This article has been written by Ms. Pooja Padmanabhan, a 3rd year student of VIT, University Chennai. 

ABSTRACT

Humanitarian emergencies, including armed conflict, forced displacement, severe disease outbreaks, and natural catastrophes, affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Priority should be given to the obvious need for humanitarian health research. Every study in this compilation aims to fill a need or address an evidence gap since several writers pointed out the paucity of evidence in their respective fields of expertise. The inadequate body of evidence in the humanitarian sector can be attributed to numerous factors. For instance, the collection revealed that methodological constraints, moral dilemmas, security worries, and logistical challenges were the main obstacles. To overcome these obstacles, research teams devised plans of action and forged alliances, leading to the eventual production of significant findings. Collaboration between humanitarian players, such as UN agencies, local and international NGOs, and governments, was discovered to be a crucial tactic in the collecting. This article covers the varied responses that have been kept and an understanding of the health action from international humanitarian law. Moreover, it also analyses humanitarian health action by applying the same to one nation. 

Keywords: humanitarian, health, response, action, covid-19. Partnership, income, countries

INTRODUCTION

Historically, humanitarian assistance has been conceived of as an emergency response, meant to be given in the event of a conflict or natural disaster. However, the notion that humanitarian assistance is only a temporary “Band-Aid” is becoming less true and even undesirable.

The United Nations General Assembly has adopted 5 humanitarian aid resolutions as an outcome of the wrestle that the delegates had on how the efforts for relief shall respond to the compounding crises of COVID-19. The international community has the moral obligation to protect the most vulnerable individuals who are already burdened with debt and structural deficiencies are being encountered with yet another health crisis like that of COVID-19. During the COVID pandemic, India was identified as the “pharmacy of the world”, for the efforts that it took to send consignments of medicines and medical supplies to about 150 countries.

A new initiative for technical assistance and capacity-building in island States to mobilize technology, finance, and necessary information was introduced by India during the 2019 Climate Action Summit, in partnership with several other countries, under the banner of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. She underlined that Sweden, in the face of an unprecedented increase in humanitarian needs, remains one of the largest donors to the UN humanitarian system, stating that in 2021 it is contributing $874 million.

HUMANITARIAN ACTION

Assistance must be provided as a matter of humanitarian necessity to all peoples, cultures, religions, and mankind as a whole. Around the world, medical staff give care in all circumstances. Teams are becoming more and more needed to properly prepare, train, communicate, handle moral quandaries, and make difficult decisions with an emphasis on saving lives in order to carry out medical humanitarian deployments. These are activities that are made more challenging by war. 

The 2016 World Humanitarian Summit’s outcome demonstrates the humanitarian community’s acknowledgment that the connections between humanitarian action, development, and peace and security need to be reconsidered. Humanitarian actors increasingly see it as their duty to strive towards closing the gap known as the “humanitarian-development divide”3 and to acknowledge the connection between meeting and lessening humanitarian needs and creating the framework necessary for maintaining peace. The purpose of this issue brief is to examine how self-sustaining peace can be established through the application of principled humanitarian action in concert with other kinds of responses and endeavors. 

Most humanitarian organizations understand that they cannot just plan their activities with the short term in mind, even while they offer emergency aid when crises arise. A population’s resilience can be strengthened and its food security or health can be sustainably improved by looking beyond what is considered essential by organizations such as the ICRC. This is especially true during protracted crises when development continuity is crucial and humanitarians are not coming in and leaving out, simply attending to immediate needs. Humanitarian intervention can ensure development “holds” even in the absence of positive development steps by assisting in the upkeep of basic services, supporting or rebuilding infrastructure, and averting development reversals.

Response to Humanitarian Crises

There are currently few choices available to the international community for handling humanitarian disasters. The founding of the Office of the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) and the growth of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) were both made possible by General Assembly resolution 46/182, which established guidelines for the international community’s response to humanitarian crises. The goal of the Interagency Crisis Coordination Group (IASC) is to support interagency analysis and decision-making in the context of humanitarian catastrophes. It comprises prominent humanitarian actors from both inside and outside the UN. 

“In many ways international humanitarian law seems to have been formulated to deal with a different world — one populated by governments and regular armies whose interests were often served by respecting the laws of war,” as stated in the book United Nations and Changing World Politics. Another major source of contention is typically sovereignty. In circumstances when the afflicted country restricts access, it becomes challenging to work under General Assembly resolution 46/182, which reiterates that “the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national unity of states must be fully respected in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations”.Scientists in the United States and other wealthy nations can learn a lot about humanitarian health research and practice from their counterparts in the Global South, as the current Covid-19 outbreak has shown. 

These crises affect hundreds of millions of people’s acute and long-term health, mostly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), but the body of evidence supporting the responses of humanitarian groups to these crises is scant. In terms of global health, humanitarian crises are frequently viewed as an anomaly. Nonetheless, they are a ubiquitous and broad health driver that needs to be included into all-encompassing approaches and policies, particularly if we are to meet the ambitious SDGs and other global health objectives.

INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW 

The Geneva Conventions, also known as the “Laws of War” or the “Law of Armed Conflict,” govern armed conflict and impose limits on warfare methods. These rules aim to limit war’s effects for humanitarian reasons, balancing military necessity with humanitarian imperatives. IHL restricts warfare methods and provides favorable conditions for impartial humanitarian and medical assistance to all wounded and sick, regardless of participation in hostilities. Medical teams must be aware of these rules, respect domestic laws, and uphold medical ethics. Parties to conflict must not target those no longer involved, provide impartial humanitarian assistance, and ensure all wounded and sick receive medical care.

