End of the Year Issue
By Lara Harmankaya
For ambitious Sciences Po students, the search for a career is already on the agenda. LinkedIn accounts have been made, and attempts to network with professors after class are common. There is, after all, the frightening prospect of unemployment that is constantly reminded to us by our friends studying STEM. Yet, I have come to notice that this attachment to internship-hunts and forming the right network is not one that completely stems from the pursuit of self-interest and prestige. In fact, I suspect that a large part of this future-oriented thinking is derived from the students’ motivation to change some of the problematic characteristics of our world — as idealistic as that sounds. Admitting that such thoughts circulate in my head quite regularly, I decided to inquire into the life of a practitioner who works in the humanitarian field. Lucile Marbeau, a Sciences Po graduate and the Deputy Communications Manager of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), kindly agreed to my proposal to interview her. She offered insights into the structure of the ICRC, described the progression of her career from freelance journalism to communications, and shared some advice on how young people can enter into this field.
The interview took off with an overview of Marbeau’s career, beginning with her time in journalism, through which she became acquainted with the functions and operations of the ICRC. She told me that she worked in Kosovo, Israel and the West Bank, where she came to know about the International Community of the Red Cross and also the Palestinian Red Crescent. She made sure to carefully differentiate between the national and international components of the Red Cross, which often get confused. She stated that ‘national societies,’ such as the French Red Cross and the Egyptian Red Crescent are not the same as the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has its headquarters in Geneva. The ICRC is not affiliated with any government, as are the national Red Cross societies. What also distinguishes the ICRC is the fact that its mandate is “specifically on armed conflicts to assist and protect the victims of armed conflicts, and also to continue on developing and promoting international humanitarian law.” In her words, its “basic aim is to make war less horrible.” One way is through the organization’s work on finding missing persons, which Marbeau’s journalistic research on the Kosovo conflict directed her to learn more about. She appreciated how the ICRC is able to keep the files of missing persons alive, even when the political incentives to do so begin to disappear. It becomes one of the very few sources of answers to families who are desperate for even the smallest trace of information about their loved ones. Acknowledging the importance of such efforts, she seized the opportunity to be a part of this organization when it appeared.
For her, the transition from journalism to working as a spokesperson for the ICRC entailed “a different frame of mind.” “The international community of the Red Cross, because it's a neutral organization, is going to act differently and discuss things in confidence bilaterally with the parties and not so much in the public,” quite unlike the work of a journalist who must “address political issues” directly and dauntlessly. Leaving behind a political voice to not “diminish our access to the victims of the conflict” appears to be a worthy sacrifice. In fact, not even a sacrifice at all, but a practice of diplomacy: “what I appreciated arriving in the international community of the Red Cross is this position of neutrality, of not saying, who is right, who is wrong. And it's not for the ICRC or a philosophical point of view at all. It's much more a principle, a guiding principle, in order to be talking to all sides.” Also, it is necessary to protect the institution’s ability to “act in favor of those who are missing, those who are detained, for the wounded, for the civilians, and the most vulnerable categories of people in war.”
When asked to elaborate more on her experience working as a journalist, she replied by saying that one of its main merits was the way it prompted her to “really dig into specific contexts.” Through her visits to Israel and the West Bank, she believed she was “able to understand more and more with finesse the conflict itself and the polarization between communities.” She revealed that she learned how to not look at issues with “judgements that often come with ignorance of the historical dynamics, and of those who aren’t hurt directly by the conflict.” Instead, she pointed out the importance of going to the area of conflict physically, or communicating with others “whether they be politicians, academics, activists, people who are trying to change things, and to be able to give that back to people who will never have that opportunity.” For Marbeau, at the heart of journalism is “to enable the reader to understand why this is a conflict, and what are the different views which are being expressed.” She continues: “As a journalist, you have the privilege of being able to have that access to people. But then it's also a huge responsibility, because when you write, you have power. You have power over those who don't necessarily have the same knowledge as you do. So you have a power to influence, and this is where for me, it remains extremely important to be honest intellectually, and to really convey as many possible facts and conflicting views.”
Navigating the battles of clashing interests is one of the most significant and challenging duties of ICRC delegates. Yet, sometimes people outside the field of international humanitarian law fail to understand what this job is composed of. In quoting ICRC delegate Marcel Junod’s Le troisième combattant, Ms Marbeau emphasized precisely what the principal objective is: “the role of the humanitarians is to go in between the opposite sides and create a space, a humanitarian space. And this is what's precious about the work that my colleagues do everywhere in the world.” They aim to “preserve as much possible humanitarian space within the fighting.” International humanitarian law is one of the few leverages utilized for this purpose. The difficulty arises from the fact that “the time of the fighting, the time of the suffering, the time of the media, isn't the same. And it requires often from colleagues a lot of patience before getting some results and constant, constant dialogue with the different parties.” Thus, as we can see, the application of law which is embedded in the Geneva Conventions, principally emerges from “a lot of patience, diplomacy, and time.” A career in this field could be the right choice for you if you find yourself able to overcome such complications.
