, to an adequate
standard of living and to freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment. We understand an individual's right to life to entail the right to have steps
taken to preserve life where it is threatened, and a corresponding duty on others to take
such steps. Implicit in this is the duty not to withhold or frustrate the provision of life-
saving assistance. In addition, International Humanitarian Law makes specific provision
for assistance to civilian populations during conflict, obliging states and other parties to
agree to the provision of humanitarian and impartial assistance when the civilian
population lacks essential supplies.

1.2 The Distinction Between Combatants and Non-Combatants

This is the distinction which underpins the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their
Additional Protocols of 1977. This fundamental principle has been increasingly eroded,
as reflected in the enormously increased proportion of civilian casualties during the
second half of the twentieth century. That internal conflict is often referred to as 'civil
war' must not blind us to the need to distinguish between those actively engaged in
hostilities, and civilians and others (including the sick, wounded and prisoners) who play
no direct part. Non-combatants are protected under International Humanitarian Law and
are entitled to immunity from attack.

1.3 The Principle of Non-Refoulement

This is the principle that no refugee shall be sent (back) to a country in which his or her
life or freedom would be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership
of a particular social group or political opinion; or where there are substantial grounds for
believing that s/he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

2. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

2.1 We recognise that it is firstly through their own efforts that the basic needs of people
affected by calamity or armed conflict are met, and we acknowledge the primary role and
responsibility of the state to provide assistance when peoples capacity to cope has been
exceeded.

2.2 International law recognises that those affected are entitled to protection and
assistance. It defines legal obligations on states or warring parties to provide such
assistance or to allow it to be provided, as well as to prevent and refrain from behaviour
that violates fundamental human rights. These rights and obligations are contained in the
body of international human rights law, International Humanitarian Law and refugee law.
(See sources listed below).
Appendices 192

2.3 As humanitarian agencies, we define our role in relation to these primary roles and
responsibilities. Our role in providing humanitarian assistance reflects the reality that
those with primary responsibility are not always able or willing to perform this role
themselves. This is sometimes a matter of capacity. Sometimes it constitutes a wilful
disregard of fundamental legal and ethical obligations, the result of which is much
avoidable human suffering.

2.4 The frequent failure of warring parties to respect the humanitarian purpose of
interventions has shown that the attempt to provide assistance in situations of conflict
may potentially render civilians more vulnerable to attack, or may on occasion bring
unintended advantage to one or more of the warring parties. We are committed to
minimising any such adverse effects of our interventions in so far as this is consistent
with the obligations outlined above. It is the obligation of warring parties to respect the
humanitarian nature of such interventions.

2.5 In relation to the principles set out above and more generally, we recognise and
support the protection and assistance mandates of the International Committee of the Red
Cross and of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees under international
law.

3. MINIMUM STANDARDS

The Minimum Standards which follow are based on agencies' experience of providing
humanitarian assistance. Though the achievement of the standards depends on a range of
factors, many of which may be beyond our control, we commit ourselves to attempt
consistently to achieve them and we expect to be held to account accordingly. We invite
other humanitarian actors, including states themselves, to adopt these standards as
accepted norms.

By adhering to the standards set out in chapters 1 - 5 we commit ourselves to make every
effort to ensure that people affected by disasters have access to at least the minimum
requirements (water, sanitation, food, nutrition, shelter and health care) to satisfy their
basic right to life with dignity. To this end we will continue to advocate that governments
and other parties meet their obligations under international human rights law,
International Humanitarian Law and refugee law.

We expect to be held accountable to this commitment and undertake to develop systems
for accountability within our respective agencies, consortia and federations. We
acknowledge that our fundamental accountability must be to those we seek to assist.

