Humanitarian crisis

A humanitarian crisis (or "humanitarian disaster") is an event or series of events which represents a critical threat to the health, safety, security or wellbeing of a community or other large group of people, usually over a wide area. Armed conflicts, epidemics, famine, natural disasters and other major emergencies may all involve or lead to a humanitarian crisis.

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Categories

There is no simple categorization of humanitarian crises. Different communities and agencies tend to have definitions related to the concrete situations they face. A local fire service will tend to focus on issues such as flooding and weather induced crises. Medical and health related organizations are naturally focused on sudden crises to the health of a community.

An ongoing or lingering pandemic may amount to a humanitarian crisis, especially where there are increasing levels of virulence, or rates of infection as in the case of AIDS, bird flu or Tuberculosis. Major health-related problems such as cancer, global warming typically require an accentuated or punctuated mass-event to justify a label of "crisis" or "disaster".

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) lists categories which include different types of natural disasters, technological disasters (i.e. hazardous material spills, Chernobyl-type of nuclear accidents, chemical explosions) and long-term man-made disasters related to "civil strife, civil war and international war".^[1]) Internationally, the humanitarian response sector has tended to distinguish between natural disasters and complex emergencies which are related to armed conflict and wars. ^[2]

Examples

Recent humanitarian crises include the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake(Asian tsunami), the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Rwanda genocide, Sri Lankan civil war, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Afghan Civil War, Darfur Conflict, and Iraq War.

See also

• Aid agency
• Central Emergency Response Fund
• Emergency management
• Humanitarian aid
• Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs