Role of International Organization in Humanitarian Issues
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Role of International Organization in Humanitarian Issues
Introduction
International organizations are adding the impact they have on all-round global aspects. Unlike before, the organization’s roles are now looked beyond political issues and focus on rectifying social and economic issues. For instance, the United Nations is in charge of achieving international cooperation to solve the global issues on humanitarian character-social, economic, and cultural aspects (Forsythe et al., 2013). The formation of the organizations was influenced by the impacts of the Second World War that left most parts of the world devastated. The organization was formed with a series of roles aimed at rebuilding the disoriented world. Presently, international organizations provide a landing spot in coordinating humanitarian reliefs because of natural and man-made disasters in the countries unable to relieve themselves by national authorities.
The organizations are used in representing political values, interstates, and demands that apply locally and internationally. Furthermore, the organizations contribute to trans-national and world activities and programs, recognized by lawmakers as the key players in the country’s global system and reserved sector. In this regard, international organizations have significant effects on transforming and structuring world social, economic, and cultural aspects. Thus, the study’s major goal is to research the roles of international organizations on humanitarian issues. To meet the clarity of the research, the study will give focus on the examples of an international organization like the United Nations (U.N.) with different entities; United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP).
Discussion
One of the main roles of International organizations in humanitarian issues is the provision of relief and peacebuilding activities. The incorporation of international organizations in conflict begun during the Cold War. Initially, the organizations were mainly known for providing relief assistance and protecting minorities` rights. The establishment of Amnesty International that over time changed to Human rights Watch, marked the key step in the process of forming a different culture of humanitarian intervention (Avgeri, 2012). They add, most activities geared towards the intervening process formed Amnesty International and have not changed yet in the present time. By any chance, statistics reveal a gradual rise in the international organizations in the armed neighborhood, which have been increasing over the years. Basically, their role is prioritized on human and civil rights, peace enhancement, environment, and social challenges.
An example of an international organization established in peace operation areas is Peace Brigades International. The ultimate goal of the organization is to dispatch international volunteers in regions of conflict and shield the human rights activists from the risk of violence. Meaning the organizations come in handy in humanitarian issues as moderators and a special selection of experts. Nonetheless, it is essential to note the contradiction from some international organizations taking part in a radial campaign position like War Resisters International. Such a group of organizations argues the system is supposed to seek amendment from the initial root cause. Operational international organizations take part in peacekeeping activities through mobilization, provision of resources, and advising from a professional angle.
The international organization also act as knowledge providers in humanitarian issues. Generally, all international organizations’ concern is providing knowledge, hence profiting from studying scientific community and individual’s` personal experience in handling new management tools associated with security. Traditionally, the security matter was associated with the state’s nature, the enemy’s reflection, and the inclusion of military violence. However, the views on security are influenced by the change armament of technology, a gradual increase of non-government players, political innovation, and adoption. To gain clarity, Barkin (2015) defines three steps of analysis; the state, individual and international system, and the various dimensions to manage security matters besides the military aspect. Progressively. Barkin and colleagues researched the ideology of comprehensive security considering the most military, environmental, economic, societal, and political aspects involving different actors and applying different elements to determine security. Eventually, the Copenhang School attracted specialists’ attention to the advantages of securitization and any social matter, perhaps converted into a threat by the speech acts, responding with an emergency.
In the following durations, different scientific debates have attempted to merge the new definitions in developing a useful perspective to practitioners too (Weiss & Wilkinson, 2013) highlight the definitions like common, comprehensive, and human security are included when embracing the several elements on the revised version of security agenda of a new global polity. He adds the need to stretch security from pressure on national security to emphasize individual security and security with sufficient arms to invest in human development, from the protection of only territorial food boundaries to enhancing environmental security. The International organizations portray specific responses to the proposal on scientific debate and initiated their own security management. The management technique maintains the right communication, processes, and practices in relation to the scientific concept. Similarly, several tools have been incorporated into the institutions’ systems by pragmatist and international organizations in their security management style. Institutionalizing the process involves separate actions and sectors like information; analyzing the threats, risks associated, and vulnerabilities; and the structure of practical and logistic aspects.
Still, on the role of providing knowledge, some international organizations express the benefits of the non-partisan and non-bureaucratic, and risk-taking nature of the humanitarian intervention. The organizations are in charge of promoting knowledge used in the regulation of conflict solution and peace management. For instance, the steps in making a rule and interpreting and applying the norms and standards. Notably, the international organizations have been keen to diffuse the responsibility to protect (R2P) principle (Yoshida, 2013). This role is evident with the international organization, mainly from the west, which works effortlessly to protect and confront the weak community response to morally indefensible and mass atrocities.
