TY - JOUR
AU - Caratsch, Claudio
AB -  FORWARD OR BACKWARDS? COPING WITH HUMANITARIAN CRISES Claudio Caratsch, Former Vice President ICRC Humanitarian protection for war victims has been on the mind of religious and political leaders since the beginning of civilised life. It is not a modern idea and yet is able to mobilise wide support from old and young in our time. I want to show, in this short paper, that ­ contrary to individual experience where you take steps in the direction of the goal you want to reach ­ collective movement, and particularly international relations, may be well advised to sometimes move a couple of steps backwards in order to find a better path forward. Becoming aware of human suffering resulting from armed conflict, modern States have proceeded from philanthropic aspiration to legal norms in order to protect the victims of war. This normative effort was in line with religious, moral as well as legal rules generally accepted at the turn of the XIXth to the XXth century. Later developments have put in evidence instances where big Powers exempted themselves from rules which seemed to go against their self-interest. The normative shift involved in such developments can and should be reversed if civilian 
TI - Conference Papers
JF - Refugee Survey Quarterly
DO - 10.1093/rsq/22.4.75
DA - 2003-12-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/conference-papers-15uZxwXYVX
SP - 75
EP - 78
VL - 22
IS - 4
DP - DeepDyve
ER -