Seppey, Arnaud, Girard, and Zarowsky, ‘Queering Humanitarian Practices through the Inclusion of SOGIESC Concepts’, 2024
- Category: Literature
- Source: Academic
- Subject: Sexual Orientation/Sexuality, Gender Identity, Intersex, Refugee/Asylum, Migration
- Place: International
- Year: 2024
- File: jha-article-p39
- URL: https://doi.org/10.7227/JHA.116
Seppey, M., Arnaud, M., Girard, G., and Zarowsky, C.’, Queering Humanitarian Practices through the Inclusion of SOGIESC Concepts’, Journal of Humanitarian Affairs 5(3), 2024, 39-55
Introduction
The principle of ‘impartiality’ is at the core of humanitarian work. It has been commonly referenced by the International Committee of the Red Cross as one of the ‘Fundamental principles’ and represents three concepts: non-discrimination, impartiality (decisions based on needs over personal considerations or feelings) and proportionality (prioritisation of the most vulnerable) (IFRC, 2024). It has now been incorporated in numerous humanitarian standards and guidelines (e.g. Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS Alliance, 2024), Sphere Standards (Sphere Project, 2018), Red Cross Code of Conduct (IFRC, 1994), Principles and Good Practice of Humanitarian Donorship (GHD, 2018).
A first challenge arises, however: how to be impartial in contexts where one knows very little about the ‘Other’ or may even be unaware of the ‘Other’. The ‘Other’ can have many labels: ‘women’, ‘children’, ‘people with disabilities’, or ‘diverse SOGIESC peoples’1 (people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics). While there is an increasing body of evidence on SOGIESC issues, SOGIESC diversity is seldom mentioned in humanitarian documents; in the Sphere Handbook, a core reference for standards in humanitarian response, it first appeared in the fourth edition in 2018 with around twenty mentions over 458 pages (Sphere Project, 2018). A second challenge is how to provide services impartially within a cis-heteronormative system. A queering process, challenging these norms has started within international human rights with the Yogyakarta Principles (Corrêa and Muntarbhorn, 2007) and its added ten principles (Cabral Grinspan et al., 2017: 10). These principles provide important interpretations of SOGIESC diversity within human rights; this work still must be done in humanitarian work.
This review aims to connect humanitarian actions with the ‘Other’, in this case diverse SOGIESC communities, through transformative practices. Its objective is to better understand how SOGIESC issues are included in humanitarian practices, to chart a more responsive way forward. To do so, diverse SOGIESC issues must be made explicit and analysed, to lay the foundation for reflection and change.