Humanitarian Negotiations with Armed Groups

2 Humanitarian Negotiations: Motivations and Partners

2.1 Overview

This chapter addresses the “why” and “who” of humanitarian negotiation with armed groups: the “why” of humanitarian negotiations involves being clear about the reasons for negotiating, and how these motivations impact the process of negotiation.

Building on the working definition of armed groups presented in the introduction to this manual (Section 1.1), this chapter looks in more detail at the characteristics of these groups (the “who”), how those characteristics can shape the approach to negotiation, and the type of information that humanitarian workers should know about armed groups before they enter into negotiations with them.