Humanitarian Assistance & International Development Law,

Principles, & Institutions

GWU – Elliott School of International Affairs

Context & History

Instructors: Amit Khardori

© Amit Khardori (2018). 1

Humanitarian Assistance & International Development

TIMELINE

2
 4/12/1861 -
US Civil War
5/13/1865

Caracas Earthquake - US approves relief

supplies to victims in Venezuela
5/8/1812

US Congress votes against relief funds for

US funds for refugees from Haitian Greeks during its war for independence
Revolution from Turkey
2/12/1794 1/2/1827

US appropriates $100,000 for Irish Potato Famine - US approves in-kind

US Independence establishment of Liberia relief
7/4/1776 3/3/1819 3/1/1847

1755 1755 1769 1783 1797 1811 1825 1839 1853 1866
11/1/1755 1/1/1798 8/14/1837
Lisbon Earthquake - European powers Edward Jenner discovery of Smallpox Vaccine in Famine in Northern India - British Raj
responded with relief and recovery London (then est. Royal Jennerian Society in 1802) response with food-for-work program (to
assistance 11/1/1794 limit mass deaths, not to prevent or
London Missionary Society est. address hunger)
2/4/1794 8/14/1834
France abolishes slavery in its colonies UK "New Poor Law" established
8/26/1789 domestic work-for-food program
France Declaration of the
Rights of Man & of the Citizen 8/28/1833
UK Slavery Abolition Act
5/22/1787 7/21/1813
Society for Effecting the Abolition East India Co. Charter renewal authorized
of the Slave Trade - est. by Royal missionary work
Humane Society in London
1/1/1792
3
William Carey's Enquiry into the
Obligations of Christians....
 Spanish-American
War in Cuba ends; US
US Civil War 4/12/1861 - 5/13/1865
sends military doctor
William Gorgas to
eradicate Yellow
US approves in-kind relief to France & Fever
Germany after Franco-Prussian War 8/1/1898
3/1/1871
US mil sends
Dr. Gorgas to
US approves
Panama to
in-kind food
reduce malaria
aid for India
- to facilitate
famine
Panama Canal
1/1/1897 construction
US abolishes slavery Chinese Exclusion Act
12/6/1865 5/6/1882 1/1/1904

1861 1861 1865 1869 1873 1877 1881 1885 1889 1893 1897 1901 1904
2/26/1885 1/1/1898
Berlin Conference of Alice Seeley
Colonial Powers in Africa Harris's
6/5/1865 photos of
Ottoman Empire, a Muslim atrocities in
(i.e., non-Christian) state signs Belgium's
the Geneva Convention colonial
Congo
8/22/1864 published
First Geneva Convention - signed by
several European nations; founding of
the International Committee of the Red
Cross (initially referencing and based on
Christian religious principles).

1/1/1862
Henry Dunant's Memory of Solferino published 4
(ICRC est’d following yr)
 WWI 7/28/1914 - 11/11/1918 9/1/1939 -
WWII
9/2/1945
Rockefeller
Foundation est. Int'l
Health Commission; US Congress establishes the US Act for technical
starts anti- American Relief assistance (PL 76-63)
hookworm campaign Administration to provide 5/3/1939
6/27/1913
international food aid and
medical supplies; President FDR's Four
Wilson appoints Herbert Freedoms
Hoover as Director. US Speech (incl.
World Missionary Congress passes the Russian "freedom from
Conference in Famine Relief Act in 1921. want")
Edinburgh 2/24/1919 1/6/1941
6/14/1910
US Asian Exclusion Act Lend Lease Act
5/26/1924 3/11/1941

1910 1910 1913 1916 1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1937 1940 1943 1945
7/12/1927 12/25/1941
International Relief Union est. (went into Pope Pious XII Christmas
effect 1932; went away with League of Message: All nations
Nations) "possess an
unquestionable right to
4/15/1919
1/1/1929 have their freedom
Save the Children founded - a secular NGO respected – a right to the
for famine relief UK Colonial
Development Act of effectual safeguarding of .
1929 . . neutrality . . . and a
10/1/1914 11/15/1932 right to the protection of
Commission for Relief in 9/26/1924 Cape Town conference on their economic
Belgium - Responding to famine Geneva Declaration on the epidemic diseases and development."
in German-occupied Belgium, Rights of the Child (drafted increased int'l travel (League
of Nations Health Org, 1/1/1940
Herbert Hoover led this food aid by Save the Children)
effort. In 5 years, it distributed Rockefeller Foundation, UK Colonial Development &
$800 million worth of food aid. African colonial territories, Welfare Acts
British India)
5
 Marshall Plan
passed by Congress
4/3/1948

