Islam, international law and the protection of refugees and IDPs
The protection of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) is guaranteed under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) – mainly the Geneva Convention of 1949 and two additional Protocols of 1977, and the Refugee Convention of 1951 and the Protocol of 1967.…
Child rights and Islam
Interpreting and applying the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is complicated. There are international organisations whose mandate is to interpret the meaning of children’s rights and monitor the Convention’s application in individual countries. However, the norms and…
The rights of refugee women and children in Islam
Aman (safeguard) is the term which Islamic law uses to refer to the refuge that Muslims offer to non-Muslims. Such refuge remains inviolate even if the person who is being offered protection is in a conflict against Muslims [9: 6].…
Positive lessons from the Arab Spring
Forced displacement in today’s world is marked by several characteristics: multiple and unpredictable triggers; overwhelming numbers fleeing in a short period of time; and entire communities destroyed, too often for generations, in a matter of days. Whether across international borders…
Broadening our perspective
Upholding the human rights and dignity of migrants and people displaced is one of the major challenges of the century. The causes of migration are complex and myriad, and result in no small measure from the phenomenon of globalisation in…
Migration and revolution
From the outbreak of the popular uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, European media and politicians were preoccupied with the prospect of ‘tidal waves’ of North Africans reaching Europe. These sensational predictions lacked any scientific basis so it…
Bordering on a crisis
The Libya crisis generated a massive influx of migrants and refugees in Tunisia and Egypt, which might be labelled a ‘mixed migration crisis’, and presented several new challenges to the humanitarian community. While the huge magnitude of the flows was…
Legal protection frameworks
For more than 60 years the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Refugee Convention) has provided the cornerstone of international protection for displaced persons. It is an important source of protection for many of those fleeing popular…
The bittersweet return home
This article draws on assessment reports and profiling exercises carried out by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to map out needs in areas for return and to pave the way for reintegration and community stabilisation programmes. The findings of…