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The humanitarian sector continually faces organizational and operational challenges to respond to the needs of populations affected by war, disaster, displacement, and health emergencies. With the goal of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of response efforts, humanitarian innovation initiatives seek to develop, test, and scale a variety of novel and adapted practices, products, and systems. The innovation process raises important ethical considerations, such as appropriately engaging crisis-affected populations in defining problems and identifying potential solutions, mitigating risks, ensuring accountability, sharing benefits fairly, and managing expectations. This paper aims to contribute to knowledge and practice regarding humanitarian innovation ethics and presents two components related to a value-sensitive approach to humanitarian innovation. First is a mapping of how ethical concepts are mobilized in values statements that have been produced by a diverse set of organizations involved in humanitarian innovation. Analyzing these documents, we identified six primary values (do-no-harm, autonomy, justice, accountability, sustainability, and inclusivity) around which we grouped 12 secondary values and 10 associated concepts. Second are two proposed activities that teams engaged in humanitarian innovation can employ to foreground values as they develop and refine their project's design, and to anticipate and plan for challenges in enacting these values across the phases of their project. A deliberate and tangible approach to engaging with values within humanitarian innovation design can help to ground humanitarian innovation in ethical commitments by increasing shared understanding amongst team members, promoting attentiveness to values across the stages of innovation, and fostering capacities to anticipate and respond to ethically challenging situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When COVID-19 hit France, over 1,000 migrant people were living in insalubrious encampments in the northern city of Calais. A national lockdown was declared in March 2020, and in the face of the health risks the virus posed, it seemed the ongoing struggle between police and displaced people at this border might come to a halt. This article however argues that rather than appeasing tensions, the state leveraged the exceptional mobility regimes the pandemic brought about to strengthen its border deterrence. Drawing on 5 months of ethnographic research in Calais in the first half of 2020, and on interviews with displaced respondents and humanitarian workers through 2020 and 2021, I conceptualise the biopolitical mode of governance mobilised by the state against displaced people during this period as one of necropolitical opportunism. The lockdown period saw displaced people's survival at the border compromised by continued attacks on their encampments and access to services, as well as on the work of autonomous humanitarians seeking to hold the state accountable for its violence. This article contributes important new insights to debates on border biopolitics and the specific necropolitical agenda pursued by the French state at its northern frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Canadian Journal of Development Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article explores contrasting social constructions of the 'value of children' in a rural village in Northern Sierra Leone. It investigates how the meanings of childhood, its temporal extension and children's (present and future) roles are differently interpreted in the context of humanitarian intervention. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and participatory research with children, it explores how child work and education are conceptualised by a range of different actors (local authorities, families and international NGOs). The analysis sheds light on the tensions which arise between children's 'present usefulness' to family livelihoods through their work at home and their potential future utility through their 'work' at school. Taking two case study exemplars, it shows how international NGOs' humanitarian constructions of African children as innocent victims, 'emotionally priceless' and rights bearing can be locally reconfigured and appropriated for economic gain. The article demonstrates marginalised children's active role in blurring boundaries between emotional, monetary, global and local valuations of what children 'should' do and be. It also highlights how the 'humanitarian value' of childhood constitutes the bedrock upon which Sierra Leone's alternative futures are being actively imagined and contested along 'North–South' transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most wars now take place within states instead of between