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Tuesday 27 January 2026, 13:10-14:00
"When Principle Meets Practice”: Ethical Decision‑Making in high-risk Humanitarian Operations
- 👤 Speaker: Anna Kneifel, Harvard Humanitarian Project
- 📅 Date & Time: Tuesday 27 January 2026, 13:10 - 14:00
- 📍 Venue: Richard King room, Darwin College
Abstract
Whilst normative frameworks articulate principles for ethical humanitarian action, these do not always translate well into operational realities. Rather, humanitarians are at times confronted with a set of bad choices where all viable options entail moral compromise. Drawing on personal experience from working with the United Nations in Syria and Afghanistan, this talk explores how decisions are actually made when armed actors control access to civilians, women are banned from work, and staff face real security risks. Using Assad’s Syria and the Taliban’s Afghanistan as case studies, the talk examines tensions between the humanitarian principles and the imperative to “stay and deliver”, and invites participants from different disciplines to test their own intuitions against real-life dilemmas.
Series This talk is part of the Darwin College Humanities and Social Sciences Seminars series.
Included in Lists
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- Neurons, Fake News, DNA and your iPhone: The Mathematics of Information
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