Humanitarianism & War Project

	\|\|\|\| Status Report #8: December 15, 1992
	SINCE OUR LAST REPORT of September 15, 1992, work has continued on a number of fronts. Project staff have been in Central America, Africa, and Cambodia over the past two months. There is also progress to report on various project publications.
	A consultation was held in San Jose, Costa Rica November 17-20 to review the draft guidelines for practitioners and incorporate the experience of practitioners from the region. Co-Director Thomas G. Weiss, David Lewis, and Peter Sollis joined Luis Guillermo Solis and Cristina Eguizabal from our colleague agency in Central America, the Arias Foundation. Following the consultation, a team of three traveled to Nicaragua to begin field research for the country studies of the Central American experience. The team conducted numerous interviews with major actors and will pursue similar research in El Salvador and Guatemala early next year. We expect to publish the resulting study of humanitarian issues in all three countries in the coming spring. The study, along with the published guidelines, will be discussed at a meeting in August 1993, sponsored by the Project and the Arias Foundation and involving major political actors from the region. A Spanish language version of the draft guidelines is available from the Arias Foundation, and the final guidelines will also be available in Spanish.
	The Project also carried out a review of the work of the UN Transitional Authority for Cambodia (UNTAC). Undertaken at the request of the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, the study took stock of UNTAC's progress at midpoint between its launching last March and its scheduled completion next August. A team of three–Larry Minear from the Humanitarianism and War Project and John Mackinlay and Jarat Chopra from the Watson Institute–reviewed UNTAC's various components: repatriation, resettlement, peace-keeping, civil administration, human rights, and electoral reform. The team concluded that UNTAC's repatriation activities had been the most successful of any component thus far, with the return of some 175,000 persons from the Cambodian border facilitated to date. Considerably less far advanced were efforts to resettle such persons in local communities, to assist those internally displaced, and to rehabilitate essential infrastructure. The team's report is expected to be available in the Watson Institute's Occasional Paper series after the turn of the year.
	The Project's work on humanitarian issues in the Horn of Africa has continued in recent months with a three-week visit to Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia by Larry Minear in November and early December. Discussions provide an opportunity to solicit reactions from practitioners in the region to the Providence Principles and draft Guidelines. Minear also was able to review humanitarian operations and security constraints in Somalia and participated in the United Nations Second Coordination Meeting on Somalia, held in Addis Dec. 3-5. The contrast between the UN's mega-presence in Cambodia and its relative absence in Somalia was striking. Neither the 22,000 person contingent in Cambodia, addressing a range of military, political, administrative, and human needs challenges, nor the less-than-1,000 person presence in Somalia, with a far more circumscribed mandate, seemed to be accomplishing what the respective situations required.
	On September 25th, 1992 Project co-directors Thomas G. Weiss and Larry Minear testified before the House Select Committee on "Humanitarian Intervention: A Review of Theory and Practice." This followed a discussion by Under-Secretary-General Jan Eliasson of the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs on his department's role in coordinating and facilitating international relief efforts. Minear and Weiss briefed the committee on research in the Horn of Africa and Central America, and discussed the evaluation of UN coordination of humanitarian activities during the Gulf crisis. Minear and Weiss stressed the need for better coordination by the UN and recommended that a clear division of labor among the major actors and an enhanced professionalism among practitioners. They also suggested priority areas for the Department of Humanitarian Affairs in the coming months. A copy of their testimony is enclosed. The House Select Committee on Hunger's report is expected to be published next month and will be available from the Government Printing Office.
	On September 23, Minear and Weiss spoke at a meeting at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where they presented the findings of the Gulf Report. In October Thomas G. Weiss addressed the Executive Committee of the International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development in Montreal, Quebec on the evolving nature of sovereignty and on the findings of the Gulf report.
	On December 10th and 11th a meeting was held in Providence to present and discuss the chapters of the upcoming book: Humanitarianism Across Borders, edited by Thomas G. Weiss and Larry Minear with a foreword by Jan Pronk, Minister of Development Cooperation of the Netherlands. An outline of the book, with chapter headings and authors, is enclosed. In addition to the authors, twelve experts in the field participated, contributing their comments and critiques to the discussions. The completed volume will be published by Lynne Rienner publishers in August, 1993.
	Thomas G. Weiss will attend a meeting in Brussels, Belgium December 14-15, co-sponsored by the UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs and NATO on humanitarian intervention in armed conflicts. From there he will go to Geneva to attend a meeting of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. In addition, both Minear and Weiss are participating in an ongoing study group of the Council of Foreign Relations in New York on Collective Involvement in Internal Conflicts.
	Support for the Project continues to grow. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has joined the list of co-sponsors of the Project, and a number of other NGOs and governments are considering doing so.
	We look forward to receiving your comments on our publications, our activities, and news of your own work on these issues. We would like to request organizations which have not already done so put us on their mailing list so that we can receive relevant publications.
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