them. In many cases, this requires humanitarians to contend with non-state armed groups in order to access civilians. While armed groups are widely perceived as a threat to the delivery of humanitarian aid, they vary in the extent to which they allow or hinder humanitarian access. Current understandings of this variation revolve around armed groups' motivations to comply with international humanitarian law (IHL). However, most humanitarians acknowledge that using IHL in negotiations for humanitarian access with armed groups is not a viable strategy. I argue that scholars should broaden their study of humanitarian access by investigating the viability of other strategies and, in particular, the strategy of community acceptance. Drawing upon interviews with humanitarian practitioners, this article discusses the shortcomings of IHL in access negotiations with armed groups, the promises of community acceptance, and the implications of these arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Drawing on the ethnographic observation of three singular spaces in northern Morocco – a morgue, a “forest” and a presbytery – the paper explores the interconnections between migration experience and border violence from the perspective of migrants themselves. It demonstrates that migrants face at least three forms of border violence, emerging all at once from state control, networks of irregular migration, and humanitarianism. However, rather than being articulated in a cumulative relationship, these different forms of violence converge and reinforce each other within a continuum which permeates the migration trajectory. Migrants, for their part, are not mere objects of this continuum. Not only do they define practices to counter its effects – even if it means generating violence against their peers – but they also reinterpret the experience of violence in moral narratives that value risks in migration, while not naturalizing their exposure to death at the border. Migrants are thus actors in their own right of the “manufacture” of both the border and its composing violence, whether they oppose, or appropriate its effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Aequitas: Journal of Human Development, Disability & Social Change / Revue de Développement Humain, Handicap et Changement Social is the property of Reseau international sur le Processus de production du handicap, RIPPH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

La Russie est vraisemblablement l’un des pays qui, en tant que partenaire, mais aussi en tant que champ d’action, que terrain privilégié de ses interventions, a le plus marqué l’histoire du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR). L’importance de ce pays procède d’abord de la durée de leur relation, presque aussi ancienne que le CICR lui- même. Inscrite dans le temps long, cette histoire est toutefois marquée par l’alternance de périodes d’intense collaboration avec des phases de tensions et d’absences. Il s’agit donc d’une relation souvent heurtée à l’image des relations entretenues par la Russie avec le monde extérieur au cours du XXe siècle. Nous verrons que, paradoxalement, les phases de coopération ne coïncident pas toujours avec « les temps de guerre » de l’urgence humanitaire. Mais c’est justement l’intérêt de la Russie que d’avoir amené le CICR à dépasser le cadre initial de son mandat en faisant éclater le « classique dualisme » entre situation de guerre et situation de paix. Par le tumulte de son histoire, la Russie représente ainsi un extraordinaire laboratoire de l’action humanitaire, dans le sens d’un lieu où s’élaborent des pratiques et des normes, mais aussi des formes inédites de relations en situation de crise.

Cet article analyse l’aide humanitaire que des citoyens apportent à d’autres en Russie post-soviétique, en faisant une histoire et une ethnographie inédite de l’association « Assistance civique ». Il retrace l’évolution de l’aide fournie par l’association dans ses dimensions matérielle et juridique depuis la chute du régime soviétique. Au fil des populations qui se réfugient à Moscou, un glissement s’est opéré. D’une aide humanitaire principalement domestique, octroyée aux réfugiés de l’ex-URSS puis aux réfugiés intérieurs dans les années 1990, l’association a élargi son aide dans les années 2000 aux étrangers venus de pays plus éloignés, l’aspect civique prenant le pas sur l’aide matérielle directe. Cette évolution d’une aide à dominante informelle vers une aide plus professionnalisée et judiciarisée peut s’expliquer par la collaboration qui s’instaure entre l’association russe et le HCR, mais aussi par la politique de l’État russe à l’égard des associations de la société civile, son refus de définir une politique d’accueil des migrants ou de véritable protection des réfugiés, et sa promotion d’une libéralisation des services.

