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The Construction of the Humanitarian Worker As Inviolate Actor by Elise

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The construction of the humanitarian worker as inviolate actor by Elise Leclerc-Gagné A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Political Science) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) May 2014 Elise Leclerc-Gagné, 2014 Abstract “How is it that there is such a concern for the security of humanitarian workers?” A glance at the legal, policy, humanitarian, academic and business spheres reveals a widespread and strong commitment to the security of humanitarian workers. While it may appear obvious that these actors should not be victims of security incidents, upon scrutiny, the prominence of this notion – which I term the “norm of humanitarian security” – is surprising. Concern for the security of humanitarian workers is startling considering the enduring ambiguity of what or who humanitarian workers are, and the fact that these actors perform work that has, for years, faced serious critiques. In view of this state of affairs, this dissertation asks: “how is it that humanitarian workers came to be perceived as inviolate actors?” I attend to this question by tracing a genealogy of the norm of humanitarian security. After outlining the emergence of the humanitarian worker as actor, I show how the norm of humanitarian security developed and gained prominence in the 1990s. I argue that this development was greatly informed by states’ commitment to the delivery of humanitarian assistance to which the security of humanitarian workers was perceived as central. States’ changing paradigm of engagement in humanitarian affairs in the post-2001 period contributed to the norm of humanitarian security becoming a stand-alone norm. This occasioned a shift in which violations of the norm went from being portrayed as problematic owing to their impact on the delivery of humanitarian assistance, to being perceived as problematic in and of themselves. This research makes an important contribution to the literature on norms – by providing the first study of the norm of humanitarian security; the literature on humanitarianism – by shedding light on the evolution of the notion of humanitarian worker and showing the interplay between the evolution of the humanitarian sphere and the humanitarian worker; and to the literature on the security of humanitarian workers – by providing a historically situated account of its object of study. ii Preface The dissertation is an original intellectual product of Elise Leclerc-Gagné. Portions of the research and analysis presented in Chapters 3 and 4 were published in 2014. “The Changing Portrayal of Violations of the Norm of Humanitarian Security.” Canadian Humanitarian Conference 2013: Discussion Papers: 35-55. Interviews conducted for this dissertation were approved by the University of British Columbia’ Behavioural Ethics Board (BREB), certificates H-09-01834, H10-00366 and H11-02731. iii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Preface............................................................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... vii Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1 ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. The security of humanitarian workers in international politics ........................................... 4 1.2. Surprising concern for the security of humanitarian workers .............................................. 7 1.3. Argument ........................................................................................................................... 13 1.3.1. Alternative explanations and responses to main critiques .......................................... 17 1.4. Terminology ....................................................................................................................... 18 1.5. State of the literature and the contribution of this research ............................................... 20 1.5.1. Humanitarianism ......................................................................................................... 21 1.5.2. Constructivim and the Literature on Norms ............................................................... 22 1.5.3. Security of humanitarian workers ............................................................................... 26 1.6. Method, Data and Organization of the research ................................................................ 28 Chapter 2: The first steps of the humanitarian worker ................................................................. 32 2.1. Humanitarian developments around the world .................................................................. 34 2.2. Solferino – humanitarianism’s founding myth .................................................................. 38 2.3. First recognition of the humanitarian worker .................................................................... 46 2.4. Precedents of the 1899 Hague Convention: history of the concern for POWs .................. 48 2.5. World War I ....................................................................................................................... 52 2.5.1. Information Agency .................................................................................................... 54 2.5.2. Prisoners of War ......................................................................................................... 56 2.5.2.1. Distinctiveness of relief societies......................................................................... 56 2.5.2.2. Nationalistic character of relief action ................................................................. 61 2.5.3. Civilians ...................................................................................................................... 64 2.6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 68 Chapter 3: The emergence of the humanitarian worker as inviolate actor: humanitarian security as means ........................................................................................................................................ 70 3.1. The humanitarian sphere from the end of WWI to the end of the Cold War .................... 72 3.1.1. The Interwar and Second World War ......................................................................... 72 3.1.2. The Cold War: development of the humanitarian sphere ........................................... 80 3.1.3. Post-Cold War period ................................................................................................. 99 3.2. The norm of humanitarian security in the 1990s ............................................................. 106 3.3. Alternative explanations .................................................................................................. 108 3.4. Argument ......................................................................................................................... 112 3.5. Overview of the humanitarian activities in Bosnia .......................................................... 115 3.6. The security of humanitarian workers during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina ......... 121 3.6.1. Justifications of violation .......................................................................................... 131 3.7. The security of media professionals during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina ............ 132 3.8. Rome Statute .................................................................................................................... 136 3.9. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 141 iv Chapter 4: The humanitarian worker as inviolate actor in the post 9/11 world .......................... 143 4.1. Expressions of commitment to the norm of humanitarian security ................................. 146 4.2. The Canal Hotel bombing and World Humanitarian Day ............................................... 151 4.3. Trends in news reporting on violations of the norm of humanitarian security ................ 156 4.4. Paradigm shift: states’ increasing harnessing humanitarian action ................................. 159 4.5. Focus on victimized humanitarian workers ..................................................................... 165 4.5.1. The post-9/11 culture of commemoration and the narrative of the War on Terror .. 166 4.5.2. Developments in media and technology ................................................................... 170 4.5.3. Humanitarian workers’ use of new media and technology ....................................... 175 4.6. Media professionals ........................................................................................................
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