Can international humanitarian law protect us from the atomic bomb?
Provocative as it is, the author’s question is all the more relevant at a time when the war in Ukraine has once again raised the spectre of the use of...
Reviewing the protection offered to schools under international humanitarian law
Just like health centres – and the professionals who work there and the patients they treat – schools and their teachers and pupils are not spared from conflict or acts of terrorism....
Prisoners of war: high-intensity warfare’s blind spot?
For several years now, a new dynamic has been emerging, possibly heralding a paradigm shift: the resurgence of high-intensity inter-state wars, such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Historically...
The cause of exiles in France: the reticence of international humanitarian organisations called into question
All over France, solidarity with migrants is demonstrated through multiple initiatives led by local associations. But for Frédéric Meunier, the major humanitarian NGOs are not doing enough of their part...
Humanitarian implications of a re-assertion of State sovereignty
Whilst there is indeed a trend towards the strengthening of State sovereignty, this concept is more multifaceted and ambivalent than it might appear. The author invites us to take stock...
World Humanitarian Summit: a lost opportunity?
Did the World Humanitarian Summit which was the major topic covered in the last issue of Humanitarian Alternatives – published just a few days before the event – hold all...
World Humanitarian Summit: on the road to Istanbul
To take the full measure of the innovation, challenges and uncertainties that surround the World Humanitarian Summit, it is necessary to retrace the process used in the different steps of...
Regaining a sense of the humanitarian imperative
You have to wake people up; to revolutionize their way of identifying things. You’ve got to create images they won’t accept; oblige them to express their outrage; force them to...
Responding to Covid-19 in conflicts: difficult but necessary
In this article, Michiel Hofman reflects on the difficulty of implementing a health response in war zones especially in a context where States are mistrusted, where non-state armed groups call...
Interview with Bruno Cabanes : “Humanitarian Photography”: an historian’s point of view
Bruno Cabanes is an historian, specialised in contemporary history. He is the Donald G. and Mary A. Dunn Chair in Military History at Ohio State University in the United States....
Urban warfare: a challenge for humanitarian law and action
Increasingly, war is being fought in urban areas. Because it is where the centres of power are based, where resources are concentrated and where the civilian population can be held...
Operational research and malnutrition: state of knowledge and food for thought
Many NGOs have already responded to the requirement of linking action and research. For instance, since 2016, Action Against Hunger has been holding a conference to take stock of these...