Voices from the Field: Is Humanitarianism in Crisis?

This year's gathering featured Tufts alumni who have worked and been involved with humanitarian intervention and humanitarian relief operations in a variety of contexts, this professional workshop was a four-day event.

Schedule
Wednesday, February 26, 10:00am-4:00pm
Thursday, February 27, 9:00am-4:00pm
Friday, February 28, 9:00-11:30am
Sunday, March 2, 9:00-11:30am

Readings

The Humanitarian Enterprise by Larry Minear,
director of the War and Humanitarianism Project, Tufts University

A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis by David Rieff


Participants:

Clockwise from left: Dan Feldman, Samantha Klein, Jana Frey and Sherman Teichman

LEILA ABU-GHEIDA
Leila Abu-Gheida has over 10 years professional experience in project design and implementation, working with USAID, International Rescue Committee, World Bank, UNHCR, Africare, Peace Corps, and in the private sector. Her skills include needs assessment, situation analysis, proposal writing, and donor liaison, as well as project management in conflict and post conflict situations, and in remote rural areas. She is fluent in three major European languages (English, French, and Portuguese) and one African language (Kriolo, spoken in Guinea-Bissau, southern Senegal and Cape Verde). She has an in-depth knowledge of international development issues through her many professional and educational experiences.

Currently, Ms. Abu-Gheida is the Coordinator of the Casamance Special Objective program of the United States Agency for International Development in Dakar, Senegal. Ms. Abu-Gheida holds a BA in English and History from Tufts University, and an MS in International Development Management from American University, Washington D.C.

NICK BIRNBACK
Nick Birnback has spent his professional career as an officer with the United Nations peace missions. He has worked as a Special Assistant with the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), as External Relations Officer at the Electoral Assistance Division at the United Nations Headquarters; Public Information Officer and later Acting Spokesman and Officer-in-Charge with the United Nations Mission in East Timor; Political Officer/Special Assistant to the International Police Task Force at the United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Press Officer with the United Nations in Liberia; and Manager of the Media Relations office at the United Nations Association of the USA. He is currently a Political Officer with the Asia/Middle East Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations' Office of Operations at UN Headquarters.

Mr. Birnback received his B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University, and a Masters degree in Public Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Mr. Birnback has been the recipient of the Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship, and he received the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity 2000 Humanitarian Award as part of his work with UNAMET.

DAN FELDMAN
Dan Feldman has a wealth of experience in issues related to international human rights law and policy. He worked in South Africa for many years, writing for Business Day newspaper, working for the African National Congress (ANC's) Constitutional Drafting Committee, serving as an international election observer for that nation's first democratic elections, and clerking on the newly constituted South African Constitutional (Supreme) Court for Justice Albie Sachs. He spent a year in Hong Kong as a Henry Luce Scholar, examining political transition issues and human rights in Hong Kong, and serving as a political advisor to Martin Lee, the leader of the Hong Kong Democratic Party.

In 1999, Mr. Feldman was named Director of Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs at the National Security Council, and a White House Fellow. In 2000, Mr. Feldman worked with the Gore presidential campaign; he has since returned to practicing international project finance law in the private sector, a field in which he has three years of prior experience. Mr. Feldman earned his BA from Tufts University, and his joint J.D./M.P.A. at Columbia Law School and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

MAX FINBERG
Max Finberg is currently Special Assistant to Ambassador Tony P. Hall, the US Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome (WFP, FAO and IFAD). He coordinates Ambassador Hall's efforts to draw attention to global problems of hunger and food security, to communicate and demonstrate America's compassion for people in need and to ensure proper stewardship of US resources provided on behalf of the poor and hungry. He has accompanied Ambassador Hall most recently to Zimbabwe and Malawi to investigate the crisis in Southern Africa. Prior to joining the State Department, Max worked on Capitol Hill as a Senior Legislative Assistant when Hall was a Member of Congress, known for his humanitarian work on hunger and human rights.

Max also founded and directed the Mickey Leland and Bill Emerson Hunger Fellows Program for the Congressional Hunger Center. This selective leadership development program is designed to train future leaders in the fight against hunger, both domestically and internationally. Max was one of the first employees of Hunger Center when it was founded in 1993. He graduated from Tufts in 1992 and also has a Masters in Social Ethics from Howard Divinity School. He is happily married to Kate Reed Finberg (J'91), whom he met at Tufts in 1988.

