NGO and solidarity culture: the minimal ethics of humanitarian action

Abstract

In the last years, NGO’s have reached enormous levels of popularity. Certainly, the diffusion by mass media of some catastrophes punishing diverse populations of the planet (that is —in chronological order— Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda or the disasters caused by hurricane Mitch in Central America) and its considerable impact in the public opinion have meant a big contribution to it. Drawing a discreet veil over the effectiveness of the aid and its consequences, the humanitarian action has shifted from the original scope of the ethical considerations to the sphere of the politically correct affairs.

In this paper, the meaning of solidarity is reconsidered under the parameters of postmodernity. The conclusion is that solidarity has left to be posed in terms of duty, and now is a question of desire; and, also, that humanitarianism is more imbued with an ethics of compassion than an authentic ethics of justice. The ethical profile of the humanitarian action is completed with a reflection about the conditions that grant moral legitimacy to the aid, which takes us to undertake the always controversial subject of the interference right. The hierarchical ordering of performances according to considerations beyond the nature of people’s suffering leads us to think that the moral of the urgency is no more than a moral of the preference.