Another role of the international organization in humanitarian issues in facilitating peace. The organizations are known as independent agencies in peace promotions since they do not entail the military structure. Either way, the international organizations and their work together with their officials, military and civilians, personnel of the peace mission but to for a specific purpose, assist the local organizations in promoting human security, economic and social growth and strengthening the rule of law. Initially, the act of peacekeeping was viewed as a strategy in helping the countries destroyed by civil war to restructure and recover. However, peacekeeping has shifted its aims, methods, and actors involved. A significant number of civilian personnel has been, and non-military activities are now part of the process considering the enlargement of the mandate, more so to the humanitarian and political assistance. Under the new standards, international organizations were allowed to participate, agreeing to conduct civilian tasks. The collaboration of the civil group and the military group referred to as Civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) was generated to refer to the close relationship between the civil society team and the military group. The first case of CIMIC cooperation is evidenced in the recovery of Germany after World War II. Presently the cooperation is a vital aspect in the doctrines of the international organization. (Barkin, 2015). The entire civil and military actors, state and non-state personnel work under the same environment, can either choose to work in unison or differently in close or loose cooperation.
Many countries have opted to form a cooperative relationship with the military personnel to become more effective in the relief operations and promote the success of peace missions, as acknowledged by the United Nations Department for Peace Keeping. In one of the recent drafts, the department emphasizes the responsibility for the provision of humanitarian assistance is determined mainly by recognized United Nation Agencies, funds, and programs. The United Nations Peacebuilding recognizes the civil society’s effort; both the private sector and non-governmental organizations in promoting peacebuilding, considering the ultimate goals of the commission are bringing together every needful key player. The international organizations can provide consultations on any matter they can deliver functional resources. Also, the organization’s essential mechanisms of controlling activities of operation and transparency in the missions. (Bebbington & Unerman, 2018). Meaning, the organizations can raise concerns and clarification on the impartiality and neutrality of peace mission.
International organizations also contribute to the political success of humanitarian issues. That is, they often appear as key players in the mediation and diplomatic negotiations. For example, the international organization has maintained positive feedback while contributing to the humanitarian issues in countries like Burundi, Palestine, and Mozambique. The Amnesty international for Oxfam have succeeded in creating humanitarian civil pressure and improving mission performance. The international organizations disapprove misconducts, reshaping the operation mandate, ensuring adherence to the legal requirement, and assessing the military personnel behavior. Sexual abuse in the society by peacekeeping personnel, human trafficking to promote prostitution, HIV/AIDS, and conflict infested areas denounce and condemn the activities of international organizations to condemn. Such critiques hinder the cooperation and personnel in the missions, likely to limit international organization roles in peace facilitation. The independent status and neutrality of most international organizations suffer a challenge in the cooperation of the civil society and the military. At the same time, coordination and sharing of goals and tools are fundamental in enhancing good cooperation. Thus, international organizations shift their ideological position and participate in coordinated actions (Barkin, 2015). Nonetheless, pragmatist international organizations will rather compromise their principle to join efforts in working with the military and provide assistance management.
The findings in recent research the laws and regulations by the United Nations of Peacekeeping on sexual abuse in the goals of the organizations is let to pass without deep investigation. International organizations’ role in facilitating peace is significant in logistics, despite previous controversies (Wallace, 2019). They are in charge of managing the facilities like strategic site identification, establishing access procedures for the offices, warehouses, residences, personnel issues like recruitment, and orientating them with professional ethics. Therefore, international organizations inhibit the ability to maintain the steps for pressing on, ensuring updates, and assessing the planning for security. The activities impact the positive relationship in international relationship, connected to the organization’s humanitarian role.
International organizations articulate voices in the respective states. The military may not be conversant with the assigned actors at the local levels deployed even with sufficient preparation. Most times, the military does not participate in the coordination meetings and hardly gives access to information, and expresses no interest in civil programs. Besides, peace missions are linked with neglecting locally demand-driven cooperation. The cooperation activities are identified and organized depending on the priority of the size of the military and civil personnel of the mission instead of local beneficiaries’ wishes. According to Barkin (2015), minimal attention is put in involving the local communities in several partnership programs. At the same time, the organizations can establish better peace operation personnel with the local individual and associations.
Some international organizations echo their voices to the local civil society, meaning they invite the local associations and groups in varying intervention steps. A significant number of international organizations are committed to articulating the voices; they participate in dialogues with the major actors and win their confidence since the situation relies on a successful outcome of the agenda. Of course, this is met by providing basic needs to the community. The international organization sent to different countries at the time of tragedies like war and drought remain recommendable since the early year of formation. European-based international organizations distributed more than 180000 tons of food aid in Africa and half a million tons in 1980 and 1991 (Gonçalves et al., 2013). Consequently, they accounted for more than ten percent of the public development aid, adding to $8 billion. In a rough estimation, at least more than four hundred international organizations globally take part in humanitarian issues and spend averagely ten billion dollars yearly, touching on more than 250 million lives living in poverty.
