DER DONAURAUM

Jahrgang 55 – Heft 3-4/2015

Edin Ajdinović

Challenges of Humanitarian Aid-Relief

Operations: From Migration Policies to
Field Work in Aid Relief
Introduction
In the history of modern warfare, the role and the rapid response of humanitarian relief
agencies have significantly grown. Since the end of WWII and the establishment of the
United Nations and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as
a binding document, states have taken on a responsibility to protect civilians in conflict
areas by abiding to International Humanitarian Law, International Law and the Geneva
Convention. The latest non-international conflicts demand that international organiza-
tions and political institutions come up with a strategy to protect civilians from harm.
The obstacles imposed by inner and outer factors of the conflict upon aid relief action
in saving civilians from unnecessary harm raises the question whether there needs to
be a change of strategy and principles with regard to humanitarian relief, its dispatch
and the work of its agencies in the field. In addition, the adoption of migration and
anti-migration policies has significantly influenced the discourse of humanitarian aid
relief operations. The lack of objective media reporting and the presence of a political
aim to demonise aid relief agencies also pose a significant threat to humanitarian prin-
ciples such as neutrality and impartiality. International human rights organizations
(Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, etc.) have also indicated that civilians
fleeing the conflict tend to avoid refugee camps because of their implication in further
human rights violations.
The history of humanitarian (military approach) interventions, frequently in joint
action together with humanitarian aid relief agencies, has resulted in a wide range of
possible interpretations of the word “humanitarian”. Therefore, humanitarian aid relief
organizations’ rapid response in non-international armed conflicts tends to be per-
ceived as a political course of action, which is reflected in media reports and political
decision-making regarding the overall work of humanitarian aid relief agencies.

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Migration policies in confrontation with migrations

“Assessments of the influence of migration on development have varied over time:
sometimes migration has been beneficial and at others detrimental to development,
depending on the historical moment and circumstances”1. The changing dynamics of
migrations and differing categorization of migrants has indeed led to the adoption of
a range of migration policy action plans. Migration and anti-migration policies are
noticeably present on the political agenda. Political agendas favouring anti-migration
policies aim to reduce or stop migration influx on the grounds of safety risks, even con-
travening mobility rights. International organizations, on the other hand, have taken
steps to adopt political declarations aimed at establishing a unified migration-gover-
nance framework that opts for controlled and regular migration. The following chal-
lenges have been identified by the migration governance framework at EU level:
 Setting coherent goals for resettlement efforts
 Governments rarely articulate in a clear and detailed way the specific goal of a
resettlement programme, which can range from a desire to share responsibility
with first-asylum countries to the aim of reducing spontaneous asylum flows.
 Creating a strategic impact
 Even when goals are clearly stated, balancing the constraints of national processing,
reception, and integration capacity with the desire to achieve a specific impact
can be a challenge. This is particularly the case for small-scale programmes.
 Ensuring efficient refugee resettlement
 Maintaining a coherent resettlement effort requires extensive management of the
process, including review and vetting of prospective refugees. These procedures
can be resource intensive, especially of resettlement efforts are spread out across
multiple refugee situations.
 Facilitating success after resettlement
“Regardless of their broader goals, all resettlement efforts aim to ensure that re-
fugees can settle into their new communities. Authorities face a number of choice
when determining how best to invest in integration.”2
These interlocking challenges are derived from separate aims envisaged by govern-
ments, non-governmental organizations and civil society. A harmonization of these
aims influences failures in the implementation of policy goals and integrative resettle-

1 Ninna Nyberg Sørensen, Nicholas Van Hear, Poul Engberg-Pedersen, Migration, Development and Conflict:
State-of-the-Art Overview. Geneva: The International Organization for Migration 2003, p. 6.
2 Hanne Beirens, Susan Fratzke, Taking stock of refugee resettlement. Policy Objectives, Practical Tradeoffs,
and the Evidence Base. Brussels: Migration Policy Institute 2017.

