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That moral principles underlie and constrain the activity of members of professions such as medicine and law is generally acknowledged. Whether the same can be said of the military profession is a question likely to generate considerable uncertainty. In this paper I shall show that, like other professions, the military profession is informed by a moral teleology. The source of this teleology, for the profession of arms, is manifested in the laws of war. The laws of war, in turn, reflect two humanitarian principles

It is well known that African societies are shaped by custom and tradition. African thought, deeply imbued with humanism, has given birth to concepts and practices that place these societies among the world's humanitarian civilizations. With the advent of the colonial era and the establishment of institutions based on foreign values, the manifestations of African ideas was put into abeyance. Subsequent independence, while giving African States the opportunity to participate alongside other nations in constructing a universal civilization, paradoxically brought the continent face to face with a dilemma in regard to economic, political, social and cultural matters: the choice between the wholesale adoption of foreign, particularly European, models, or a radical return to ancestral traditions. However, humanitarian concerns are among the few that can—and should—transcend such Manichean considerations.

When, in Durrenmatt's novel Der Verdacht,' Police Commissioner Hans Barlach finds himself a prisoner in the Zurich sanatarium Sonnenstein, he notices with alarm four objects in his room : a huge mirror on the ceiling, a glass wall carved with dancing figures, a crude black cross over the door, and a large print of Rembrandt's "Anatomy Lesson." It is a combination of effects calculated to make him aware of his weakness and infirmity of body, his age, and his impending death. Determined to resist such psychological undermining, he demands that the Rembrandt be replaced by a reproduction of Durer's well known engraving "Knight, Death and the Devil." This demand occurs at a significant moment in the novel. Dramatically, it is the moment in which reversal occurs, the moment in which Barlach realizes the danger of his pursuit of the ex-Nazi war criminal Emmenberger, owner of the sanatarium. He realizes that he is no longer the pursuer but the captive. But more than this, the moment is one in which the dialectic of the novel is established. The evocation of Knight, Death, and the Devil removes Der Verdacht from the category of a detective story, 2 and transforms it into an allegory of the modern world in which a representative of humanitarian principles seeks to call to justice a man who is the embodiment of a particular aspect of our modern understanding of evil.

The 12th of August 1949 is without doubt one of the most important dates in humanitarian law and in the development of the idea of the protection of man. It was then that four new Conventions were adopted in Geneva relative to the protection of victims of armed conflicts. In so far as they express general condemnation of war crimes committed during the Second World War, as well as the determination to prevent their recurrence in any possible sort of future conflict, the Geneva Conventions must be regarded as a bastion for the protection of all victims of armed conflict as well as a serious warning to all those who might be disposed to make a misuse of force or violate humanitarian principles. This great victory of the humanitarian spirit and of the principles which it inspires, by virtue of which one should not only avoid inflicting suffering on those who are deprived of protection or on non-combatants, but one should also accord them assistance and care for them if necessary, is due to a large extent to the Red Cross. The forces of progress have given their support to this idea and have made possible its realization within the framework of the International Conventions of the Red Cross. The new Geneva Conventions, which in the evolution of humanitarian law at present represent a decisive phase in a given sector, constitute an extremely solid and complete legal code which has been meticulously drawn up and which is both logical and coherent.

Technological advances that have recently emerged or become more widely available offer promising opportunities to support and improve humanitarian access. Yet some technologies may generate new forms of risk, and an over-reliance on technology may foster a widening gap between humanitarians and people in need. In light of these trends, this paper reviews several available technologies and explores the opportunities and challenges of applying them to improve humanitarian access. The paper also highlights areas for further research and encourages practitioners to apply technologies in a manner that is rooted in the core humanitarian principles.

The Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in time of war as in time of peace, irrespective of class, race, nationality, religion, political beliefs or any other criterion, solely tin the basis of humanitarian principles. This line of conduct has been and still is being followed daily in many different situations, for despite outstanding progress in different spheres and all that has been achieved by modern techniques and growing civilization, present-day society still desperately needs help in relieving human suffering.The Red Cross constantly provides such aid, sometimes discreetly, sometimes in a more spectacular way, but always in accordance with the basic principles governing Red Cross work.

