In the Shadows of Just Wars: Violence, politics and humanitarian action

One of the most virulent issues of modern humanitarianism is the degree of separation between military interventions and the humanitarian community that come in front, alongside and behind them. Humanitarianism was still smarting from self-deprecation after Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo when Afghanistan, Iraq and the War on Terror ripped a big whole in the established ethics of intervention. This analysis is urgently needed as one of the original ‘balls-of-steel’ moral stalwarts faces deep self-questioning.

http://www.disasternetwork.co.uk/170004.htm

Some good Emergency Handbooks

	Emergency Handbooks
	Camp Management Project 2004 Camp management toolkit
	ICRC The Code of Conduct The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief
	PEOPLE IN AID Code of Good Practice 2003 The management and support of aid personnel
	UNHCR HANDBOOK FOR REGISTRATION Procedures and Standards for Registration, Population Data Management and Documentation
	Sphere Handbook Second Edition
	UNHCR Handbook for Emergencies
	UNHCR PARTNERSHIP AN OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK FOR UNHCR’s PARTNERS
	USAID Field Operations Guide Disaster Assessment and Response
	WHO Technical Notes in Emergencies
	WHO & PAHO Management of Dead Bodies in Disaster Situations

Hard Choices – Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention

 

This is a towering book that should be a obligatory read for every disaster manager. With contributions from academics such as Mary Anderson (Rising from the Ashes), politicians such as Kofi Annan and the ‘real thing’ such as General Romeo Dallaire (Head of UN Peacekeepers during Rwandan genocide), this uncompromising and insightful book from the Red Cross is a headlong tackle into the darkest moral quagmires of humanitarian intervention. Events such as Darfur make this pre-Kosovo book even more relevant than ever. Unique and superb in every way.

http://www.disasternetwork.co.uk/170007.htm

Humanitarian Accountability Partnership

The result of the Humanitarian Ombudsman Project that concluded an ombudsman system was not appropriate for the humanitarian sector due to the lack of commonly agreed standards.

http://www.hapinternational.org/en/

SPHERE Standards

The internationally agreed minimum standards for humanitarian response may still not be fully adhered to or monitored by those who subscribe to them, but they represent a powerful complement to the Red Cross standards and practical guideline for minimal performance standards in a number of technocentric areas of disaster response

http://www.sphereproject.org/

Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (ALNAP)

Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in humanitarian action represents a supurb and growing body of knowledge on humanitarian interventions with a particular emphasis on impact assessment and participation by crisis affected populations. They also occasionally issue calls for papers.

http://www.alnap.org/

Network on Humanitarian Assistance (NOHA)

The Network On Humanitarian Assistance offers a Europe-wide Masters Degree in International Humanitarian Action. I have met a number of graduates of this programme and they seem to maintain a strong network as well as being an extremely intresting alternative to the Tufts/Harvard/MIT triumvate

http://www.noha.deusto.es/

Humanitarian Practice Network

 

Part of the ODI in London, HPN is published by the Humanitarian Practice Group: an unrivalled source of literature and research on everything humanitarian. HPN is their tool for connecting the experiences of humanitarian practitioners.

www.odihpn.org

Engineering in Emergencies

 

The truly original Disaster Manager’s instruction book and still unique in its applicability and usefulness, Engineering in Emergencies is invaluable for all disaster managers and not just the engineers. While it can seem light on the contextual issues and considerations relating to emergency engineering, the detailed, prioritised and pragmatic information makes it an essential foundation to any disaster collection. A must buy.

http://www.disasternetwork.co.uk/110001.htm

IRIN

Humanitarian news and analysis from the UN

http://www.irinnews.org/