"The Spirit of Geneva"
Today I had the privilege of going to the International Humanitarian and Security Conference held at Webster University in Geneva. This year, the 22nd year of the conference, was entitled: "Upholding Refugee Protection, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Law: The Role of Geneva in International Humanitarian Action." The Conference was essentially four sets of panels on topics related to the overarching theme. The panelists ranged in age, specialization, and country of origin. One of the speakers, Otto Hieronymi, spoke about the "spirit of Geneva," which for him means: humanitarianism; peace and independence; international cooperation; liberty, tolerance, and freedom; and acceptance of differing opinions and other differences. I felt that the conference in and of itself, never mind the topic at hand, reflected this "spirit." There were speakers and attendees of all backgrounds doing together out of interest in and care for the resolution of the issues discussed. While the gathering was not actually that large, it was still reassuring to see so many people so enthusiastic about such important humanitarian topics.
I was delightfully surprised to learn that the President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF a.k.a. Doctors Without Borders) of Switzerland, Thomas Nierle, was speaking at the event! I have always admired MSF and dream of working for them in some capacity. He spoke briefly about the increasing frequency of countries using attacks on medical facilities as an element of warfare. This inhumane practice, Nierle said, creates a shift in the responsibility of warfare: Armed forces are no longer protecting healthcare so it becomes health care providers' decisions of whether they are willing to risk their lives in order to provide medical care to those in conflict zones. Nierle also touched on another interesting point that I may be pursuing for an assignment while I am here, which is that of the impartiality of medical care. I agreed with Nierle when he states that medical teams have the responsibility to provide for anyone based on only on need, no matter where they have come from or what "side" they are from. To me, the impartiality of health care is indisputable; everyone should be allowed access to the health care they need, but unfortunately, this often gets muddled by polarization of various issues and/or various health care practices (such as vaccinations or family planning).
Some other speakers also touched on issues that I have been thinking about and that interest me. Here are a few:
Giuseppe De Giorgi, Formal Chief of Staff of the Italian Navy, is the man responsible for Operation Mare Nostrum in 2013-2014 that saved thousands of lives of those immigrating to Italy via boat across the Mediterranean. First of all, this operation that he headed was really incredible because one rarely sees a government deploying their military forces to save migrants' lives, especially when they, a) cannot necessarily support or accommodate all of these migrants once they reach land, and b) do not know the status or conditions of any of these migrants. In describing Mare Nostrum, De Giorgi also mentioned the media as one of the problems contributing to the end of Mare Nostrum. According to him, the media lost interest in migrants at sea, which contributed to a loss of interest in funding and organizing Mare Nostrum from a technical standpoint. It really is amazing (and sometimes unfortunate) how much power the media holds.
Reba Aly of the IRIN News Agency gave a talk about the relationship between Islamic law and current internationally agreed upon laws of war. I did not know this, but apparently Islamic law is among the roots of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). She pointed out that Islamic law discourses include many debates and can be subjective, but she recommends conversations between humanitarian organizations and Islamic groups in order to increase greater security for humanitarian aid workers, gain greater access for humanitarian groups, and generate more conversations between and influence the behaviors of each group. I had never considered this, but it actually relates to a major topic I addressed in one of my recent papers at Occidental: the benefits of involving religious groups in political conversations.
Nitasha Kaul, Assistant Professor at the University of Westminster, spoke on a wide range of themes, but her overarching points really intrigued me. Her main argument is that how we perceive issues shapes how we approach and solve them and our entrenchment in places of privilege can sometimes contribute to the mental dehumanization of "the other." We must talk about issues as processes in order to help us see how everything and everyone is interrelated. Ultimately, we often view borders as fixed, explanatory variables that define people, when in fact it's the other way around: borders are ultimately socially constructed and we must let people explain themselves. As Kaul said, the complexity of human agency makes borders much more flexible than our current perceptions. We currently see "migrant" or "refugee" as a defining characteristic when it is instead an experience or condition, so we need to reconsider how we let ourselves think a person's life will be a certain way just because they associate with these labels. We often look at colonization as a mark of shame on the colonized as a sign of weakness rather than looking at is as a sign of lack of moral judgment on behalf of the colonizer. I found this more philosophical talk by Kaul extremely intriguing.
Those are just three of the most thought provoking or personally relevant speakers that I heard today, but I had the privilege of hearing over 20 speakers in total at this conference. Although these are not new points, the importance of dialogue, multidisciplinary and international cooperation, and the need to embed values of equality and human dignity in all cultures were repeated throughout the day. These seem obvious, but I think it is important that we are reminded of these necessities that are often left to fall by the wayside in international political negotiations and organizing.
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