Humanitarian Movement Research Articles

Powers of the Gun: On Violence, Frontier and Community

ABSTRACT Since the mid-1990s, the Free Burma Rangers (FBR) – a self-defined ‘multi-ethnic humanitarian movement’ operating in Myanmar, Iraq, Syria, and South Sudan – has supported and trained rebel movements and civil society organisations to create spaces of relief and rescue in war zones at the frontiers of their polities. Central to the FBR’s logic and praxis is the use and governing of weapons as military means in order to ‘immunise’ communities of the oppressed from violence. Aside from their politically disputed character, this article takes the activities of the FBR as an entry point to ask: how are the relations between weapons and humans governed in war frontiers? And how does the management of military means reproduce different forms of political community with their political space? Situating these questions in political geography’s literature on frontiers, the article brings in dialogue Roberto Esposito’s analysis on the relationship between violence and (political/impolitical) community with critical approaches on weapons in security studies to show how violence, frontier, and community stand in a co-constitutive relation. Rather than looking at violence and military means as an instrument for the territorialisation of an ideological-political project at the frontier, I analyse the frontier as a politico-military device consubstantial to a political community with its biological body and political space. Drawing from fieldwork methods, I argue that the governing of human-firearms relations constitutes the political community and the human subjectivities part of it by producing frontiers as zones of distinction and encounter between the civilised and the ‘not yet’. The paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it empirically substantiates the co-constitutive rather than instrumental relation between violence and the frontier. Second, it shows how the immunitary apparatuses that govern the encounters between humans and weapons, in shaping the political community, shape also ‘the dehumanisation of Man’s human Others’. Third, zooming onto the life experiences of activists taking part to FBR and resistance forces, it differentiates between the political and impolitical forms of community produced by managing violence.

An Abolitionist Vicious Circle: Slaving, Antislavery, and Violence on the Shores of Lake Tanganyika at the Onset of Colonial Occupation

ABSTRACT In the late nineteenth century, abolitionists felt entitled to use all possible means to save the African victims of the slave trade. As European imperialism rose, abolitionism legitimized interventionism. This article explores how a major humanitarian movement could sanction colonial occupation and the violence that accompanied it. It also examines the position of African slaveholders who resisted the entrenchment of European rule and defended an order in which slavery was common. It focuses on two main actors: French Captain Leopold Joubert, Catholic royalist and former pontifical Zouave who supported Cardinal Lavigerie's Missionaries of Africa and Belgian King Leopold II's allegedly abolitionist endeavours; and Tippu Tip, a trader and slaver who, like Joubert, worked for self-styled abolitionists such as Leopold II and the Sultan of Zanzibar. The connected microhistories of these men show how the international problematization of African slavery fuelled both European imperialism and anti-colonial resistance, while also creating circumstances in which enslaved persons emancipated themselves. The article investigates the moral perceptions of individuals whose sense of self was predicated upon values embodied by Europe's monarchies, the papacy of Rome, and the sultanate of Zanzibar. Faced with what they perceived as existential threats to these institutions, they responded with rising radicalism.

'It was in the very air we breathed': The impact of faith-based education in Ireland on the growth in missionary vocations and volunteer aspirations, from 1950

This article explores ways in which faith-based education in Ireland, both in the home and in schools, contributed to religious and lay mission and volunteer vocations across much of the twentieth century. Drawing on oral history interviews of 28 Irish women (14 missionary nuns and 14 lay volunteers) and archival sources, we show how both formal and informal faith-based education taught Irish schoolgirls and young women about different forms of overseas service and fostered the impulse to become a part of a humanitarian movement. Religious devotion in the home, together with faith-based primary and secondary schooling, promoted a strong ‘missionary message’, and influenced the decisions of many young women to become missionaries and international volunteers.

