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Ethical challenges - Part 1

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Humanitarian communication : Addressing key challenges

Universidad de Ginebra

4.6 (95 calificaciones) | 5.3K estudiantes inscritos

Learn how to address the main challenges of communication in humanitarian settings and how to implement a communication plan in the midst of humanitarian action.

Revisiones

4.6 (95 calificaciones)

5 stars
66 ratings
4 stars
25 ratings
3 stars
3 ratings
2 stars
1 ratings

JM

Aug 10, 2017

I really enjoyed this course and found the content very topical and compelling. The variety of trainers kept the content interesting. I learned a lot from taking this unit.

LA

Jul 17, 2017

The course was very concise and full of relevant information about communication in humanitarian crisis. I would highly recommend it for everybody interested in this topic!

De la lección

Week 3

This week is dedicated to the main challenges of communication in humanitarian settings and the way to address them. During the course we will also explore key behavioural postures to be more effective when communicating.

Introduction to Module 11:09

Ethical challenges - Part 110:59

Ethical challenges - Part 211:21

Preventive/crisis communication challenges5:18

Public communication in humanitarian settings: main challenges - Part 17:48

Public communication in humanitarian settings: main challenges - Part 25:48

Impartido por:

Prof. Doris Schopper
Director of CERAH, joint Centre of the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of Geneva
Dr. Valérie Gorin
CERAH lecturer
Jean-Marc Biquet
Course coordinator and lecturer at CERAH
Claire Barthélémy
Course coordinator and lecturer at CERAH
Claire Doole
Invited lecturer
Claire Bellmann
Professional Trainer, Coach and Facilitator

Transcripción

[MUSIC]

Welcome to the session on communication humanitarian settings looking at

the ethical issues.

In this session, we will provide a brief introduction into ethics, and

discuss ethical issues and communication in humanitarian settings.

At the end of the session,

you should be able to screen your communication activities in the field,

in terms of ethical aspects, and make rational and well informed decisions

related to ethics when communicating in humanitarian settings.

Now what is ethics?

Ethics is a field of enquiry that aims to establish what is good

in human life and society.

So this means what is right or wrong to do in particular situations.

There's a relationship between morality and ethics.

Morality refers to personal opinions of good and bad, right and wrong.

We all have personal opinions of what is right and wrong.

Ethics, also sometimes called moral philosophy,

refers to the theoretical reasoning over morality.

What ethics is all about is understanding the meaning of value in this life and

how we live together as a group, as a society.

Now what are some of the shared ethical values, one could say,

across the world, across civilizations?

Some of them are do good, do right, respect persons,

seek good consequences, avoid bad consequences, be fair.

Some of these ethical values may be reflected in international law,

in national laws and guidelines, in professional guidelines and

regulations, and also in local regulations.

However it is important to remember that we are pluralists.

And each of us has more than one moral principle.

We also need to remember that reasonable persons can disagree.

But nevertheless, we have to decide which path of action we're going to take

because non-decision is also a decision.

Let me just briefly summarize what ethics is and what ethics is not.

As we said, ethics calls for reasoned debates over right or

wrong courses of action, and that the discussion on

ethics gives us a better understanding of the meaning of our choices in life.

Now remember the words reason, debates and discussion.

This is very important for ethics.

What ethics is not is a social convention,

a religious belief, a political opinion or the law.

The other problem with ethics is that it does not provide a single right answer

to a complex question or a dilemma.

So this sometimes may be a bit frustration and we will see that later.

Now how can we frame our ethical reasoning in communication?

There is no generally agreed upon set of rules or norms for

an ethical communication, so

I cannot point you to the one document which will solve all your problems.

There are various approaches to communication ethics, and

they all include similar elements such as truthfulness, attentiveness and

regard for needs and interests of others, to do no harm and fairness.

Now there's some professional ethical frameworks that could be useful when we

reflect on communication and humanitarian settings.

And I just would like to propose two of them, journalism ethics and

medical ethics, because I think they could be particularly relevant to you.

Now let's look at journalism ethics.

Journalism ethics is about the principles of ethics and

good practices as applicable to the specific challenges faced by journalists.

Once such code was established by the International Federation of Journalists

in the Declaration of principles on the conduct of journalists.

This was developed in 1954 already and was revised in 1986.

