Ethical Challenges Among Humanitarian Organisations: Insights from the Response to the Syrian Conflict

Chapter 8 from the book Humanitarian Action and Ethics

From:
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Published
1 June 2018
Country:
Syria
Document Type:
Book Chapter
Theme:
Humanitarian Disasters and Emergencies
Authors:
Funk, K. L., Rayes, D., Rubenstein, L. S., Diab, N. R. and Singh, N. S.
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DeCamp, M., Maziak, W., Ho, L. S., and Courtland, W.

Abstract

Decision-making for humanitarian health organisations in armed conflict, where combatants often violently interfere with humanitarian operations, is fraught with ethical challenges. Health workers often find themselves confronted with dilemmas where answers consistent with humanitarian values and standards do not exist, requiring what Hunt et al. (2012) describe as the need to choose a 鈥榣east-worst option鈥�. De Waal (2010) refers to these challenges as among humanitarianism鈥檚 鈥榠nescapable cruelties鈥�, and argues that they are an unavoidable consequence of working at odds with the interests of powerful forces of war.

This book chapter is part of the 鈥楻esearch for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC)鈥� programme.

Citation

Kory L Funk, Diana Rayes, Leonard S Rubenstein, Nermin R Diab, Namrita S Singh, Matthew DeCamp, Wasim Maziak, Lara S Ho and W Courtland Robinson (2018) 鈥楨thical Challenges Among Humanitarian Organisations: Insights from the Response to the Syrian Conflict鈥� - Chapter 8 in Ayesha Ahmad and James Smith (eds) (2019) Humanitarian Action and Ethics, London: Zed Books

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Published 1 June 2018
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