ABSTRACT
Humanitarian action has achieved extraordinary critical mass in international relations to become a major field of applied global ethics. Humanitarian issues and operations are routinely discussed at the UN Security Council as an essential part of its discussions on international peace and security. The chapter examines the fundamental ethical commitments that drive international humanitarian action and describe their elaboration into the laws, operational principles, institutions, and ethical problems that shape international humanitarian action today. It provides some historical context to the development of applied humanitarian ethics in modern international relations, especially the development of specifically values-based humanitarian organizations. The chapter looks more precisely at the principles upon which humanitarian action is based and the particular ethical problems that arise in the dominant practices of international humanitarian action today. The ethical and legal basis to humanitarian action is described by summarizing key principles in international humanitarian law, and exploring the structure and intent of humanitarian principles.
