Search results
Found 3365 matches for
Conceptualising protection as safety: a normative proposal
The Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stipulates, inter alia, that UNHCR ‘shall assume the function of providing international protection, under the auspices of the United Nations, to refugees who fall under the present Statute…’ The expression ‘international protection’ also features prominently in official documents of UNHCR, and in state practice. Often referred in its short form as simply ‘protection’, it has also been used in relations to persons displaced within their countries because of conflict or those fleeing droughts, famine, or floods. What is meant by international protection? What are its conceptual content and boundaries? The Statute of UNHCR, the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, several resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations on refugees and displaced persons, the official documents of UNHCR and of states parties to the 1951 Convention are silent on these central questions. While the issues of refugee rights, legal and institutional problems of protection, including protection of people at risk in conflict situations, and how the policies and practices of states and UNHCR affect refugees and other persons of concern have received attention in the literature, there has been no attempt to conceptualise international protection and ground it in the experiences of refugees and other persons of concern to UNHCR and the international community. The objective of this paper is twofold: firstly, to explain the concept of international protection of refugees and other displaced persons that currently informs – if somewhat implicitly – the work with refugees and displaced persons, tracing its historical evolution to two central formative phases, the inter-war period and the years after the end of World War II; and secondly, to propose a normative framework on the proper conceptual approach to the international protection of refugees. It is argued that a conceptualisation of the idea of international protection of refugees that provides a framework distinguishing between the means and the ends of protection is needed; in other words, a concept of international protection that transcends the idea of law and institutions as protection and that defines a vision, a goal, or an overarching objective, which mobilises law, institutions, materials, and politics as inter-related means or vehicles for fulfilling and reaching that vision and overarching objective.
Protecting People in Conflict and Crisis: Responding to the Challenges of a Changing World
Ten years ago the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) defined humanitarian protection as including “all activities aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with the letter and spirit of the relevant bodies of law (i.e. human rights, humanitarian and refugee law).” Since then humanitarian protection has received growing attention within the humanitarian sector, becoming not one of the central aims of the international community but also one of its greatest challenges. This conference, which was hosted by the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) in collaboration with the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) and with generous support from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, convened over 180 participants from more than 40 countries to discuss the current state of humanitarian protection research, policy and practice, with a view to developing new ideas for the protection of people in conflict and crisis in the 21st century. The conference revolved around six thematic tracks: concepts of protection; the politics of protection; populations at risk; protection, security and the military; national and regional responsibilities to protect; protection in practice. Eighty-four papers were presented and it is impossible to represent the depth, richness and complexity of the debates that took place. With that in mind however, a number of key themes emerged strongly, particularly around the challenges faced by humanitarian practitioners seeking to deliver ‘protection’ in a hostile world and the role which academics could play in addressing these challenges. The text below provides some reflections of those themes.
Humanitarian Action in Somalia: Expanding Humanitarian Space
In line with the overarching objectives of the Refugee Studies Centre, this workshop aimed to bring together representatives from the communities of ‘Research, Policy and Practice’ for a constructive dialogue on the subject of humanitarian space in Somalia. The participants at the workshop reflected this and included academics with a wide range of specialities, policy advisors and representatives of donor governments, as well as staff from several humanitarian agencies. The workshop also included a number of representatives from the Somali diaspora community, Somali money transfer organisations and Islamic NGO’s working in Somalia, thereby enabling an important exchange of ideas from a wide range of perspectives. The specific aim of the workshop was to map out the main challenges facing humanitarian actors in Somalia, to examine the methods that such actors are using to address humanitarian needs in the country, and to consider how the humanitarian community might better expand humanitarian space through innovative approaches to both policy and practice. This workshop report follows the format of the workshop, providing a brief overview of the main challenges faced by humanitarian agencies and of the innovative methods used by these agencies to provide humanitarian relief in Somalia. The report then provides an overview of the role played by Islamic charities and the Somali diaspora, as well as the media, before finally presenting the main outcomes of the workshop and proposing possible ways forward.
