ICRC Action in the Syrian Conflict

Details

Supervisors

Ait-Chaalal, Amine

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master de spécialisation en action humanitaire internationale

Abstract

The intensity of the armed conflicts in the 21st century has reached an unprecedented level and deepened the humanitarian crisis in different regions of the world as the civil wars in the Middle East have resulted in the largest immigration crisis since WWII. The ongoing civil war in Syria over the past decade and its catastrophic humanitarian consequences are among the most prominent examples of the complex and structural humanitarian crisis in the 21st century. The changing security and political background have significant implications on the operations of the humanitarian organizations. The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), as one of the oldest and largest humanitarian organizations in the world, has faced significant challenges in its humanitarian operations due to the complex political, social, and economic conjuncture of the 21st century. Since the beginning of the civil war in Syrian in 2011, the ICRC has continued to conduct humanitarian operations in Syria by collaborating with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC). The ICRC has relied on its key principles, which are neutrality, impartiality, and independence, and tried to preserve its relationship with the Syrian regime as well as non-state actors including Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS) in order to reach all people in the crisis regions. The ICRC has had to deal with all the unique and intricate challenges of conducting humanitarian operations in Syria. Major obstacles for ICRC in the context of Syria have been; millions of internally displaced people, thousands of the arbitrarily detained individuals, destroyed city infrastructures and healthcare systems, military involvements by third party actors, fragmented structure of the opposition groups, perpetual violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), inefficient international deterrence mechanisms for these violations, and finally increased humanitarian needs of the people in other crisis regions such as in Yemen. These factors have also influenced the nature and structure of the humanitarian organizations in the rest of the world. In other words, the global planning process of the humanitarian organizations have been affected from the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria and Yemen. In this study, the current effectiveness and shortcomings of the humanitarian organizations in dealing with the complex humanitarian crisis in the 21st century will be analyzed in the context of the ICRC’s humanitarian operations in Syria.