Cet article évalue un dispositif de prise en charge psychologique de fillettes victimes de violences sexuelles dans trois villages différents autour de Bukavu (RDC). Cinquante-sept fillettes de moins de 10 ans ayant subi des violences sexuelles dans trois villages différents autour de Bukavu et suivies par l'association EPA et la Fondation Panzi. Les trois échantillons d'enfants correspondant aux trois sites ont été testés afin de voir s'ils étaient comparables, une série de données concernant les fillettes a été recueillie afin de vérifier leur influence sur l'évolution de l'enfant et, finalement, un indice de fonctionnement global a été utilisé pour mesurer l'efficacité de la thérapie par le jeu. Les trois échantillons d'enfants sont très semblables et donc comparables. Aucune variable n'est prédictive de l'évolution de l'enfant, une fois celles liée au site et à la présence du père exclues. La thérapie par le jeu n'a été totalement positive que pour un site, le plus sécurisé des trois. Il existe un facteur de contexte lié aux particularités du site ainsi qu'un facteur individuel ou intrafamilial qui influence l'évolution de l'enfant. La thérapie par le jeu n'a pas d'effet significatif sur ceux-ci même si elle permet de lutter contre la stigmatisation de ces fillettes. This article evaluates a psychological care program for girls who were victims of sexual violence in three different villages around Bukavu (DRC). Fifty-seven girls under 10 years of age who have suffered sexual violence in three different villages around Bukavu and followed by the EPA association ("Enfants de Panzi et d'Ailleurs") and the Panzi Foundation. The three samples of children corresponding to the three villages were tested to ensure that they were comparable through different variables such as the father's presence, the age of the victims and the children' stigmatization. A series of data about the girls was collected and transformed into 13 variables in order to test their influence on the child's development. Finally, an overall functioning index was used to measure the effectiveness of play therapy. This global functioning index concerned five fields: feeling of security, health, cognitive development, family integration and community integration. The three samples of children were very similar and therefore comparable. No variables were predictive of the child's development, once those related to the site and the presence of the father were excluded. However, a high-risk group of children in the three regions emerged from the analysis. Play therapy was only totally positive for one site, the most secure of the three. Moreover, a group of high-risk children from all regions of origin was identified in the study and presented some very worrying characteristics. The denial of young raped children allows criminals to go unpunished. Travelling in DCR is difficult for victims because of distance, cost and road insecurity; moreover, the number of victims is high, and it is thus difficult to create individual therapy. Moreover, as the community is an essential symbol, the use of group therapy, and in particular play therapy, is really appropriate instead of individual therapy. The mother-child relationship should be further investigated and could be an important variable for the high-risk group. There was a context factor related to the particularities of the site as well as an individual or intra-family factor that influences the child's development. Even if play therapy did not have a directly significant effect on children, it helped to combat the stigmatization of these girls. Moreover, play therapy may have an effect on variables other than those considered in this study or may be masked by mediating variables. Finally, a group of high-risk children that has been identified in the study presented worrying clinical data and particular features that are of great concern and will require special attention and care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Les situations d'urgences humanitaires sont souvent caractérisées par des traumas collectifs et individuels importants. Cette étude vise à fournir davantage d'éléments de compréhension du processus de transmission du traumatisme afin de proposer des dispositifs de soins de prévention précoce de la transmission transgénérationnelle. Cette recherche est qualitative et observationnelle concerne les interactions mères traumatisées-bébés. Les dyades mère-bébé sont rencontrées dans le cadre d'un entretien filmé. L'observation des interactions mère-bébé est analysée à travers trois outils : une microanalyse de trois séquences de trois minutes : avant, pendant et après le récit traumatique de la mère ; une macroanalyse sur la totalité de l'entretien, l'analyse de sessions de jeu, codées avec l'échelle Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB, Feldman, 1998). Les résultats de l'observation des interactions dyadiques sont basés sur la présentation d'un cas très représentatif de l'échantillon de 24 dyades mère-bébé » qui ont participé à l'étude. Le cas d'étude choisi, présente une dyade mère-bébé vivant en Centrafrique. Madame M. a 23 ans et son profil clinique est caractérisé par une symptomatologie d'état de stress post-traumatique (IES-R = 51), ainsi que de dépression (HAD-A = 13) et d'anxiété (HAD-A = 17), élevées. Pendant la totalité de l'entretien, les échanges entre mère et bébé sont rares et non réciproques ; le bébé initie la plupart des interactions. L'observation à travers la microanalyse des trois séquences de l'entretien confirme que les