The United Nations University Office in New York (UNU-ONY), in cooperation with the United Nations University Peace and Governance Programme (UNU-P&G) and the United Nations University Press, organized the launch of the book “Humanitarian Diplomacy: Practitioners and their Craft”. The event took place on September 13th 2007, in the Dag Hammarskoljd Library Auditorium at United Nations Headquarters in New York and aimed to introduce and to explain the new concept of Humanitarian Diplomacy. 

The purpose of this book launch was to discuss the existence of a new type of diplomacy different from the traditional one.  It was also the occasion for panelists to talk about their experiences in the field as humanitarian practioners and to pinpoint the problems and obstacles they faced when conducting their work.

Following introductory remarks of Jean-Marc Coicaud, Head of the United Nations University Office in New York, Professor Larry Minear, co-editor of the book, gave a definition of “Humanitarian Diplomacy”, then presented the background of the research, which was supported by the UNU, the World Food Programme, and the US Institute for Peace.  Prior to publishing the book, there were two meetings.  The first meeting on March 2004 in Bangkok, was an opportunity to review the initial drafts, discuss the concept of Humanitarian Diplomacy, and agree on the 5 part template of each chapter. The second meeting on November 2004, in Rome, refined the country studies and the conclusions. 

Among the things that make this volume special, Prof. Minear said, is the fact that it is written by practitioners rather than policy analysts, though it has both positive and negative features. Professor Minear also described the two main features of the book, which are first the richness and diversity of countries experiences, and second the institutional aspect. According to him, from those two features one gets a picture of humanitarian diplomacy in action, both small “d” diplomacy practiced by agencies in support of their programs, and capital “D” diplomacy conducted by diplomats.

Mr. Masood Hyder considers access as the main issue in Humanitarian Diplomacy.  He talked about his experience as the WFP Representative and Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan from 2000 to 2002.  Mr. Hyder portrayed the diplomatic aspect of his experience, by emphasising on some cases he faced and which he had to deal with. For instance, he had to take a decision over the suspension or not of the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) since some WFP/OLS flights, that assured food access to people living in Bahr el Ghazal, were attacked by the Sudan regular army. However, before taking any decision he wanted to make a consensus among all agencies working in the field to agree on the decision to stop humanitarian aid, so that his decision would be taken seriously in New York and in Rome by the WFP. Once the agreement was reached, Mr. Hyder asked the permission and received an immediate approval from the UN Secretary-General to suspend the activities of the United Nations Office of Security Coordination (UNSECOORD) .  The humanitarian flights resumed, after the Secretary General had written to the Sudanee President to take the necessary steps that would permit their resumption.

Mr. Donini talked about his experience as the Director of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to Afghanistan from 1999 to 2002.  In order to negociate access to the population in need, Mr. Donini had to deal with cultural aspects. At the time, Mr. Donini was operating there, the Taliban Movement was still in power and was imposing very strict religious rules, particularly on women.  Negociation was probably the best way to deal with the Talibanee Movement. It was necessary however to agree on a unitary way, among the UN agencies operating there, in order to negociate with the Talibans.  Mr. Donini admited that it was difficult to find a terrain where it was possible to negociate.  When they say no, it was difficult to make further decisions.

After the presentations of the three contributors, Ms. Elizabeth Ferris and Ms. Deborah Saidy made their comments.

Ms. Ferris made one general comment and then focused on several issues related to NGOs and Humanitarian Diplomacy. She sees the humanitarian action as being fragile and weak. “The extent to which humanitarian action is possible usually depends on the belligerents – how much they know about international humanitarian law or how much they perceive that respecting it will further their own interest”. In this regard and through past experiences, Ms. Ferris warned about the fact of compromising the humanitarian principles, when some humanitarian workers make deals and compromises with warlords and belligerant of the conflicts to secure access to people in need.

Ms. Saidy, as the Director of the WFP liaison office in New York, found this volume interesting and suggested that the experiences, that have been discussed in this book, should be incorporated in the training and developing carreers of the WFP workers.