Hans-Joachim Heintze

Pat Gibbons

This book includes contributions from academics, practitioners and policy-makers connected with the Network on Humanitarian Action (NOHA), an international association of universities that is committed to interdisciplinary education and research on humanitarian action. Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of NOHA, this book highlights some of the most pressing issues and challenges facing humanitarian action and explores potential solutions. Drawing on theory and practice, and spanning a broad range of subject matter, the book explores the origin of key concepts such as human security, reconciliation and resilience and questions their effectiveness in the pursuit of humanitarian ends. It also charts current developments in the humanitarian system, in particular in its legal and financial frameworks. Issues relating to humanitarian stakeholders, such as the role of the media and the protection of humanitarian workers, are also addressed. The contributions are influenced by a range of disciplines, including anthropology, political science, legal studies and communications.

20 Years European Network on Humanitarian Action (NOHA)

The Humanitarian Challenge

Brigitte Piquard

The intensification and multiplicity of protracted conflicts, the blurring of traditional distinctions between war zones and safe areas, together with increased difficulties in distinguishing botween belligerents and civilian population have all served to worsen the fate of innocent victims and to complicate the work of those who try to assist them. Actors who claim space under the humanitarian banner are guided by varying principles of humanitarianism or employ diflerent interpretations of a small number of acknowledged humanitarian principles. This book addresses some of the main challenges and dilemmas of contemporary humanitarian work. It presents a selection of papers from a high level forum that the Network on Humanitarian Assistance (NOHA) convened in 2003 as an introductory course to its Joint European Master's in International Humanitarian Action. The event gathered over two hundred participants including researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and postgraduate students from around the world. The first section of the book explores the meaning of the «humanitarian» concept. The second analyses the evolving mandates of humanitarian actors under a number of broad groupings and, finally, the third examines the scope of the humanitarian business and the relationship between humanitarian action and conflict transformation - hence the title working in conflict/working on conflict.

Pat Gibbons

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