The example of one particular refugee settlement, Achol-Pii, in Pader district, reveals some of the specific problems that are created when refugees are forced to live in settlements in the midst of armed conflict. Conflict and flight The majority of…
The majority are from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and the Great Lakes region. There are two official refugee camps in Kenya: Dadaab, close to the Somali border, hosts about 150,000 refugees; Kakuma, located in northern Kenya near the Sudanese border, hosts…
As a student in 1977 I attended a meeting at which the Polisario representative urged students to assist yet one more struggle for liberation and self-determination. Although at the time most Arab students supported the Sahrawi cause, a minority, invoking…
Bus drivers idle their engines as they wait at the end of the highway leading to Cairo. Exhaust fumes swirling around them, fruit vendors preside indifferently over misshapen and rotting produce, shaded from the searing light by tattered umbrellas. A…
For South Africa, this was the first time it had faced such a challenge. (1) After a three month contingency planning process, however, by the eve of the elections the existing preparations only catered for 1000 people for three days,…
Blessed with petroleum, diamonds, gold and fertile land, this former Portuguese colony has the potential to be one of the richest countries in Africa. And yet, after four decades of war marked by terror tactics and scorched earth policies, the…
Faced with an ongoing struggle to bridge the gap between theory and reality, advocates for refugees have the option of using Africa's human rights mechanisms innovatively to argue the case for refugee rights. It is not that Africa is short…
The Republic of Yemen is the only country in the Arabian Peninsula to have signed the Convention and the 1967 Protocol. Yemen's proximity to the troubled countries of the Horn of Africa and to neighbouring wealthy Gulf countries have led…
What determines the level of emergency assistance? This paper examines the hypothesis that the volume of emergency assistance generated by any humanitarian crisis is determined by three main factors working either in conjunction or individually. Quantitative and qualitative indicators from…
In October 2002, UNHCR issued a 'Note on the Applicability of Article 1D of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees to Palestinian Refugees'. This essentially re-affirmed the long-standing interpretation of the Convention that - with the exception…