KEITH FITZGERALD
Keith Fitzgerald is the Managing Director and Director of the Negotiation & Crisis Management Team of Sea-Change Partners, a public interest training and consulting firm based in Singapore specializing in negotiation, conflict management, crisis management, change management, and service delivery in the public sector. He is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Institute for Defence & Strategic Studies in Singapore where he directs the Programme on Negotiation and Conflict Management. Mr. Fitzgerald specializes in training executives and public sector officials in effective negotiation, crisis management, problem-solving, communication, joint decision-making, and teamwork skills. Keith has a B.A. from Tufts University, was a MacJannett Scholar in Geneva, Switzerland, has studied and taught negotiation at Harvard Law School, and holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

JANA FREY
Jana Frey is the Project Systems Advisor for the Sanayee Development Foundation (SDF) in Kabul. SDF is an Afghan Non-Governmental Organization, which was established in 1990. SDF today works in the fields of education, peace building, health services, income generation, skill development, and emergency relief. Most of its projects are now located both in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. Ms. Frey graduated from Tufts University in 2002.

SAMANTHA M. KLEIN
Samantha M. Klein, a 1995 Tufts graduate, is currently an Education Officer with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. In her role there, she develops education policy for minorities and provides written analysis on minority and multi-ethnic education to Head of Department of Education and Science (DES). Ms. Klein has worked in the development, education, and youth services fields for most of her professional career. She has worked with Children's Aid Direct, the International Rescue Committee, and the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, Burundi, Kosovo, Liberia, Mali, and New York. Her work has focused on counseling, youth resiliency to conflict, the re-integration of child ex-combatants into society, human rights training, women's rights awareness, democracy development, and the coordination of international assistance to educational programs in areas affected by conflict. Ms. Klein holds a MSc. Gender from the London School of Economics.

MATTHEW LORIN
Matthew Lorin, a 1987 graduate of Tufts University, currently is the Amnesty International representative in Hawai'i and works as a Consultant for the Hawaii Opportunities Group, LLC, which is Hawaii's first private Strategic Venture Catalyst firm. Prior to coming to Hawaii, Mr. Lorin was a senior advisor to corporations, non governmental organizations (NGOs), foundations, governments and multi-lateral institutions. He has successfully launched three international NGOs, two private foundations, and has provided consulting services to The United Nations, U.S. Department of State, The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet, The Ford Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trust. From 1995 to 1997, he was a Director on President Clinton's National Security Council Staff in the Office of Multi lateral and Humanitarian Affairs; he has also served as a Senior Advisor to the US Department of State's Office of Global Humanitarian Demining.

In the corporate sector, Mr. Lorin has served as Global Head of Strategic Communications for Caspian Securities. Mr. Lorin holds a Masters degree in Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. from Tufts University in Art History. He also is a graduate of the School for International Training's Program in Intercultural Management. Mr. Lorin has area specific experience in over 25 different countries, including Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Israel, Nicaragua, Russia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Tibet. For his work, Mr. Lorin has received many awards. In 1993, he was nominated for the Reebok Human Rights Award and in 1998 he was awarded the Tufts University Light on the Hill Award.

MAURA LYNCH
Maura Lynch is the Head of Office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Tbilisi, Georgia. In her work with this office, she advocates for and ensures a coordinated approach to issues of humanitarian assistance in Georgia. Prior to coming to Georgia, she spent two years with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Eritrea, Kosovo, and Albania, strengthening emergency response programming and capacity, providing administrative and financial management, preparing policies on security and evacuation plans, and managing a variety of refugee programs.

Ms. Lynch has also worked with the CRS on projects in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, and India, and has worked with the World Food Programme in Nairobi, Kenya, in a Somali and Sudanese refugee camp. She has served as a caseworker with the Women's Refugee Project at the Harvard Law Asylum Clinic, where advised female asylum seekers with claims of gender-based persecution. Ms. Lynch is a graduate of Boston College, with a BA in Political Science, and Soviet and East European Studies. She earned her M.A. of International Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in May 1995. Her fields of concentration included International Human Rights and Refugee Law, Ethnonationalism and Armed Conflict Resolution, and Public International Law.


Expert Consultations with:

Clockwise from left: Leila Abu-Gheida, Max Finberg, Keith Fitzgerald, Romeo Dallaire, Nick Birnback, and Matt Lorin

ROMÉO DALLAIRE
Lieutenant-General Dallaire (ret.) was born in Denekamp, Holland, and enrolled in the Canadian Army in 1964. He has held various command, staff and training appointments in Canada and Germany. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General on July 3, 1989, and on July 1, 1993 took command of the UN Observer Mission - Uganda and Rwanda (UNOMUR) and the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). It is for this mission that he was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross.

He was promoted to Major General on January 1, 1994 and from September 1994 to October 1995, he assumed simultaneously the positions of Deputy Commander of Land Force Command in St. Hubert and Commander of the 1st Canadian Division. On June 2, 1995, the Conference of Defence Associations presented him with "The Vimy Award". Promoted to Lieutenant General, he assumed the duties of Assistant Deputy Minister (Human Resources-Military) in April 1998. He retired from the Canadian army in 2000 and is now special advisor to the Canadian Ministry of Defence on child soldiers. He is the author of the forthcoming Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in the Rwandan Genocide. The inaugural Aegis Award for Genocide Prevention was presented to Roméo Dallaire in January 2002 for demonstrating "altruism, resourcefulness and bravery in preserving the value of human life."

