In 2008, the Brazilian National Committee for Refugees (CONARE) celebrates its 10th anniversary. Created by the 1997 Refugee Act, CONARE is an inter-ministerial and inter-institutional body which works to determine…

International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s involvement in the problem of human trafficking in Japan dates back to 1996 when it published a report exposing the unacceptable situation of Filipino women…

If there is one positive result from the Burmese junta’s brutal response to the peaceful demonstrations in Yangon in September 2007, it is the re-opening of registration by UNHCR for…

Burma’s rulers have divided the country into three zones: white – those areas under their total control; brown – contested areas; and black – areas over which they have no…

This second article(1) by Carlos Beristain presents the most significant findings of the REMHI Report, the experiences of the victims and certain issues relating to the process of reconstruction. On…

Through its Humanitarian Aid service (DG ECHO), the European Commission puts particular emphasis on helping people caught up in ‘forgotten crises’. For those who work in international relief the phenomenon…

As Spanish colonial rule ended in 1975, Morocco took control of Western Sahara, triggering a conflict which resulted in mass displacement of Sahrawis to camps around the southern Algerian city…

A dominant theme of rights-based discourse is that rights should not be violated by displacement. There are, accordingly, well established international, regional and national legal instruments, covenants and norms to…

The Vienna Forum did not end up with specific declarations, plans or pledges as is usually the case with such events. It merely brought together around 2,000 representatives of governments,…

The conference, a joint venture between the Reproductive Health Access, Information and Services in Emergencies (RAISE) Initiative[1] and the Reproductive Health Response in Conflict (RHRC) Consortium[2], was the third in…