Humanitarian Diplomacy and Its Origins in Non-State Actors’ Diplomacy

Abstract

The term humanitarian diplomacy has been gaining prominence in recent decades and is used by both state actors and non-state actors to describe their humanitarian activities. It was claimed to have emerged in the 1990s when the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 1998 Rome Statute were adopted at the United Nations (UN) dominated by state actors. This study aims to examine the origins and initiators of humanitarian diplomacy. It proves that even though the term has become popular in recent decades, despite not having a universally recognized definition, humanitarian diplomacy is not a new form of diplomacy. Through research on literature, including recorded history from practitioners and scholars, this study argues that the origins of humanitarian diplomacy can be traced back to the efforts of non-state actors in the 19th century that led to the first Geneva Convention in 1864. The protagonist was Henry Dunant, a young Swiss businessperson turned humanitarian, whose advocacy led to the first Geneva Convention, which marked the beginnings of international humanitarian law that also codified humanitarian principles in international law for the first time. The conduct of humanitarian diplomacy initiated by Dunant has become the basis for ensuing humanitarian diplomacy to adopt subsequent treaties with the aim of reducing suffering in armed conflicts. It includes heavy involvement of non-state actors, strong public communication strategy that is driven by the impulses of achieving humanitarian objectives. There is a lack of study on the origins of humanitarian diplomacy as the existing literature is largely produced by practitioners who focus on their distinct ways of conducting humanitarian diplomacy. This research is expected to fill this gap in the literature. Keywords: humanitarian diplomacy, non-state actor, Henry Dunant, international humanitarian law. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55463/hkjss.issn.1021-3619.60.13