Red Lines and Grey Zones: Exploring the Ethics of Humanitarian Negotiation
Led by Kristoffer Lidén
Jan 2022 – Sep 2025
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Humanitarian action relies on negotiations with powerful actors for access and programming at local, national and international levels. These negotiations are filled with ethical dilemmas like cooperating with war criminals and repressive regimes, favouring certain social and political groups or putting the lives of local staff at risk in order to save lives and alleviate suffering.
(Video: Presentation by Kristoffer Lidén at the kick-off meeting on March 1st 2022.)
Starting from consultations with humanitarian practitioners, this project maps out these ethical problems and cross-examines them through a set of case studies and theoretical perspectives. The cases are from Syria, Bangladesh, Colombia, Nepal, the Mediterranean and the UN Security Council. The project team will also develop online university courses at MA and PhD levels and professional trainings, and will interact with policymakers, practitioners and civil society through a range of online and offline activities with a global reach.
The project is hosted by Peace Research Institute Oslo in association with the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies, and led by Kristoffer Lidén, in collaboration with Kristina Roepstorff as the deputy project leader. It includes research partners from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá; Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu; University College Dublin; Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, University of Oxford; and Inland Norway University. The Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation - a collaboration between the ICRC, UNHCR, WFP, MSF and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue – will be actively involved in consultation and training activities. University courses will be offered in collaboration with Research School on Peace and Conflict and the Joint Master's Degree of the Network on Humanitarian Action (NOHA).
The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway, grant nr. 325238.
Ethics of Humanitarian Action: Webinars on Syria, Afghanistan
Both the Ethics of Humanitarian Neutrality in Syria and the Red Lines for Humanitarian Aid in Afghanistan webinars were recorded and can be streamed via the seminar webpages.
Roundtable with Hugo Slim: The Future of Humanitarian Principles - Recording Now Available
Will the principle of humanity survive the critique of anthropocentrism and a call for post-humanism?
RedLines Project Kick-Off Meeting
The Red Lines and Grey Zones project has been officially launched with a kick-off meeting on the 1st of March. Please find an introduction to the project presented by Kristoffer Lidén above.
Do No Harm Project Represented at the IHSA Conference at two panels: The Ethics of Humanitarian Technology: Looking Back &Taking Stock & Humanitarian Innovation: Have We Come Full Circle?
Hosted by the International Humanitarian Studies Association (IHSA), the Conference on Humanitarian Studies was held at Sciences Po, Paris between 3-5 November 2021, with the theme ‘New realities of politics and humanitarianism: between solidarity and abandonment’.
The schedule featured a number of NCHS members, representing a number of PRIO projects including Do No Harm: Ethical Humanitarian Innovation and Digital Bodies led by Kristin Bergtora Sandvik.
Recordings of the sessions available from the below links:
Roundtable 10: The Ethics of Humanitarian Technology: Looking Back &Taking Stock
New Project on Ethics of Humanitarian Negotiation
The project "Red Lines and Grey Zones: Exploring the Ethics of Humanitarian Negotiation" has received funding from the Research Council of Norway. Starting from consultations with humanitarian practitioners, the project will map problems related to the ethics of negotiation and cross examine these challenges through cases from Syria, Bangladesh, Colombia, Nepal, the Mediterranean and the UN Security Council.
Tacit engagement as a form of remote management: Risk aversity in the face of sanctions regimes
Report - External Series
Red Lines and Grey Zones: Ethical dilemmas in humanitarian negotiations and the need for a research agenda
Popular Article in Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies Blog
Webinar on Engaging with the Taliban then and now: Lessons learned, lessons spurned?
Webinar on Red lines for Humanitarian Aid in Afghanistan
Webinar on the Ethics of Humanitarian Neutrality in Syria
The Future of Humanitarian Principles
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