Marbeau’s extensive knowledge of the ICRC’s functions and institutional structure was also very informative. When I asked her about how she and her colleagues deal with obstinate politicians, uncooperative officials and other political obstacles that hinder their objectives, she underlined the place of “collective responsibility” when respecting and implementing humanitarian law. At the ICRC, it is the cooperation of many branches that ensures compliance with “the law of the weakest.” “We're going to be speaking with the legal services of the ministry, for instance, of defense. It's then going to be the Head of Delegation who's going to be talking to ministers. It's going to be our colleague who is himself a former military who's going to be discussing and doing training in international humanitarian law directly [with] the military. So you're going to have at different levels, by different specialized colleagues, who work on different parts of the party to really bring a culture of respect for the law.” Even in the case of documenting ongoing grave violations, the interconnected network that constitutes the human rights field allows the ICRC to urge other actors to play their part. “When we've already gone through all the chain of commands, spoken to the highest level of the authorities—when nothing is moving—then what you do is mobilize other countries… And so this is what we remind them at some point, saying, ‘we know you're financing them. You're sending them weapons. You have a responsibility in making sure that they don't commit violations.’” Accountability is key in this field as it is in others. Without it, the successes of the ICRC in preventing violations would never materialize.
The rest of the interview was dedicated to her advice to young people. When I inquired about whether she finds her job fulfilling, and her recommendations to start a career in humanitarian work, her first response was, “Yes, but the first thing I'd say is act now. There's already things that you can do in your environments, working, volunteering for, for instance, at the French Red Cross, or the Red Cross of Monaco, other groups, there's already some social work that can be done where you are, and you don't need to wait…to work to help the most vulnerable and defend them.” As we begin preparing for our month of Parcours Civique volunteering, perhaps this can remind us of the salience of gaining experience and exposure to realities early on. Her second piece of advice was to pinpoint the “identity” of the kind of organization one may want to work for. She suggested that, “if you want to do advocacy work, it's not going to be with the International Committee of the Red Cross, at least not publicly. There, you have to turn to organizations like Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, then have others who are going to be more specific on certain issues. But if the role is to speak out, if you want to speak out to the world about violations ongoing and for people everybody to know about it, it's not going to be in the International Community of the Red Cross because we work in a much more discreet manner…we need to be able to assure that we stay in the field and be able to help people on both sides of the front line to discuss with all the parties.” The first step in beginning a career in either of these pathways is through trying them out, and utilizing our Parcours Civique could be a beneficial way to do so.
One of the main takeaways from this interview, for me, was the importance of overcoming passivity. Marbeau’s commitment to diplomacy and dialogue–as the spokesperson for the ICRC–was evident, yet she was also cognizant of how “collective action is needed in order to keep those minimal rights.” Just like the collaboration that takes place between the many institutional branches of the ICRC, international actors and different stakeholders must work together to achieve solid, tangible results. This is all the more pertinent now, where “the use of force is strongly coming back on the international scene as a way of solving conflicts.” When I asked her to share her expectations from future generations and what she wishes to see more of in the future, she urged us, the future generations, to “not get beat down, by whether it be national politics or world politics, thinking that your voices don't matter, that things are messed up, that things won't change. Because, I mean, when you look at it through history, you can righteously be despaired. But you must also see the positive evolutions of rights, which have been fought for and which have been achieved.” Feeling small and impotent on a larger scale is a natural occurrence for all of us. Marbeau’s message is one that encourages us to direct these feelings into action, on whichever scale that may be. “Some people tend to also kind of retreat in their personal sphere because they feel powerless. And I think one of the messages to say is, well, even if you feel powerless, you're still going to get impacted by what's going on in your environment, whether it be national or international. So you have to believe again in the fact that you can do something about it. Or else you're only a victim. You're only receiving the blows. You're only passive.”
I wish to conclude this article with Lucile Marbeau’s final words of motivation, which I believe need to be emphasized one more time. “I'd say, really start engaging yourselves now. And it's the best way to see also to see what interests you the most, what issues you hold more dearly also. Because, depending on your age, there's different strengths and weaknesses. And for now, you need to believe. If you don't believe at your age that you're not going to change the world, who will?”
“So it's also about believing again in the fact that values, reason, law, can triumph over force and antagonisms. And it's almost a bit idealistic, what I'm saying.” This may be true, but if we are not idealists, then who can we entrust with the goal of imagining a more ideal world?