The Humanitarian Intervention And International Aid

The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster is an inside look into the realities behind international aid and intervention. The book answers the question of whether or not international efforts in Haiti really benefited the nation in the long term. The book argues that the international community failed in their efforts to rebuild Haiti due to their mismatched military approaches, failed monetary pledges and how the how billions of dollars were ineffective, having served only short term needs instead of, rebuilding solid foundations and institutions that would serve as the first step toward sustainable development.

“I have spent the last four years watching people die.” In his 2005 Massey Lectures, Stephen Lewis, a Canadian politician and humanitarian, caught the attention of millions with these words. Within these lectures, he shared his experiences of watching Africans suffer through the AIDS pandemic, and critically examined how the neglect of global communities and their discrimination contributed to its failure to resolve. While the rest of the world seemed to be unresponsive to an AIDS-ravaged continent, Mr. Lewis found himself passionately involved in the crisis and began to take action. Since his involvement with the United Nations in 1984, Stephen Lewis has tirelessly advocated for African citizens affected by HIV and AIDS, ensured that health care and treatment is provided to victims, and reached out to African citizens with education and counseling through his organizations. Through all of this, Stephen Lewis has proven to be one of Canada’s most influential humanitarian advocates for impacting the HIV and AIDS pandemic in Africa.

Humanitarian Intervention is military intervention that is carried out in pursuit of humanitarian rather than strategic objectives. This term is controversial and therefore often debated, as it is an evaluative and subjective term. The common use of the term itself is the desire to come in help to other people, however according to some other opinions, it is the outcome of the intervention that defines it. Firstly, it is essential to define what is meant by the word abandoned in this context. As HI has been happening throughout history, abandoned would imply an on-going lack or diminishing numbers of interventions.

It is unfortunate how often we hear about a disaster occurring in Africa. From civil wars in Somalia and Congo, famine in Yemen and viruses spreading through Liberia, people associate Africa as being chaotic, violent, corrupt, and incredibly poor to the point many Americans still believe animals freely roam in the cities. Naturally, many people and organizations feel the need to bring order and peace to the continent, by policing it, spreading the word of God among the natives, or provide resources such as food, water, or money. However, most people never take the time to learn of African culture and traditions, or understand that some Africans are content with what they have and how things work. We label them as being poor because they do not match our preconceptions of happiness, as we believe living comfortably with others leads to happiness.

Unlike HIV or other global viruses, Ebola is until this day geographically restrained, facilitating the deduction that the responsible originated from West Africa or returned from areas confirmed as danger zones. The list of suspects is indeed rather short: it amounts to Western Africans travelling to America and U.S. citizen contaminated in the same region. The latter category is, as cases in the western world indicate, consisted virtually exclusively of humanitarian helpers and health personal having been in contact with Ebola patients. Albeit these categories are subject to broad generalizations, they are the fruit of the apparent human condition to investigate, regardless of the rationality behind the reasoning. Seale baptised these generalisations “health imagined communities” (Seale, 2007, p. 92). Lupton emphasized on the experience that constructed risk communities don’t differ from real risk communities as much in their consequences as they do in their

What was usually a disease contained in regions of sub-Saharan Africa became a global worry. Although the outbreak started in Guinea, it quickly spread to two neighboring countries. From these three countries, cases were then transmitted to the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom. No vaccine was available to stop the spread of Ebola. This deadly disease went from being a problem in only a small region of the world to being seen in three noncontiguous countries, which could have sowed the seeds of a pandemic had the cases not been contained. As a global community, we gain from our interactions with all citizens, but we must also be aware that we can also suffer from diseases that we think of as only affecting the “others.” If we do not help those “others,” we may become part of

Humanitarian action is what the world turns to in case there is a crisis in any part of the world. But as David Rieff suggests in his book, “A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis,” there is a crisis in the humanitarian world and space. He draws from first personal experience in places like Bosnia, Rwanda and Kosovo to tell how some of the challenges humanitarian organizations face; including their struggle to be neutral and apolitical.

In both Ebola Outbreak by Dabbous and A mask on the Face of Death by Seltzer they discuss the social and political problems contributing to the spread of Ebola and HIV/AIDS. These Epidemics continue to spread thought out the world to millions of people. The main areas that these diseases began to spread began in very poverty stricken countries. Not only did poverty play a role in the spread but both Dabbous and Seltzer pointed out the lack of education in the area which leads people to easily be manipulated by stories about the diseases. The cultural practices in these areas contribute majorly to the spread of the Ebola and the AIDS virus. These viruses continue to spread to other parts of the world and is hard to contain to a specific location.

Throughout the world, there are many humanitarian organizations, there are many that we don’t know of. Some of these humanitarian programmes range from local, national to international. There will be one of each of these organizations introduced.

In 1991 Sierra Leone entered into a period of civil war that lasted until 2002, killing over 50,000 people, devastating the economy and heavily damaging the country’s infrastructure. (About Sierra Leone,” n.d.). More recently, Sierra Leone is one of three countries most seriously impacted by a deadly Ebola epidemic. The Ebola outbreak created a financial drain on government resources due to the immediate, costly requirements to handle population health and medical needs.

The outbreak engulfing three countries in West Africa began in Guinea when a toddler contracted the virus from eating an infected bat in an impoverished village where bushmeat is a dietary staple – again highlighting the disparity in living standards and socio-economic status between core and peripheral nations. Infectious disease like Ebola have mostly been exorcised from developed countries because a basic level of health is ensured through the government, private sector, or social agency. Unfortunately, the poor in Guinea avoid seeking aid because they cannot afford to, as discussed above. Also, fear of and lack of trust in authority prevents individuals from seeking medical attention – this distrust has stemmed

The debate of humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect have been discussed in international relations discourse more seriously within the last 60 years. The major historical developments which have led to an increase in the intensity of these debates have had beneficial and detrimental effects on Earth within the last 20 years. Several factors have contributed to this including; globalization, the rise in international accountability, an increase humanitarian consciousness to prevent major atrocities from occurring, the expansion of territorial to global responsibility of the western world, and the realization of the western world that regional sovereignty no longer accounts for national security. To develop an opinion

The key objections to humanitarian intervention include the conflict of interests with the self-interested state and sovereignty, the difficulty of internal legitimacy, the problematical Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, and the debate over legality of intervention. The issue of morality stands as an overarching issue which touches on all of these. Overall, one finds that despite a moral imperative to intervene, humanitarian intervention should not occur but is perhaps the lesser of a series of evils.

Humanitarian intervention is the act when states intervene in the affairs of another state because that state is violating the basic human rights of its civilians or because it is in the intervening state’s self interest to get involved. (Humanitarian, 2008) These interventions are not specifically aimed at violating the sovereignty of a state, but rather their purpose is to protect the basic human rights of civilians during civil wars and during crime against humanity. (Humanitarian, 2008) Realism explains that humanitarian intervention came about during the genocide in Bosnia but not in Rwanda because even though it might have been the correct moral action to take, intervention in Rwanda was not in the national interest of other

Much recent discourse surrounding humanitarian intervention has focused on the responsibility to protect (R2P). Prevention is a key component for good international relations and few would say it is not important, but as evidence to date would show prevention is very ineffective, the legality of military intervention still needs to be debated, as to date there is no consensus. For any intervention to be legitimate, whether unilateral or multilateral, it must comply with international law. So as not to cause any confusion, any situation in which an “intervention” is done with the permission or by request of the state being intervened, should be considered humanitarian assistance as state sovereignty is not breached. This paper will