Joel Charny
Joel R. Charny is vice president for policy with Refugees International, a Washington-based humanitarian advocacy organisation. He has extensive experience in Asia for RI, Oxfam America and the U.N. Development Programme. He has managed and assessed emergency response and post-conflict recovery programmes in Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
The rhetoric of âhumanitarian crisisâ
Author: Joel Charny
Crises are the stock and trade of humanitarian agencies. Yet there is no consensus or clarity in the emergency response field as to what constitutes a humanitarian crisis. In a saturated global media environment, the temptation is great for agencies to designate particular situations as humanitarian crises to get attention to a neglected group of vulnerable people or to stigmatize the responsible parties. The rhetorical leaps from difficult situation to humanitarian crisis to massive humanitarian crisis to the worlds worst humanitarian crisis are as easy as skipping over a puddle. In the absence of clinical definitions, the challenge for Refugees International and other groups that engage in humanitarian advocacy is to maintain discipline and consistency in the way we use language. For example, RI recently declared Somalia the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world. We had a brief internal debate prior to issuing a statement to this effect. While there are certainly other large-scale complex emergencies, including those in Afghanistan, Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we were able to agree that Somalia embodies a unique combination of large-scale vulnerability coupled with violence and internal chaos at a level that is preventing any sustained humanitarian response despite heroic efforts, mainly by Somalis themselves. The fundamental criteria we apply, admittedly unscientifically, are the scale of the emergency and the gap between the needs and the response. ...
Author: Joel Charny
Crises are the stock and trade of humanitarian agencies. Yet there is no consensus or clarity in the emergency response field as to what constitutes a humanitarian crisis. In a saturated global media environment, the temptation is great for agencies to designate particular situations as humanitarian crises to get attention to a neglected group of vulnerable people or to stigmatize the responsible parties. The rhetorical leaps from difficult situation to humanitarian crisis to massive humanitarian crisis to the worlds worst humanitarian crisis are as easy as skipping over a puddle. In the absence of clinical definitions, the challenge for Refugees International and other groups that engage in humanitarian advocacy is to maintain discipline and consistency in the way we use language. For example, RI recently declared Somalia the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world. We had a brief internal debate prior to issuing a statement to this effect. While there are certainly other large-scale complex emergencies, including those in Afghanistan, Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we were able to agree that Somalia embodies a unique combination of large-scale vulnerability coupled with violence and internal chaos at a level that is preventing any sustained humanitarian response despite heroic efforts, mainly by Somalis themselves. The fundamental criteria we apply, admittedly unscientifically, are the scale of the emergency and the gap between the needs and the response. ...
No Man's Land: Iraqi-Palestinians in Al Tanf Camp
Author: Joel Charny
Al Tanf camp for Palestinian refugees from Iraq has to be in the top five of worst situated refugee camps in the world. It violates every principle of proper camp siting. In the no man's land between Syria and Iraq, it is within the border zone itself. It is completely exposed on one side to a highway, where trucks alternately speed by or sit idle for hours at a time waiting to make the border crossing. A 20-foot high concrete wall forms a second boundary. The site itself is in a culvert about 10 feet below the highway, making it a flood plain when it rains heavily. Refugees live in tents in the exposed area, forced to endure summer temperatures that climb well over 100 degrees and winter weather that drops near zero. Last winter, tents collapsed under a heavy snow fall. The only good thing to say about Al Tanf is that it is small --- about 780 people endure life there. They are all Palestinians who fled targeted violence and death threats in Iraq, only to be denied entry to Syria and Jordan. The rationale for the denial is perverse, having to do with lack of travel documents, reluctance to encourage further in-migration of Palestinians, and strict, but empty, rhetorical adherence to the right of return. Most of the Palestinians in Al Tanf are descendants of the original Palestinian community in Baghdad, some 5,000 people who were brought to Iraq in 1948 after they were expelled from their homes during the conflict that erupted from Israel's founding. ...
