Mar 2015 – Mar 2019
The human rights framework is a cornerstone of Norwegian foreign policy, including its humanitarian policy. Humanitarian action is based on principles of neutrality and impartiality. Human rights is about justice, politics and redistribution. How do the two go together?
The humanitarian failure to respond to the 1994 Rwandan genocide and its aftermath engendered a professional and ethical crisis within humanitarianism. To make humanitarian action better, many of the players from UNICEF to Save to Children, as well as donor government like Norway, adopted strategies to shift the focus from needs to rights: only then could victims be given a voice and transformed into active participants. Humanitarianism should not be about charitable giving but about upholding the rights of beneficiaries.
Twenty years later, humanitarianism has been transformed in many ways, but not by human rights. There has been a lot of confusion about the meaning of rights-based humanitarianism, and what it actually entails for programming. Good ideas for rights-based approaches developed at the Headquarters have been difficult to implement in the field. In recent years, humanitarian actors have talked less about rights- and more about other ways of improving humanitarianism, such as the use of technology or innovation. At the same time, the Norwegian government, one of the most important humanitarian donors, continues to insist on human rights based approaches to aid.
Aiming to contribute to the development of humanitarianism as a field of study in its own and to South-South collaboration, this project seeks to describe, understand and explain how rights-based approaches (RBA) to humanitarian action shape humanitarian assistance and contribute to humanitarian outcomes at different levels, in different conflict and disaster zones.
More specifically, this project examines the use of rights based approaches to humanitarian assistance in countries and organizations that have been among the top recipients of Norwegian aid over the past decade: Colombia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Palestine, and South-Sudan as well as UN organizations and national and international NGOs. The aim is to contribute both theoretical and policy knowledge of how rights based approaches has shaped aid and how the relationship between humanitarianism and human rights will play out in the future.
This project is funded under the funding scheme for Effects of Aid (AIDEFFECT). This is a sub-program under the broad-based and action oriented program Norway – Global partner (NORGLOBAL). The project is in collaboration with researchers from Colombia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Palestine and South Sudan.
The PRIO project 'Aid in Crisis? Rights-Based Approaches and Humanitarian Outcomes' explores humanitarian aid and human rights, and will last until March 2019. One of the unique articles to come out of the project was Kristin Bergtora Sandvik's 'Humanitarians in court: how duty of care travelled from human resources to legal liability', newly published January 2019.
Journal Article in The International Journal of Human Rights
Journal Article in Disasters
Popular Article in PK Forum
Journal Article in The European Journal of Development Research
Journal Article in Disasters
PRIO Policy Brief
PRIO Policy Brief
Journal Article in Disasters
PRIO Policy Brief
Journal Article in The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law
Journal Article in Third World Quarterly
Journal Article in Australian Feminist Law Journal
Journal Article in Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Journal Article in Third World Quarterly
Popular Article in Stanford Social Innovations Reveiw Blog
Journal Article in International Review of the Red Cross
Popular Article in ATHA.SE
Popular Article in Sociological Review
Journal Article in Genocide Studies and Prevention: an International Journal
Journal Article in Oslo Law Review
Journal Article in Journal of International Humanitarian Action
PRIO Policy Brief
Book Chapter in Humanitarianism and Challenges of Cooperation
Edited Volume
Book Chapter in UNHCR and the Struggle for Accountability, Technology, law and results-based management
Book Chapter in UNHCR and the Struggle for Accountability, Technology, law and results-based management
Popular Article in A Quest for Humanitarian Effectiveness
PRIO Policy Brief