Governments in both East and West approached the Helsinki process with considerable cynicism; even at the moment of signing the Final Act in August 1975 most Western representatives could not have expected the humanitarian principles of ’Basket Three’ to be observed in the USSR and Eastern Europe. The decade which followed proved these fears justified, and review meetings frequently deteriorated into propaganda warfare and mutual recriminations. Yet the records of East and West are very different. Western governments are responsive to democratic pressures in a way that those of the ‘socialist community’ are not. However, the public debate stimulated by the Helsinki process benefits democracy rather than authoritarian systems, and the very fact that such a debate was possible, gave a little hope that the second decade of follow-up meetings might bring some change for the better.

Efforts to limit the use of force and to mitigate its destructive consequences are probably as old as the history of armed conflict. However, the profound occupation with the prevention of warfare and with the reduction of suffering resulting from it was not for many centuries reflected in a legal recognition of humanitarian principles. The rights of belligerents to adopt any degree or kind of force to defeat the opponent and of conquerors to treat prisoners and occupied territories as was deemed fit were widely accepted. Indeed, in some cases, ancient practice justified the total destruction of the enemy.1

The basic problem examined in this paper is the refusal by North Vietnam and its Communist allies to abide fully with the humanitarian principles of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and their refusal to properly account for the missing in action and dead. A descriptive chronology is developed to highlight the significant efforts put forth by family members of Americans who were either held captive and subsequently released or who remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. The period 1964 to present is examined and family initiatives are described as they occurred. The initiatives took many forms, including: meetings with high level government officials; numerous appearances before the Congress; letter writing campaigns; use of the mass media; dedication ceremonies; and travel abroad. No attempt is made to draw conclusions or make recommendations with respect to family success or failure during their involvement in the PW/MIA issue.

Concern for the rights of children based on humanitarian principles is chiefly a twentieth century development. It is true that in the past, children have been cherished and esteemed by their parents, yet they have also in other circumstances been exploited and misused to serve the need and greed of the adult world, whether it might be child marriages forced upon minors in sixteenth century England to secure the proper transfer of property between wealthy families or the use of child labour in the factories of England1 during the Industrial Revolution, when the prosperity of the nation was thought to depend upon the exertions of young children working long hours in deplorable conditions. It is possible to trace little change historically towards the phenomenon of child injury until attitudes in society changed, leading to the establishment of the preventive social agencies.

Recent advances in biomedical technology and therapeutic procedures have generated a moral crisis in modern medicine. The vast strides made in medical science and technology have created options which only a few decades earlier would have been relegated to the realm of science fiction. Man, to a significant degree, now has the ability to exercise control not only over the ravages of disease but even over the very processes of life and death. With the unfolding of new discoveries and techniques, the scientific and intellectual communities have developed a keen awareness of the ethical issues which arise out of man's enhanced ability to control his destiny. In response to the concern for questions of this nature, there has emerged the rapidly developing field of bioethics. Jews, to whom all such questions are quests not only for applicable humanitarian principles but for Divine guidance, must, of necessity, seek answers in the teaching of the Torah. "The Torah of God is perfect" (Psalms 19: 8), and in its teachings the discerning student will find eternally-valid answers to even newly-formulated queries. As physicians and patients turn to Rabbinic authorities for answers, Jewish scholars seek to elucidate and expound the teachings of the Torah in these vital areas of concern. The present essay highlights some of the ethical issues faced by the Jewish physician who faithfully observes his tradition in all matters including his daily practice of medicine. Although more questions are raised than answered, the aim of this essay will have been achieved if the reader is stimulated to pursue these issues in the extending writings on the subject now available in English.Rosner, a professor of medicine, discusses some of the ethical issues that confront the traditionally observant Jewish physician. He focuses particularly on special ethical problems for the observant Jewish medical student, including issues relating to Sabbath observance, procreation, and death and dying. He concludes that Jewish tradition imposes an obligation on the physician to heal and that a cardinal principle of Jewish ethics is the infinite value of human life, implying a corollary prohibition against any action that shortens it.