There are several existing codes, and they may be different, but

most of them share some common elements, including truthfulness, accuracy,

fair methods to obtain information, impartiality and avoiding discrimination,

public accountability and secrecy regarding the source of information.

You may want to look at the code of the International Federation of Journalists

on the Internet using the link provided below.

Now let me turn to medical ethics.

Now medical ethics is an old history coming from the Hippocratic oath

which was developed well before our times.

But these universally recognized code of ethics for

physicians which was developed in 1949 and which was last revised in 2006.

This code, which is accepted worldwide has

as the central statement that health professionals have essential moral

obligation to put the interest of the patient first and to respect the person.

Now could this also be useful framework to think about

ethics of communication in humanitarian settings?

For example we could say, when communicating in humanitarian settings,

put the interest of the effected population first, and

respect the beneficiaries.

You will find the world code of medical ethics on the link below.

But let me tell you a little bit more what the main principles of medical ethics are.

There are 4 basic principles.

Which is, respect for autonomy.

This means that the patient has a right to refuse or choose a treatment or

medical procedure.

What this implies is that the patient gets full information and

that he understands the information about what will happen to him.

It then implies that the patient will consent to what happens to him.

And it also implies that all information exchanged between the patient and

the doctor remains confidential and that this happens in privacy.

Remember this, we'll come back to it later when talking about

gathering information for communication purposes.

Now there are two further principles which are kind of the two sides

of the same medal, which is beneficence and non-malfeasance.

It means do no harm, but provide benefits to your patients.

So when doing so, you have to weigh the harms and benefits of something you do.

And finally there's justice which is about the decision who gets treatment and

to fairly and equitably distribute access to treatment.

I think that these principles can provide useful guidance when examining

ethical issues and collecting and using information for communication in

humanitarian settings and we will come back to this in part II of this course.

Now let's first look at ethical issues when using information collected in

humanitarian settings for communication purposes.

Remember truthfulness was very important.

So first and foremost, provide truthful information.

This means that numbers and figures used in communication must be

as exact as possible, and that the information must be verifiable.

Now I will give you one example where this went quite wrong.

And it's the example of the death toll after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Initially the government of sets the death toll at 230,000 people dead.

One year later, the government says it's 316,000.

The initial number and the second number are cited over and

over again by humanitarian actors without questioning or verifying the numbers.

Then a study is published in October 2010 which estimates that only

158,000 people died.

Still an enormous number, and still terrible.

But much less than what the government says.

And then a USAID initiated study next year gets to an estimate of

46,000 to 85,000 people dead, so a very big difference.

So what is true?

Is this information verifiable?

Why are there these different estimates?

I would suggest that you look at an article which is provided in your

readings, Two Years Later, Haitian Earthquake Death Toll in Dispute.

It very nicely shows how this whole story happened and

what may be behind these wrong numbers.

So once you have looked at the article,

you may be able to better know why wrong numbers are used.

Information provided by one organization or government in this case,

as of this case, is often unverified.

It becomes true because everybody uses it.

But that doesn't make it true.

Then debating a number may be perceived as disrespectful.

In this case, questioning the number of the Haitian government

may seem an affront to the Haitian government.

And then also gathering data in a scientifically sound manner needs

expertise.

And many organizations don't have that expertise.

But, more importantly perhaps,

numbers are political tools to attract attention and money.

So here we get into the issue of fundraising which may be paramount

often in wrong numbers being used.

Finally, also think that telling the truth may make your life difficult,

because this may be an unpleasant truth.

And other people may want to act against you because you are telling this truth.

What else would be important to make your communication ethical?

Now truthfulness is also related to accountability.

You have to account for

your organization's activities in an honest way towards beneficiaries,

towards local activity, authorities, towards donors, etc.

But this means also reporting failures.

And also, do no pretend doing things you are not doing.

Here's an example from Somalia during the famine in 2011,

where one humanitarian organization claimed to reach hundreds of

thousands of starving people in its fundraising efforts.

But the organization had no staff in the famine area and was not distributing food.

Here's a link to the newspaper article.

And then do no harm is a paramount principle when communicating ethically.

We will look at this more closely in part 2 of this session.

So, what is next?

In the next presentation we will focus in more detail and some of the ethical

challenges when gathering and using information in humanitarian settings.

We will look in particularly at ethical questions related to the use of

testimonies and pictures.

[MUSIC]

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