Appendices 193

Notes
1. Articles 3 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948); Articles 6 and
7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966); common Article 3
of the four Geneva Conventions of (1949); Articles 23, 55 and 59 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention; Articles 69 to 71 of Additional Protocol I of 1977; Article 18 of Additional
Protocol II of 1977 as well as other relevant rules of International Humanitarian Law;
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (1984); Articles 10, 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social, and Cultural Rights (1966); Articles 6, 37, and 24 of the Convention on the Rights
of the Child (1989); and elsewhere in international law.
2. The distinction between combatants and non-combatants is the basic principle
underlying International Humanitarian Law. See in particular common Article 3 of the
Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Article 48 of Additional Protocol I of 1977. See
also Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).
3. Article 33 of the Convention on the Status of Refugees (1951); Article 3 of the
Punishment (1984); Article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).

Sources
The following instruments inform this Charter:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).
The Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977.
Convention on the Status of Refugees 1951 and the Protocol relating to the Status of
Refugees (1967).
Punishment (1984).
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948).
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (1998).

Appendices 194

APPENDIX 3

SUMMARY OF MINIMUM STANDARDSTHE SPHERE PROJECT

This section is an outline of the minimum standards in each of the five core sectors
described in Chapters 1 - 5: water supply and sanitation, nutrition, food aid, shelter
and site planning, and health services. Each chapter contains indicators, reference
notes, and guidance notes that, taken together, are essential for the interpretation
and application of the standards.

1. MINIMUM STANDARDS IN WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION

1.1 ANALYSIS
Standard 1 for Analysis: Initial Assessment
Program decisions are based on a demonstrated understanding of the
emergency situation and on a clear analysis of the health risks and needs
relating to water supply and sanitation.
Standard 2 for Analysis: Monitoring and Evaluation
The performance of the water supply and sanitation programme, its
effectiveness in responding to health problems related to water and
sanitation, and changes in the context are monitored and evaluated.
Standard 3 for Analysis: Participation
The disaster-affected population has the opportunity to participate in the
design and implementation of the assistance program.

1.2 WATER SUPPLY
Water Supply Standard 1: Access and Quantity of Water
All people have safe access to a sufficient quantity of water for drinking,
cooking and personal and domestic hygiene.
Public water points are sufficiently close to shelters to allow use of the
minimum water requirement.
Water Supply Standard 2: Water Quality
Water at the point of collection is palatable, and of sufficient quality to be
drunk and used for personal and domestic hygiene without causing
significant risk to health due to water-borne diseases, or to chemical or
radiological contamination from short term use.
Water Supply Standard 3: Water-Use Facilities and Goods
People have adequate facilities and supplies to collect, store and use
sufficient quantities of water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene,
and to ensure that drinking water remains sufficiently safe until it is
consumed.

Appendices 195

1.3 EXCRETA DISPOSAL
Excreta Disposal Standard 1: Access to, and Numbers Of Toilets
People have sufficient numbers of toilets, sufficiently close to their
dwellings to allow them rapid, safe and acceptable access at all times of
the day and night.
Excreta Standard 2: Design and Construction
People have access to toilets which are designed, constructed and
maintained in such a way as to be comfortable, hygienic and safe to use.

1.4 VECTOR CONTROL
Vector Control Standard 1: Individual And Family Protection
All persons have the means to protect themselves against the carriers of
disease and harmful organisms that present a significant risk to health and
well-being.
Vector Control Standard 2: Physical, Environmental And Chemical Protection
Measures
The number of disease-bearing vectors and nuisance animals that pose a
risk to peoples health and well-being are kept to an acceptable level.
Vector Control Standard 3: Good Practice In The Use Of Chemical Vector
Control Methods
Vector control measures that make use of pesticides are carried out in
accordance with agreed international norms to ensure that staff, the people
affected by the disaster and the local environment are adequately
protected, and to avoid creating resistance to pesticides.

1.5 SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
Solid Waste Management Standard 1: Solid Waste Collection And Disposal
People have an environment that is acceptably free of solid waste
contamination, including medical wastes.
Solid Waste Management Standard 2: Solid Waste Containers/Pits
People have the means to dispose of their domestic waste conveniently
and effectively.

