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Much has been said about volunteers and humanitarian responses. With more than 60 million refugees worldwide (UNOCHA, 2015, UNHCR, 2015), independent volunteers are the buffer that fulfils the urgent needs left by incapable and ineffective failed states and International Organizations. With the spiralling rise in the outbreak of humanitarian crises worldwide, there is a permanent call for volunteers. Therefore, one must inquire: what is the role of independent volunteers in humanitarian crises? Where states fail to avoid crises and protect their citizens, volunteers are important actors in peacekeeping that fill the gap in addressing the constantly evolving set of challenges that occur within failing states. Peacekeeping, with its complex web of interests, challenges, competing objectives and actors, owes much to volunteers as the main agents in affecting positive change to the otherwise unchangeable. Volunteers have long been the vital interface between peacekeeping and affecting real change on the ground.

Many indicators might be either subjective or difficult to accurately assess for how effective the role of helpers in humanitarian situs is in actuality. International humanitarian assistance has developed considerably since its birth in the 19th century with the creation of the International Red Cross. Within a global governance paradigm, Liberal Institutionalists have emphasized the benefit that international institutions can bring to a disordered framework of sovereign states. Measuring the collective and individual impact of volunteers following man-made disasters such as war, or natural disasters, is a methodologically complex endeavour.

World Refugee Day, observed June 20 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world. Beyond word choices between `refugee' or 'migrant' (UNHCR, 2015) what matters is that humanitarianism in itself is in crisis. Yet, the problem remains much more complex and so colossal that it seems unsolvable. Constant new dilemmas must be addressed. The issue can be addressed in a broad spectrum of ways. In order to delineate the influence of volunteers in humanitarian crises, it is necessary to review the fundamental and guiding principles of humanitarian law and to contrast them with the reality of the calamity on the ground. The role of independent volunteers in humanitarian crises will be analysed firstly regarding the hero syndrome and the unlikely hero result. Secondly, the importance of the principle of humanitarian law and its challenges for independent volunteers will also be examined. In this article, independent volunteers are associated with non-state actors such NGOs and INGOs, as well as with the private sector. The major humanitarian non-governmental system includes the Red Cross organizations, Church-related agencies, medical and educational volunteers as well as U.N. volunteers and worldwide corporations such as Save the Children, Oxfam, and Amnesty International.

The Hero Syndrome versus Feelings of Frustration and Futility (FFF)

At the international level, there is an intersection between collective responsibility, community and human security. As an example, the notion of crimes against humanity is one expression of the adoption of human rights as measures of human dignity and how international organizations can support democratization and peace (Poast and Urpelainen, 2015). Regardless of how far away the conflict is, or the different personal point of view that one may have, the image of a Syrian refugee baby drowned on a Mediterranean beach or the classic picture of an Ethiopian baby deceased from hunger and about to be eaten by a vulture have a moral call. It is immoral to watch human atrocities and be apathetic, indifferent and inactive. This morality is the pillar of the political humanitarian principle of the responsibility to protect (R2P). The human existence takes precedence to sovereignty and other constraints of international law as well as to the balance of power from the........

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