Tackling The Global Challenge: Humanitarian Catastrophes
[Article]
Iserson, Kenneth V.
"Humanitarian catastrophes," conflicts and calamities generating both widespread human suffering and destructive events, require a wide range of emergency resources. This paper answers a number of questions that humanitarian catastrophes generate: Why and how do the most-developed countries-those with the resources, capabilities, and willingness to help-intervene in specific types of disasters? What ethical and legal guidelines shape our interventions? How well do we achieve our goals? It then suggests a number of changes to improve humanitarian responses, including better NGO-government cooperation, increased research on the best disaster response methods, clarification of the criteria and roles for humanitarian (military) interventions, and development of post-2015 Millennium Development Goals with more accurate progress measures. [West J Emerg Med. 2014;15(2):231-240.]
2014
Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health