Humanitarian Action in Situations other than War (HASOW)

The past two decades have seen both a decline in warfare and an increase in state fragility resulting from non-war violence. This has caused the humanitarian sector to shift its attention to what the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) describes as "situations other than war," such as cities experiencing chronic gang violence due to narcotics trafficking. The ICRC is active in several urban settings, including Bogota, Medillin, Port-au-Prince and Rio de Janeiro. This may challenge the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence, and prompt a deeper examination of the impact of intervention in these environments, particularly on citizen security. This grant will allow a team of researchers at the International Relations Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) to critically assess the policy, practice and outcomes of ICRC programs, and their wider implications for humanitarian intervention in non-war zones. By means of interviews, surveys and focus groups, the team will engage with state and community actors in urban settings (favelas) to obtain an understanding of the perceived and real outcomes of ICRC interventions on state-society dynamics and citizen security.