To the Editor: —At the present time when the overriding importance of the contributions of basic science in furthering the understanding of disease is being recognized clearly by so many, the cry is often heard that such emphasis on science will destroy the humanitarian principles of medicine. Those who recognize this alleged danger appear to believe firmly and honestly that the acquisition of new knowledge leading to a better understanding crowds out all that has gone before, whether it be in the realm of science or humanity. Thus, new understanding of disease, based on knowledge gained in the current revolution in biology, cannot help but gnaw away at the humanitarian aspects of medicine to render the physician a "scientific" automaton devoted to his "experiments" but not to the care of his patients. The proponents of this view are many and vocal, moreover they voice their objections in the form of

Modern technology and innovations constantly transform the world. This also applies to humanitarian action and development aid, for example: humanitarian drones, crowd sourcing of information, or the utility of Big Data in crisis analytics and humanitarian intelligence. The acceleration of modernization in these adjacent fields can in part be attributed to new partnerships between aid agencies and new private stakeholders that increasingly become active, such as individual crisis mappers, mobile telecommunication companies, or technological SMEs. These partnerships, however, must be described as simultaneously beneficial as well as problematic. Many private actors do not subscribe to the humanitarian principles (humanity, impartiality, independence, and neutrality), which govern UN and NGO operations, or are not even aware of them. Their interests are not solely humanitarian, but may include entrepreneurial agendas. The unregulated use of data in humanitarian intelligence has already caused negative consequences such as the exposure of sensitive data about aid agencies and of victims of disasters. This chapter investigates the emergent governance trends around data innovation in the humanitarian and development field. It takes a look at the ways in which the field tries to regulate itself and the utility of the humanitarian principles for Big Data analytics and data-driven innovation. It will argue that it is crucially necessary to formulate principles for data governance in the humanitarian context in order to ensure the safeguarding of beneficiaries that are particularly vulnerable. In order to do that, the chapter proposes to reinterpret the humanitarian principles to accommodate the new reality of datafication of different aspects of society.

Abu-Sada C (ed.) In the Eyes of Others: How People in Crises Perceive Humanitarian Aid CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 2012 ISBN: 978-1475211832 Abu-Sada C (ed.) Dilemmas, Challenges, and Ethics of Humanitarian Action: Reflections on Medecins Sans Frontieres’ Perception Project Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press; 2012 ISBN: 978-0773540866

The humanitarian sector is entering in the network age. The explosion in access to new information and communication technology (ICT) like mobile phones, the internet, and social media, is changing the way people communicate in emergency situations. However, the use of new ICT has not yet been adequately accompanied by an analysis of the challenges it represents for the application of the four humanitarian principles, namely humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. These principles provide the foundations for humanitarian action and are central to establishing and maintaining access to affected people. This article addresses that issue and provides a design framework to guide humanitarian agencies towards a principled approach to ICT.

Aid organizations profess universalist objectives – such as humanitarian principles and human rights – whilst operating in areas in which these objectives cannot be fulfilled. How do they deal with the disparity between the claims they make and what actually happens, how are parts of the story covered up, and what do the stated objectives achieve? This article argues that denial – at a personal, organizational and institutional level – is crucial for sustaining assistance, and is facilitated by the language of rights and principles. Drawing on research from southern Sudan, I explore how aid organizations construct an official version of events that fabricates clarity whilst maintaining a degree of tactical confusion. This establishes a political morality, a seemingly ethical position that has political and psychological returns.