A Pluralist Vision of Society in Defiance of State Power: Guild Socialism in China after the First World War

This article explores guild socialism in China after the First World War, arguing that it presented a pluralist vision of the state and society, posing an alternative to the collectivist vision of socialism put forward by the Chinese Communist Party as well as the state-centered notion of politics endorsed by the Chinese Nationalist Party. In an effort to break from the existing scholarly tendency to focus on the theme of state building in the history of Republican China, which tends to restrict the historical meaning of Chinese socialism to national revolution, this article situates interwar Chinese socialisms, including guild socialism, within a global context. It investigates how the Chinese guild socialist Zhang Dongsun and his colleagues formulated their theory in connection to the postwar global trend of criticizing established theories of the state. In so doing, this article will show that Chinese guildsmen attempted to transform socialism into a humanitarian movement, rather than a class revolution, aiming to overcome capitalist alienation and realize freedom as the general principle of human life.

The Privileged and the Unprotected: U.S. Consuls, Return Migrants, and Extraterritorial Debates in the Ottoman Empire, 1830 – 1914

Expansive U.S. extraterritorial claims are nothing new. Such jurisdictional tactics date back to the early republic. This paper focuses on the commingling of extraterritorial and national questions in the U.S.-Ottoman relationship in the nineteenth century. It employs a socio-legal approach to determine how majoritarian and nativist biases—on both sides of the Atlantic—imbued everyday consular practices around extraterritoriality, nationality, and protection. Three primary catalysts advanced the debate. First, the Ottoman state repurposed emerging diplomatic norms in the 1850 s to deny the local brokers of foreign merchants their accustomed protections. Second, Ottoman consuls refuted U.S. notions of expatriation and thereafter vacated key extradition and nationality treaties of 1874. Third, at the first turn of twentieth century, Ottoman officials lobbied against State Department policies enabling further restrictions to naturalized and derivative citizenship. Ultimately, the U.S.-Ottoman case became globally significant in demarcating new flash points of mass migration, humanitarian movements, and human rights on the eve of the Great War.

FABC (Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences):

One of the central themes discussed both internationally and nationally is about humanity which is identified with human rights. Religiosity is no less talked about it, including the Church of Asia through the Asian Bishops' Conference which in 2020 celebrated its presence for fifty years. Two declarations from the United Nations and the ASEAN declaration provide directions for upholding humanity and the Asian Bishops Conference document provides the basis for humanity to be more honored and respected. To arrive at the aim of discussing the contribution of the Asian Bishops' Conference to respect and honor humanity, the discussion will begin with an overview of humanity from religious and philosophical dimensions. The two United Nations declarations and the ASEAN declaration provide directions for humanity that serve as guidelines for respecting it. The document of the Asian Bishops' Conference, while respecting the declarations issued by various agencies, illuminates the implications for respecting and respecting humanity. This study uses many sources of documents and humanitarian movements in Asia and Indonesia as well and this paper concludes with a conclusion that gives the reason for Asia being the highest violator of humanity in the world.

Partition’s orphaned and abandoned children in Pakistan

Alongside women, children were among the foremost victims of the 1947 Partition violence, and yet this group has been historically neglected by scholars. Countless children became orphaned and were adopted or sent to orphanages. Concomitant with these developments was the growth of an ambitious humanitarian movement to protect the orphaned children. While arguing that these movements spawned the modern benevolent institutions in the early years of Pakistan, this essay also poses the following questions: What was the role of the state and interventions of social workers vis-à-vis the orphaned children? What happened to adolescents after their discharge from charitable institutions? Did their trajectories lead them back into the mainstream of society, or did other fates await them? Drawing on previously untapped and rich archival materials, including the records of relief agencies, unpublished memoirs and government documents, this essay considers the varying circumstances in which children found themselves in orphanages, and explores the motives behind as well as the incidence and social implications of adoptions. It also studies how these charitable orphanages emerged out of a host of needs, expectations, resources and opportunities.

Pain, medicine and the monitoring of war violence: the case of rifle bullets (1868–1918)

AbstractThe St Petersburg declaration, signed in 1868, is a milestone in the history of warfare and humanitarian law, as it prohibits the use of explosive bullets, which are considered to cause unnecessary suffering. As this article shows, the framing of this declaration that put suffering at its centre, as well as the development of the humanitarian movement, favoured the birth of a new field of expertise: wound ballistics. The wars that broke out after the declaration was signed are the subject of intense scrutiny, while the advances in weaponry, and notably, the creation by the British of a new expansive bullet, provided physicians with new fields of investigation. Numerous experiments have attempted to reproduce the effects of bullets on different materials, including corpses. Based on numerous medical reports and publications, as well as military archives from France and the United Kingdom, this investigation critically examines the notion of pain, its assessment and its use in the monitoring of war violence. It argues that, paradoxically, the greater attention paid to suffering has resulted in a need to objectify pain. This rationalisation and the quest for the quantification of suffering have not been without bias and have shifted attention away from care and treatment.

