A padronização da assistência humanitária: uma análise crítica do discurso humanitário na ordem mundial

Abstract

The research analyzes humanitarian discourse in post-Cold War era through two fundamental theoretical assumptions: the Critical Theory of International Relations by Robert Cox and the Theory of Critical Discourse Analysis by Norman Fairclough. The critical analysis proposed aims three documents of international humanitarian action standardization, adopted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, Sphere Project and HAP (Humanitarian Accountability Partnership). Aiming to identify in the documents of international humanitarian action standardization the textual representation of a contemporary humanitarian discourse, taking the assumptions of the theories already mentioned, the research also aims to identify the discursive structure of the documents and their hegemonic and politicized feature. Conceiving discourse dialectically, as a social action that derives and at the same time molds the order of discourse, it reaches to the conclusion that there is a tendency in international community to conceive the discourse contemplated in such documents and in humanitarian action regulated by them as morally unquestionable, rejecting the hypothesis of questioning ideas, institutions and material conditions involved in these documents and in humanitarian practices, in order to make it possible to question the possibility of an hegemonic project in the specific historic structure that takes shape from the interaction of these elements. Such an hegemonic project hides itself behind the principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence stated in the humanitarian discourse of such documents. The relation between power that manifests in the order of discourse is hidden in the discourse itself and therefore legitimated by the power relation contemplated in it. Under the point of view of International Relations, the critical analysis of the humanitarian discourse in the post-Cold War era enables to unveil the undeclared assumptions of such discourse, so that it becomes possible to identify the ideology impregnated in it and the power project based on it.