Refugees’ Diasporic Memories and the Politics of Democratisation
This report analyses the main themes arising from the presentations and discussions at the ‘Refugees’ Diasporic Memories and the Politics of Democratisation’ workshop organised by the International Migration Institute and Refugee Studies Centre on 18 February 2011.
The least provocative path: an ANT lens on development project formation and dissolution
This paper uses Actor‐Network Theory to examine the success and failure of development projects. Rejecting the common view that projects succeed on the basis of their superior objectives, planning and implementation, the paper proposes an alternative perspective drawn from Actor‐Network Theory: that success or failure is a product of the alliances that are mobilised, rather than the inherent qualities that are possessed. This argument is illustrated with reference to a 1970s development project, which involved the extraction of protein from plant leaves in order to provide a nutritional supplement for diets in Nigeria. By drawing on archival sources, the paper reconstructs the main actors involved in the project, analyses what caused them to become involved, and then turns attention to how these alliances fell apart. This paper is the third in the Actor-Network Theory for Development working paper series, published by the Centre for Development Informatics at the University of Manchester.
What I did on my holidays, or: the use of debating in Rwandan civic education
In July 2009, 30 university students (15 from 5 Rwandan universities and 15 from the University of Melbourne, Australia) met for a human rights workshop in Kigali. None of the Rwandan participants were aware of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Rwanda is a signatory, and only a few had vague ideas about the existence and the provisions of Rwanda’s 2003 Constitution and the specific laws and policies that were enacted to address human rights in the country. Rwandan youth participants in similar workshops organized in 2006, 2007, and 2008 also lacked a basic understanding of human rights. It should be stressed that Rwandans of this age that are able to go to university and participate in English-speaking events will be some of the most privileged in this country, and as those attending such events will have self-selected, it is not unreasonable to assume that these were some of the most politicised (and, one would think, politically aware) young Rwandans in the country. If a democracy is only as robust as its citizens, Rwanda is in trouble. The purpose of this piece is to review the creation and promulgation of a debating programme which evolved in response to this sort of worrying finding. Debating is used in Rwanda as part of a broader programme of civic awareness and advocacy conducted by a Rwandan NGO, Never Again Rwanda (hereafter NAR) from March 2011. This work is based on fieldwork conducted by the author (shown in fig. 1) in Rwanda in spring of 2010 (when the programme was devised) and spring 2011 (when I was fortunate enough to be present for the inaugural Rwandan Schools’ Debating Championships).
Book Review: New writing on Rwanda
Will Jones reviews two books on Rwanda for St Antony's International Review: ''The Gacaca Courts, Post-Genocide Justice, and Reconciliation in Rwanda', by Phil Clark, and 'Remaking Rwanda: State Building and Human Rights after Mass Violence', by Scott Strauss and Lars Waldorf (eds).
Truth Commissions and NGOs: The Essential Relationship
This paper aims to address the question, "What advice would you give to colleague NGOs in countries where the momentum for the establishment of a truth commission is already strong?" It is intended to provide basic guidance to NGOs that are likely to engage with formal, official truth commissions established by the state during times of political transition. It is organized chronologically into three sections: before, during, and after the operation of a truth commission.
Book Review: Transnational & Comparative Criminology
As is argued elsewhere in the reviews for this issue, criminology has been somewhat complacent in the acceptance of a framework for comparative analysis that is all too often restricted to the British Isles, European Union, or - for the adventurous - North America and Canada. In Transnational and Comparative Criminology, James Sheptycki and Ali Wardak present a convincing case for a less parochial perspective.
Book Review: Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth versus Justice
During the last two decades, transitional justice has effected its own, very impressive transition; from the outer peripheries of academic analysis to the substantial occupation of undergraduate and postgraduate curricula worldwide. However, while yards of books address issues of central and tangential relevance to transitional justice, there has remained a noticeable gap in the market for a current political introduction. Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century nicely fits this space, showcasing a collection of contemporary case studies that reflect recent developments in the political and conceptual bases of transitional justice.