With the international organization’s effectiveness, they have gained different countries` confidence in involving the international organization in the systems, especially the international population. This is an added advantage to the organizations` role in articulating voices in complicated civil wars. The practical help the international organizations deliver increase the effectiveness of their objective in humanitarian issues, facilitating the development of confidence relationship and improving the possibility of embracing the reconstruction process by the communities, being it does not come easy and automatically. The international organizations are appreciated for their activists’ work, as noted in one of the remarks on the assignment in Somalia in the early nineties. The field member comments many challenges are associated with operating in war-prone areas, and the extortion levels seem higher than usual. The items arrive with a marked borderline. Thus, it is proper that we live with the people we help; simply put, the best protection is our behavior.
Finally, the last role of an international organization is taking part in the UNPREDEP mission that is prevention of deployment. The organizations perform the role using different mechanisms, such as deploying their representatives between the conflicting parties to prevent war. Since countries have different military strength and war equipment, the international organization deploys its prowess depending on the threats exposed, for instance, controlling the spread of mass atrocities in Macedonia. The countries consist of a mixed population of majority and ethnic group. The increased discrimination on classes triggered the United Nations to pass a resolution and establish a protection force (UNPROFOR) in the country but later changed to the U.N. Preventive Deployment Force (UNPRDEP). The fights in Kosovo were intense, impacting on destabilizing fronts resulting in ethnic tension in Macedonia. The war erupted between Albanian insurgents and the Macedonian government’s security that caused a drastic deterioration of the country in most sectors. Nonetheless, Macedonia and Albanian entered into a political agreement, the Ohrid Framework Agreement, which declared protection of civil rights in Albanian if its insurgents agreed to disarm. The proceeding parliamentary elections allowed for the collection of signatures on the agreement to share power between the Social Democrat and Albania party.
The policymakers, together with scholars, acknowledge the positive impacts of the conflict with the deployment of UNPRED and its peculiar structure. The role of the organization in the UNPRED mission was divided into three fundamental thresholds and operation phases. First is the pillar is the traditional work in the peacekeeping mission, specifically stationing military troops and observers around Macedonia’s boundaries to beef up security and prevent attacks. The next pillar entails the larger political responsibility to set up the right leadership systems and practice for maintaining peaceful relations and assign the United Nations law enforcement team to protect the violation of human rights, more so in the minorities. The last pillar is the define the human dimension stage, focused on institutions and international aid and cooperation. The two areas in the last pillar are prioritized because they enhance social development and improve the efforts to prevent crimes. Particularly, the international, together with the efforts of Non-governmental organizations, were involved in the social development projects in the riving countries. Their role is felt in the support to establish social policy and the social care think tank. The organization also developed a manual for trainers in the preparation of theoretical work, experiments, and professional knowledge. Additionally, they promoted home-based learning, taught on peaceful conflict resolution, and altered civil society’s structure in the underdeveloped regions. During the mid-90s and after 2001, the international organization restored mixed ethnic groups and teamwork. Hence, in Macedonia, the international organization played its role in assisting the country’s leadership in recollecting the ethnic societies that had isolated themselves each time. The organizations formed projects that were mainly conducted over the media and other forms of communication with a categorical aim to integrate the members from different ethnic communities to the formed repotting programs. Summarily, the UNPREDEP was a special United Nations peacekeeping mission since it was formed with the objective to set preventive measures with military and civil responsibilities, including the human dimension. The international organization works parallel with the local non-governmental organizations in preventing ethnic violence and enhance social dialogue.
Conclusion
The increasing participation of international organizations in humanitarian issues is geared towards improving their global space effectiveness. The paper has discussed the role of international organizations in humanitarian issues. Even though several international organizations exist, the study has provided a comprehensive discussion of the organizations` role in humanitarian issues. The research identified the international organization’s different roles, which illustrated a thin difference with the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
The roles identified include the provision of relief and peacebuilding activities. This applies mainly during economic distress like food shortages, droughts, earthquakes, and bad climate conditions (Gonçalves et al., 2013). The United Nations have expressed significant participation in providing relief services in poverty manifested regions and extreme climate conditions likely to cause food shortages. Secondly, international organizations are act as knowledge providers by imparting information and knowledge on the assigned areas of assignment. The role of the organizations in facilitating peace is mainly inclined towards political issues that lead to conflicts. It is the role of the International organizations to set neutral grounds in arbitrating on such matters and create peace. This role is almost similar to the international organization’s next role, which is mediation and diplomatic negotiations, often caused by political disagreements. The last role of the organization, as identified in the study are voice articulation and prevention of deployment.
The research finding also reveals that international organizations have adapted to different mechanisms and approaches to meet their objectives. One key strategy is working closely with the NGOs since they have a lot of information at the local level that gives the international organizations enough insights about a region. The organizations also send representatives who live and work in the regions.
References
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Weiss, T. G., & Wilkinson, R. (Eds.). (, 2013). International organization and global governance. Routledge.
Wallace, G. P. (2019). Supplying protection: The United Nations and public support for humanitarian intervention. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 36(3), 248-269.
Bebbington, J., & Unerman, J. (2018). Achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.
Forsythe, D. P., Coate, R. A., & Pease, K. K. (2013). The United Nations and changing world politics. Westview Press.
Barkin, J. (2015). International organization: theories and institutions. Springer.
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