1.6 DRAINAGE
Drainage Standard 1: Drainage Works
People have an environment that is acceptably free from risk of water
erosion and from standing water, including storm water, flood water,
domestic wastewater and wastewater from medical facilities.
Drainage Standard 2: Installations and Tools
People have the means (installations, tools, etc.) to dispose of domestic
wastewater and water point wastewater conveniently and effectively, and
to protect their shelters and other family or communal facilities from
flooding and erosion.

Appendices 196

1.7 HYGIENE PROMOTION
Hygiene Promotion Standard 1: Hygiene Behaviour And Use Of Facilities
All sections of the affected population are aware of priority hygiene
practices that create the greatest risk to health and are able to change them.
They have adequate information and resources for the use of water and
sanitation facilities to protect their health and dignity.
Hygiene Promotion Standard 2: Programme Implementation
All facilities and resources provided reflect the vulnerabilities, needs and
preferences of all sections of the affected population. Users are involved in
the management and maintenance of hygiene facilities where appropriate

1.8 HUMAN RESOURCE CAPACITY AND TRAINING
Capacity Standard 1: Competence
Water supply and sanitation programmes are implemented by staff who
have appropriate qualifications and experience for the duties involved, and
who are adequately managed and supported.

2. MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR NUTRITION

2.1 ANALYSIS
Analysis Standard 1: Initial Assessment
Before any programme decisions are made, there is a demonstrated
understanding of the basic nutritional situation and conditions which may
create risk of malnutrition.
Analysis standard 2: Response
If a nutrition intervention is required, there is a clear description of the
problem(s) and a documented strategy for the response.
Analysis Standard 3: Monitoring And Evaluation
The performance and effectiveness of the nutrition programme and
changes in the context are monitored and evaluated.
Analysis Standard 4: Participation
design and implementation of the assistance programme.

2.2 GENERAL NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT
General Nutritional Support Standard 1: Nutrient Supply
The nutritional needs of the population are met.
General Nutritional Support Standard 2: Food Quality And Safety
Food that is distributed is of sufficient quality and is safely handled so as
to be fit for human consumption.
General Nutritional Support Standard 3: Food Acceptability
Foods that are provided are appropriate and acceptable to the entire
population.
Appendices 197

General Nutritional Support Standard 4: Food Handling And Safety
Food is stored, prepared and consumed in a safe and appropriate manner,
both at household and community level.

2.3 NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT TO THOSE SUFFERING FROM
MALNUTRITION
Targeted Nutritional Support Standard 1: Moderate Malnutrition
The public health risks associated with moderate malnutrition are reduced.
Targeted Nutritional Support Standard 2: Severe Malnutrition
Mortality, morbidity and suffering associated with severe malnutrition are
reduced.
Targeted Nutritional Support Standard 3: Micronutrient Deficiencies
Micronutrient deficiencies are corrected.

Nutrition interventions are implemented by staff who have appropriate
qualifications and experience for the duties involved, and who are
adequately managed and supported.
Capacity Standard 2: Support
Members of the disaster-affected population receive support to enable
them to adjust to their new environment and to make optimal use of the
assistance provided to them.
Capacity Standard 3: Local Capacity
Local capacity and skills are used and enhanced by emergency nutrition
programmes.

3. MINIMUM STANDARDS IN FOOD AID

3.1 ANALYSIS
Before any programme decisions are made, there is a demonstrated
understanding of the basic conditions that create risk of food insecurity
and the need for food aid.
The performance and effectiveness of the food aid programme and

Appendices 198

3.2 REQUIREMENTS
Requirements Standard
The food basket and rations are designed to bridge the gap between the
affected populations requirements and their own food sources.

3.3 TARGETING
Targeting Standard
Recipients of food aid are selected on the basis of food need and/or
vulnerability to food insecurity.

3.4 RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Resource Management Standard
Food aid commodities and programme funds are managed, tracked, and
accounted for using a transparent and auditable system.

3.5 LOGISTICS
Logistics Standard
Agencies have the necessary organisational and technical capacity to
manage the procurement, receipt, transport, storage and distribution of
food commodities safely, efficiently and effectively.