For millions of people world-wide, surviving the pressure of extreme events is the predominant objective in daily existence. The distinction between natural and human-induced disasters is becoming more and more blurred. Some countries have known only armed conflict for the last 25 years, and their number is increasing. Recently, humanitarian sources reported 24 ongoing emergencies, each of them involving at least 300,000 people “requiring international assistance to avoid malnutrition or death”. All together, including the countries still only at risk and those emerging from armed conflicts, 73 countries, i.e., almost 1.8 trillion people, were undergoing differing degrees of instability.Instability must be envisioned as a spectrum extending between “Utopia” and “Chaos”. As emergencies bring forward extreme challenges to human life, medical and public health ethics make it imperative for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to be involved. As such, WHO must enhance its presence and effectiveness in its capacity as a universally accepted advocate for public health. Furthermore, as crises become more enmeshed with the legitimacy of the State, and armed conflicts become more directed against countries' social capital, they impinge more on WHO's work, and WHO must reconcile its unique responsibility in the health sector, the humanitarian imperative and the mandate to assist its primary constituents.Health can be viewed as a bridge to peace. The Organization specifically has recognised that disasters can and do affect the achievement of health and health system objectives. Within WHO, the Department of Emergency and Humanitarian Action (EHA) is the instrument for intervention in such situations. The scope of EHA is defined in terms of humanitarian action, emergency preparedness, national capacity building, and advocacy for humanitarian ^principles. The WHO's role is changing from ensuring a two-way flow of information on new scientific developments in public health in the ideal all-stable, all-equitable, well-resourced state, to dealing with sheer survival when the state is shattered or is part of the problem. The WHO poses itself the explicit goals to reduce avoidable loss of life, burden of disease and disability in emergencies and post-crisis transitions, and to ensure that the Humanitarian Health Assistance is in-line with international standards and local priorities and does not compromise future health development. A planning tree is presented.The World Health Organization must improve its own performance. This requires three key pre-conditions: 1) presence, 2) surge capacity, and 3) institutional support, knowledge, and competencies. Thus, in order to be effective, WHO's presence and surge capacity in emergencies must integrate the institutional knowledge, the competencies, and the managerial set-up of the Organization.

IN the spring of 1867, the Boston Commonwealth enthusiastically declared that "temperance, equal rights, equal suffrage for women and blacks, the rights of working-men, and the rights of children-all branches of one root-are under brisk discussion, and radical ideas on all these points are pushing on in more vigorous and rapid growth than ever before."' As a mouthpiece for the radical "Bird Club," which represented the powerful Charles Sumner faction of Massachusetts' Republican party, the Commonwealth was describing the essential reform agenda for Bay State politics in the late 1860s. Historians have long recognized that on the issues of slavery, Reconstruction, and black equality, Massachusetts was the most radical state in the Union. Less well understood is the effort of the state's Republican party to deal with other controversial topics, such as women's rights, labor reform, temperance legislation, anti-Catholic prejudice, and Chinese immigration. Two of these issues, extending voting rights to women and granting naturalization rights to the Chinese, not only challenged the party's commitment to humanitarian principles but also severely tested the basic Republican belief in equality before the law. The decision of the party's leaders to straddle these issues dramatically exposed the political limits of the egalitarian Radical Republican ideology of the postCivil War years.

This report will deal chiefly with adult probation, its present development and status, its needs and future. It will have little to say of suspended sentence, which we regard, when properly used, as merely preliminary to probation or applicable only to trivial offenses. We regard it of far less importance at this time to deal with the legal aspects of this topic than to consider and submit recommendations regarding the practical administration of the probation system. 1. Probation accepted. The term probation properly used covers all the social as distinguished from the legal and judicial work of the courts. It includes the social investigation of defendants as well as the supervision of convicted offenders released under suspended sentence. The time is past when it is necessary to defend the probation system as such. Adverse criticism today (and this has increased in some quarters due to the so-called "crime wave") upon analysis is found to be almost wholly due to the inadequate equipment of probation offices, and the consequent laxness of investigation or supervision, or else to the misuse of its principles and functions. Few, if any, innovations in criminal procedure and administration have commanded as much approval, both from the well informed student of criminology and from the general public, as has the establishment and rapid extension of the probation system. It commends itself in theory to all except those ultra-legalistic and reactionary minds who see in the criminal courts only instruments for the conviction and punishment of crime. Humanitarian principles and the development of the social sciences have conspired together to "socialize" the courts and there can be no turning back. 2. The subject limited. We shall not in this report, however, discuss the theory of probation, but its present practice and tendencies. Granted that the principles behind probation are sound, let us ask ourselves: Is probation work in the courts as developed to date successful and beneficial to