Organization for European

Economic Cooperation Charter
4/16/1948 President Truman's "Point Four"
Speech (Inaugural)
1/20/1949

World Vision PL 480 (Food

Int'l est. for Peace Act)
1/1/1950 7/10/1954

1942 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1955

4/4/1949
1/1/1943 NATO est.
Catholic Relief
11/16/1949
Services est.
UN Expanded Program of
1/1/1945
4/7/1948 Technical Assistance
CARE est.
UN World Health Organization est'd
5/29/1942
12/10/1948
Oxfam est. 6/26/1945
UN General Assembly adopts the Universal
UN Charter signed (entered into
Declaration of Human Rights
force 4 months later): Art. 55
promotes "development"

7/22/1944
Bretton Woods Agreements
(est. World Bank)
11/9/1945
UN Relief & Rehabilitation Administration 6
 OEEC re-framed
as OECD NATO
12/14/1960 FAA Democracy humanitarian
Promotion intervention in
authorities Kosovo
1/1/1990 3/24/1999

UN SC Res. 764 auth. UN Protection

Force to ensure "security and
functioning of Sarajevo airport and the
US Civil Rights Act "New Directions" for delivery of humanitarian assistance"
7/2/1964 USAID - FAA of 1973 7/13/1992
12/17/1973
Foreign
Assistance US immigration reform (ends race-based FAA amended: Permanent International
Act of 1961 exclusions) Disaster Assistance (IDA) Authority
9/4/1961 10/3/1965 12/20/1975

1960 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 1999
12/16/1966 11/28/1975 7/1/1994
UN Int'l Human Rights Covenants UN GA Resolution: Int'l humanitarian aid effort for
"New Dimensions" 12/8/1988 refugees from Rwanda (after not
in UNDP Approach UN GA Res 43/131 on intervening in genocide)
humanitarian
6/5/1969
12/19/1961 assistance access for
Nigeria govt shot down ICRC plane bringing "natural disasters and
"Experimental" World
aid to Biafran separatists without consent similar emergency
Food Programme
(WFP) est. situations"
UN GA Res: Development Decade 12/19/1991
12/19/1961 1/1/1966 12/4/1986 UN Est. Emergency Relief
UNDP Est. - UN GA Res. 41/128 - Co-ordinator & Inter-
9/24/1960 subsumed EPTA Right to Development Agency Standing
Committee (would re-org
World Bank - est. International into UNOCHA in 1998)
10/23/1984
Development Association (IDA)
BBC tv report on famine in
10/9/1965
Ethiopia - leads to Live Aid,
Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross - celebrity fundraisers 7
incl. impartiality, neutrality, independence
 US Millennium Challenge Corp. est.
1/23/2004

Presidential Policy Directive

on Global Development US Presidential Memo invoking national
9/22/2010 security authorities for Ebola
humanitarian response
US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS 11/13/2014
Relief: US Leadership Against Global
9/11 HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act UN SC Res invoking R2P re: Libya HAIL - 1st Session
9/11/2001 5/27/2003 3/17/2011 1/19/2017

2000 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2017
9/18/2000 9/15/2005 5/23/2016
UN GA Res. 55/2: Millennium Declaration Responsibility to Protect concept adopted World Humanitarian
at UN 2005 World Summit Summit
11/29/2011
12/1/2001 OECD HLF4 - Busan
9/25/2015
"The Responsibility to Protect" - Report of
UN est. Sustainable
the Int'l Comm. on Intervention & State
Development Goals
Sovereignty

3/18/2015
2/28/2005
Sendai Framework for Disaster
OECD HLF2 - Paris Declaration Risk Reduction
9/10/2014
2/25/2003 UN GA Res on Sustainable Development
OECD: 1st High Level Forum on Aid Goals (2015-2030)
Effectiveness (HLF 1) - Rome Declaration
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