We Are Humanity, War is Inhumanity.We Are Humanity, War is Inhumanity.

A simple message that speaks for itself. As explained in the key message “War is Not a Game. No Gain, Just Pain”, international humanitarian law does not legitimate war: war remains illegal under the Charter of the United Nations and the preferred state is for sure peace.

Humanitarian law only attempts to preserve people’s dignity in time of war and humanitarian professionals do their best to access all the people in need, wherever they are, without any discrimination, based solely on their needs. This is called the “principle of impartiality”.

To do that, humanitarian professionals must be able to access all areas, which implies that they must talk to all parties to the conflict.

Whatever we think of our interlocutors, who started the war, who is “right” or “wrong”, talking to all parties is an essential element which allows us to do our job. If you intimately think that the regime in place is authoritarian and you know it kills its own people, you will still need to “shake hand with the devil” as some observers sometime put it, or at least talk to it.

But if you don’t, you can no longer access those people in need in the areas controlled by all fighting parties, and thus can no longer be impartial.

I’ve had to meet people who are not exactly those I would envisage as friends. People who ordered attacks against civilians, committed war crimes and whatever else you can imagine. But ultimately what matters is to preserve the dignity of all those affected, hence the fact that humanitarian professionals must always remain “neutral”, that is not publicly give their opinion about one fighting party or the other, not taking sides.

Otherwise what happens next? The ones you criticized are not likely to welcome you back in their country or the areas they control, and the result is quite simple: no humanitarian assistance anymore.

But this other principle of humanitarian action, called the “principle of neutrality” does not mean that humanitarian professionals don’t care or don’t have opinions.

The same way that humanitarian law does not legitimate war, the fact that humanitarian professionals talk to all fighting parties is just a mean to an end: preserving people’s dignity and preserving as much humanity as possible in difficult conditions. An ounce of humanity in an ocean of inhumanity.