Those who have been following the mainstream press’s reporting from Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Croatia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Congo, and Kosovo will not be able to ignore the significance of the investigation of the relevance of medicine to international law. The normative framework for individuals attempting to offer emergency medical care and relief in conflict zones is provided by international humanitarian law and human rights. The relevance of these ideas to the peaceful interests of several doctors and scientists—whether they are involved in human research trials, genetics, or molecular biology—may not be as evident.

THE SUDAN STORY

The UN has been instrumental in coordinating the humanitarian health response in Sudan, which was initiated in 2009 in Darfur and expanded to the rest of the country in 2010. The health cluster, co-chaired by the WHO and the Federal Ministry of Health, includes 67 UN agencies, international and national NGOs, and governmental bodies. The cluster system is replicated at the state level, and its effectiveness in coordinating efforts and mobilizing funding is well-received. However, there is a need for greater candor and better coordination between state-level health clusters and humanitarian actors. UNAMID, which contributes to the health response through quick-impact projects, does not participate in the cluster system. Despite tensions between UNAMID and humanitarian actors, coordination has improved with the adoption of multi-year integrated strategic frameworks for Darfur since 2014. 

The UN is focusing on sustainability and accountability in Sudan’s humanitarian health response, despite the country’s unmet humanitarian needs. Despite a decade and a half of international humanitarian presence, the focus on humanitarian assistance has weakened long-term investment in Sudan’s public healthcare system.

For instance, The Sudanese government is actively involved in the humanitarian response in Sudan, working closely with national and international health actors. The government’s Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) coordinates the response, including the health cluster, and the Commission for Refugees (COR) coordinates the refugee response. The Federal Ministry of Health co-chairs the health cluster, coordinating with WHO and international donors. A National Mechanism provides high-level coordination, with the Health Sector Partners Forum coordinating with the health cluster.

MENTAL HEALTH AND HUMANITARIAN ACTION

Psychosocial interventions are necessary for refugee families and humanitarian responses because they can lessen the impact of trauma and displacement-related stress as well as CMD symptoms in parents and children. This is in addition to supporting family protective processes and teaching self-care techniques. Like many others, Syrian refugees are profoundly influenced by their family’s environment. Positive psychosocial outcomes for children and adults depend heavily on their families in a receiving nation with limited resources for refugees; however, refugee families find few scientifically based programmes directed towards them.

In addition, a growing body of knowledge about mental health psychosocial support ( hereinafter referred to as MHPSS) has been amassed by numerous LMICs in the wake of humanitarian crises, and fundamental guidelines for helping people in these situations are becoming increasingly widely accepted. 

As a result, many LMICs quickly produced COVID-19 national MHPSS response plans based on prior humanitarian situations as well as the particular requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic. In developing guidelines for emergency psychological crisis response, the National Health Commission of China emphasised the need for mental health services to be arranged at the local, municipal, and provincial levels. These services should include psychological outreach teams and hotlines.

CHALLENGES

Health needs are present in all circumstances. Whatever circumstances are already existing in any given context will likely be made worse by the humanitarian catastrophe, that much is certain. In the event that malnutrition is present, for instance, any humanitarian catastrophe would make it worse; in fact, hunger can be a complicated humanitarian disaster unto itself. But the most common trend we observe is an increase in infectious diseases. Among them, measles is particularly contagious. Therefore, conducting a mass measles vaccination campaign would normally be one of our first responses in a humanitarian emergency.

The difficult moral dilemmas confront humanitarian health care organisations include whether to rebuild damaged facilities in more remote areas (which might negatively affect access), whether to devote extra time and resources to reaching vulnerable populations (even though doing so might make it more difficult to serve the greatest number of people possible), how much risk they can accept for their employees, and how to maintain their independence in the face of demands from donors and combatants. 

CONCLUSION

Humanitarian crises, which encompass armed war, forced relocation, natural catastrophes, and severe disease outbreaks, have a profound impact on the health of hundreds of millions of people worldwide, particularly in situations with limited resources. In order to effectively address the health requirements of those impacted by humanitarian emergencies, crisis response organisations must take action based on trustworthy data. It is particularly difficult to do the study necessary to produce this body of knowledge, yet there are examples of excellent, moral, and useful research conducted in humanitarian circumstances. 

REFERENCES

This article is a report that was originally published on the press release page of the UN website. The link for the same is herein. https://press.un.org/en/2021/ga12395.doc.htm 

This article is authored by Benjamin Schmid and Emmanuel Raju and published on  Springer Link. The link for the same is herein. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-45009-0_128

This article titled Humanitarian Action and Sustaining Peace, was originally authored by Alice Debarre. The link for the same is herein.  http://www.jstor.com/stable/resrep17514 

This article titled “Improving UN Response to Humanitarian Crises, was originally authored by Jayshree Bajoria . The link for the same is herein. https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/improving-un-responses-humanitarian-crises 

This article titled” Introduction to collection: confronting the challenges of health research in humanitarian crises” is authored by Amit S Mistry , Brandon A Kohrt , Blythe Beecroft , Nalini Anand, Iman Nuwayhid. The link for the same is herein. https://conflictandhealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13031-021-00371-8.pdf 

This article titled “COVID-19 mental health impact and responses in low-income and middle income countries: reimagining global mental health” is authored by Lola Kola and other authors. The link for the same is herein. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9764935/ 

This article titled “International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Core Humanitarian Principles in Action”, was originally authored by WHO and published on the site of WHO. The link for the same is herein. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep40717.12 

This report titled “Trends and Challenges in the Humanitarian Health Response” , was originally authored by Albert Trithart and published on . The link for the same is herein. http://www.jstor.com/stable/resrep19646.7