Since the mid 1980s when the numbers of asylum seekers claiming refuge in Western Europe began a sharp and prolonged ascent, refugees have come to be a most unwelcome sight. To prevent the entry of those seen as illicit economic…
Transmigration programmes implemented during Suharto's rule resulted in the movement of 1.6 million people, mostly from Java, Bali and Madura to Kalimantan, Sumatra, the Moluccas, Sulawesi and the islands of Eastern Indonesia. Transmigration was viewed both as a demographic imperative…
Based on these findings, IRC established its Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) programme to design strategies to meet the immediate needs of SGBV survivors. The programme has been driven by a focus on the survivors and their rights, and a…
Television coverage of US marines wading ashore in Greece and of British paratroopers marching to Pristina under an umbrella of helicopters gave a glimpse of the sheer size of the NATO mission in Kosovo. The announcement of humanitarian plans to…
Yet, refugees and relief agencies alike often underestimate or feel too overworked to incorporate the importance of cultural factors in assistance programmes. Potential cultural conflicts between refugee communities, host communities and relief agencies are of course important. Less often recognised,…
This matters because of the crucial role that music-making plays in human life, such as the way it brings people together in special relationships, its capacity for emotional expression, its importance in enculturation and its role in the articulation of…
Although the displaced populations concerned may be in dire need of assistance and protection, and could benefit immeasurably from outside support, few or no steps are taken, or strategies developed, to gain access to them. Whereas conflict is the inhibiting…
Humanitarian crises are increasing in number, duration and their impact on civil society. In the first half of the 1990s, 70 states were involved in 93 wars. More than half of these conflicts lasted over five years, forty percent lasted…
There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, there is a perception of greater insecurity with more personnel being injured or killed. Although trends cannot be accurately assessed as most agencies do not keep proper records, it is the…
I have lived overseas for six years now, including stints in Uganda, Serbia, Bosnia and now Liberia. I have thought of security in different terms in each of these countries. In Uganda when there was a barrage of home robberies…