The Child as Vulnerable Victim: Humanitarianism Constructs Its Object

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Abstract

Over the last one hundred years, humanitarian agencies have considered children primarily through the lens of vulnerability. Advocacy for attention to children’s agency and for their par-ticipation has burgeoned since the 1980s without shifting the powerful hold that assumptions of vulnerability have had over the policy and practices of humanitarians. This article seeks to de-naturalise the conceptualisation of children in contexts of emergency as primarily vulnerable (would-be) victims, placing it in historical and geopolitical contexts. It offers a critical analysis of both conventional humanitarian thinking about vulnerability per se and the reasons for its con-tinued invocation in settings of displacement and political violence. Drawing upon examples from the Mau Mau rebellion against British colonial rule in 1950s Kenya, and current humani-tarian response to the situation of Palestinian children living under Israeli occupation, this article relates the continued dominance of the vulnerability paradigm to the pursuit of self-interest by elites and the survival strategies of humanitarian agencies. It pays particular attention to the uses to which mental health thinking and programming is put in what may be called the ‘politics of pathologisation’.
Original languageEnglish
Article number5102
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume20
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the author.

Funding

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Grant Number: AH/T007508/1 (Jordan research); East-West Foundation, Grant number: R07810/CN005 (Palestine research). In a marketplace that has grown more crowded with the arrival of new players, and as governmental donors cut their funding, the financial stakes for the established players-INGOs and UN agencies–have grown greater. In addition, child-focused humanitarian organisations operating in the oPt have had to consider the sensitivities of corporate donors as private sector support grows in importance. Over several years, UNICEF NYHQ received funds from Caterpillar. (Announcement of three-year funding from Caterpillar Foundation to UNICEF Available online: https://www.unicefusa.org/supporters/organizations/companies/partners/caterpillar-foundation (accessed on 23 February 2023))—a company that manufactures bulldozers used by the Israeli army to demolish Palestinian homes. Meanwhile Save the Children US (SCUS) received financial support from foundations linked directly to Hewlett Packard which developed the computer technology used at Israeli checkpoints. (Announcement of funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to Save the Children USA. Available online: https://hewlett.org/grants/save-the-children-for-reproductive-health-activities/ (accessed on 23 February 2023)). Even though neither company seems to have supported humanitarian work in the oPt, it is reasonable to raise concerns about a conflict of interests for organisations mandated to undertake child protection work that are in receipt of funds from companies that have contributed to the harm done to Palestinian children.

FundersFunder number
East-West FoundationR07810/CN005
Humanities Research Council
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to Save the Children USA
Arts and Humanities Research Council
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development OfficeAH/T007508/1

Keywords

  • agency
  • children
  • humanitarianism
  • participatory programming
  • psychosocial programming
  • trauma
  • vulnerability

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pollution
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
  • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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