Thesis (M. S.)--International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005. / Peter Brecke, Committee Member ; Adam Stulberg, Committee Member ; Sylvia Maier, Committee Chair. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is a critique of liberal humanitarian representations of violence in the context of Post-Conflict or Post-Authoritarian struggles against impunity. In particular, it addresses the argument of “cultures of impunity” whereby punishing perpetrators of violations of human rights in transitional societies prevents the endorsement of regimes of silence and the normalisation of wrongdoing. Drawing on a Deconstructivist and Disciplinary methodology this thesis argues that debates about punishment or forgiveness in the aftermath of systematic violence have a wider political meaning and a particular historical function. Instead of mere responses to an external reality “punishment vs. impunity” debates also have a productive facet: because they represent violence in a liberal humanitarian frame, they produce a postconflictual ethos that defines (1) the modes of acceptable political resistance in the present and (2) the achievable limits of justice in the future. In order to explain this wider “politics of impunity” this thesis focuses on the Brazilian transitional case, from the end of the Dirty War in the 1970s to the establishment of the National Truth Commission (2012-2014). As such, it rejects the explanation of Brazil as a quintessential “culture of impunity,” a reasoning that blames the amnesty of perpetrators after the militarised dictatorship (1964-1985) for instituting a regime of silence about the past and creating the conditions for an eternal state of exception in Brazil. Although it recognises the merits of this logic, this work argues against it, reassessing the question in a rather different perspective. First, the thesis suggests a methodological twist: moving focus away from the conditions of implementation of justice in post-conflict and post-authoritarian scenarios into the conditions of possibility of the promise of “never again”. This thesis analyses truth commissions, criminal tribunals, and reparation programmes as parts of a historically situated set of disciplines; that is, as the conjunction between a body of knowledge and modes of conduct centred on a specific representation of violence as an intentional, cyclical, and exceptional phenomenon. In other words, it is by narrowing down what violence is that struggles against impunity can promise a future of non-recurrence. Second, the thesis then describes how this representations of violence were mobilised in order to historically produce a postconflictual reality in Brazil. By analysing the trajectory of the memory struggles (1975-) I explain how this postconflictual reality redefined the meaning of political resistance after the Dirty/Cold War, and by looking at the work of the truth commission I describe in what sense it creates a parsimonious promise of justice.

This thesis demonstrates that all of the practices which define and produce the Tswana family involve dimensions of risk, conflict, and crisis – glossed as dikgang (sing. kgang) – that also threaten to undo it. Dikgang need constantly to be addressed in the right ways by the right people, in a continuously adaptive process of negotiation. Efforts to negotiate dikgang are also fraught, and often produce further problems in turn. I show that Tswana kinship is experienced, generated, and sustained in a continuous cycle of risk, conflict, and irresolution; and that it creates and thrives on crisis. In a kinship system renowned for its structural fluidity, I demonstrate that these processes chart the limits of family, and define relationships within it. I further suggest that understanding kinship in these terms provides unique insight into the effects of public health and social welfare crises – like the AIDS epidemic – which may work to strengthen Tswana families, rather than simply destroying them. However, governmental and non-governmental interventions responding to such crises operate according to different assumptions about the stability and fragility of the family, and its incapacity to cope with crisis. The thesis argues that the frustrations such interventions typically face may be traced back to divergent understandings about what constitutes and sustains family, and the role of conflict and crisis in that process. The effects of such interventions are linked to the ways in which they enable, invert, disrupt, or bypass everyday practices of kinship among the Tswana, and instantiate practices and ideals of kinship from elsewhere. I argue that holding these intervening agencies and families in the same frame illustrates suggestive links between the spheres of kinship and politics on both national and transnational levels.

This doctoral dissertation traces how the Red Cross Movement was able to gain a foothold on the Indian subcontinent and came to play an important part in colonial civil society and in the nation-building process from the last third of the nineteenth century onwards up until the end of the interwar period. Far from being at the mere receiving end, it suggests that India played a crucial role in shaping and making the Red Cross Movement. It argues that India became an important hub of transnational and international Red Cross humanitarianism in Asia. The developments on the subcontinent had deep regional, international and global repercussions and were crucial in transforming the Red Cross into a global movement From the last third of the nineteenth century onwards, Indians started to organise humanitarian missions and institutions to help their co-religionists and co-citizens, but also as an act of claiming citizenship and of stressing their role in the ethical community of humanity. Like the Swiss Red Cross founders, Indian intellectuals too constructed a moral universe couched in universal terms, yet it was rooted in their own moral, geographical and imagined spaces of allegiance and affection. It was based on pan-Asian, pan-Islamic and anti-colonial conceptions of a supranational ethical community. By the end of the interwar period, the different humanitarian initiatives culminated in a distinctively Indian Red Cross and Red Crescent tradition. It recast the Christian mid-nineteenth programme of civilising war into a pan-Asian, anti-colonial, anti-communal and anti-racial internationalist movement that had deep reverberations beyond the Indian locality. It was upon such a humanitarian tradition that Nehru's non-alignment policy was built. By reconstructing a distinct Indian Red Cross and Red Crescent tradition this dissertation attempts to de-centre the rigorously Eurocentric and institutional focus of the current body of research on the Red Cross movement and humanitarianism more generally. It enhances our understanding of the relationship between British imperialism, decolonisation, nation-building in Asia and international and transnational humanitarianism.

