The Lead Agency Concept in Humanitarian Assistance

1 Generally, see Stephen Green, International Disaster Relief: Toward a Responsive System (New York: MacGraw-Hill/Council on Foreign Relations, 1977); B. E. Harrell-Bond, Imposing Aid: Emergency Assistance to Refugees (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986); Randolph C. Kent, Anatomy of Disaster Relief: The International Network in Action (London: Pinter, 1987); Graham Hancock, Lords of Poverty (London: Macmillan, 1989); James Ingram, `The Future Architecture for International Humanitarian Assistance', in Thomas G. Weiss & Larry Minear, eds, Humanitarianism Across Borders: Sustaining Civilians in Times of War (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1993), pp. 181-183.

2 Interviews by Michael Pugh with Kevin M. Kennedy, Rapid Response Unit, DHA-NY, and Stephen Green, DHA-NY, New York, March 1995.

3 Kent, Anatomy of Disaster Relief, p. 88.

4 GA Res. 36/225, 17 December 1981, para. 10.

5 GA Res. 37/144, 17 December 1982, para. 13.

6 UN Office at Geneva, `Regional Humanitarian Plan of Action Relating to the Crisis Between Iraq and Kuwait', final version, 11 January 1991.

7 See David Rieff, Slaughterhouse: Bosnia and the Failure of the West (London: Vintage Books, 1995), p. 199.

8 Interview by Michael Pugh with Stephen Green, DHA, New York, 9 March 1995.

9 Interview by Michael Pugh with Irene Khan, Senior Executive Assistant to the High Commissioner, UNHCR, Geneva, 31 May 1995, and unattributable discussion at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, 12 June 1995. See also Jeurgen Dedring, `Humanitarian Coordination', in Jim Whitman & David Pocock, eds, After Rwanda: The Coordination of United Nations Humanitarian Assistance (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996).

10 Ingram, `The Future Architecture of International Humanitarian Assistance', pp. 176-177. This contrasts with the job specification for the disaster relief co-ordinator, as given in General Assembly Resolution 2816 (XXVI) of 14 December 1971, who was expected `to mobilize, direct and co-ordinate the relief activities of the various organizations of the United Nations system'.

11 See Secretary-General's Report, S/23900, 12 May 1992, para. 16.

12 Although lacking a general mandate, customary practice has been for the UNHCR to protect displaced persons if their situation is linked and analogous to that of a potential or existing refugee problem, and provided the Secretary-General or competent principal organs of the UN make a request with the consent of the states concerned. The UNHCR was the focal point for relief in the Sudan, and again in arranging repatriation after the Indo-Pakistan War in 1971. Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights, The UNHCR at 40: Refugee Protection at the Crossroads (New York: Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights, 1991), pp. 32-33; B. G. Ramcharan, Humanitarian Good Offices in International Law (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1983), p. 94.

13 SC Res. 743, 21 February 1992.

14 UNHCR, Refugees at a Glance: The Monthly Digest of UNHCR Activities, February 1995.

15 See, for example, Rieff, Slaughterhouse, p. 195. Refugees at a Glance (February 1995) reported that more than 140,000 tons of supplies had been flown in to Sarajevo, the largest humanitarian airlift in history. See also the Secretary-General's Report on UNPROFOR, S/1995/444, 30 May 1995, para. 28

16 We are grateful to Carsten F. Rønnfeldt of the UN Program, NUPI, for this information.

17 Cited in Larry Minear et al., Humanitarian Action in the Former Yugoslavia: The U.N.'s Role 1991-1993 (Providence, RI: Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute, Brown University, Occasional Paper 18, 1994), p. 8.

18 Sadako Ogata, `Role of Humanitarian Action in Peacekeeping Operations', keynote address at 24th Annual Vienna Seminar, 5 July 1994 (UNHCR text).

19 John A. MacInnis, `Eyewitness I: Peacekeeping and International Humanitarian Law', International Peacekeeping, vol. 3, no. 3 (Autumn 1996), pp. 92-97.

20 Steven Wolfson & Neill Wright, A UNHCR Handbook for the Military on Humanitarian Operations (Geneva: UNHCR, 1994), p. 30. See also IISS, Military Support for Humanitarian Aid Operations, Strategic Comments (London: IISS, 22 February 1995); Thomas G. Weiss, `Military-Civilian Humanitarianism: The “Age of Innocence”: is Over', International Peacekeeping, vol. 2, no. 2 (Summer 1995), pp. 157-174.

21 Sadako Ogata, `Humanitarianism in the Midst of Armed Conflict', address at Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, 12 May 1994.