The Establisment of Caring Community Through TB Care Muhammadiyah at Puskesmas Tamansari Tasikmalaya City

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease whose number is still increasing in Indonesia, especially in Mulyasari Village, Tamansari District, Tasikmalaya City. TB incidence in Tamansari as of November 2020 reached 58 people, 3 people died and 1 person experienced drug resistance. Muhammadiyah is an Islamic da'wah movement for amar ma'ruf nahi munkar whose one of its da'wah movements is concerned with social humanitarian movements in the health sector. One of the health services that continues to be developed by Muhammadiyah is service and counseling to the community about TB disease and socialization of the use of TB Comprehensive PMO guidelines which can improve the cognitive, affective and psychomotor abilities of TB PMO which have an impact on increasing public awareness of TB disease. This program is implemented through counseling to cadres, religious leaders and PMOs in the work area of ??the Tamansari Health Center about TB disease and socialization of the use of TB Comprehensive PMO guidelines. Tamansari Health Center consists of 4 sub-districts, namely Mulyasari village, Sukahurip village, Setyawargi village and Setyamulya village. The results of this community service are an increase in the knowledge of cadres, PMOs and religious leaders about TB control and the formation of the TB Care Muhammadiyah management where in each disctrict there are 4 Muhammadiyah branch managers who collaborate with the village cadre coordinator to participate in monitoring the treatment of TB patients in the Tamansari area.

Relawan dalam Perspektif Islam (Studi : Aksi Cepat Tanggap Cabang Sumatera Utara)

Humans are weak creatures who are powerless to face natural disasters, which have an impact on all aspects of life. Volunteers on this issue, present for humanity and natural disasters. Volunteers are the most needed fighters at the right time and on the front lines. The Humanitarian Foundation for Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT) is an organization whose members are called volunteers. ACT is spread across various regions in Indonesia, one of its branches is in Medan, namely Aksi Cepat Tanggap, North Sumatra Branch (ACT Sumut). The purpose of this study is to find out what is meant by volunteering from an Islamic perspective and to find out how the role of Aksi Cepat Tanggap’s North Sumatra Branch is as a humanitarian movement (volunteers). The method used is field research with a qualitative research approach. Sources of data were obtained from volunteers in ACT North Sumatra. The findings of the study found that Islam appeals to work and do good deeds outside the scope of profit and loss, namely voluntary work or volunteering who only expects the pleasure of Allah SWT. Volunteers are in line with what Islam teaches, for example in terms of helping. In conclusion, a volunteer in an Islamic perspective is a person or group of people who aim to help people who need humanitarian assistance voluntarily to include people who are in the way of Allah. ACT North Sumatra plays a role as a liaison between the beneficiary (donors and benefactors) to parties they cannot reach directly to provide humanitarian assistance to people in need.

The Concentration Camp as Site of Refuge: The Rise of the Refugee Camp and the Great War in the Middle East

The refugee camp today has been naturalized as a product of failed international idealism and political expediency that serves as a timeless reminder of the plight of displaced peoples. This article explores the refugee camp’s origins as a product of a late Victorian imperial and military legacy and the contingencies of World War I. The use of the concentration camp as a tool to provide refuge and control displaced populations began during the war as a humanitarian measure. Part of a larger world of camps that interned civilians, prisoners of war, and refugees during World War I, the refugee camp in the Middle East existed at the crossroads of Allied military objectives and the Western-led humanitarian movement. In the wake of victory in the east, the army of occupation, aid workers, and local actors fashioned the concentration camp as a site of refuge as part of an emerging international order. American relief efforts led by Near East Relief and later the League of Nations have been well studied. Less understood is how and why Britain, due to the central role it played in combat operations and eventually in dividing up the Middle East with its French ally, guided and shaped norms and conditions for dealing with displaced peoples. Ultimately, the experience of total war shaped Allied war strategy regarding civilian populations during the humanitarian crisis that engulfed the east. It produced the refugee camp as an ostensibly temporary solution to what became for many a permanent problem of statelessness.

