This is a year-end edition of Inklings, where we explore all things aid and aid-adjacent unfolding in humanitarian hubs, on the front lines of emergency response, or around the snack table at a hotel conference hall.
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Today: Double standards on Gaza, what leverage do countries have for accountability for Israel, and talking about genocide.
On the radar|
Doha tidbits: The aid system is rife with double standards. Some see that there’s one set of rules for international organisations, and another set for local humanitarian groups. Some aid groups watch their tongues on Gaza, yet are looser-lipped when it comes to Ukraine. Some of these contradictions were top of mind during the 7-8 December Doha Forum, Qatar’s annual dialogue that brings together diplomats, foreign ministers, a few heads of states, and a phalanx of advisers and observers for staged panels and backroom negotiations. The vibe of the yearly forum is dialogue: “You need to speak to the people that matter, even if those are people with blood on their hands,” one attendee said.
And so US First Lady Jill Biden had stage time, as did Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and a former Trump adviser. As Syria’s future rapidly untangled then slipped into new knots, delegates from Türkiye, Russia, and Iran were among the many who had sideline talks (along with a UN special envoy Geir Pedersen). It was the kind of forum where the leaders of Rwanda, Barbados, Honduras, and Namibia shared a stage, but had to settle for a secondary room. (Full disclosure: The New Humanitarian moderated a panel. Flight, hotel, and those crustless sandwich triangles were covered by the Doha Forum organisers.) Here are a few talking points from the weekend:
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Luis Gilberto Murillo, Colombia’s foreign minister, on genocide and Gaza: Colombia made headlines this year for cutting ties with Israel. Colombia may not be a world power, he said, but it can use what leverage it has: “We don’t have the power of the Global North,” Murillo said, speaking on a panel about the way forward in Palestine. “We don't have the money, or the weapons, or the political possibility of creating coalitions, but at least what we can do is cut relations with those who are not behaving in a way they should behave in the 21st century.” Colombia and other countries, he said, must “say things as they are in a potent way: It’s a genocide”.
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Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, on racism: A frequent talking point through the forum was a contrast between the world’s reactions to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and to Israel’s destruction of Gaza. “Let's be frank. We are also facing racism: Global racism against Palestinian people. And global racism and colonial ideology. That is allowing the slaughtering of Palestinian people while the whole world is watching,” Barghouti said. “You want to claim that international law exists and international humanitarian law exists? Impose sanctions and boycotts on Israel now. This is the only way.”
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Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister, on consistency: “The problem now is that we have one part of the world who is highlighting, correctly, Russia's violations of Ukraine sovereignty, but being wobbly in Gaza,” Eide said during a panel on conflict resolution. “And then you have another part of the world who are correctly criticising Israel in Gaza, but rather wobbly on the principles that have been violated in Ukraine.”
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Yassine Fall, Senegal’s foreign minister, on global governance: “The multilateral system needs to be revisited,” Fall told a separate panel, “if the world wants to be recognising all of these emerging countries that are in the south that were colonised, or were not really a part of the decision-making system when the UN was being established. But that requires also a lot of political will.”
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Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president, on balance: US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened tariffs against the so-called BRICS countries. But Kagame sees a counterweight in a bloc that now includes nine countries (yet an unchanged acronym): “BRICS will act as a check to the limitless use of power and means that the north has,” Kagame said. “So maybe it moves all of us to that stability we are looking for.”
It’s cold in the water: Fresh from launching its annual tally of aid responses costs for 2025, the UN’s emergency aid coordination arm, OCHA, held a pledge drive for its quick response pooled fund known as CERF. Donors promised about $351 million – a drop from last year, and well short of its $1 billion target. It was, OCHA said, “yet another indication of how grim the funding outlook in 2025 will be.” It’s unclear whether this sum includes recent sales of prints by artist Marina Abramović. It may be time for CERF fundraisers to once again dip a toe into the lucrative K-pop fan club market.
Acronymage|
GISF: The Global Interagency Security Forum (formerly known as EISF) has a new (multilingual!) glossary of security risk management terminology. It’s both handy and a little bit grim, but now you can read up on definitions for everything from ”abduction” to “target settlement figure”.
End quote|
“The more that the humanitarian sector shies away from calling the genocide what it is, the more we lose our credibility.”
Last week, we included thoughts from Dustin Barter in a piece on the UN’s 2025 aid appeals. The acting director of ODI Global’s Humanitarian Policy Group think tank had a bit more to say on how humanitarians talk about Gaza:
Dustin Barter: “The more that the humanitarian sector shies away from calling the genocide what it is, the more we lose our credibility with a lot of important constituencies. And this is alarming for the legitimacy of the humanitarian sector writ large.
“Granted there are donors who pull the purse strings, but we also need to call a spade a spade.”
The New Humanitarian: Who are these constituents?
Barter: “I think there have been problematic relationships between a lot of majority world / Global South civil society actors and the broader population, with international humanitarian actors. There have been longstanding tensions to various degrees.
“When a lot of these international humanitarian actors are shying away from calling a genocide – one of the most documented genocides ever, or the most documented genocide ever – when international humanitarian actors are shying away from that, it really undermines their legitimacy with majority world civil society actors and populations.
“But also the governments in which they’re working. It’s very hard to operate in various contexts – whether it’s Myanmar, Sudan, or elsewhere – if you’re not taking a principled position on what’s happening in Gaza.
“There’s also the domestic minority world / Global North constituents as well. There’s a lot of people who support INGOs and international humanitarian actors to – cliché, but true – be speaking truth to power. And if you’re shying away from the word genocide at the moment, then it is very disheartening.”
For more on this topic, read this rare editorial from The New Humanitarian.
This is the last Inklings for 2024. Have any tips, recommendations, or indecipherable acronyms to share for a head start on 2025? Get in touch: [email protected]
