The new price of doing good?

Should dedicating your career to the service of others put your life at risk?

Outspoken opponents of corrupt governments have long put themselves on the line to improve the lot of their fellow citizens, but as international conflicts grow ever more complex aid workers are finding themselves in serious danger.

Earlier this month, the American Prospect reported on the tragic murder of three French aid workers in Brazil. The issue of violence against the relief community has been simmering for years, with violence against relief workers being a huge problem in places like Chechnya, where some organizations insist their staff be accompanied by security. Conversations about the issue reached new intensity within the relief world early on during the US invasion of Iraq. Soldiers were in communities wearing civilian clothes, and the sheer number of outsourced private companies on the ground only added to the confusion over who was working in the name of the US--and who was there doing true relief work. As a consequence, aid workers were targeted for kidnapping and assault--and that was the best case scenario.

When civilians now account for the majority of casualties in conflicts around the world, it should perhaps come as no surprise that relief workers are in the cross hairs. But simply because someone chooses to dedicate their life to working in the world's most dangerous places should not mean they forfeit their right to come out of it alive. As the US and other world governments increasingly rely on private charities to conduct their relief missions in conflict zones they can not shirk off responsibility for ensuring security.

It's sad that the security of private relief workers--and not the safety of, say, fleeing refugees--might be the issue that gets folks to sit up and take notice. The UN has struggled with this issue in Darfur for some time, but it seems that the violence in this region gets the most media attention when yet another relief org has to make the terrible decision to pull out (see this piece from MSNBC and this from the BBC).