Article
Radical Objects: The Obelisk of Axum and the Complexities of Restitution
Duncan McLean
08.04.2021As aid agencies struggle to access and respond to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Tigray, a comparatively minor note of physical destruction has understandably garnered little attention. In a...
Article
Sexual abuse perpetrated by humanitarian workers: from moral relativism to competitive victimhood
Françoise Duroch
24.03.2021Drawing on the example of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Françoise Duroch and Emmanuel Noyer review the measures taken by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) to combat sexual violence. The...
Article
Should we discriminate in order to act? Profiling: a necessary but debated practice
Françoise Duroch
28.01.2021In October 2020, MSF organised a workshop in Dakar on staff profiling in operations in the Sahel. Profiling involves the selection of staff based on non-professional criteria, including nationality,...
Article
Vaccination: A Matter of Trust, with Caveats
Duncan McLean, Françoise Duroch
16.01.2021The palpable relief being felt by many over the accelerating approvals of apparently safe and efficient Covid-19 vaccines is hardly surprising. But away from triumphalist headlines, partially satiric ...
Article
«Vivement le nouveau vaccin, qu’on puisse le refuser»
Françoise Duroch
10.12.2020A l’aube des premières campagnes de vaccination contre la Covid-19, une formule a largement circulé sur les réseaux sociaux, en substance: «Vivement la sortie d’un nouveau vaccin, qu’on...
Article
Der Schutz der humanitären Arbeit beginnt bei uns selber
Duncan McLean
30.10.2020States always find ways and means to exclude unwanted aid organisations. The drastic tightening of anti-terror legislation is only the latest manifestation of these methods.
Article
Tough choices: moral challenges experienced by aid workers during the Covid-19 pandemic
Françoise Duroch, Miriam Kasztura
23.07.2020The truly unprecedented nature of the pandemic has mobilised and confused humanitarian NGOs and their staff as much. Forced inaction mixed with setting up programmes within a context of high...
Article
International aid in the Covid era: the need for transparency
Duncan McLean, Françoise Duroch
11.06.2020The scale and spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, combined with the large number of deaths it has caused, have created a toxic mix of rumour and innuendo – further complicating aid operations that...
Article
Medical care in armed conflict: Perpetrator discourse in historical perspective
Duncan McLean
27.05.2020Although the Geneva Conventions have been successively revised since 1864, norms regarding the protection of medical care have been frequently disregarded. Despite current claims of international...
Article
L’épidémiologie, le chaînon manquant des curriculums scolaires
Françoise Duroch
06.04.2020Coronavirus today, Ebola yesterday, the epidemiology of infectious diseases remains an unknown for the population and is not taught much in primary and secondary schools, notes Françoise Duroch of...
Article
Plagues of Prejudice
Duncan McLean
16.03.2020In December 1899 Honolulu-based physicians attributed two deaths to bubonic plague, and a local paper duly announced that the ‘scourge of the Orient’ had arrived. Within months a first plague...
Article
Choices at the time of the climate emergency
UREPH contribution
23.07.2019Knowing about the discussions in progress at Médecins Sans Frontières, as well as the actions it intends to implement to adapt to climate change, provides precious insight. Though they speak in...