interactions mère-bébé sont très pauvres en particulier pendant le récit traumatique de la mère. Le bébé sollicite la mère plus fréquemment lors du récit traumatique sans que la mère ne puisse apporter une réponse, car psychiquement absente. Lors de la session de jeu libre, la mère exprime une faible sensibilité maternelle ainsi que le bébé montre peu d'engagement social. Les capacités de la mère à interpréter les signaux transmodaux du bébé et à transformer l'état affectif du bébé, sont négativement influencées par son état émotionnel. L'absence de réponses appropriées de la mère se traduit par le partage de son état émotionnel négatif au bébé en particulier pendant le récit traumatique où le bébé finit par se concentrer sur lui-même et ne plus solliciter sa mère. Ce manque d'interaction est aussi observable dans la séquence de jeu libre où l'enfant montre un faible engagement social envers sa mère « absente ». La relation mère-bébé est visiblement endommagée par les expériences traumatiques de la mère. Les résultats permettent de contribuer à une meilleure identification des mécanismes de transmission du traumatisme de la mère à son bébé et être à même de produire des recommandations pour proposer des mesures préventives dans des situations de transmission potentielle du trauma. Several studies on the trans-generational transmission of trauma confirm the evidence of transmission. Understanding the process of this transmission could help to promote early care for traumatized mothers and their children. In particular, in contexts of collective trauma, such as humanitarian emergencies, where a large part of the population is exposed to repeated traumatic events. This study aimed to provide evidences on the trauma transmission process in order to prevent it. This research is qualitative and observational and it based on the observation of interaction between traumatized mother and their young children. Mother-child dyads are encountered as part of a videotaped interview. The interviews were carried out in several countries of Central Africa Region, affected by collective violence against the population since several years. The observation of mother-child interactions is analyzed through three tools: a microanalysis of three sequences of three minutes: before, during and after the traumatic narration of the mother; a macroanalysis on the totality of the interview; the analysis of a short play sessions, coded with the Coding Intercourse Behavior (CIB) scale. The chosen case study presents a baby mother dyad living in the Central African Republic. The results of the three observations show that mother-child interactions are greatly affected by the psychic unavailability of the mother who has been exposed to traumatic events. In particular, the analysis of the dyadic exchanges during the interview shows some evidences in the modification of interactions during the traumatic revocation of the mother: during the traumatic narrative, the mother's behavior in response to the child's stimulation or attention to the child's behavior decreases while there is an increase in absence in her absent look and limited responses to solicitations from the child (crying, vocalizations, etc.). The absence of the mother is visible in her look, but also in the lack of reciprocity and synchronicity in the rhythm of the exchanges as well as the delays in the answers or the total absence of answer to the child. In the free play session, the mother expresses low maternal sensitivity as well as the baby shows low social engagement. Mrs. M. is 23 years old and her clinical profile is characterized by high symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (IES-R = 51), as well as depression (HAD-A = 13) and anxiety (HAD-A = 17). The mother's ability to interpret the baby's trans-modal signals and transform the baby's emotional state is negatively influenced by her own emotional state. The lack of appropriate responses from the mother results in the transmission of her negative emotional state to the baby especially during the traumatic narrative, where the baby ends up concentrating on herself and no longer soliciting the mother. This lack of interaction can also be seen in the free play sequence where the child shows a weak social engagement to his "absent" mother. The baby mother relationship is visibly damaged by the traumatic experiences of the mother. The results allowed to better identify the mechanisms of trauma transmission from mother to child. This work presents clinical applications for the management of traumatized mothers and their young children in order to reduce the effects of the possible transmission of trauma to the child or, where possible, to prevent it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this study, we examine the experience of international Christian humanitarian aid workers and who work in South Sudan. From interviews with thirty people in east Africa and north America, we derive a relationship between Christianity as our participants understand it, and their modalities of encountering "the other" -- the people of South Sudan, who may seem different and unfamiliar, yet who must be met as part of religiously motivated life and work. In terrain of South Sudan, we argue that our participants enact a theopolitics of recognition, in which their emotional and practical connections to the people they serve are triangulated through God. This theopolitics operates almost entirely at the individual level, as personal encounters and work are mediated by the assumption of a shared