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

by Hugo Slim

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Society, Philosophy

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite simply the best book on the subject (even though there probably aren't many books on humanitarian ethics!). Slim provides an overview of ethical inquiry, as well as key humanitarian principles and ethical challenges they often face. It provides an interesting analysis of how ethical humanitarians can navigate complex contexts, while avoiding the kind of paternalistic "we are here to help you" approaches which have not succeeded in the past. An incredible read, which for any professional humanitarian, will lead to a large amount of introspection.

[Nico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to read for all humanitarian workers. It definitely makes you reflect on the humanitarian field in general but also your role in it. I wish he had discussed more extensively about the practice that certain NGOs seem to have at times concerning putting security risks into national staff through methods of such as using the pretext of partnerships to in a way delegate the risks and dangers to a different "partner" NGO.

[Louise Bloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slim does an excellent job of summarising the moral, historical and emotional world that has made up the humanitarian sector. He balances the existence, and need, of humanitarian work with the sea of moral dilemas that surrounds it.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10. As far as required reading is concerned, this one was pretty solid. I learned from the discussions about why we feel the need to provide aid for other humans and whether humanitarian aid should be political or not.

[Inah Ja · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a great book to read butI have a higher expectation from this book which i wish it has more discussion on current ethical dilemmas

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book by a great expert.

[Mills College Library]

361.26 S6335 2015