CAFOD Director reasserts humanitarian principles
On 18 July 2012, CAFOD Director Chris Bain spoke at the United Nations about the importance of humanitarian principles when responding to emergencies.
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Whatever the crisis, CAFOD’s humanitarian response is based on four humanitarian principles: humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. But delivering a response that sticks to those principles can be complex, especially in conflict situations.
In a meeting at the United Nations, Chris Bain asked: “What happens beyond the fine words, and pledges to principle? What happens out in the real world, away from the safe confines of the UN Headquarters? What happens in Somalia, or Syria, or Sudan? How far is it possible in reality to [keep] humanitarian action… clearly distinct from political action?”
He said that blurring the lines between humanitarian aid and political objectives – for example as part of the “war on terror” – could have disastrous consequences.
“In Somalia at least 29 humanitarian agencies have been expelled since 2008 alone amidst accusations that their motivation was not purely humanitarian,” he said.
“More seriously, some 76 humanitarian workers have been killed during that time.”
Working with local partners
Chris stressed that it was important that governments, aid agencies and other organisations understood and stuck to the four humanitarian principles. He suggested that CAFOD’s approach of working with local partners was one way of avoiding some of the pitfalls.
He said: “Increasingly the international providers of humanitarian aid have to rely on local people to gain access, whether this is in places like Syria where the local churches and their institutions have been working before the conflict, are working there now and will continue after the conflict, or situations affected by the global war on terror.
“Partnership seems to be the only viable approach, and certainly in the recent example in Mali where the government has refused to permit access by non-Islamic international actors, this seems to be the way forward.”
We are currently working with local partners to respond to emergencies in several countries affected by conflict, including Mali, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
