For people from eastern Congo who have lived through more than a decade of violence, the city – located in the vast country’s far southwestern corner – offers an undeniable allure. The copper-mining city serves as the capital of the…
Colombia has some of the most advanced national legislation on internal displacement in the world but fails to implement it effectively. In January 2004, the Constitutional Court declared the government’s response to internal displacement to be in violation of the…
Is the world on the verge of establishing a basic form of global welfare for all those affected by war and disaster? Or is the idea of fair and efficient global welfare a non-starter in a world of competing political…
The 30,000 Sudanese in Cairo registered with UNHCR are but a fraction of the vast Sudanese population living in the Egyptian capital.1 In June 2004 UNHCR took the view that the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government…
The Sahrawis hail from neighbouring Western Sahara, a country invaded and occupied by Morocco in 1975. Western Sahara is on the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories and still considered a colony. Repeated attempts to get Morocco to live up to…
Following each country visit, the UN Representative, Walter Kälin (like his predecessor, Francis Deng) issues a publicly available mission report1 which includes a comprehensive list of recommendations. These recommendations – primarily directed at national governments – outline what improvements should…
Uganda has a massive number of IDPs – more than 1.7 million, over 6% of the national population. Although it is one of the few countries with a national IDP policy, ineffective implementation means many IDPs still face security threats,…
When the RSC was established in 1982, the world of refugees and the patterns and processes of forced displacement were far simpler than today – at least it seems that way in retrospect. The label ‘refugee’ was clear-cut and the…
We, the delegates to the International Symposium on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Beyond, call for urgent and long-term action to: 1. Prevent sexual and gender-based violence by promoting gender equity and equality and the economic, social and political empowerment…
This unprecedented mass migration of Tibetans is the result of an ongoing conflict between Tibet and the People's Republic of China (PRC) over questions of political autonomy and cultural self-determination. Tibetans continue to follow their spiritual leader into exile due…