Locating Responsibility
The Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Its Rationale
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3897384 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James Darcy (Overseas Development Institute, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 112-123 |
| Publication date | 2004-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Disasters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0361-3666 • E-ISSN: 1467-7717 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.0361-3666.2004.00247.x |
| PMID | 15186359 |
| OpenAlex | W2028838615 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 4 |
Criticised by some as a technical initiative that neglects core principles, Sphere was seen by its originators precisely as an articulation of principle. The Humanitarian Charter was the main vehicle through which this was expressed, but its relationship to the Minimum Standards has remained a matter of uncertainty. Specifically, it was unclear in the original (1999) edition of Sphere how the concept of rights informed the Minimum Standards. The revised (2004) edition goes some way to clarifying this in the way the standards are framed, yet the link between the standards and the charter remains unclear.The concern with the quality and accountability of humanitarian assistance, which motivated the attempt to establish system-wide standards through the Sphere Project, was accompanied by a desire to establish such actions in a wider framework of legal and political responsibility. In part, this reflects the conditional nature of the undertaking that agencies make when they adopt Sphere. This aspect of the charter has been neglected, but it is fundamental to an understanding of the standards and their application.This paper considers the rationale of the Sphere Humanitarian Charter and the conceptual model that underpins it. It discusses the relationship between the charter and the Minimum Standards, and the sense in which the latter are properly called 'rights-based' (explored further in a related paper herein by Young and Taylor). The author was closely involved in the conception and drafting of the charter, and this paper attempts to convey some of the thinking that lay behind it
Accountability · Articulation (sociology · Charter · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · United Nations Charter · Engineering · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Human Rights and Development · International Law and Human Rights · Law
Humanitarianism Governed
NGO accountability clubs in the humanitarian sector
The Sphere Project
Humanitarian aid and host state capacity
Towards human rights-based guidelines for the response to infectious disease epidemics
Romancing principles and human rights
Linking Rights and Standards
Mental and social health in disasters
Rights-based approaches to development
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,41 |
| Citation span | 2004 - 2019 (16) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |