The recent wave of citizen-led uprisings in support of the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has meant that as Black women with over 50 years of combined experience in the humanitarian and development sectors, we can finally breathe. Our experiences of racism - both individualized and systemic - have been brought into the spotlight. But how can we ensure that the response to this watershed moment ignites a reckoning for our sector, rather than becoming yet another technocratic exercise with more ineffective, top-down monitoring?
Say good riddance to ‘neutrality.’
A reckoning first means letting go of long-held assumptions about humanitarian aid. The aid system has been built on the principle of neutrality which places more value on our ability to deliver services than to save lives and act in solidarity. If we were aid workers during the Rwandan Genocide, for example, our role would have been to observe and negotiate access rather than doing everything possible to intervene and defend people from getting raped and killed. How is that principled?
It’s no coincidence that António Guterres recently forbade UN workers from joining Black Lives Matter protests. Neutrality can no longer justify inaction or grave human rights abuses. As the protests have made clear, silence is agreement. Institutional inaction equates to structural oppression.
