The association Humanium is defined by ethical and responsible action, and by the will to act in the best way possible while respecting cultures and peoples. Olivier Soret, president and founder of the association answers questions about ethics at Humanium.
What is the importance of ethics at Humanium?
Our goal when we created Humanium was to act. In a way, we created a tool that allows us to help. We did not want to act in a random way. It was not just a matter of helping but of helping in the correct way, or rather, in the best way possible. Thus from the start, ethics had their place in the very heart of Humanium actions.
What does this mean in concrete terms?
When we make choices at Humanium, we try to be aware of our subjectivity, and to combine a rational, purely logical approach with principles of action such as opting for sustainable development, and turning aid into autonomy and mutual aid rather than perpetuating a system of charity and dependency. These are ethical values which have been inscribed in a text: the Ethics Charter.
What is in the Humanium Ethics Charter?
Humanium’s Ethics Charter states the general principles that guarantee that our way of achieving our goals will always rise to the ideals that inspire us. In a nutshell, that we help people in the best way we can, while respecting them in the best and most dignified way possible. This applies at all levels, not only through our development projects but also in our relationships with our partners, donors, and internally. This gives rise to principles such as humanism, neutrality, independence, transparency, autonomy, accountability, sustainable development, etc. We use these principles as a reference when we make our choices. In practice, all of this is integrated in our actions in a quasi-automatic way. It has become second nature to us. However, in complex situations we sometimes need to take a step back and look at the question from an external, more neutral and more detached perspective. For this, we have an Ethics Committee.
What is the role of the Ethics committee?
We cannot always guarantee that our perspective will be the most appropriate for a given situation, that the choices we make will be the best possible. This is why we need others to be a mirror for us, and to give us advice. The Ethics Committee has this particular advisory role. We can ask for its opinion on a given matter and its opinion is somewhat a jurisprudence. Moreover, it also plays the role of guardian of these principles and ensures the implementation of the Ethics Charter.
Is the Ethics Charter fixed?
No, the Ethics Charter is not fixed. It has the ability to evolve and most importantly, to gradually become more and more operational. Ethical principles are useless if they are merely words on paper. They must have a tangible resonance; they must be embodied in our actions. In short, the Ethics Charter must be able to respond to concrete situations. Humanium was founded in late 2008, and the Ethics Charter is officially in place since the last General Assembly in December 2010. I really hope that it will become so real that it will be impossible to distinguish between a concrete action of Humanium and an idea inscribed in its charter.
To learn more, discover the Ethics Charter.