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ment. With regard to underdeveloped states that are influenced by migratory move-
ments, one needs to address the question of capacities in dealing with refugee flows.
In addition, the failure of the Dublin Agreement III has generated further difficulties
in sustaining migration flows. “The core principle under the Dublin agreement III
is that the responsibility for examining an asylum claim lies first and foremost with
the Member State which played the greatest part in the applicant’s entry to the EU”.3
Facilitating success after resettlement has been profoundly hindered by anti-migration
views that doubt refugees’ compatibility in the country of their asylum application.
Disunity and political disputes among EU member states (Greece, the Visegrád group
and others) have led states to adopt national level anti-migration policies:
“The EU migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Thursday that
unless the flow of migration weakened in the next 10 days, ‘there is risk the whole
system will completely break down.’ The numerous splits in Europe over immigration
policy were fully evident in Wednesday’s Vienna meeting, which was unilaterally called
by Austria and snubbed both the Germans and the Greeks. Speaking before a crucial
meeting of European ministers in Brussels on Thursday, the Greek migration minister,
Yannis Mouzalas, said Greece would not be left by the rest of the EU to become the
‘Lebanon of Europe by hosting millions of migrants and refugees’ ”.4
In addition to anti-migration policies, partnerships among countries have been
affected where they were caught up in the migration flow in light of humanitarian
catastrophes and security breaches as well as the emergence of human trafficking, ex-
posing the lives of migrants at risk. In some cases, borders were closed:
“The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called for
better planning and accommodation for at least 24,000 it said were stuck in Greece,
including 8,500 at Idomeni. ‘Europe is on the cusp of a largely self-induced hu-
manitarian crisis,’ U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards told a news
briefing. ‘The crowded conditions are leading to shortages of food, shelter, water
and sanitation. As we all saw yesterday, tensions have been building, fuelling
violence and playing into the hands of people smugglers,’ he said.”5
The anti-migration policies have in fact generated dangerous measures that increase
human trafficking, forced labour and the potential deaths of refugees who did not, after
all, embark upon migration voluntarily. From the legal perspective, international treaties
such as the 1951 Refugee Convention and International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights may be violated. This raises the question of whether anti-migration policies are
being adopted in accordance with international treaties, and how policy makers are

3 European Comission, Questions & Answers: Recommendation on the conditions for resuming Dublin
transfers of asylum seekers to Greece. Brussels: Press release, December 2016.
4 Greece recalls ambassador from Austria over EU refugees row, in: The Guardian, February 2016.

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identifying strategic goals in writing policies. “Without clearly specified goals, it is im-

possible to evaluate the success of a resettlement initiative and make needed course
adjustments; it will also make it impossible for policymakers to assign resettlement the
appropriate role and weight in pursuit of broader migration and international protec-
tion goals”.6
Certain measures in contrast to anti-migration policies have been undertaken on
a global level when the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development were adopted. “Migration has been intimately re-
lated to economic and social development: it is often seen as the result of imbalances
in development, but also as influencing development”.7 The 2030 Agenda for Sustain-
able Development has addressed the issue of establishing a unifying global framework
in order for migration to take place through safe channels with respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms:
“We recognize the positive contribution of migrants for inclusive growth and sus-
tainable development. We also recognize that international migration is a multi-di-
mensional reality of major relevance for the development of countries of origin, transit
and destination, which requires coherent and comprehensive responses. We will coop-
erate internationally to ensure safe, orderly and regular migration involving full respect
for human rights and the humane treatment of migrants regardless of migration sta-
tus, of refugees and of displaced persons. Such cooperation should also strengthen the
resilience of communities hosting refugees, particularly in developing countries. We
underline the right of migrants to return to their country of citizenship, and recall that
States must ensure that their returning nationals are duly received”.8
In international relations, refugee migration issues can have an impact on regular
migration. The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants contains commitments
that concern refugees and migrants jointly as well as separately. By doing so, the Dec-
laration has gradually identified the importance of refugee rights, but has also defined
elements to obstruct regular migration:
“ (c) The need to address the drivers of migration, including through strengthened
efforts in development, poverty eradication and conflict prevention and
resolution;
(e) The facilitation of safe, orderly, regular and responsible migration and mobility
of people, including through the implementation of planned and well managed

5 Europe seen on cusp of new humanitarian crisis at Greece-Macedonia border, Reuters, March 2016.
6 Beirens/Fratzke, Taking stocks of refugee resettlement, p. 36.
7 Sørensen/Van Hear/Engberg-Pedersen, Migration, Development and Conflict, p. 6.
8 The President of the General Assembly, Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable devel-
opment. New York: United Nations, August 2015, p. 7.