relationship to God. The people of South Sudan are recognized as both familiar and strange, because they share a posited connection to the divine with humanitarians from the global north. We argue that this recognition is different from other ways of encountering the other found in literature ranging from feminist theory to international development. This study thus adds to scholarly knowledge of faith-based organizations and global humanitarianism. We also argue that while the theopolitical modality makes possible certain kinds of ethical action, it may close off other forms of action based in broader political critiques of global relations of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Objectif Cet article présente un dispositif de soins psychologiques pour les enfants exposés aux traumatismes de guerre. Patients Les enfants exposés aux événements traumatiques en Centrafrique. L'âge est compris entre 6 et 16 ans. Méthode Les enfants ont participé à un dispositif de prise en charge psychologique sur cinq sessions avec une cadence hebdomadaire. Ce dispositif a été créé pour pouvoir permettre à une équipe de non-professionnels de la santé mentale de garantir un projet thérapeutique finalisé visant à réduire la symptomatologie traumatique des enfants en contexte humanitaire. Résultats Six cent soixante-quatorze enfants (410 filles et 264 garçons) ont participé au dispositif de prise en charge groupale. À l'admission dans le programme, 69 % des enfants montraient un niveau de traumatisme très élevé (CPTS-RI : M = 41,64 ; ET = 10,12). Après cinq semaines d'intervention, les enfants ont pu réduire considérablement leurs symptômes traumatiques (p < 0,001). Conclusion Le dispositif proposé en Centrafrique a montré sa contribution dans la réduction des symptômes liés à l'exposition traumatique. Les sujets évoqués par les planches ont permis aux enfants de penser, nommer et contextualiser temporellement l'événement traumatique afin de leur permettre une réélaboration du passé et une projection dans le futur. Les enfants ont aussi pu identifier les ressources internes et externes qui pourront les aider à surmonter les moments difficiles. Abstract Objective This article presents a psychological care device for children exposed to war trauma. Patients Children exposed to traumatic events in the Central African Republic. The age is between 6 and 16 years old. Method The children were recruited during a psychoeducation session organized in the community. Following this, the children responding to the inclusion criteria participated in a psychological care device of five sessions on a weekly basis. This device was created to allow a team of non-professionals of mental health to guarantee a therapeutic project finalized to reduce the traumatic symptomatology of the children in a humanitarian context. Each session was organized in two parts. In the first part, the psychosocial worker, using a card representing a fictional character, encouraged children to speak about a subject. After this discussion, children were invited to draw a picture by following instructions related to the card observed and then to share their drawing with the group. The topics discussed in the sessions led children to rethink life before the war, to discuss difficult times during the war, and to imagine a future after the war. Results Six hundred and seventy-four children (410 girls and 264 boys) participated in the group psychological device. At the time of admission to the program 69% of children showed a very high level of trauma (CPTS-RI: M = 41.64, SD = 10.12). After five weeks of intervention, children were able to significantly reduce their traumatic symptoms (P < 0.001). Discussion The proposed device in the Central African Republic contributed to reducing symptoms related to traumatic exposure. The subjects evoked by the cards allowed the children to think, nominate and temporally contextualize the traumatic event in order to allow them a re-elaboration of the past and a projection in the future. The children were also able to identify the internal and external resources that can help them overcome difficult times. Conclusion In humanitarian contexts children may be affected by several traumatic events, and the means in terms of skilled human resources to cope with children's mental suffering may be very limited. The device presented in this article has been shown to be very effective in reducing the traumatic symptoms of children in a humanitarian context with the support of staff without a specific technical background in mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Les conflictualités ont modifié les pacifismes et les humanitaires. Avant comme après la Grande Guerre, des acteurs, individuels et collectifs, ont cherché non seulement à penser l’humanité, mais encore à intervenir au nom des droits de l’homme. Il s’agit, singulièrement pour la Ligue des droits de l’homme (LDH) comme pour la Fédération internationale des droits de l’homme (FIDH), de protéger les individus, mais aussi de reconnaître leurs droits d’hommes, quelle que soit leur appartenance nationale, religieuse, politique, et sans oublier le droit des peuples. Face aux États souverains forts et à une organisation internationale, la SDN, faible dans un ordre westphalien, le projet de généralisation des droits, porté autant par des juristes que par des militants, révèle l’avènement de sociétés civiles analysant la communauté internationale et va plus loin que l’urgence humanitaire, avec tous les silences et les absences d’une inscription en politique.