Chapter

Assessing the complex normative pluralism in humanitarian crises : do local norms matter ?

Joris Kocken

Humanitarian action : global, regional and domestic responses

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015

p. 228-249

English

This chapter discusses eight normative regimes that play an important role in the lives of victims of man-made humanitarian crisis. The eight regimes are six different international legal or quasi-legal regimes and two national and local normative regimes. The claim put forward is that the different normative regimes that try to influence the position of victims, compete with each other for dominance but fail to establish a coherent set of rights for the victims. Therefore, the problem is not the lack of enforcement, although a huge problem in itself, it is that there is no clear and coherent set of norms that can be used to improve the situation of these victims. The eight regimes discussed are public international law in general, humanitarian law, human rights law, rule of law projects, legal empowerment projects, sets of rules brought in by the international organisations and western NGOs that intervene in humanitarian crisis, national legal systems and local or customary law systems.

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• Humanitarian action : global, regional and domestic legal responses / ed. by Andrej Zwitter... [et al.]