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migration policies; this may include the creation and expansion of safe, regular
pathways for migration;
(f ) The scope for greater international cooperation, with a view to improving
migration governance;
(j) International cooperation for border control, with full respect for the human
rights of migrants;
(k) Combating trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants and contemporary
forms of slavery”.9
The overall disputes on migration policies (both strong and weak) have not affected low
migration movements, especially those constituting flight from conflict areas. How-
ever, the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants does intend to provide patterns
for safe and controlled migration in order to reduce the risks of state security breaches.
A platform for international political cooperation will additionally be enforced.
Humanitarian aid relief vulnerabilities in the field and refugee camps:
“The inability of international humanitarian organizations to make particular relief
items available is critical for many suffering people”.10 Disasters and armed conflicts
impose vast challenges for humanitarian relief agencies. Depending on the nature of
the conflict, the interest of the parties concerned and the financial budget, humanitar-
ian aid is a short-term strategy, and tends to have a fragile supply chain. In addition,
management of humanitarian aid needs to be matched to the problem at hand – nat-
ural disaster or armed conflict – lest it impose vulnerabilities in the framework of its
relief program:
“UNHCR’s concept of service packages and recourse to the use of military con-
tingents [...] was strongly influenced by the perception that the scale of tasks was
simply too great for the existing UN and NGO capacities to handle without
additional capacity being brought to bear.”11
Therefore, further capacity building with the host community is essential, from local
infrastructure and resources up to the establishment of ceasefire, so that the aid can
progress to sustainable development.
In contrast to humanitarian aid capacity building, the absence of security (inter-
national military contingents) can force humanitarian aid programs to play arole in
the war economy: “The report of the United Nations Secretary Generalon Sierra

9 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. New York: General Assembly of the United Nations,
September 2016, p. 22.
10 Richard Oloruntoba, Humanitarian aid: an agile supply chain? Brisbane: Queensland University of Tech-
nology 2014, p. 117.
11 John Borton, Humanitarian aid and effects. London: Overseas development institute 1996, p. 182.

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Leone in October 1997 rated the humanitarian situation as serious andstill de-
teriorating yet the lack of security for personnel and supplies meant that no major
effort was undertaken to address the situation.”12 Where aid relief operations are only
secured by merely passive or lightly equipped security forces, there is a high occurrence
of armed group raids, placing the humanitarian aid and food convoys in situations
where they have to bargain with identified paramilitary and militia groups for a safe
passage by paying a settled amount of food. As a result, the international community
would unintentionally be fuelling rather than reducing the conflict and thereby migra-
tions, as was the case in the Srebrenica genocide:
“Although the safe areas may have been created with good intentions they became
U.N.-administered ethnic ghettos. The humanitarian air drops to Srebrenica ended
after Bosnian Serb forces allowed the U.N. to resume land convoys through Serbian
controlled territory from Belgrade to the enclaves. Unlike the air drops, the deliverance
of humanitarian aid by land convoys allowed the Bosnian Serbs to examine, monitor
and control the quantity, contents, and frequency of the deliveries. Bosnian Serb forces
also demanded a portion of the aid in exchange for allowing its passage into the en-
clave. Sporadic violence continued around the Srebrenica ‘safe area’ to varying degrees
for the next two and a half years. Thousands of people huddled together, with inade-
quate food, water and shelter, living in isolation from the rest of the world. Only a few
hundred lightly armed peacekeepers and increasingly disingenuous threats of NATO
air strikes guaranteed their safety”.13
Since the 1951 Refugee Convention was adopted after the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, their link has been interrogated: “Such a question may appear provo-
cative at a time when refugees are regularly victims of abuses in a context of restrictive
refugee policies.”14 When a person reaches a refugee camp, they enter a grey zone upon
residence in the camp. “The role and objectives of a human rights operation with
regard to refugees and IDPs in camps will depend on numerous factors, including:
the mandate and resources of the operation; the overall human rights situation in the
country or region; the work of other organizations; and most of all the specific human
rights situation of the refugees and IDPs themselves.”15 From the legal perspective, key
human rights are at risk in refugee camps; the right to freedom of movement and its
restriction, a right to name a nationality, access to education, etc.:

