The link between Humanitarianism and Human Rights Dear Friends, I would like to add my own words of praise for the African Medical Research Foundation, the worthy recipient of the Hilton prize. I should also like to pay tribute to Conrad Hilton and to all those who carry his humanitarian vision forward through the Foundation, in particular Steven Hilton. I am honoured to have been invited to make a few remarks on the relationship between human rights, humanitarian action and prevention. The increased concern of humanitarians with human rights, stems from the now dominant doctrine that one can not meet humanitarian needs in terms of protection and assistance while disregarding what caused these needs in the first place.
Most humanitarian needs stem from conflict.
Conflict stems from the violation of social or economic rights, ethnic, religious or political intolerance, or a combination of these. The massive and seemingly intractable humanitarian crises in Sudan, Angola, Afghanistan, the Great Lakes, and Colombia bear witness to the grim causality between the violation of rights, conflict and humanitarian need. The linkage between violations of rights and humanitarian needs is pertinent also in the case of natural disasters. Hurricane Mitch laid bare the grotesque economic disparities between rich and poor in central America. The poor, living marginal existence on marginal lands, are inevitably disproportionately affected by earthquakes, floods or other natural disasters.