Humanitarian Assistance and Health

Running head: HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND HEALTH
HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND HEALTH
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HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND HEALTH1
Humanitarian principles
The Humanitarian Assistance Principles are built and addressed by the International
Humanitarian Law under the assistance of UN World Health Organisation (WHO, 2019).
These principles are used in order to guide the humanitarian functions and goals (von
Schreeb, 2018). The humanitarian assistance principles are broadly stated as: humanity,
neutrality, impartiality and independence.
Humanity states that help should be provided to the one in need.
Neutrality states that aid should be given without favouring any side in armed conflicts.
Impartiality guides to provide humanity aid without any discrimination
Independence states the independence of humanitarian aims from any kind of pressure such
as political, social or military (Weiss, 2018).
Humanitarian assistance principles provide knowledge about the humanitarian aid
and the procedure of their implication such as: providing life-saving support to the people in
need without any kind of discrimination and injustice. The humanitarian principles keep them
apart and distinguished from other factors such as religious and political nature. The workers
facilitating the humanitarian principals are found to be devoted enough to provide the service
in a way which serves benefit and safety to the people in need (Rysaback-Smith, 2015). The
humanitarian principles are found to be providing humanitarian aids in various regions where
people are in need. There are three case reports where the act of humanitarian principles was
witnessed for the Rohingya refugees. In the year of 2017, the Rohingya refugees which also
included several children, witnessed violence in Myanmar, and because of which they were
forced to arrive in the Bangladesh border (Jeremiah et al., 2017).

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UN World Health Organization and the Bangladeshi ministry of health (UN News, 2019)
The UN World Health Organisation after the new release supported the Bangladeshi
Ministry of Health to conduct campaign for providing vaccination and healthcare facilities to
the Rohingya refugees and children. The health condition was at a very sever stage as they
were witnessing increasing number of infections. The humanitarian principles were
maintained by both the UN WHO and the Bangladeshi ministry of health and life-saving
measures without any discrimination or taking any particular countries side, was provided to
the Rohingya refugees.
UN International Organization for Migration (UN News, 2019)
After the Rohingya refugees where provided shelter by Bangladesh, the UN
International Organization for Migration, also stepped forward to provide support to the
Rohingya refugees. They UN IOM provided the refugee camp with trucks filled with 740,000
litres of water. They also helped Bangladesh and the refugee camps by building infrastructure
such as drainage system and roads (UN News, 2019). IOM provided its health teams to
address emergency and primary health services to the refugee patients, along with personal
hygiene kits. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees also relocated new
refugees from Kutupalong to the south-eastern Bangladesh (Khan et al., 2019). They also
were provided with the same facilities and other required things.
Pledging Conference in Geneva (MSF International, 2019)
Dr Joanne Liu, MSF International President after returning from a visit to Bangladesh,
where she witnessed the crises faced by the Rohingya refugees, Dr Liu took a part in a
Pledging Conference in Geneva which was organised by various organizations that follow the
humanitarian principles such as IOM, OCHA and UNHCR and the European Union and
Kuwait, in order to discuss and address the difficulties of refugees sheltering in the informal
settlements in Bangladesh Cox’s Bazar (Friedrich, 2018).

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The organizations did not focus on the pressure or conflict that Myanmar may reflect,
and provided lifesaving campaign for the people in the refugee camps. Bangladesh supported
them and provided them with refugee camps and it was all conducted with the support and
humanitarian behaviour of the organizations (MSF International, 2019).
Specific humanitarian health program management principles
Humanitarian health is referred to as the changes in individual lives when relocated
by any disaster, changes in disease outline, admittance to healthcare, shelter, livelihoods,
sanitary conditions and nutritional status. Humanitarian health management program helps
those uprooted individual to access healthcare services and other basic amenities for a healthy
life. Humanitarian health management principles helps to ensure the assistance of such health
program (Gallardo et al., 2015). World health organization health management programmes
are strategized and managed in the framework of a comprehensible and carefully prioritized
emergency health strategy which is adapted to the local conditions and restructured as
settings change and innovative data becomes available (WHO, 2019). WHO ensures
accountability and transparency in all of their operations. The humanitarian health
management principles advocated by WHO based on long term perspective and population
based approach.
WHO advocates a long term perspective to ensure that the immediate problems
are identified and temporary needs are fulfilled. It also ensures that all the local and national
health authorities directs all feasible action related to healthcare which is sustained in that
role. Confirmation of reinforcement and rebuilding of health system is also done by WHO
and along with that establishment of parallel system are also directed by WHO in order to
save lives of the individual (WHO, 2019).