Between Aid and Politics: diagnosing the challenge of humanitarian advocacy in politically complex environments—the case of Darfur, Sudan

Abstract

Humanitarian advocacy is emblematic of the relief community's desire to move beyond simply treating the symptoms of suffering, and towards tackling the causes. As such, advocacy is at the front line of debates over where the boundaries between aid and politics should now be drawn and the point where dissension on the subject is most evident. In this paper the challenge that advocacy poses for traditional humanitarian operations in Darfur and the effect of such political engagement on humanitarian identity more generally is assessed. Disagreement among humanitarian organisations is exacerbated by the continued tendency of aid agencies to privilege reaction over reflection. Floundering between unachievable traditional humanitarian principles and the failure of human rights to provide an adequate alternative, humanitarianism is swiftly losing both its identity and its legitimacy. To emerge from the fog of confusion humanitarianism must now take on the professionalism of military science and endeavour to better know both itself and its enemies.

Human Rights Protection in Global Politics

“…( (Bridges 2010(Bridges : 1265. The Council has largely distanced itself from its own International Commission of Inquiry's findings of war crimes and crimes against humanity and that they were centrally planned and ordered by Khartoum authorities (UNSC 2004a;UN 2005: 3-5;133-143).…”

“…There is enormous pressure on humanitarian actors in Darfur to 'do something' but the protection decisions within their remit are often suboptimal and not reinforced by other measures at the regional or international levels. Perhaps most importantly as it relates to the Council's satisficing approach, the risks of reprisal that humanitarian actors accrue for taking on a tertiary responsibility to protect are far greater than those that would accrue to the international community (Bridges 2010(Bridges : 1261.…”

“…Darfur has been described as a crisis of protection (Bridges 2010(Bridges : 1256. As such, much of the civilian protection in Darfur has been carried out through Protection Working Groups, the country-level Protection Cluster, and the Khartoum Protection Steering Group.…”

Five shades of grey: variants of ‘political’ humanitarianism

“…For K.M. Bridges (2010Bridges ( , p. 1251, for instance, 'humanitarian advocacy is emblematic of the relief community's desire to move beyond simply treating the symptoms of suffering, and towards tackling the causes'. This conflation has marred the normative debate about the desirability of different approaches.…”

Confronting Humanitarian Insecurity

“…On the other hand, case study and comparative research paints a mixed and uncertain picture of the actual impact of more targeted public advocacy focused on particular combatants, contexts, and incidents. There are some contexts where advocacy has evidently influenced combatants' behaviour (in particular, where parties to a conflict are concerned for their reputation and legitimacy in the eyes of the international community) and other instances when advocacy has appeared to be ineffective or even to escalate tensions (Leader, 2000;Atkinson and Leader, 2000;Bridges, 2010;Médecins Sans Frontières International Movement, 2013, 2014a, 2014b, 2014c, 2015a, 2015bBussmann and Schneider, 2016).…”