Book Review: Transitional Justice and Displacement
This book brings together two fields of humanitarian assistance that have until now occupied separate operational spheres. Transitional justice is concerned with responding to serious human rights violations through measures such as criminal prosecutions, truth-telling, reparations, institutional reform and/or commemoration. By ‘dealing with the past’, transitional justice policies seek to embed future peace and promote development. In contrast, responses to displacement primarily focus on the present context and immediate protection needs of refugees and other displaced populations. Despite the different goals and modes of operation, there are many ways in which these sectors could and should intersect, as this book makes clear. Refugees and other forced migrants have often fled serious human rights violations and share many concerns with populations who remained in their homes, yet they have rarely been included in transitional justice debates and policies. This book presents a reasonable and persuasive case that failure to consider displaced populations in transitional justice policies and policy-making is both illogical and likely to lead to unfair results, such as reintegration programmes which provide support to returning combatants but fail to consider returning refugees.
Book Review: International and Comparative Criminal Justice and Urban Governance: Convergence and Divergence in Global, National and Local Settings
This is a highly successful collection of contributions from leading scholars addressing some of the most pressing questions in governance research. At first glance, it may be difficult to see a unifying logic for discussing ‘international criminal justice’ and ‘comparative criminal justice’ together with ‘urban governance’. However, an excellent introduction by Crawford pulls out synergies between these diverse sectors – shifting conceptions of state sovereignty, relationships between global/local, the control of territory and space – and other authors fulfil the promised exploration of both micro- and macro-dimensions of multi-layered governance.
Protracted refugee situations: politics, human rights and security dimensions
Over two-thirds of the world’s refugees are trapped in protracted refugee situations, struggling to survive in remote and insecure parts of the world. This volume brings together a collection of eminent scholars and practitioners to explore the sources, nature and consequences of these situations and the record of the international community’s attempts to find durable solutions. On this basis, the volume presents new thinking to address protracted refugee situations that incorporates security and development—as well as humanitarian—actors and attempts to reconcile the policy difficulties which have obstructed progress for many years.
Protection and Humanitarian Action in the Post Cold War Period
In recent years, several influential commentators have stated or strongly implied that the advanced industrial democracies are today being overwhelmed by a host of problems - including rapid population growth, the breakup of multi-ethnic states, environmental degredation, and increasing economic differentials between the "developing" and "developed" worlds - for which no effective solutions are at hand. The migration-inducing potential of these post-Cold War developments has been a particular source of concern. This volume provides a counter-catastrophic view of developments and a more sober and balanced assessment of the challenges the United States and other industrial democracies face in the sphere of international migration than that offered in recent years. The first part is devoted to a diagnosis of the problem, revalution of the notion of a "migration crisis" by examining the likely consequences of population growth, environmental degredation, and political conflict in the developing and post-communist worlds. Special attention is also given to the manifestations of these forces in the western hemisphere where they may have direct consequences for immigration to the United States. In the second part the implications for U.S. policy are considered, ranging from promotion of democracy and development of strategies for minimizing international migrations and refugee flows to the intricacies of humanitarian relief and intervention when preventive measures prove ineffective.
UNHCR and World Politics: State Pressures and Institutional Autonomy
This article situates the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) within the context of world politics. States remain the predominant actors in the international political system. But this does not mean that international organizations like the UNHCR are completely without power or influence. Tracing the evolution of the agency over the past half century, this article argues that while the UNHCR has been constrained by states, the notion that it is a passive mechanism with no independent agenda of its own is not borne out by the empirical evidence of the past 50 years. Rather UNHCR policy and practice have been driven both by state interests and by the office acting independently or evolving in ways not expected nor necessarily sanctioned by states.