3.6 DISTRIBUTION
Distribution Standard
The method of food distribution is equitable, and appropriate to local
conditions. Recipients are informed of their ration entitlement and its
rationale.

Food aid programmes are implemented by staff who have appropriate
Local capacity and skills are used and enhanced by food aid programmes.

4. MINIMUM STANDARDS IN SHELTER AND SITE PLANNING

4.1 ANALYSIS
Programme decisions are based on a demonstrated understanding of the
emergency situation and on a clear analysis of peoples needs for shelter,
clothing and household items.
The performance and effectiveness of the shelter and site programme and
Appendices 199


4.2 HOUSING (SHELTER)
Housing Standard 1: Living Quarters
People have sufficient covered space to provide protection from adverse
effects of the climate. They have sufficient warmth, fresh air, security and
privacy to ensure their dignity, health and well-being.

4.3 CLOTHING
Clothing Standard
The people affected by the disaster have sufficient blankets and clothing to
provide protection from the climate and to ensure their dignity, safety and
well-being.

4.4 HOUSEHOLD ITEMS
Household Items Standard 1: Items For Households And Livelihood Support
Families have access to household utensils, soap for personal hygiene and
tools for their dignity and well-being.
Household Items Standard 2: Environmental Concerns
Fuel-economic cooking implements and stoves are made available, and
their use is promoted.

4.5 SITE SELECTION AND PLANNING
Site Standard 1: Site Selection
The site is suitable to host the number of people involved.
Site Standard 2: Site Planning
Site planning ensures sufficient space for household areas and supports
peoples security and well-being. It provides for effective and efficient
provision of services and internal access.
Site Standard 3: Security
Site selection and planning ensure sufficient personal liberty and security
for the entire affected population.
Site Standard 4: Environmental Concerns
The site is planned and managed in such as way as to minimise damage to
the environment.

Shelter and site interventions are implemented by staff who have
appropriate qualifications and experience for the duties involved, and who
are adequately managed and supported.
Local skills and capacity are used and enhanced by shelter and site
programmes.
Appendices 200

5. MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR HEALTH SERVICES

5.1 ANALYSIS
The initial assessment determines as accurately as possible the health
effects of a disaster, identifies the health needs and establishes priorities
for health programming.
Analysis Standard 2: Health Information System - Data Collection
The health information system regularly collects relevant data on
population, diseases, injuries, environmental conditions and health
services in a standardised format in order to detect major health problems.
Analysis Standard 3: Health Information System - Data Review
Health information system data and changes in the disaster-affected
population are regularly reviewed and analysed for decision-making and
appropriate response.
Analysis Standard 4: Health Information System - Monitoring And Evaluation
Data collected is used to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions in
controlling disease and in preserving health.

5.2 MEASLES CONTROL
Measles Control Standard 1: Vaccination
In disaster-affected populations, all children 6 months to 12 years old
receive a dose of measles vaccine and an appropriate dose of vitamin A as
soon as possible.
Measles Control Standard 2: Vaccination Of Newcomers
Newcomers to displaced settlements are vaccinated systematically. All
children 6 months to 12 old years receive a dose of measles vaccine and an
appropriate dose of vitamin A.
Measles Control Standard 3: Outbreak Control
A systematic response is mounted for each outbreak of measles within the
disaster-affected population and the host community population.
Measles Control Standard 4: Case Management
All children who contract measles receive adequate care in order to avoid
serious sequellae or death.

5.3 CONTROL OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
Control Of Communicable Diseases Standard 1: Monitoring
The occurrence of communicable diseases is monitored.
Control Of Communicable Diseases Standard 2: Investigation And Control
Diseases of epidemic potential are investigated and controlled according
to internationally accepted norms and standards.

Appendices 201

5.4 HEALTH CARE SERVICES
Health Care Services Standard 1: Appropriate Medical Care
Emergency health care for disaster-affected populations is based on an
initial assessment and data from an ongoing health information system,
and serves to reduce excess mortality and morbidity through appropriate
medical care.
Health Care Services Standard 2: Reduction Of Morbidity And Mortality
Health care in emergencies follows primary health care (PHC) principles
and targets health problems that cause excess morbidity and mortality.

