It has been my privilege to serve the UN for the past 25 years, working for four different agencies in five countries. Now, as Director of the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), I am involved in supporting communities…
The sun rises over a flat expanse in West Darfur. A seemingly endless number of plastic-sheeted domes and mud-brick structures cast long shadows. A low hum of quiet conversation grows louder as one hundred thousand displaced people begin to stir.…
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, international organisations, civil society and the private sector, as well…
While there is no evidence to support the claim that refugee populations have an increased prevalence of HIV, it is true that refugees are inherently more vulnerable to HIV – due to social instability, loss of relatives and breadwinners, increased…
In 1980 the Mexican government created the Mexican Commission of Aid to Refugees (Comisión Mexicana de Ayuda a Refugiados – COMAR) to assist refugees arriving from South and Central America. 20 years later, Mexico became a signatory to the 1951…
In recent years the international humanitarian community’s response to complex humanitarian emergencies has shown an increasing need for accurate and timely analyses of the location and state of displaced people. Satellite images allow the pinpointing of populations concerned and the…
In the late 17th century, for example, the Salem Witch Trails in New England (which led to widespread executions and imprisonment) took place in an area that was seriously affected by violence and forced migration. According to one author: “The…
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 a series of conferences dedicated to the topic of RH…
Some 57,000 IDPs have returned to Chechnya despite the volatile security, while about 70,000 remain displaced in the North Caucasus. An unknown number of IDPs from Chechnya are living elsewhere in Russia. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) visited the…
Forced to flee their homes, often travelling great distances to escape enemy fire, these children are the most frequent victims of violence, disease, malnutrition and death. In the chaos of flight, these boys and girls may become separated from their…