12 Oloruntoba, Humanitarian aid, p. 21.

13 The fall of Srebrenica and the failure of UN Peacekeeping, in: Human Rights Watch 7 (October 1995).
14 Mewded Mengesha, Human rights violation in refugee camps: Whose responsibility to protect? The case of
Ethiopia. Lund: Lund University, Faculty of Law 2016, p 7.
15 Chapter X: Monitoring and protecting the human rights of refugees and/or internally displaced persons living
in camps, in: Training manual on Human rights monitoring. Geneva: Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights 2001, p.172.

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“In December 2016, Human Rights Watch interviewed 13 older refugees and
asylum seekers in four camps and one refugee squat around Athens. Nearly all
said they were seeking to be reunited with family in other parts of Europe. Hu-
man Rights Watch found, however, that these people often face seemingly insur-
mountable legal and practical barriers to reuniting with their families. Almost all
had been waiting in Greece for more than eight months. The barriers included:
a narrow interpretation of family under national laws, misinformation, and con-
fusion about the process.”16
One must question the implementation mechanisms of national laws with internation-
al treaties, and conduct further research into emergency situation response. It is the
management of refugee camps that is of fundamental importance for the preservation
of human rights and preventing humanitarian catastrophe: “International refugee law
makes no specific reference to the size of the camps or settlements in which refugees
should be accommodated.”17
In managing and controlling refugee camps, certain factors determine the condi-
tion of human rights. These include the conditions of flight and displacement of the
refugees and internal displaced persons, the way the camp is established, physical lo-
cation, and the management of the camp. The conditions of flight and displacement
predict a provision of basic human needs standard. “In these circumstances camp pop-
ulations will require wide-ranging assistance if their camp life is to provide the bare
minimum in standards of living”.18 This is of utmost importance for the management
in providing the bare necessities to refugees. A large intake of refugees in a camp can
lead to underdeveloped management and scarcity of resources, resulting in refugee
warehousing. “Warehousing is not just a miserable, but all-too convenient means of
disposing of refugees while the international community attempts to find durable solu-
tions; it threatens refugee protection in and of itself ”.19 The way a camp is established
in non-international conflict and natural disasters zones throughout the globe strictly
depends on the given plan of action. In cases where natural disasters or armed conflicts
occur, the establishment of a camp tends to be spontaneously settled.
When it comes to the physical location, it is crucial that safe parameters are provid-
ed for the camp. “In a report to the Security Council, the former UNSC Kofi Annan

16 EU: Older Refugees Stranded in Greece; face delays, barriers in reuniting with Familiies, in: Human Rights
Watch (May 2017).
17 Jeff Crisp, Karen Jacobsen, Refugee camps reconsidered, in: Forced Migration Review 3 (December 1998),
p. 1.
18 Training manual on Human rights monitoring, p. 169.
19 Merill Smith, Warehousing Refugees: A denial of rights, a waste of humanity, in: World Refugee Survey
2009, p. 6.

