| Abstract [eng] |
This thesis analyses how different humanitarian actors in Afghanistan use gender-sensitive humanitarian diplomacy to secure access to one of the most vulnerable groups in society – women and girls. It examines the impact of Taliban-imposed restrictions on women’s rights, the complex humanitarian crisis, and the shrinking humanitarian space on humanitarian action. The aim of the thesis is to investigate how humanitarian actors in Afghanistan after 2021, using gender-sensitive humanitarian diplomacy, navigate norm collisions between humanitarian principles and norms restricting women’s rights, and how this reshapes the logic of humanitarian action. The main object of the study is humanitarian action in Afghanistan after 2021, with particular attention paid to gender-sensitive humanitarian diplomacy and the agents of humanitarian norms implementing it. The research employs a qualitative case study of Afghanistan based on the analysis of annual reports from ten humanitarian organisations, eleven semi-structured interviews with humanitarian practitioners implementing or planning gender-sensitive humanitarian diplomacy, and secondary sources. The analysis draws on different conceptualisations of humanitarianism (Classical, New, and Politically Resilient Humanitarianism) as well as the theoretical approach of norm collisions. Norm collision theory enables the identification of both horizontal and vertical normative conflicts between local and international norms within the humanitarian sector and between the sector and other actors operating in Afghanistan. The findings reveal that humanitarian actors in Afghanistan employ different strategies of gender-sensitive humanitarian diplomacy and seek compromise norms that allow them to maintain humanitarian space and access to women and girls while remaining principled. The study advances existing debates on humanitarianism by empirically refining the notion of politically resilient humanitarianism and showing how it operates under systematic gender-based restrictions. It also contributes to emerging research on gender-sensitive humanitarian diplomacy by conceptualising how humanitarian norm entrepreneurs navigate and renegotiate colliding norms in protracted crises. |
