A Symposium on International Humanitarian Intervention in Africa
A symposium on Reflections on International Humanitarian Intervention in Africa took place in Addis Ababa this week. Hosted by the United Support Artists for Africa, Trust Africa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Humanitarian Action and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, it commemorated the 25th anniversary of “We are the World”. And in his opening remarks, Mr. Jalal, Head of the Civil Society Section, Governance and Public Administration Division, of ECA, underlined his optimism that the symposium would bring about a new paradigm shift for humanitarian intervention in Africa as well as improve awareness of the subject.
Ambassador Mahdi Ahmed, representing the Minister of Foreign Affairs, expressed his gratitude for the many names and organizations engaged in providing genuine humanitarian assistance to Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular. He hoped "the symposium would contribute to a better understanding of all aspects of humanitarian intervention so a genuinely African perspective can be developed ….as an endeavour driven solely by consideration of the interests of humanity.” This is not as easy as it might appear, particularly when so much “is politicized and when human rights issues are used for ideological purposes”. The de-politicization of humanitarian work is now “an imperative necessity."
The participants discussed a range of issues including what such intervention meant for Africa, and what implications and consequences it meant for the famine of “biblical proportions’ in the Sahel, the tragedies in Darfur, the genocide in Rwanda, racial discrimination and apartheid. Humanitarian intervention seemed to have been mostly organized by non-Africans, and designed, monitored, implemented controlled and financed by them as well. The symposium, which also considered the role of the Diaspora, suggested the need for African initiatives and African-led interventions, and considered whether African ownership would improve such activities.
Participants agreed on the need for a new paradigm in humanitarian intervention, a paradigm that would take Africa out of dependency, to be made up of a combination of self-assertion, self-control and self-development. They agreed on the importance of establishing a working group to produce a working document and called for the AU to be engaged proactively in African-led humanitarian intervention when necessary.