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recommends that for their own security and the security of the states from which they
fled, he strongly urges that refugees be settled at a reasonable distance from the border,
in camps of limited size”.20
The UNHCR’s Digital Emergency Handbook has eloquently prescribed and defined
the reasonable distance and the size of a camp.“ 30 sqm per person will be necessary
for roads, foot paths, educational facilities, sanitation, security, firebreaks, admin-
istration, water storage, distribution points, markets, storage of relief items and, of
course, plots for shelter, and the remaining 15 sqm per person is allocated to house-
hold gardens attached to the family plot which should be included in the site plan
from the outset”.21 Sizes below these defined parameters may well result in human-
itarian catastrophe. The reasonable distance, on the other hand, covers a wide set
of indicators, but in this context refers to security issues. The site should be located
a sufficient distance from international borders (50km), conflict zones, and other
potentially sensitive areas (such as military installations), avoid extreme climatic
conditions, or evident health (malaria), environmental, fire risks as well as seasonal
variations.22
A final factor deals with camp management, which has a fundamental importance
in the overall picture of refugee camps: ”Where a camp is under the management of
international organizations, such as the UNHCR, much will depend on the resources
available to these organizations and the extent to which local authorities respect the
mandates and assistance offered”.23 The current refugee camp situation in Turkey re-
flects the plan of action for the vast influx of refugees by introducing a new model for
refugee camps:
“For them, access to food and sanitation are the two urgent needs that need to be
tackled effectively: ‘Easy access to food is another criteria that encouraged us to launch
more than one market to create a more competitive environment. We suggest setting
up four markets in four different corners of the camp. Last but not least, we also enforce
security by placing four constabularies and a strict scanning process at camp entrances.’
When it comes to sanitation, Mikov says that all the waste should be disposed of in a
timely manner to avoid the rapid spread of disease. To encourage refugees to join the
workforce, number production workshops, ranging from textiles and handicrafts to
cooking, have opened in Turkey and at the Za’atari camp in Jordan where refugees can
use their skills to earn a living. The Turkish engineers also included a sprawling bazaar
area in their design where refugees can produce their products and sell them. We [have

20 Crisp/Jacobsen, Refugee camps reconsidered, p. 1.

21 The United Nations Refugee Agency Digital Emergency Handbook. UNHCR, July 2017.
22 Ibid.
23 Training manual on Human rights monitoring, p. 169.

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also added] a health facility with an area of at least 400 square meters. In addition, we
are suggesting building a school of 228 classrooms, each with a 30-student capacity”.24
This model of camp management in Turkey may constitute progress beyond the
traditional tent-based camps. It not only prevents humanitarian catastrophe, but also
encourages sustainable maintenance of the camp and the well-being of refugees. How-
ever, the challenges that humanitarian aid relief agencies are faced with prompt seeking
a new approach for an improved and more efficient response; from securing the aid
personnel in the field, improving capacities for achieving mandate, up to the protec-
tion of human rights and improving management in refugee camps.

The legal framework of civilian protection in conflicts

The end of WWII brought a new balance of power and introduced the United Nations
as a new international political institution. Unlike its predecessor, the UN successful-
ly adopted the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a founding document,
thereby being able to further develop the protection of civilians. The document sub-
sequently became binding in customary and international law. The UDHR reached a
peak on the political scene by establishing itself as a separate branch of rights. Article 3
of the UDHR states that everyone has a right to life, liberty, and security.25 Civilians were
thereby placed under the protection of international law. “The international protection
framework is based on human rights concepts”.26 Wars have demonstrated various vul-
nerabilities, resulting in mass killings of civilians, causing vast migrations and an influx
of refugees and internal displaced persons. In order to define a class of civilians who have
fled from their native countries on grounds of fear for their personal safety, the UN ad-
opted the Refugee Convention as a legal document to form the basis of work:
“Article 1 of the Refugee Convention sets a definition of a refugee, where it im-
plicates that a refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being
persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular
social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is
unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of
that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of
his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to
such fear, is unwilling to return to it”.27

24 Gülşah Dark, Beyond the Tent: Turkish engineers respond to squalid conditions in refugee camps, in: Daily
Sabah, February 2017.
25 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3. Paris: United Nations 1948, p. 2.22 Ibid.
26 Mengesha, Human rights violation in refugee camps, p. 8.
27 The Refugee Convention, Article 1, Geneva 1954.