Health interventions are implemented by staff who have appropriate
Capacity Standard 2: Support
Members of the disaster-affected population receive support to enable
them to adjust to their new environment and to make optimal use of the
assistance provided to them.
Local capacity and skills are used and enhanced by emergency health
interventions.
Appendices 202

APPENDIX 4
(From the home page of the ICRC)

The Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
and NGOs in Disaster Relief

Prepared jointly by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the
ICRC [1]

Purpose

This Code of Conduct seeks to guard our standards of behaviour. It is not about operational details, such as
how one should calculate food rations or set up a refugee camp. Rather, it seeks to maintain the high
standards of independence, effectiveness and impact to which disaster response NGOs and the International
Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement aspires. It is a voluntary code, enforced by the will of organization
accepting it to maintain the standards laid down in the Code.

In the event of armed conflict, the present Code of Conduct will be interpreted and applied in conformity
with International Humanitarian Law.

The Code of Conduct is presented first. Attached to it are three annexes, describing the working
environment that we would like to see created by Host Governments, Donor Governments and
Intergovernmental Organizations in order to facilitate the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Definitions

NGOs: NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) refers here to organizations, both national and
international, which are constituted separate from the government of the country in which they are founded.

NGHAs: For the purposes of this text, the term Non Governmental Humanitarian Agencies (NGHAs) has
been coined to encompass the components of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement -
The International Committee of the Red Cross, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies and its member National Societies - and the NGOs as defined above. This code refers
specifically to those NGHAs who are involved in disaster response.

IGOs: IGOs (Inter-Governmental Organizations) refers to organizations constituted by two or more
governments. It thus includes all United Nations Agencies and regional organizations.

Disasters: A disaster is a calamitous event resulting in loss of life, great human suffering and distress, and
large scale material damage.

The Code of Conduct
Principles of Conduct for The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
and NGOs in Disaster Response Programmes

1. The Humanitarian imperative comes first

The right to receive humanitarian assistance, and to offer it, is a fundamental humanitarian principle which
should be enjoyed by all citizens of all countries. As members of the international community, we
recognize our obligation to provide humanitarian assistance wherever it is needed. Hence the need for
unimpeded access to affected populations, is of fundamental importance in exercising that responsibility.
The prime motivation of our response to disaster is to alleviate human suffering amongst those least able to
Appendices 203

withstand the stress caused by disaster. When we give humanitarian aid it is not a partisan or political act
and should not be viewed as such.

2. Aid is given regardless of the race, creed or nationality of the recipients and without adverse
distinction of any kind. Aid priorities are calculated on the basis of need alone

Wherever possible, we will base the provision of relief aid upon a thorough assessment of the needs of the
disaster victims and the local capacities already in place to meet those needs. Within the entirety of our
programmes, we will reflect considerations of proportionality. Human suffering must be alleviated
whenever it is found; life is as precious in one part of a country as another. Thus, our provision of aid will
reflect the degree of suffering it seeks to alleviate. In implementing this approach, we recognize the crucial
role played by women in disaster-prone communities and will ensure that this role is supported, not
diminished, by our aid programmes. The implementation of such a universal, impartial and independent
policy, can only be effective if we and our partners have access to the necessary resources to provide for
such equitable relief, and have equal access to all disaster victims.

3. Aid will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint

Humanitarian aid will be given according to the need of individuals, families and communities. Not
withstanding the right of NGHAs to espouse particular political or religious opinions, we affirm that
assistance will not be dependent on the adherence of the recipients to those opinions. We will not tie the
promise, delivery or distribution of assistance to the embracing or acceptance of a particular political or
religious creed.