Akdeniz’de Düzensiz Göçler ve Göçmenler: Terraferma Filmi Örneği

Social and economic conflicts bring along irregular migrations, which are risky and dangerous and lead to humanitarian movements on a global scale. Irregular migration movements increasingly have become a problem of identity, belonging and recognition, and bring with new areas of discussion. Irregular migration, which goes beyond being a phenomenon that nation states can control alone, is perceived as a security threat, especially by European countries, and restrictions are increased with revised migration policies. The blockage of legal routes increases the demand for illegal methods and makes migrant smuggling more apparent. On the other hand, the Mediterranean, which is used as a migration route to reach Europe, has almost become identified with the bodies washed ashore. The number of recorded deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean reveals that the phenomenon of migration is a matter of right to life beyond the political, economic, and social interests of the nation states and accelerated the discussion of the problem on different platforms. Based on this, the film Terraferma, which is about irregular migration over the Mediterranean, was examined as a research subject and analyzed using the dramaturgical analysis technique. The film has been thematically interpreted on the basis of the plot, main idea, assumption, conflicts and characters. Policies such as the fact that global inequalities put pressure on the developed countries with irregular migration on one hand, and the situation of ignoring the phenomenon of irregular migration with strict migration on the other have been evaluated together.

The Transformation of MDMC Social Piety in Forming Public Spaces in the Middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

This journal aims to find out how the process of transforming social piety to a disaster management center (MDMC) in the reconstruction of public spaces in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. So far, research on MDMC has shown more functions in disaster management, mitigation, preparedness, emergency response and post-disaster rehabilitation. In a broader scope, it has neglected the two most important issues, namely the sociological impact and the formation of a democratic public space from the social transformation process. Therefore, further research is needed on the transformation of MDMC's social piety in reconstructing public spaces in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. This study uses a descriptive study of the transformation of social piety to MDMC volunteers in reconstructing public spaces in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. By using this qualitative research design, researchers can identify a group of people; study them at home or at work; and develop a general picture of the group, noting how they behave, think and speak. Within the epistemic framework, this study considers several theoretical perspectives on the Covid-19 problem in Indonesia, which has paralyzed the public space, such as grounding the humanitarian movement, caring for Islamic values ​​socially, solidarity in helping and caring for people who suffer from misfortune without expecting it. compensation, giving something to victims who are hit by the disaster based on collective awareness, helping victims who are physically hit by the disaster to reduce the ongoing burden, providing material assistance to victims who are hit by the disaster based on their needs and cooperating in post-disaster rehabilitation.

Impact of Covid Pandemic and Working Strategies on Private Practitioners.

Background:The COVID-19 pandemic is badly affecting more than 2 million population of 213 countries and has caused 1,952,976 deaths till January 12, 2020. India has also suffered a great loss in terms of economy and people. Furthermore, owing to the complete lockdown enforced in India, restricting humanitarian movement also affected day-to-day life of Indians with a huge impact.Objectives:The present clinical trial was carried out to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on private practitioners. Furthermore, changes in their practice pattern were evaluated along with the perspective of their health, role, and response to the pandemic.Materials and Methods:The study includes a total of 120 health-care professionals of either gender. The stress and mental health of the participants was assessed using Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 in English format, also included the questions related to the demographic characteristics, use of technologies for providing virtual health care, changes in the working during the pandemic, and an opinion of their experiences during that period. The data collected were subjected to the analysis and were kept confidential and anonymous.Results:16.6% of participants preferred virtual consultation before the pandemic in contrast to 83.3% during the pandemic. The most preferred method remained the phone call by 15.8% (n = 19) patients. Depression was seen severely in 35% of study participants (n = 42) and 13.3% of participants extremely severe depression was seen (n = 16). Severe and extremely severe anxiety was noticed in 31.66% (=38) and 15% (18) study participants respectively, whereas severe and extremely severe stress was found in 30% (n = 36), and 12.5% (n = 15) private practitioners. The most common factor that can be considered responsible for compromised mental health in private practitioners was the possibility of infecting the society seen in 59.1% (n = 71) participants.Conclusion:During the pandemic breakout, private practitioners suffered a great challenge both financially and mentally, especially during the lockdown. Furthermore, a significant increase was seen in the virtual consultation methods during the pandemic breakout.

