Humanitarian Aid and Corruption

Abstract

In the recent past we have seen a number of natural and man-made catastrophes where the international community has responded in providing the basic necessities of life such as food, shelter and medical supplies. There are however some problems with respect to the delivery of humanitarian aid/assistance to the victims of such disasters. These include a state disallowing the delivery of international humanitarian assistance to the victims and the attendant presence of corruption where assistance is delivered in emergency situations. The questions we focus on in this paper are: (a) ‘How can delivery of humanitarian aid be justified using international norms and theories?’, and (b) ‘How can corruption in the delivery of humanitarian aid be combated?’. Question (a) is addressed by exploring the relevance of human rights law and the emerging concept of human security to humanitarian assistance and (b) by examining the relevant provisions of the widely ratified international anti-corruption convention, the United Nations Convention against Corruption 2003 (UNCAC), with a view to seeing whether they are adequate to combat the kinds of corrupt activities found in the humanitarian aid context and what further needs to be done to enhance transparency in the process.