Forgotten Humanitarian Crises - Conference on the Role of the Media, Decision-Makers and Humanitarian Agencies Copenhagen, 23 October 2002

This conference paper contains three articles that seek to analyse the causes and effects of ‘forgotten crises’. In article one, Gorm Rye Olsen (Centre for Development Research), Nils Carstensen (DanChurchAid), and Kristian Høyen (Danish Refugee Council) raise the question: What determines the level of emergency assistance? Based on a comparative analysis, the three authors argue that media attention is far from the only factor that determines whether a given humanitarian crisis is forgotten or not. In article two, Anna Jefferys (Save the Children UK) offers some suggestions as to how humanitarian agencies can assess the relative ‘silence’ of a given emergency, and how NGOs and other humanitarian actors can assist in giving such emergencies a voice. In article three, Hans-Henrik Holm (Danish School of Journalism) takes a closer look at humanitarian crises in relation to failing or collapsed states. Analysing the content of the media coverage of selected crises, he introduces the phenomena of bystander apathy –
knowing without reacting. He concludes that politicians, as leaders, have a special responsibility to place failed states and humanitarian crises on the agenda.