ГУМАНІТАРНА КРИЗА У ЗОНАХ ЗБРОЙНИХ КОНФЛІКТІВ: НА ЩО СПОДІВАТИСЬ ЛЮДИНІ, «ЯКА НАДМІРУ СТРАЖДАЄ»

The title of the article includes the abstract of Albert Camus‘s sad reflections on the relevant for nowadays programmatic work‖ The plague‖ concerning the uselessness of mankind‘s multiple efforts to solve socalled «eternal problems»: disasters of lethal illnesses, social evil of dictatorships and wars. We attribute the problem of extreme sufferings in the times of warfare conflict to the list. It was not for nothing, as doctor Rieux stated, Camus did not answer the question about what a person who extremely suffers should expect and left the future generation to address the problem. Philosophy, according to the ancient authors, starts with reflections on sufferings, although the European tradition, as the French Researcher E. Roudinesco points out in her work «Philosophy in turbulent times» starts with rather late turning to hardships. That influenced to fact that the problem of armed conflicts humanization was mainly solved on the political and legal level along with Geneva conventions in 1949, while the texts of P. Kurtz‘s Humanitarian manifests did not refer to the state of humanitarian crises in warfare armed conflicts. The spreading of armed conflicts in nearly all parts of the world with no regard to pandemics and climate crises is causing more and more severe sufferings the thoughts of which an ordinary person hides in the «remote part» of their mind while mass media focus on battlefield actions and interesting events at negotiating tables. Armed conflicts are involving bigger and bigger percentage of civil people (over 90% now) including about 400 million children who suffer extremely from harassment of human nature unseen before. «We are not treated as humans», mentioned grievously a Tigrayan woman from Ethiopian region where an armed suppression of separatist movement is taking place. We believe that the pivotal issue of relieving inevitable sufferings must include cherishing humanity in individuals rather than material humanitarian assistance in spite of its importance and being measured in tons of food. It is also essential to focus on ideological, philosophical, and moral principles of humanitarian movements‘ activities, as well as on humanitarian techniques and examples of «Righteous among the Nations» characters in order to avoid transition from humanitarian crises to disasters. The concept of the suggested solution of the problem implies resorting to the necessity of adhering to fundamental policies of preventing the transition from humanitarian crises to disasters. They are moral and legal and ideological and not merely military and political which aim at regulation by official means. A humanitarian crisis involves a turning point in lives of all those people who are located in the armed conflict area with children, women and elderly being the least protected of all, when their lives are on the verge of physical and moral survival. A humanitarian disaster will lead to irreversible degree of suffering for tens of thousands or even millions of people. The directly involved in war are protected (if it is possible to say so) by the law of war, combat morality and are prepared for suffering as a whole. Unless people lost their humanity potential ant humane attitude to everyone, the term «adamiiat» introduced by the Arabic poet Saadi should be implemented in the material humanitarian and spiritual spheres.

