Hugo Slim: Legal and Ethical to Pursue Cross-Border Humanitarian Aid

This post originally appeared on Global Observatory.

Hugo Slim, a former aid worker and leading humanitarian academic, said in this interview that he believes humanitarian agencies can disregard state consent in pursuit of accessing populations in need of assistance, as in the case of Syria. “It seems ethically acceptable to me at that point; if a government is not accepting more humanitarian agencies, for humanitarian agencies to go cross-border in such a situation,” he said.

Mr Slim said that, in terms of international law, it is clear “that we live in a world of law which recognizes the rights of individuals and not just the rights of states. Therefore, these people who are not being reached by the cross-line operations have a place in international relations; they need to be reached. The law is not to just cover states—the law is for the peoples in those states.”

On the question of impartiality, one of the three principles of humanitarian action, Mr. Slim said, “I’ve never worked in a situation where I felt, ‘Oh great, everything is fine, we are being completely impartial.’ It doesn’t exist, because humanitarian action is always a struggle for access, a struggle for those values in wars which are competing over other values. So, you never get complete impartiality, but you have to aim at it, and you have to say it’s what you want and what you think is right.”

Mr. Slim said he believes the value that humans place on all human life is sometimes overridden because, “it’s not the only thing we feel as human beings, because sometimes we absolutely hate each other, sometimes we feel deeply frightened of one another, sometimes we feel deeply threatened.”

“And sometimes—very often in war this happens, but I have no doubt that the essential feeling of the value of the human life, of the sadness of the human death is universal, and that’s why it is a global agenda.”

The interview was conducted by Jérémie Labbé, Senior Policy Analyst, International Peace Institute.

Listen to the full interview on the Global Observatory website.