Negotiating access to populations of concern in South-East Asia

South-East Asia is home to both conflict and ‘natural’ disasters which have caused significant displaced populations. Given this context, there is a need to better understand the motivations of the multiple actors involved in negotiating humanitarian responses, and to account for the impact the finished agreement has on the region both in the short and long terms. This article investigates the motivations behind two humanitarian responses in South-East Asia. The first case is the set of humanitarian responses to the Indochinese exodus in the 1970s and 1980s. The second case is the humanitarian response to those affected by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar during the late 2000s and early 2010. Both of these agreements have been held up as historic and ground breaking achievements within the international relations of South-East Asia. This article assesses these agreements to identify the multiple levels of governance involved and the individual actors’ motivations behind them. It argues that greater appreciation of these dynamics will contribute to understanding the governance of humanitarian responses to populations of concern in South-East Asia. This will be important to consider as new crises emerge that demand new negotiations within a crowded field of actors governing humanitarian responses in the region.     

中国警察伦理学研究的对象及内容

新世纪,对警察个体素质、警察职业活动特别是警察执法的社会效果,提出了更高的要求,随之对系统的警察伦理理论也提出了更新的要求,对警察伦理学的研究对象以及警察与社会公德、警察道德与社会主义人道主义等内容进行研究,是警察伦理学理论研究的重要内容。     

暂予监外执行的本质：功利人道与公正人道的统一——兼论我国暂予监外执行制度的完善

暂予监外执行是本应在监禁机构行刑的犯罪人暂时变更到监禁机构外进行刑罚执行，其本质特征应为行刑人道主义，行刑人道主义分为功利的人道与公正的人道两种不同理念。建议我国暂予监外执行制度变更为暂停监禁刑罚执行制度。在构建我国暂停监禁刑罚执行制度中，遇到保护个体的功利人道与保障社会整体的公正人道冲突时，应做出保障个体功利人道的价值选择。     

对当代国家主权观念的再认识

国家主权是国际法的基础。自二战后 ,特别是近十几年来 ,国际社会中各种现象 ,如全球经济一体化、国际组织的迅速增长、国际人权和国际司法的发展 ,对传统的主权观点提出了严峻的挑战。尽管国家主权在当代国际关系中面临诸多问题 ,但国家主权仍是国际关系的基础。主权应是相对的 ,从国家实践看 ,主权权利可以依国际法规则而加以限制 ,但这种限制必须建立在尊重国家主权的基础上。     

A tide that does not lift all boats: the surge of remittances in post-disaster recovery in Tacloban City,Philippines

For the last forty years, remittances have been a lifeline for some Filipinos in times of crisis as well as everyday life. So, it was no surprise when the media and nongovernmental organizations credited the Philippine diaspora with playing a significant role in post-disaster recovery after Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda struck in 2013. While remittances poured in after this disaster, they were differently experienced, had different impacts, and led to uneven post-disaster outcomes. This article highlights the class-based inequalities that structure access to and mobilization of remittances after post-disaster recovery. We compare the experiences of middle- and lower-class households in three communities heavily affected by Haiyan in Tacloban City, Philippines, to investigate who benefitted and who was excluded from remittances in this post-disaster recovery. The findings of the case study shed light on wider issues of poverty, class, and vulnerability in the Philippines.     

Who are the ‘international community’? Development professionals and liminal subjectivity

ABSTRACT

This article explores international development space at the micro-level through the career stories and discursive representations of three aid workers—two nationals, one expatriate—who worked together on the same project in Tajikistan in 2008–9. Findings bear witness to the ‘liminal subjectivity’ of development where professional aid workers are, vocationally and socially, culturally and politically, neither domestic nor foreign. Aid workers’ careers demonstrate the resilience of ‘the international’ in contemporary humanitarian practice. At the same time, their biographies are not easily sutured into emergent cosmopolitanism as they remain encumbered by the boundaries of the national and international. Moreover, the article demonstrates that, while the rhetoric of international development and its putative leaders are criticized within the community itself, the international community may be formed by subordinate individuals in their liminal subjectivities.     

The humanitarian cyberspace: shrinking space or an expanding frontier?

In an effort to contribute to a more critical understanding of the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in humanitarian action, this article explores the topography of the ‘humanitarian cyberspace’ – a composite of ‘cyberspace’ and ‘humanitarian space’ – as it has emerged since the mid-1990s. The goals are to offer some observations about the conditions of the humanitarian cyberspace and to reflect on the relationship between the persistent features of humanitarian action and new developments brought on by ICT. The prism through which the role of ICT in humanitarian action is explored is that of the ‘shrinking humanitarian space’.     

Against Humanitarian Impunity: Rethinking Responsibility for Displacement and Disaster in Northern Uganda

Abstract

Given that humanitarian organizations can often be responsible for enabling, prolonging or intensifying violence and conflict through their interventions into war zones, it is important that these organizations, despite their presumed neutrality and beneficence, be held accountable for the deleterious consequences of their actions. The case of northern Uganda will be used to demonstrate how humanitarian agencies have made possible the government's counterinsurgency, including its policy of mass forced displacement and internment, which has led to a vast humanitarian crisis. The Ugandan government policy will be assessed as a war crime, making aid agencies accessories to this crime. This case study is used as an example to highlight that processes which demand the post-conflict accountability of those responsible for violence may be dramatically incomplete, and unjust, if they do not include the humanitarian agencies. In conclusion it will be suggested that if humanitarian organizations built popular accountability mechanisms into their daily operations this might prevent them from being complicit with egregious violence in the first place.     

国际人道主义援助中的法律问题——国际人道主义援助中的法律关系主体

各类社会主体所参与的国际人道主义援助，在保护人权、抗灾减损、精神抚慰等方面发挥着重要的作用。国际人道主义援助法律关系的主体也因而呈现出复杂性、多样性与不平衡性。在国际人道援助法律关系中，国家、国际组织、非政府组织作为最主要的参与人，因其在国际法与国内法中具有不同的法律地位，各自面临着不同的理论性或规范性难题。对这些主体进行针对性的研究，将减少国际人道主义援助的法律准人障碍，推动国际人道主义事业的快速规范化发展。     

论社会主义和人道主义——兼论社会主义国家要过好人道主义这一关

人性、人权、人道主义是资产阶级思想家所提出的,对历史发展曾经起过进步作用。从社会主义发展史来看,社会主义与人性、人权、人道主义理论有着渊源关系。社会主义在理论形态上是这些理论原则更为彻底的发展。马克思主义人学理论既继承了以往全部人学理论的精华,又在实践的基础上把人学推进到完全科学的水平。从世界社会主义发展的历史来看,社会主义国家必须过好人道主义这一关,这就必须重新认识人学在马克思主义中的地位,认真学习和大力宣传马克思主义人学,使之成为人们自觉的武器,以抵制帝国主义实施的“西化、分化”的战略。