ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the practice of safe areas in terms of the three models of humanitarian space. After introducing the general background of a case, therefore, it explains using the three models how a safe area was created, sustained or changed its characteristics. The chapter then considers the analytical and critical implications of the particular case for the practice of humanitarian space. The case of northern Iraq illustrates how the practice of humanitarian space came to be developed beyond the conventional model. In particular one can see in the allied safe haven a concrete manifestation of the shelter model. The intention of Resolution 688 then found a different expression in the British Prime Minister's 'safe haven' plan. As the characteristics of the humanitarian space in northern Iraq changed from shelter to homeland, this critical potential was replaced by the familiar tension between the norms of state sovereignty and self-determination.