22 Information from Sean Maloney, Canadian historian with the European Community Monitoring Mission, 5 August 1996.

23 Wolfson & Wright, A UNHCR Handbook for the Military..., p. 24.

24 UNHCR Office of the Special Envoy for Former Yugoslavia, External Relations Unit, `Information Notes on former Yugoslavia', no. 1/95, January 1995.

25 Interview by Michael Pugh with Irene Khan, UNHCR, Geneva, 31 May 1995.

26 Ingram, `The Future Architecture of International Humanitarian Assistance', p. 181. See also Neill Wright, `The Hidden Costs of Better Coordination', in Whitman & Pocock, After Rwanda (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996); Report of 24th Meeting of the Sub-committee on Whole of International Protection, 18-19 May 1994, UNHCR, Geneva, para. 33; comments by Thomas Felix-Downes on the Office of Humanitarian Assistance Co-ordination in Mozambique, in Winrich Kühne, ed., International Workshop on the Successful Conclusion of the UN Operation in Mozambique (Ebenhausen: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, 1995), pp. 24-25.

27 Cited in International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, World Disasters Report: Under the Volcanoes: Special Focus on the Rwandan Refugee Crisis (IFRC: Geneva, 1994), p. 21.

28 Wolfson & Wright, UNHCR Handbook for the Military, p. 24.

29 Partnership in Action, Oslo Declaration and Plan of Action (UNHCR & International Committee of Voluntary Organisations, June 1994), p. 17.

30 Peter Hansen, then Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, letter to IASC Members, 1 August 1994, on Protection of Humanitarian Mandates in Conflict Situations, approved by the IASC, 13 April 1994.

31 Interview with Sadako Ogata, DHA Retrospective: Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance in 1995, DHA, Geneva, March 1996, pp. 20-21.

32 S. Alex Cunliffe & Michael Pugh, `The Politicisation of the UNHCR in the Former Yugoslavia', Journal of Refugee Studies (forthcoming, 1997).

33 Manfred Nowak, `Beyond “Bookkeeping”: Bringing Human Rights to Bosnia', The World Today, April 1996, p. 103.

34 The State of the World's Refugees (Geneva: UNHCR, 1993), pp. 28-29.

35 Interview by Michael Pugh with Irene Khan, UNHCR, Geneva, 31 May 1995. On the fiasco in Cambodia, see Trevor Findlay, Cambodia: The Legacy and Lessons of UNTAC, SIPRI Research Report, no. 9 (Oxford: Oxford University Press/SIPRI, 1995), p. 98.

36 Discussion with senior Foreign Office official, London, 16 May 1995.

37 Interviews with DHA officials in New York and Geneva. On electronic networking see, for example, the DHA's ReliefWeb Project, available on the World Wide Web. Generally, see Paul Taylor, `Options for the Reform of the International System for Humanitarian Assistance', in John Harriss, ed., The Politics of Humanitarian Intervention (London: Pinter & Save the Children, 1995), pp. 118-131.

38 See Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, Orphan of the Cold War: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Angolan Peace Process, 1992-3 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996), pp. 434-437.

39 Discussion with Dame Margaret Anstee, 18 October 1996, Skopje.

40 Inter-Agency Standing Committee, `Suggested Profile of Humanitarian Coordinators', endorsed at its 10th meeting, 9 December 1994.

41 Pat Banks, `The Crisis in the Great Lakes Region: Towards Better Management', DHA Retrospective: Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance in 1995 (DHA: Geneva, March 1996), pp. 48-49.

42 Marrack Goulding, `Note to the Secretary-General on Tri-Departmental Coordination and Cooperation', 22 February 1995 (DHA-NY text) and conversation with Col. Cees van Egmond (Chief Mission Planning Service, DPKO), in The Hague, 23 March 1995; interview with Sergio Piazzi, MCDA Project Secretariat, DHA-Geneva, 2 June 1995; DHA-Geneva, Guidelines on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets in Disaster Relief', Project DPR 213/3 (MCDA), May 1994; DHA-Geneva, `MCDA Field Manual', draft version 2, 10 May 1995.

43 Interview by Michael Pugh with Stephen Green, DHA, New York, 9 March 1995.

44 Ingram, `The Future Architecture for International Humanitarian Assistance', p. 182.

45 Press release, statement by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali at a meeting with OXFAM staff, 15 January 1996, SG/SM/5872. See also `Speth Urges Massive Regrouping of UN Secretariat', International Documents Review, vol. 7, no. 28 (22-26 July 1996), pp. 1-4; Martin Griffiths, Iain Levine & Mark Weller, `Sovereignty and Suffering', in Harriss, ed., Politics of Humanitarian Intervention, p. 81.