I first encountered the issue of climate refugees in 2008.[i] As focal point for refugee issues at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I was charged with answering a question from the Norwegian parliament on how to respond to forced…
The Cartagena Declaration on Refugees (1984) was the outcome of meetings between government representatives and specialists from ten Latin American countries who met in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, to consider the situation of refugees in Central America. It established the…
Brazil’s commitment to refugee law and protection since the mid-1950s resulted in the passing of a bill on refugees in 1997 (Law 9474). This not only broadened protection for refugees by including gross violation of human rights as a criterion…
Alongside the more than 3,800 refugees recognised by the Brazilian government, others arrive in the holds of cargo ships and slip unregistered into Brazil. “After my village was attacked, I ran away through the forest and walked to the port…
In October of 2009 there were 4,131 refugees from 72 nationalities living in Brazil. Of these, 3,822 arrived ‘spontaneously’, of whom nearly half came through their own networks, and 418 were resettled through the Brazilian programme, coordinated by the National…
The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 15% of any population will be persons with disabilities, with potentially higher proportions among populations that have fled war, persecution or natural disaster. Hence, there may be over six million persons with disabilities…
Never have so many people and so much money been devoted to the provision of life-saving assistance and protection of vulnerable survivors of conflict and disaster. One estimate puts the number of humanitarian aid workers at 250,000. As for the…
The figures speak for themselves. As of December 2011, more than 26 million people were internally displaced, forced from their homes by armed conflict and insecurity, while millions more had sought refuge abroad. In addition, an estimated 15 million people…
In 1993, in the context of the huge displacement crisis in the former Yugoslavia, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata spoke for the first time on the ‘right to remain’. In addressing the UN Commission on Human Rights she…
The law of armed conflict – also known as international humanitarian law (IHL) – is the body of international law that most clearly codifies binding standards for the prevention of displacement. IHL is not concerned with the lawfulness or otherwise…