Conditions for Humanitarian Organizations to Engage in Civil-Military Relations

As humanitarian emergencies have become more complex, situations have emerged where civilian and military actors share the same space and where the operational environment is characterised by the presence of multiple actors with overlapping mandates. This has also entailed a situation where the mandates of military actors have expanded beyond traditional military interventions to include aspectsof what has previously been considered exclusively humanitarian domains. Conversely, when peace support operations arrive at a scene, they often find that humanitarian actors are already present in the operating environment. This has increased the need among these sets of actors for mutual understanding of each others´operations and conditions for coordination and cooperation. In order to enhance the chances for military actors to coordinate with civilian actors, this report opens by a brief description of core aspects of humanitarian organisations and then explores their guidelines and policies for engaging the military in civil-military cooperation. The report concludes that the use of military actors´capacity for humanitarian interventions is relegated to a last resort in most policies and guidelines despite the enormous potential held by these actors. This reluctance is based on a real concern that civil-military relations can jeopardise humanitarian personnel´s safety, humanitarian access as well as the safety of the affected population. The existing humanitarian guidelines on the issue of civil-military relations therefore aim to minimise any negative impacts on the humanitarian space by maintaining the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality. Based of the guidelines under study, the report concludes with recommendations aimed at military actors, to enhance their chances of coordinating with humanitarian actors.