Applied Psychology Around the World, APAW, Vol. 6, Issue 2. (ISSN: 2639-6521). pp 200-212.
A humanitarian delegate works for humanitarian organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) or the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Their humanitarian delegates are deployed to conflict zones, disaster areas, or regions facing severe humanitarian crises. Their roles involve a wide range of activities aimed at alleviating human suffering and protecting the rights and dignity of affected populations. As the demand for humanitarian aid workers continues to increase, the international community must understand the effects that the increasing complexity of their job has on the humanitarian delegate’s performance and state of mind. This article describes the many factors that can contribute to the work stress of the humanitarian delegate and how humanitarian organizations can mitigate the work stress of their delegates.
The current regulatory environment of significance to the PMSC industry is ambiguous as a result of porous legal boundaries and incongruent policies due to competing political and judicial systems: national, regional, and international. Accordingly, it is essential to consider how ambiguities could be reduced and turned into legal certainty through both hard and soft law to prevent human rights abuses.
As our world is globalizing by the day, so are the threats to security. The methodology for mutual cooperation suggested in the Helsinki Final Act is no longer enough and does not bring many of the existing conflicts to an end. The good faith of Helsinki that expected the countries to”…equally endeavour, in developing their cooperation, to improve the well-being of peoples and contribute to the fulfilment of their aspirations through, inter alia, the benefits resulting from increased mutual knowledge and from progress and achievement in the economic, scientific, technological, social, cultural and humanitarian fields”. What needs to be taken into consideration are the challenges when countries do not fulfil these expectations. This paper will look into the reasons for such non-compliant behaviours and offer ideas for possibilities to change such practices of non-compliance.
Drafting Group: Christian Nünlist (principal author, Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH, Zurich; Juhana Aunesluoma, Network for European Studies (NES), University of Helsinki & Benno Zogg, CSS, Zurich.
Published by OSCE Network of Think Tanks and Academic Institutions, Vienna, December 2017, 37 pages
Ida Manton, representative of Diplomacy Dialogue in Skopje, contributed to this report by providing constructive feedback on an initial draft version of this report as member of the academic reflection group.
“Private Military and Security Companies: Industry-Led Self-Regulatory Initiatives versus State-Led Containment Strategy”. Recent self-regulatory guidelines that have been created by private military and security companies (PMSCs) in order to deter calls for stricter regulations of the industry. This “battle of influence” over the regulation of the use of force, the author contends, leads to rising tensions between stakeholders who form coalitions consisting of states, PMSCs, and civil society actors on either side of the regulation cleavage. The paper calls for new measures that continue to build on IHL and the Geneva Conventions, but that go beyond the current regulatory positions of existing international initiatives. This paper be cited as Raymond Saner (2015); “Private Military and Security Companies: Industry-Led Self-Regulatory Initiatives versus State-Led Containment Strategy”, The Center for Conflict, Development and Peace Building, Graduate Institute, CCDP Working Paper 11 2015, University of Geneva.
Prof. Raymond Saner, Guest lecturer at Law Faculty, University of Erlangen: “The Race for Regulation of the Private Military & Security Companies” The presentation focused on recent self-regulatory guidelines that have been created by private military and security companies (PMSCs) in order to deter calls for stricter regulations of the industry. This “battle of influence” over the regulation of the use of force, the author contends, leads to rising tensions between stakeholders who form coalitions consisting of states, PMSCs, and civil society actors on either side of the regulation cleavage. The presentation calls for new measures that continue to build on IHL and the Geneva Conventions, but that go beyond the current regulatory positions of existing international initiatives. Erlangen, 12th November 2015
The aim of this evaluation of the activities fostering the Geneva Initiative was to document the work that has been done by Israeli, Palestinian and other parties in the context of the Geneva Initiative and to re-examine the Swiss financial and non-financial support of it. The report is being made available with the permission of the Swiss Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Saner, R. & Yiu, L. 2002. External stakeholder impacts on official and non-official third-party interventions to resolve malignant conflicts: The case of a failed intervention in Cyprus. International Negotiations, 6(3).
Saner, R ; 2009. « Cyprus conflict and Social Capital Theory : a new perspective on an old conflict », in Cox, M, (ed.); “Social Capital and Peace Building: Creating and resolving conflict with trust and social networks, Routledge, London. pp. 139-152.