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According to the Refugee Convention, a person must reach the soil of another country
in order to gain refugee status. The absence of a universal definition of internal dis-
placed persons poses a great challenge. It is clearly evident that a universal definition
does not exist, imposing an obstacle to international law, as well as to humanitarian
relief agencies in identifying civilians who are internally displaced. In addition to the
problems and potential danger faced by internal displaced persons, the status of IDP’s
forces them to flee to another country in order to attain refugee status, and thereby
trigger their rights under the 1951 Refugee Convention.
In correlation to the emergence and development of human rights, humanitarian
law has also developed and included rights of civilians caught up in armed conflict.
“International humanitarian law, refugee law and human rights law are complemen-
tary bodies of law that share a common goal, the protection of the lives, health and
dignity of persons”.28 The International Committee of the Red Cross’ mandate stands
to protect persons affected by armed conflict, to seek a way to end the intervention,
but also through provision of emergency assistance; including water, shelter, food and
medical care. The Geneva Convention additional protocols (I and II) have set rules that
necessitate the protection of civilians caught in the hostilities of non-international and
international armed conflict. With narrower definition of protecting civilians, article
51 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating
to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) obliges conflict-
ing parties not to make civilians an object of attack.29 Article 18 of Protocol II to the
Geneva Convention indicates a case that might generate the massive migration of IDP’s
to other countries.30 By article 18, supply shortages (medicine and food) require a relief
organization to gain the consent of a High Contracting Party in order to distribute
and deliver medical supplies and food to safeguard basic human needs during the
hostilities. This poses the question of whether a High Contracting Party would allow
such an action when the course of action delays their military aim. “The provision of
relief to these most affected groups is against the interest of those who attack”.31 The
UN reports that manipulation through political means of humanitarian aid relief by
President Bashar-al-Assad is an example of using a gap in international humanitarian
rights and the international humanitarian law system:
28 Emanuela-Chiara Gillard, Humanitarian Law, Human Rights and Refugee Law – Three Pillars. Stockholm:
Statement of the International Committee of the Red Cross 2005.
29 International Committee of the Red Cross – Geneva Convention, Article 51, Protocol Additional to the
Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed
Conflicts (Protocol I). Geneva, 8 June 1977.
30 International Committee of the Red Cross – Geneva Convention, Article 18.
31 Alexandra Galperin, Discourses of disasters, discourses of relief and DFID’s humanitarian aid policy.
London School of Economics, Development Studies Institute Working Paper Series 02-28, London 2002,
p. 10.

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“The Syrian government has interfered with the delivery of humanitarian assistance
in multiple instances, including the blocking of aid to besieged areas, the removal of
medical aid form the inter-agency convoys, the disregard for needs assessments and in-
formation coming from humanitarian actors in Syria, and the marginalization of other
humanitarian actors in the critical planning phases of crisis response”.32
Non-international armed conflicts still pose a challenge to international humanitar-
ian aid relief organizations in performing their responsibility to protect civilians today.
The legal framework that has been established so far is outdated in some respects.
Given the fact that modern warfare has changed the customs of war, and that the
Geneva Protocols were adopted in a previous era, the legal framework is challenged with
regard to the response to terrorist attacks. Terrorism negates the most basic principles of
humanity underlying the three bodies of law, making it difficult for intergovernmen-
tal organizations to adopt a strategy. Moreover, High Contracting parties can use the
gap in Protocol II as a means to achieve their military aims. Despite the fact that this
act violates the Geneva Conventions and Customs of War, political will and the geo-
political position of a conflict also poses a challenge for humanitarian law to achieve
its mandate.

The applicability of humanitarian principles under politics and

media reporting
There is a broad and a narrow definition of the humanitarian principle. “In its broadest
sense, the term can be used to refer to the principles underling international humani-
tarian law, and in the narrower sense refers to principles devised to guide the work of
relief agencies in conflict, alternatively termed principles of humanitarian action”.33 For
humanitarian and international organizations to conduct a mission in a hostile zone,
the humanitarian principles ought to be clearly established, defined, and presented to
the conflicting parties. If not, the humanitarian relief organizations could be either per-
ceived as a party to the conflict, or could be rendered inoperative and inefficient in the
conflict area. Humanitarian principles are the basis of international humanitarian law.
“The relief provisions in the Geneva Convention and Additional Protocols are phrased in
terms of obligation on the parties to allow relief on to or through their territory, the
conditions which they are entitled to impose upon that relief delivery, as well as the
grounds on which they can withhold their consent”.34

32 Aid groups suspend cooperation with UN in Syria because of Assad “influence”, in: The Guardian, Sep-
tember 2016.
33 Kate Mackintosh, The Principles of Humanitarian Action in International Humanitarian Law. Humanitarian
Policy Group Report, Overseas Development Institute, March 2000, p. 4.
34 Ibid.

