The US, among others, has argued strenuously - both before forming a global coalition to fight terrorism and now, while maintaining a military presence in Afghanistan but resisting a major role in what it derisorily calls nation-building - that it…
"On it", he argued, "we depend for all our immunity from evil, and for the whole value of all and every good, beyond the passing moment".(1) On 11 September, the citizens of Western countries had the truth of Mill's words…
Israel, more than any other country, has jumped on the American bandwagon of 'anti-terrorism's global war' in the aftermath of the tragic events of 11 September. As Israel invades Palestinian self-governing areas and dismantles and destroys the institutions of the…
Since the Gulf war, Iraq has been effectively divided in two. Two Kurdish administrations control an area the size of Switzerland. Despite constant interference from the regime in Baghdad and from Iran and Turkey (fearful that the example in Iraq…
Established in 1994, the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS) emerged from a process of consultation with educational, cultural and interfaith institutions in the Middle East and the West started a decade earlier. RIIFS was originally intended to serve as…
Yet it is important to remind ourselves that reproductive health (RH) remains a relatively new area of attention within the humanitarian sector. Just ten years ago, there seemed to be little or no recognition of the fact that, during war…
Approximately 6.6 million adolescents worldwide are currently displaced by armed conflict, many of them exposed to violence and acute poverty and separated from their families and communities(1). Like all young people, refugee adolescents have special needs during their years of…
World Health Organisation assessments in 2000 of adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) activities in refugee camps in western Tanzania discovered major shortcomings. Young people complained that services did not meet their needs, service providers were judgemental, waiting times were…
Much has been written about the restrictions on access to health for women under the Taliban regime that controlled Afghanistan until 2001. Taliban edicts gave institutional standing to practices which limited women's movements in public unless accompanied by a male…
Guatemala has had a long and violent history of internal conflict(1). Complex social inequalities have been exacerbated by the effects of civil war. After peace accords were signed in Mexico in December 1996 Guatemalan refugees were repatriated to areas greatly…