4. We shall endeavour not to act as instruments of government foreign policy

NGHAs are agencies which act independently from governments. We therefore formulate our own policies
and implementation strategies and do not seek to implement the policy of any government, except in so far
as it coincides with our own independent policy. We will never knowingly - or through negligence - allow
ourselves, or our employees, to be used to gather information of a political, military or economically
sensitive nature for governments or other bodies that may serve purposes other than those which are strictly
humanitarian, nor will we act as instruments of foreign policy of donor governments. We will use the
assistance we receive to respond to needs and this assistance should not be driven by the need to dispose of
donor commodity surpluses, nor by the political interest of any particular donor. We value and promote the
voluntary giving of labour and finances by concerned individuals to support our work and recognize the
independence of action promoted by such voluntary motivation. In order to protect our independence we
will seek to avoid dependence upon a single funding source.

5. We shall respect culture and custom

We will endeavour to respect the culture, structures and customs of the communities and countries we are
working in.

6. We shall attempt to build disaster response on local capacities

All people and communities - even in disaster - possess capacities as well as vulnerabilities. Where
possible, we will strengthen these capacities by employing local staff, purchasing local materials and
trading with local companies. Where possible, we will work through local NGHAs as partners in planning
and implementation, and co-operate with local government structures where appropriate. We will place a
high priority on the proper co-ordination of our emergency responses. This is best done within the countries
concerned by those most directly involved in the relief operations, and should include representatives of the
relevant UN bodies.

7. Ways shall be found to involve programme beneficiaries in the management of relief aid

Disaster response assistance should never be imposed upon the beneficiaries. Effective relief and lasting
Appendices 204

rehabilitation can best be achieved where the intended beneficiaries are involved in the design,
management and implementation of the assistance programme. We will strive to achieve full community
participation in our relief and rehabilitation programmes.

8. Relief aid must strive to reduce future vulnerabilities to disaster as well as meeting basic needs

All relief actions affect the prospects for long term development, either in a positive or a negative fashion.
Recognizing this, we will strive to implement relief programmes which actively reduce the beneficiaries'
vulnerability to future disasters and help create sustainable lifestyles. We will pay particular attention to
environmental concerns in the design and management of relief programmes. We will also endeavour to
minimize the negative impact of humanitarian assistance, seeking to avoid long-term beneficiary
dependence upon external aid.

9. We hold ourselves accountable to both those we seek to assist and those from whom we accept
resources

We often act as an institutional link in the partnership between those who wish to assist and those who need
assistance during disasters. We therefore hold ourselves accountable to both constituencies. All our
dealings with donors and beneficiaries shall reflect an attitude of openness and transparency. We recognize
the need to report on our activities, both from a financial perspective and the perspective of effectiveness.
We recognize the obligation to ensure appropriate monitoring of aid distributions and to carry out regular
assessments of the impact of disaster assistance. We will also seek to report, in an open fashion, upon the
impact of our work, and the factors limiting or enhancing that impact. Our programmes will be based upon
high standards of professionalism and expertise in order to minimize the wasting of valuable resources.

10. In our information, publicity and advertising activities, we shall recognize disaster victims as
dignified humans, not hopeless objects

Respect for the disaster victim as an equal partner in action should never be lost. In our public information
we shall portray an objective image of the disaster situation where the capacities and aspirations of disaster
victims are highlighted, and not just their vulnerabilities and fears. While we will cooperate with the media
in order to enhance public response, we will not allow external or internal demands for publicity to take
precedence over the principle of maximizing overall relief assistance. We will avoid competing with other
disaster response agencies for media coverage in situations where such coverage may be to the detriment of
the service provided to the beneficiaries or to the security of our staff or the beneficiaries.

The Working Environment

Having agreed unilaterally to strive to abide by the Code laid out above, we present below some indicative
guidelines which describe the working environment we would like to see created by donor governments,
host governments and the inter-governmental organisations - principally the agencies of the United Nations
- in order to facilitate the effective participation of NGHAs in disaster response.

These guidelines are presented for guidance. They are not legally binding, nor do we expect governments
and IGOs to indicate their acceptance of the guidelines through the signature of any document, although
this may be a goal to work to in the future. They are presented in a spirit of openness and cooperation so
that our partners will become aware of the ideal relationship we would seek with them.