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In 2000, the UN adopted a resolution containing four principles for conducting

humanitarian action: humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.35 The fun-
damental principles of the International Committee of the Red Cross add another
three principles: voluntary service, unity and universality.
During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, humanitarian aid suffered major fail-
ures in performing their mandate, causing the death of several aid workers and fall-
ing short of fulfilling their aim: “Human suffering must be addressed wherever it is
found, and the purpose of the humanitarian action is to protect life and health and
ensure respect for human beings”.36 The case of Bosnia illustrated that the established
principles posed intergroup as well as intra-group conflicts, because the humanitar-
ian mission was misinterpreted through political statements by the conflict parties
and the wide-spread top-down media coverage. For example, violations were withheld
when a UNCHR official was held by the Bosnian Serb militiamen and threatened
with his death.37 As a result, the nature of the conflict deepened and humanitarian
aid was rendered humanitarian gate keeping.38 The ICRC’s detection of concentration
camps for civilians, which were maintained by all parties to the conflict, placed the
humanitarian organizations in a compromising position. “For two weeks, according to
Michael Ignatieff, they sat on information and debated what to do. If they spoke out
publicly, they could have jeopardized ICRC’s capacity to help the victims, and if they
kept silent, they could have become accomplices to ethnic cleansing, and just possibly
to genocide”.39 A neutral stance for international humanitarian organizations in saving
civilians from unnecessary harm remains as a challenge even today.
Next to armed conflict, one of the evident causes fuelling a vast influx of refugees
was the fact that the mandate of the international humanitarian organizations was in-
fluenced by political efforts to demonise their image, as well as a false balance in media
coverage, “when the media tries to create an impression of even-handedness by placing
equal blame on parties that are not equally culpable”.40 Offensive politics combined
with media coverage of the conflict is a major requisite for establishing a climate of fear
which causes civilians to flee a conflict area. Indeed, if the humanitarian organizations
are not able to tackle basic human needs for the population, then mass flight in the
form of migration is inevitable. The geopolitical changes in the post-modern era have
shown that armed conflicts occurring inside a state lead to economic deterioration
that further fuels the insecurity of sustainable development after a conflict, as in the

35 The United Nations, A/RES/46/182. New York: December 1991, page 1.

36 The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA Message: Humanitarian Principle.
June 2012, p. 1.
37 Gregory Kent, Humanitarian agencies, media and the war against Bosnia: ‘neutrality’ and framing moral
equalisation in a genocidal war of expansion, in: The Journal of Humanitarian Assistence (August 2003), p.
12.

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case of the Former Yugoslav Republics wars. This raises the question of whether the
humanitarian principles have alternatives at their disposal to ensure that a mission is
carried out.

Conclusion
The challenges that humanitarian aid and relief organizations are faced with need to be
addressed in a methodological manner. The first question must deal with the impact of
the migration policy objectives on the basis of evidence, where impact means whether
the adopted policies match the expected results. Secondly, the influence of anti-migra-
tion policy on channelling migration needs to be revised. From the global perspective,
the implementation and results of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants
and the establishment of a global compact in forming a unifying framework to control
migration needs to be revisited.
When it comes to humanitarian aid relief operations, the question of staff security
needs to be addressed. In addition to the security factor, the availability of additional
capacities in the field for humanitarian aid relief operations is an issue to affect the
progress from aid relief to sustainable development.
The tent-based refugee camp model has been proven to violate human rights on a
long-term basis. Therefore, alternative camp models that will eradicate human rights
abuse need to be identified.
Humanitarian principles have been considered to pose a threat for the operation
within. This raises the question of whether the principles should be revised and re-es-
tablished for the purpose of providing greater efficiency and responsive aid relief.
The elements identified above pose challenges to humanitarian aid relief operations.
For humanity to prevail, these challenges need to be overcome speedily in order to
attain a more universal approach in constructing an efficient model.

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