Thank you to the European Association for Palliative Care for including our research, including the invitation for participation in our research survey, as part of their new series about palliative care in the context of humanitarian crisis. Access the blog post here.
Humanitarian actors are now pressed to respond to increasingly complex crises in diverse and difficult contexts. Historically subject to multiple and often divergent interpretations, humanitarian values are now further challenged by changing conflict dynamics, globalization and its effect on shifting power relations, and a more sustained criticism of established forms of humanitarian response. Though under appreciated, ethical reflection offers an opportunity for deeper evaluation of humanitarian action, and its impact on those who endeavour to alleviate suffering and protect human dignity during, and in the aftermath of, humanitarian crises. This edited volume seeks to bring together academics and practitioners engaged in all aspects of both direct humanitarian response and scholarly humanitarian reflection, with the aim of offering a nuanced insight into the complexity of the humanitarian experience in a diversity of crisis contexts. As such, we welcome contributions related to any aspect of humanitarian action and ethics, with a particular interest in practitioner perspectives.
Call for Papers:
The volume is due to be submitted in its entirety by the 1st of August 2017. To be considered for inclusion in this volume, please kindly submit a 200-word abstract by the 31st of March to a.ahmad@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Ayesha Ahmad and Dr James Smith
“Coordination – that would be the big lesson of Haiti. Haiti was a disaster upon a disaster,” Canadian doctor Dr. Lynda Redwood-Campbell and HumEthNet member tells Globe and Mail reporter, Affan Chowdhry in a recent article about How past disasters will aid relief efforts in earthquake-ravaged Nepal. “There was a complete lack of coordination with foreign medical teams. Everybody and everybody’s cousin seemed to be there internationally. There was no good overarching coordination.”
HumEthNet team member, Lynda Redwood-Campbell, is featured in a recent article that revisits her experiences in the humanitarian efforts that followed the 2004 tsunami.
Recently, HumEthNet’s Lisa Schwartz was asked to comment on the ethics of pursuing experimental treatment and prevention interventions in relation to the recent Ebola outbreak. Listen to her interview on CBC Hamilton and read her comments on Impact Ethics blog from the Novel Tech Ethics research team in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University (Halifax, Canada).
The Humanitarian Health Ethics website was recently cited in Dr. Kirsten Patrick’s contribution to the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) blog: Voluntourism – Call It a Spade and Use it Carefully.
In November 2013 typhoon Haiyan devastated portions of Southeast Asia, leaving more than six thousand people dead and millions displaced. Humanitarian Healthcare Ethics (hhe) colleague and Hamilton physician, Dr. Lynda Redwood-Campbell, took part in relief efforts at a Canada Red Cross field hospital in the central part of the Philippines.
