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The author explores the definitions of humanitarianism and analyzes historical documents and data obtained from humanitarian aid organizations. The author compares this information with anecdotal evidence in the form of public opinion to map the development of this issue.

The author discusses gender-based violence including rape and sexual assault, and explores the implications of treating such violence as humanitarian issues. The author presents the evidence both for and against this in an attempt to solidify an ideal solution. 

Dr. Miriam Ticktin is an associate professor of anthropology at the New School for Social Research in New York City. She earned her doctorate degree in anthropology in 2002 from Stanford University. She focuses her research efforts on gender, humanitarianism, and human rights.

Emergency response, in the sense of immediate law enforcement, fire/rescue, and EMS, is not addressed by the author to an appreciable extent, though an argument can be made for potential connections.

• "it is not surprising that gender-based violence should become an issue; having been categorised as a human rights violation, one which garnered significant attention, it could not be easily ignored or brushed aside as a ‘private’ matter. Still, approaching gender-based violence as a humanitarian issue required some translation. Humanitarians are primarily concerned with saving lives and relieving suffering; humanitarianism of the sort practised by MSF is most significantly focused on health, and the lives and wellbeing of populations."
• "I argue that the shift to gender-based violence as the exemplary humanitarian problem could not have happened without the prior move to medicalise gender-based violence, and render it a medical condition like all others."
• "Approaching gender-based violence as a medical or health issue alters how violence is both approached and understood; that is, rather than understanding gender violence in the context of gendered relations of power, or as part of larger histories and expressions of inequality which are inseparable from histories of class or race or colonialism, this type of medicalisation transforms gender-based violence into an emergency illness, requiring immediate intervention."