СОЦИАЛЬНАЯ СПЛОЧЕННОСТЬ МИГРАНТОВ: ПРОЯВЛЕНИЕ В СОЦИАЛЬНЫХ СЕТЯХ В УСЛОВИЯХ ГЛОБАЛЬНЫХ СОЦИАЛЬНЫХ ИЗМЕНЕНИЙ

Цель исследования – выявление и анализ факторов и тенденций становления и развития социальной сплоченности мигрантов.
 Методологической базой исследования являются системные методы оценки сообщений в мигрантских социальных сетях, становящихся мигрантскими социальными медиа, методы сетевого анализа, методы масс-медийных практик и мигрантской риторики в публичных материалах, посредством выделения, сравнения, оценки и концептуализации тенденций трансформации миграционных процессов под действием глобальных изменений, в том числе и вызванных пандемией COVID-19, а также методы дискурсивного анализа мигрантского дискурса, представленного в аналитических материала.
 Результаты исследования. В данной статье обсуждается социальная сплоченность мигрантов, формирующаяся как дополнение этнической сплоченности в результате понижения уровня доверия у мигрантов к принимающему обществу и государству в условиях глобальных социальных изменений, в том числе и в условиях пандемии COVID-19. Мигранты, оказавшиеся в данной ситуации наименее защищенной социальной стратой, формируют межэтническую социальную сплоченность как форму самоорганизации этнических общин в кризисное время. Социальная сплоченность мигрантов находит свое отражение в масс-медийных практиках, в сетевом информационном взаимодействии и в научных аналитических материалах, в которых оцениваются факторы, выступающие триггерами новых тенденций в миграционном процессе: рост ксенофобных, мигрантофобных и расистских настроений у части населения принимающих стран, ограничение мобильности международных мигрантов, обострение конкуренции мигрантов с коренным населением за рабочие места. К числу новых тенденций миграционного процесса следует отнести усиление транснациональных умонастроений и действий мигрантов, которое выражается в массовых движениях протестной, правозащитной и гуманитарной направленности, а также в массовом перемещении социальных связей и отношений мигрантов из сферы офф-лайн сферу он-лайн, в область социальных сетей, в цифровые эмигрантские диаспоры, в сферу цифровых масс-медийных практик.
 Перспектива исследования. Данные тренды, хотя они имеют неоднозначный характер, в будущем могут стать основой миграционной политики национальных государств и предметом социологических исследований.

Effective Conservation

Effective altruism is a growing humanitarian movement with a track record of success in evaluating the effectiveness of charitable spending across a wide range of projects. We suggest ways in which the foundations of this movement can be applied to the complex world of conservation.

Effects of the Geographical Distance on Economic Well-being: Evidence from Colombia with Emphasis on Displaced Population

Forced migration and displacement are two well-known results of internal armed conflicts of nations. A fundamental relationship associated with these humanitarian movements is the one entailing the link between the geographical distance travelled by migrants and their economic well-being. As such a link remains unstudied in previous works, its empirical scrutiny is timely for migration studies. In this paper, we take the Colombian conflict as a case study to analyze this relationship empirically. Using data from the Longitudinal Social Protection Survey (ELPS) - 2012, we estimated a regression model, in which we tested different welfare measures and blocks of control variables. Contrary to what we expected, the results show that the elasticity of distance is positive and that it does not determine welfare outcomes for the displaced population.

The camera and the Red Cross: “Lamentable pictures” and conflict photography bring into focus an international movement, 1855–1865

AbstractHenry Dunant's appeal for a neutral and impartial organization to provide care to wounded combatants aligned with growing criticism of mid-nineteenth-century European and North American conflicts. This article discusses the important convergence of Dunant's “lamentable pictures”, laid out in his Memory of Solferino, with spectators’ passionate responses to them and to battlefield photographs that circulated between 1855 and 1865. Through these images and reactions, there emerged a shared, expanded vision of humanity worth caring for, which brought into focus an international humanitarian movement.

An American Hero: Faith-Based Emergency Health Care in Karen State, Myanmar and Beyond

This article examines the vastly expanded mobility of displaced Karen villagers in the evangelical humanitarian movement, the Free Burma Rangers. This builds on ethnographic fieldwork on humanitarian cultures in the Thai-Burmese borderlands conducted since 2007 with a Thai research team and funded by Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious Diversity. While refugees are too often presented as victims, the article argues that by joining the mission, the Karen freedom fighters become ambassadors of a political ideology and evangelism. Bringing Christianity with them from their displaced homes, displaced Karen meet the evangelical humanitarian organization in the Karen hills or in the Thai refugee camps, train with them, and supply the villagers left behind with emergency health care and religious messages. Sponsored by American evangelical churches, the US military, and resettled Karen communities in the West, the freedom fighters of the Free Burma Rangers mobilize people and resources all over the globe. Recently, they have expanded their operations beyond Myanmar to places as far as Syria, Iraq and South Sudan, thus getting involved in what it presents as a global struggle between good and evil.