Throughout the Second World War, the Canadian Red Cross Society (CRCS) exerted its significant influence in the field of voluntary homefront labour to provide a vast number of services for the benefit of Canadian, Commonwealth and Allied servicemen, prisoners of war, and civilians affected by the horrors of war. These wartime programs, which cost the Society over $90 000 000, were made possible through voluntary contributions of millions of dollars from Canadian citizens mainly through the yearly Red Cross national campaigns. Because of the organization’s claim to reach over cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious lines, it benefitted from the support of various national groups within Canada. Another important group of contributors to the Red Cross structure were women who formed the backbone of the organization’s structure. Women served in nearly every capacity within the CRCS, which allowed them to gain valuable experience in a working environment outside of the home.

Ansel Adams, one of the world’s great photographers, once said, “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” This thesis will explore the relationship of the photographer, the viewer, and the photographed subject in the context of humanitarian photography, which has historically internalized a specific balance of power between the worlds of the photographer, viewer, and subject. By examining this tangible expression of the internalized world, this thesis is also performing a critical examination of humanitarianism itself with the intent of improving humanitarian practices and interior worlds. In examining these topics, this thesis will answer the following questions: What is the humanitarian gaze? And: Why is the spectatorial nature of sympathy reserved for Global South? These are questions that will lead to the core question that this thesis asks: what is the relationship between humanitarianism and colonialism?

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are becoming a growing form of designing and implementing humanitarian response in emergency and post conflict areas. This research explores the role ICTs play in the new era of emerging humanitarian spaces, focusing on two main UN agencies, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), that cover a wide range of services in Jordan. This master thesis investigates the different interventions of these two organizations in response to the Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan, asking how ICTs contributed to the efficiency of their service delivery. This study also analyses the changes ICTs brought to UNHCR’s and UNICEF’s humanitarian response in Jordan by comparing the nature of response before and after the integration of ICTs in the different programs. By examining the existing literature related to the use of ICT in humanitarian response combined with fieldwork conducting key informant interviews with UNHCR and UNICEF staff in the field of innovation and ICT, this master thesis aims to provide a critical perspective on the digital development discourse. This study argues that ICT has helped to increase the efficiency of humanitarian services delivery by decreasing the overall cost of interventions and decreasing the time needed to respond to the beneficiaries needs, leading to increase beneficiaries’ satisfaction.

While migrants and disabled people are often studied separately, this study examines the intersection of these two marginalized categories by investigating the construction of the dis/abled migrant's figure. The aim of this thesis is to understand the discourses at play in visual and textual representations of dis/abled migrants. Examining two forms of depiction, it compares photographs taken by migrants with dis/abilities themselves for a photovoice exhibition in Türkiye, with photographs taken from an official UNHCR document. By means of Constructionist Thematic Analysis, overarching themes of 'uneven power relations' and 'overcoming adversity' were encountered. Notions of family and social connections, childhood innocence, education, change, freedom and constraint could be determined, leading to a prospect of an eventual future change of paradigm going from perpetuated discourses of compassion and agency-lessness to humans being regarded as individuals with unique capacities and experiences.

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No / Boat people, whether refugees or migrants, are protected by special provisions in custom and law relating to safety and rescue at sea. At the same time, the governments of coastal states have expressed concern about the arrival of boat people and have been robust in depicting and treating them as a threat. The questions addressed in this article are: how and why have boat people been regarded as a threat, and what challenges does this treatment present for the humanitarian regime at sea? The article connects two dimensions of the issue. First it deconstructs the prevailing images and discourse surrounding boat people that contribute to securitizing them as a threat. Securitization is defined as the process by which issues are identified, labelled and reified as threats to a community, often by politicians for electoral gain. Second, the article argues that this securitization challenges the maritime regime, which is infused with humanitarian values based on solidarity among seafarers. Both short and long-term remedies might be considered. The immediate requirement is to ensure not only that asylum seekers at sea continue to be rescued and protected but also that the maritime regime is strengthened to facilitate their arrival at a place of safety. Over the longer term, de-securitizing the issue of asylum seekers and boat people requires action to address perceptions in destination states.