Annex I : Recommendations to the governments of disaster affected countries

1. Governments should recognize and respect the independent, humanitarian and impartial actions
of NGHAs
NGHAs are independent, bodies. This independence and impartiality should be respected by host
governments.

2. Host governments should facilitate rapid access to disaster victims for NGHAs
Appendices 205

If NGHAs are to act in full compliance with their humanitarian principles, they should be granted rapid and
impartial access to disaster victims, for the purpose of delivering humanitarian assistance. It is the duty of
the host government, as part of the exercising of sovereign responsibility, not to block such assistance, and
to accept the impartial and apolitical action of NGHAs. Host governments should facilitate the rapid entry
of relief staff, particularly by waiving requirements for transit, entry and exit visas, or arranging that these
are rapidly granted. Governments should grant over-flight permission and landing rights for aircraft
transporting international relief supplies and personnel, for the duration of the emergency relief phase.

3. Governments should facilitate the timely flow of relief goods and information during disasters
Relief supplies and equipment are brought into a country solely for the purpose of alleviating human
suffering, not for commercial benefit or gain. Such supplies should normally be allowed free and
unrestricted passage and should not be subject to requirements for consular certificates of origin or
invoices, import and/or export licences or other restrictions, or to importation taxation, landing fees or port
charges.

The temporary importation of necessary relief equipment, including vehicles, light aircraft and
telecommunications equipment, should be facilitated by the receiving host government through the
temporary waving of licence or registration restrictions. Equally, governments should not restrict the re-
exportation of relief equipment at the end of a relief operation.

To facilitate disaster communications, host governments are encouraged to designate certain radio
frequencies, which relief organizations may use in-country and for international communications for the
purpose of disaster communications, and to make such frequencies known to the disaster response
community prior to the disaster. They should authorize relief personnel to utilize all means of
communication required for their relief operations.

4. Governments should seek to provide a co-ordinated disaster information and planning service
The overall planning and coordination of relief efforts is ultimately the responsibility of the host
government. Planning and coordination can be greatly enhanced if NGHAs are provided with information
on relief needs and government systems for planning and implementing relief efforts as well as information
on potential security risks they may encounter. Governments are urged to provide such information to
NGHAs.

To facilitate effective coordination and the efficient utilization of relief efforts, host governments are urged
to designate, prior to disaster, a single point-of-contact for incoming NGHAs to liaise with the national
authorities.

5. Disaster relief in the event of armed conflict
In the event of armed conflict, relief actions are governed by the relevant provisions of International
Humanitarian Law.

Annex II : Recommendations to donor governments

1. Donor governments should recognize and respect the independent, humanitarian and impartial
actions of NGHAs
NGHAs are independent bodies whose independence and impartiality should be respected by donor
governments. Donor governments should not use NGHAs to further any political or ideological aim.

2. Donor governments should provide funding with a guarantee of operational independence
NGHAs accept funding and material assistance from donor governments in the same spirit as they render it
to disaster victims; one of humanity and independence of action. The implementation of relief actions is
ultimately the responsibility of the NGHA and will be carried out according to the policies of that NGHA.

3. Donor governments should use their good offices to assist NGHAs in obtaining access to disaster
victims
Donor governments should recognize the importance of accepting a level of responsibility for the security
Appendices 206

and freedom of access of NGHA staff to disaster sites. They should be prepared to exercise diplomacy with
host governments on such issues if necessary.

Annex III : Recommendations to intergovernmental organisations

1. IGOs should recognize NGHAs, local and foreign, as valuable partners
NGHAs are willing to work with UN and other intergovernmental agencies to effect better disaster
response. They do so in a spirit of partnership which respects the integrity and independence of all partners.
Intergovernmental agencies must respect the independence and impartiality of the NGHAs. NGHAs should
be consulted by UN agencies in the preparation of relief plans.

