HUMANITARIAN
Adjective
humanitarian (comparative more humanitarian, superlative most humanitarian)
- Concerned with people's welfare, and the alleviation of suffering; compassionate, humane. quotations ▲
So far as the followers of Jesus have woven the humanitarian teachings of their master into the living fibre of their own daily lives, the Christian religion has been a blessing and a civilizer.
- 1872, S[imon] M[ohler] Landis, “Deacon Stew Raves at Lucinda’s Love for Victor”, in […] The Social War of the Year 1900; or, The Conspirators and Lovers!, Philadelphia, Pa.: Landis Publishing Society, […], →OCLC, page 20:
[T]his most painful condition [a fractured arm], [...] was brought about through the humanitarian act of saving, and restoring to life, the angelic form of a creature whose very existence was a gigantic balm of Gilead to the lacerated body of our hero, [...]
- 1909, [J[ohn] A[llen] F[itzgerald] Gregg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gregg_%28archbishop_of_Armagh%29 "w:John Gregg (archbishop of Armagh)"), “Introduction”, in A[lexander] F[rancis] Kirkpatrick, editor, The Wisdom of Solomon: […] (The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, →OCLC, page xxxii:
But though personified, the function of Wisdom is mainly humanitarian: her delights are with the sons of men (Prov[erbs] viii. 31, 32).
- 1914 January 16, William Henry Welch, “Present Position of Medical Education, Its Development and Great Needs for the Future”, in Walter C. Burket, editor, Papers and Addresses by William Henry Welch: In Three Volumes, volume III, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Press, published 1920, →OCLC, page 115:
There are three divisions into which the purposes of the hospital may be classed: Humanitarian, educational and scientific. The humanitarian relates to the care of the sick.
- 1977 June 8, “Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977”, in International Committee of the Red Cross[1], archived from the original on 1 August 2020, article 5(3):
If a Protecting Power has not been designated or accepted from the beginning of a situation referred to in Article 1, the International Committee of the Red Cross, without prejudice to the right of any other impartial humanitarian organization to do likewise, shall offer its good offices to the Parties to the conflict with a view to the designation without delay of a Protecting Power to which the Parties to the conflict consent.
- 1980 September 13–14, K. Garth Huston, “Bibliographical Note”, in John Fothergill, Observations on the Recovery of a Man Dead in Appearance by Distending the Lungs with Air, Van Nuys, Calif.: K. Garth Huston […], →OCLC:
Dr. John Fothergill, eighteenth century Quaker physician, was eminent in the practice of medicine, active in the religious Society of Friends, and prominent in the humanitarian and charitable philanthropies of his time.
- 2007, Gabriel Andrew Msoka, “General Conclusion”, in Basic Human Rights and the Humanitarian Crises in Sub-Saharan Africa: Ethical Reflections (Princeton Theological Monograph Series; 74), Eugene, Or.: Pickwick Publications, Wipf and Stock Publishers, →ISBN, page 169:
The devastating effect of the violence is illustrated by the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe of the 1994 Rwandan genocide that caused deaths, homelessness, despair, poverty, political instability, and economic stagnation in this country.
Legal scholars and jurists have produced a wealth of material which explores whether armed humanitarian interventions are in line with international law and whether attacks on civilians or non-military targets breach international humanitarian law.
Usage notes
- The Compact Oxford Dictionary from 1996 has a usage note criticizing use of humanitarian as in humanitarian disaster, saying "the adjective humanitarian is often used inaccurately by reporters, e.g This is the worst humanitarian disaster within living memory, as if humanitarian meant 'of or relating to humanity'", though the current entry given by OxfordDictionaries.com has a more tempered commentary: "The primary sense of humanitarian is 'concerned with or seeking to promote human welfare.' Since the 1930s, a new sense, exemplified by phrases such as the worst humanitarian disaster this country has seen, has been gaining currency, and is now broadly established, especially in journalism, although it is not considered good style by all".