GARETH EVANS
Gareth Evans is President and Chief Executive of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) positions he assumed in January 2000. He was also appointed, in September 2000, Co-Chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. In January 2001, he received the Order of Australia. On 30 September 1999, he resigned from the Australian Parliament, after 21 years of service. He was the longest serving parliamentary member of the Australian Labor Party, first entering the Senate in 1978 and transferring to the House of Representatives in 1996.

Gareth Evans served as a Cabinet Minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor Governments in the posts of Attorney-General (1983-4), Minister for Resources and Energy (1984-7), Minister for Transport and Communications (1987-8) and Foreign Minister (1988-96). He is best known internationally as Foreign Minister for his role in founding APEC in 1989, for developing the UN Peace Plan for Cambodia, for bringing to a conclusion the international Chemical Weapons Convention, for initiating the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, and for his 1993 book on UN Reform, Cooperating for Peace.

Clockwise from left: Samantha Klein, Sherman Teichman, Jonathan Moore, Leila Abu-Gheida, Max Finberg, Jana Frey and (partially obstructed) Maura Lynch

JONATHAN MOORE (facilitator)
Jonathan Moore has worked over a span of forty years in government, politics, academia and the United Nations. He served as U.S. Coordinator for Refugees and Ambassador-at-Large and as Director of the Refugee Programs Bureau, U.S. Department of State, and as a U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Previously, he was Director of the Institute of Politics and Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, for twelve years. Ambassador Moore is currently a Senior Advisor to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Program and Associate at the Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. He is the Editor of Hard Choices: Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention, and author of The U.N. and Complex Emergencies: Rehabilitation in Third World Transitions, and Morality and Interdependence.

Cornelio Sommaruga

CORNELIO SOMMARUGA
Cornelio Sommaruga was the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross from 1987 to 1999. Cornelio Sommaruga was born in Rome in 1932. A Swiss citizen from Lugano (Ticino), he entered the service of the Swiss Confederation in 1960 and held various diplomatic posts within the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs until 1973, when he was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in Geneva. Three years later he joined the staff of the Swiss Federal Office for External Economic Affairs in Bern, where he served first as Ambassador, then as Delegate for Trade Agreements, before being appointed Secretary of State for External Economic Affairs in 1984.

After retiring as President of the ICRC, he served as a Member of the Panel on UN Peace Operations and as a Member of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. Currently, he is President of the Foundation Caux-Initiatives of Change (Moral Re-Armament); President of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD); Chairman of the Karl Popper Foundation; Member of the Board of the Open Society Institute in Budapest; and Chairman of the Board of JP Morgan (Suisse) SA.

JOHN SHATTUCK
John Shattuck assumed the position of Chief Executive Officer of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation on January 1, 2001. Mr. Shattuck's career spans nearly three decades in government service and the nonprofit sector. In 1993, he was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. While serving in this position, Mr. Shattuck worked to end the war in Bosnia and negotiate the Dayton Peace Agreement; establish the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; restore a democratically-elected government to Haiti; administer U. S. assistance to new and emerging democracies; and raise the profile of human rights in U.S. foreign policy after the end of the Cold War. For this work, he received an International Human Rights Award from the United Nations Association of Boston in 1998.

Mr. Shattuck is also the author of Freedom on Fire: Human Rights Wars and the Roots of Terrorism, to be published by Harvard University Press in 2003. In 1998, Mr. Shattuck was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic. Before entering government service, Mr. Shattuck was at Harvard University, where he held the position of vice president for government, community and public affairs from 1984 to 1993. He also lectured on civil liberties at the Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Shattuck's public service career began at the American Civil Liberties Union, where he was Executive Director of the ACLU Washington office and national staff counsel from 1971 to 1984. He was involved in all major civil-rights and civil-liberties issues during the Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations, including the defense of federal civil-rights legislation, protection of the federal courts against congressional efforts to limit their jurisdiction, and legislative expansion of the rights of women.

ABIODUN WILLIAMS
Abiodun Williams is Director, Strategic Planning, Office of the Secretary General, United Nations. Previously, he has held the position of Director, International Fellowships Program (IFP), Institute of International Education, New York. From 1999 to November 2000, Dr. Williams served as the Special Assistant in the Offices of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From 1998 to late 1999, he held the post of Special Assistant to the Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Haiti. From 1994 to 1998 Dr. Williams served as Political and Humanitarian Affairs Officer with the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the first Preventive peacekeeping operation in the UN's history. Prior to joining the UN, he served as Assistant Professor of International Relations at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He is the author of Preventing War: The United Nations and Macedonia. Born in Sierra Leone, Mr. Williams was educated at the Lester B. Pearson United World College in Victoria, British Columbia, and is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh (M.A.) and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (M.A.L.D./Ph.D.). He received the EPIIC alumnus award in March 2001.