2. IGOs should assist host governments in providing an overall coordinating framework for
international and local disaster relief
NGHAs do not usually have the mandate to provide the overall coordinating framework for disasters which
require an international response. This responsibility falls to the host government and the relevant United
Nations authorities. They are urged to provide this service in a timely and effective manner to serve the
affected state and the national and international disaster response community. In any case, NGHAs should
make all efforts to ensure the effective co-ordination of their own services.

In the event of armed conflict, relief actions are governed by the relevant provisions of International
Humanitarian Law.

3. IGOs should extend security protection provided for UN organizations, to NGHAs
Where security services are provided for intergovernmental organisations, this service should be extended
to their operational NGHA partners where it is so requested.

4. IGOs should provide NGHAs with the same access to relevant information as is granted to UN
organisations
IGOs are urged to share all information, pertinent to the implementation of effective disaster response, with
their operational NGHA partners.

End-of-Course Examination Instructions 207

The End-of-Course Examination is provided as
a separate component of this course.

The examination questions cover the material in
all the lessons of this course.

Read each question carefully and
follow the provided instructions to submit your exam for scoring.

End-of-Course
Examination Instructions
End-of-Course Examination Instructions 208

INFORMATION ABOUT THE END-OF-COURSE EXAMINATION

Format of Questions

The End-of-Course Examination consists of 50 questions. Exam questions
generally give you a choice of answers, marked as A, B, C, or D. You may choose only
one response as the correct answer.

Time Limit to Complete the End-of-Course Examination

Because your enrolment in the course is valid for one year only, the examination
must be submitted before your enrolment expires.

Passing Grade

A score of 75% is the minimum score required for a passing grade. You will be
presented with an electronic Certificate of Completion when you pass your exam. If your
score is less than 75%, you will be informed that you have received a failing grade. You
will be provided with an alternate version of the End-of-Course Examination, which you
may complete when you feel you are ready. If you pass the second version of the
examination, you will be presented with an electronic Certificate of Completion. If you
fail the second time, you will be informed and dis-enrolled from the course.

TO VIEW OR SUBMIT YOUR EXAMINATION,
PLEASE VISIT THE WEBSITE FOR YOUR
TRAINING PROGRAMME.

IF YOU ARE UNSURE OF YOUR
PROGRAMMES WEBSITE, VISIT
HTTP://WWW.PEACEOPSTRAINING.ORG/JOIN.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

M. Yvan CONOIR holds an MBA and is a Graduateof theInstitute
of High International Studies of Geneva. He started his career as a journalist
and later worked for 20 years with the High Commissioner of United
Nations for Refugees (UNHCR), UNICEF, Care Canada, the Centre
canadien dtudes et de coopration internationale (CECI) and the Pearson
Peacekeeping Centre (PPC), in directing, managerial, and developmental
functions. In his professional life, he developed and managed a great variety
of Humanitarian, Reconstruction, DDR, Peacebuilding, Capacity-building,
and Training programmes. His mandates brought him to work and live in
Central, Eastern and Western Africa, South Asia, Central America, Europe,
and the Balkans, as well as to work as a consultant for CIDA, the World
Bank, and the European Commission. He authored various journalistic and
academic publications. He also co-edited LAction humanitaire du Canada
(PUL-2002); Faire la paix concepts et pratiques de la consolidation de la
paix (PUL-2005); and DDR dfis humains, enjeux globaux (PUL-2006); as
well as specialized manuals for Peace Operations Training Institute. He is
also a Research Associate of the Chaire Raoul Dandurand in Strategic and
Diplomatic Studies (UQAM) and teaches at the Political Science and
Management departments of the University of Qubec in Montral
(UQAM), the University of Qubec in Outaouais (UQO), and the Universit
Laval (Qubec).

Yvan Conoir is Programme Coordinator for E-Learning for African
Peacekeepers (ELAP) for Peace Operations Training Institute, which offers
free on-line distance courses on peace support operations for all African
peacekeepers. He can be reached at Conoir@peaceopstraining.org.

HRO 090201

www.peaceopstraining.org

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THE CONDUCT OF HUMANITARIAN RELIEF OPERATIONS:

PRINCIPLES OF INTERVENTION AND MANAGEMENT

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