In the Shadow of “Just Wars”: Violence, Politics and Humanitarian Action

Ed Fabrice Weissman

Hurst & Company/Médecins Sans Frontiéres, £14.95, pp 372 ISBN 1 85065 737 8

http://www.hurstpub.co.uk/

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Traditions, Values, and Humanitarian Action

Ed Kevin M Cahill

Fordham University Press/The Center for International Health and Cooperation, New York, $24, pp 472

ISBN 0 8232 2288 8

http://fordhampress.com/detail.html?id=0823222888

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I found these two books in the mail after returning from an assessment of the heartbreaking humanitarian situation in the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The books partly deal with what I studied in DRC—how to describe, quantify, and communicate humanitarian needs to elicit better actions. The assessment challenge lies not only in the field but also in the concept of humanitarian action. Is humanitarian action a legal requirement that some authority or agency should be held responsible for, based on human rights? Or is it a voluntary response triggered by the humanitarian impulse to alleviate as much suffering as possible?

Humanitarian action during armed conflict has legal protection under international humanitarian law provided it is neutral, independent, and impartial. In contrast humanitarian action for those in deep poverty aggravated …