Special Relationships and the Ethics of Humanitarian Assistance

Despite humanitarian aid workers’ effort to avoid aid being misused and appropriated, the effective provision of aid in times of conflicts cannot guarantee the independence and neutrality of aid because humanitarian aid organisations very often need to tolerate the warring parties misusing the aid in order to reach the vulnerable population. Given this, several practitioners, together with many scholars, have argued that aid should be withdrawn, based on a consequentialist position, since the relief aid generates an overall negative impact on the vulnerable population. In contrast to this claim, this paper will consider non-consequentialist reasons to continue to provide aid. It will focus specifically on one reason to continue to provide the aid, which concerns aid-dependents’ special relationship with humanitarian aid workers. I will argue that, when a special relationship is formed, humanitarian aid organisations should consider the moral force of special relationships’ non-instrumental value by prioritising helping with those whom humanitarian aid workers have special relationships. Therefore, I will argue humanitarian aid organisations should sometimes place weightier moral consideration in prioritising valuing humanitarian aid workers’ special relationships with the affected population, rather than the maximisation of the overall best outcome.