Author: Joel Charny
Al Tanf camp for Palestinian refugees from Iraq has to be in the top five of worst situated refugee camps in the world. It violates every principle of proper camp siting. In the no man's land between Syria and Iraq, it is within the border zone itself. It is completely exposed on one side to a highway, where trucks alternately speed by or sit idle for hours at a time waiting to make the border crossing. A 20-foot high concrete wall forms a second boundary. The site itself is in a culvert about 10 feet below the highway, making it a flood plain when it rains heavily. Refugees live in tents in the exposed area, forced to endure summer temperatures that climb well over 100 degrees and winter weather that drops near zero. Last winter, tents collapsed under a heavy snow fall. The only good thing to say about Al Tanf is that it is small --- about 780 people endure life there. They are all Palestinians who fled targeted violence and death threats in Iraq, only to be denied entry to Syria and Jordan. The rationale for the denial is perverse, having to do with lack of travel documents, reluctance to encourage further in-migration of Palestinians, and strict, but empty, rhetorical adherence to the right of return. Most of the Palestinians in Al Tanf are descendants of the original Palestinian community in Baghdad, some 5,000 people who were brought to Iraq in 1948 after they were expelled from their homes during the conflict that erupted from Israel's founding. ...
Georgia: Good Humanitarian Donorship Betrayed
Author: Joel Charny
On September 3rd, the United States announced a $1 billion aid package for Georgia in the aftermath of its conflict with Russia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. While the exact breakdown of the package is not yet clear, Reuben Jeffery III, undersecretary of state for economic, energy, and cultural affairs, told reporters that the planned two-year program includes humanitarian assistance, reconstruction of physical damage to infrastructure resulting from the fighting, and economic support. No military aid is included. $570 million of the package will be redirected from existing accounts, while the balance will have to be newly appropriated by the U.S. Congress. Georgias population is 4.6 million. Aid on this scale will make it one of the largest per capita recipients of U.S. foreign assistance --- only Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt come to mind as countries that probably exceed it. It also dwarfs the original 2008 aid program for the country, which was budgeted at $64 million, already a significant sum. ...
Author: Joel Charny
On September 3rd, the United States announced a $1 billion aid package for Georgia in the aftermath of its conflict with Russia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. While the exact breakdown of the package is not yet clear, Reuben Jeffery III, undersecretary of state for economic, energy, and cultural affairs, told reporters that the planned two-year program includes humanitarian assistance, reconstruction of physical damage to infrastructure resulting from the fighting, and economic support. No military aid is included. $570 million of the package will be redirected from existing accounts, while the balance will have to be newly appropriated by the U.S. Congress. Georgias population is 4.6 million. Aid on this scale will make it one of the largest per capita recipients of U.S. foreign assistance --- only Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt come to mind as countries that probably exceed it. It also dwarfs the original 2008 aid program for the country, which was budgeted at $64 million, already a significant sum. ...
Georgia: The militarization of humanitarian action
Author: Joel Charny
The United States response to the displacement crisis in Georgia resulting from the conflict with Russia over the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is a blatant example of the increasing militarization of humanitarian action. Refugees International has been expressing deep concerns about this trend in Africa, but the Georgia response takes it to a new level. Humanitarian response is supposed to embody the following principles: humanity (responding where the need is greatest; independence (responding based solely on the vulnerability of the individuals in distress rather than reflecting the priorities of other actors); impartiality (responding without applying political criteria or supporting any particular government or political movement). ...
Author: Joel Charny
The United States response to the displacement crisis in Georgia resulting from the conflict with Russia over the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is a blatant example of the increasing militarization of humanitarian action. Refugees International has been expressing deep concerns about this trend in Africa, but the Georgia response takes it to a new level. Humanitarian response is supposed to embody the following principles: humanity (responding where the need is greatest; independence (responding based solely on the vulnerability of the individuals in distress rather than reflecting the priorities of other actors); impartiality (responding without applying political criteria or supporting any particular government or political movement). ...
Where are the world's hidden refugees?
Author: Joel Charny
Picture these iconic refugee images - an African woman, holding a child, gazing stoically into the camera against a backdrop of huts and tents in a barren landscape. A long line of people, men, women, and children - again, usually African - on the move with all their worldly possessions on their heads and their backs. An emaciated African child being examined in a clinic by a Western doctor or nurse in a vest with a red cross emblem.
These images have become iconic because for several decades they have encapsulated the plight of refugees. But this World Refugee Day is an opportunity to reflect on the ways these images don't really to justice to today's realities.
...
Next entries
Author: Joel Charny
Picture these iconic refugee images - an African woman, holding a child, gazing stoically into the camera against a backdrop of huts and tents in a barren landscape. A long line of people, men, women, and children - again, usually African - on the move with all their worldly possessions on their heads and their backs. An emaciated African child being examined in a clinic by a Western doctor or nurse in a vest with a red cross emblem.
These images have become iconic because for several decades they have encapsulated the plight of refugees. But this World Refugee Day is an opportunity to reflect on the ways these images don't really to justice to today's realities.
...
