Humanitarian Ethics: A Guide to the Morality of Aid in War and Disaster - Softcover

Slim, Hugo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184904340X ISBN 13: 9781849043403

Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, 2015

Synopsis

Humanitarians are required to be impartial, independent, professionally competent and focused only on preventing and alleviating human suffering. It can be hard living up to these principles when others do not share them, while persuading political and military authorities and non-state actors to let an agency assist on the ground requires savvy ethical skills. Getting first to a conflict or natural catastrophe is only the beginning, as aid workers are usually and immediately presented with practical and moral questions about what to do next. For example, when does working closely with a warring party or an immoral regime move from practical cooperation to complicity in human rights violations? Should one operate in camps for displaced people and refugees if they are effectively places of internment? Do humanitarian agencies inadvertently encourage ethnic cleansing by always being ready to 'mop-up' the consequences of scorched earth warfare? This book has been written to help humanitarians assess and respond to these and other ethical dilemmas.

About this title

Review:

'Few fields of human enterprise are as morally challenging as humanitarian aid, especially in wartime. Hugo Slim has written the essential handbook of ethical expertise for aid workers, aid organizations and students of ethics and humanitarianism. It is comprehensive, passionate and has the special gift of lucidly exploring moral complexities.' --Alex de Waal, Executive Director, World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School, Tufts University

'Slim writes in a very engaging manner that is both erudite and easy to read, professional and personal at the same time, as humanitarianism must be. One really feels he himself has struggled with many of the dilemmas he describes and is eager to share his experience.' --The Jordan Times

'In this brilliant and incisive work, Hugo Slim develops a much needed moral compass that helps aid workers, both seasoned and novice, to navigate the tensions between principle and practice as well as the shoals of political manipulation in humanitarian action. An invaluable tool that should be in every humanitarian s grab bag.' --Antonio Donini, editor of The Golden Fleece: Manipulation and Independence in Humanitarian Action

From the Author:

Hugo Slim (PhD) is a leading scholar of Humanitarian Studies with particular expertise in humanitarian ethics, the protection of civilians, conflict resolution, and international business ethics. He is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and author of Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in War (Hurst, 2008).

About this edition

• Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 184904340X
• ISBN 13: 9781849043403
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224