The response to the Haiti earthquake was particularly characterised by the first-time involvement of technology actors such as Ushahidi1 and Crisismappers2 who capitalised on the widespread ownership and use of phones in Haiti as well as the ability to involve…
Some of the worst abuses against individuals occur in non-international armed conflicts, in situations where one or more armed non-state actors (ANSAs)fight against the state and/or against each other.1 How, and to what extent, international law is formally binding on…
Forced displacement can be lawful under international humanitarian law (IHL) if it makes a community safer or if imperative military reasons require it. However, in most cases people leave their homes because one or both sides to a conflict has been violating IHL. When a community experiences or fears murder, rape, kidnapping, destruction of their homes or looting, flight is a natural reaction.
As of 31 July 2010, an estimated 1.9 million people were internally displaced in North and South Kivu, Orientale, Katanga and Equateur provinces of DRC. And it should not be forgotten that IDPs represent just a fraction of the people in need in DRC. The situation of returnees, host families and large numbers of populations in non-conflict affected areas is often dire.
The Kivus
The articles in this collection together with the findings from the AIDS, Security and Conflict Initiative (ASCI) consolidate a growing body of social science, public health, policy and operational research that challenges earlier assumptions about the interactive effects of HIV/AIDS and insecurity. Contributing authors draw attention to the social factors associated with forced displacement and migration and their central role in shaping HIV exposure risks.
The striking fact that for the first time in human history there are now more people living in towns and cities than outside them is not in itself a reason for FMR to be covering urban displacement. Behind that fact,…
Some two-thirds of displaced people in the world today are not in classic emergency situations but are trapped in protracted displacement – situations characterised by long periods of exile and separation from home. When people remain displaced for a long…
A ‘stateless person’ is someone who is not recognised as a national by any state. They therefore have no nationality or citizenship (terms used interchangeably in this issue) and are unprotected by national legislation, leaving them vulnerable in ways that…
The international conference on the Ten Years of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (‘GP10’) – held in Oslo, 16-17 October 2008 – assessed the accomplishments and shortcomings of the Guiding Principles since their launch in 1998. It also sought…
In his article on page 47 of this issue, Craig Johnstone, Deputy High Commissioner of UNHCR, says that “Our generation has failed to live up to its obligations to prevent climate change. We need urgently to prepare now for the…