New ODI Paper on Assisting Older People in Emergencies

ODI's Humanitarian Practice Network has just produced Network Paper no. 53 entitled Protecting and assisting older people in emergencies. The paper is available through ReliefWeb's online library at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900SID/OCHA-6K4GD3?OpenDocument.

Posted in Publications.

International Migration: Call for Papers

The editors of International Migration, a peer-reviewed academic journal on current migration issues sponsored by the International Organization forMigration (IOM), are seeking full-length research and policy analysis papers, as well as shorter manuscripts presenting policy commentary, emerging research, and data at the forefront of current policy debates and migration events.

For more details, visit <http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/Call-for-Papers-06IMIG.pdf>

For guidelines for authors, visit <http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/submit.asp?ref=0020-7985>

SAMPLE ARTICLES
Two articles from International Migration are currently available free online.

Describing the Unobserved: Methodological Challenges in Empirical Studies on Human Trafficking
Guri Tyldum and Anette Brunovskis
<http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.0020-7985.2005.00310.x>

Migration, Displacement, and Violence: Prosecuting Romanian Street
Children at the Paris Palace of Justice
Susan J. Terrio
<http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.0020-7985.2004.00300.x>

Posted in Periodicals.

Seminars and workshops on Population and Migration

The following was posted on the UNESCO Migration Mailing List. More information is available at http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=9098&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.

Seminars and workshops on Population and Migration, Córdoba (Argentina), 21-23 February, 2006

A series of seminars and workshops on “Population and Migration” will be organized in Córdoba (Argentina) on 21-23 February 2006, within the framework of the International Forum on the Social Science - Policy Nexus.

The International Forum is organized by UNESCO in partnership with the Governments of Argentina and Uruguay and with the support of a wide range of academic and policy organizations. It will take place in four cities in Argentina and in Uruguay from February 20th to 24th, 2006, with an Opening and Closing day in Buenos Aires. Over a thousand participants are expected at the Forum.

The workshops and seminars to be held in Córdoba on 21-23 February will address core issues raised by contemporary migration flows, such as:

• forced migration and asylum
• globalization and migrants’ transnational lives and identities
• cultural and environmental impact of migration
• the legal framework of migration and migrants’ rights
• intergovernmental and regional cooperation in the elaboration of migration policies
• and scenarios for the future of migration.

The presence of policy-makers, researchers and NGO members will enable the development of new forms of cooperation between policy and social sciences, with the ambition of bringing better responses to today’s challenges.

Posted in Events & Opportunities.

ODI Research Officers Needed

The Overseas Development Institute's (ODI) Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) is seeking two research officers to "assist with the work relating to civilian protection, aid policy and other areas of research within the Group." Visit http://www.odi.org.uk/jobs/index.html for more details. The application deadline is 23 December.

Posted in Events & Opportunities.

Natural Disasters Portal

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has put together a web portal providing access to research reports, opinion, and analyses that focus on lessons learned from the Indian Ocean tsunami. The one-year anniversary of the tsumani is December 26th.

Posted in Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

New Issue of IJMS

The International Journal on Multicultural Societies has just published its latest issue, vol. 7, no. 2 (2005). The theme is "National Identity and Attitudes Towards Migrants–Findings from the ISSP." Contents, abstracts and full-text articles are available at http://www.unesco.org/shs/ijms/vol7/issue2.

Posted in Periodicals.

New Issue of RSQ

The year-end issue of Refugee Survey Quarterly is now available (vol. 24, no. 4). The focus of the issue is “Migrants and Refugees: The Challenge of Identity and Integration - The Tenth Annual Humanitarian Conference of Webster University, Geneva.” View contents and abstracts here.

Posted in Periodicals.

Director of the Refugee Studies Centre

Stephen Castles is leaving the Refugee Studies Centre to take up an appointment with the James Martin 21st Century School at Oxford University. Applications are being accepted for his replacement as Director of the RSC. More information about the post is available here. The deadline for applications is 21 February 2006.

Posted in Events & Opportunities.

Human Rights Day - 10 December

This year's theme is "Torture and Global Efforts to Combat It." Various resources relating to human rights and prevention of torture abuse are listed below.
http://www.un.org/events/humanrights/2005/

Amnesty International's Campaign to Stop Torture - http://web.amnesty.org/pages/stoptorture-index-eng

Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment - http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/cat.htm

European Committee on the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) - http://www.cpt.coe.int/en/

Examining Asylum Seekers: A Health Professional's Guide to Medical and Psychological Evaluations of Torture - http://www.phrusa.org/campaigns/asylum_network/manual.html

Human Rights Watch's Theme Page: Torture and Abuse - http://www.hrw.org/doc/?t=torture

International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims - http://www.irct.org/

Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture - http://www.torturecare.org.uk/

Torture Reporting Handbook - http://www.essex.ac.uk/torturehandbook/

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Day Page - http://www.ohchr.org/english/events/day2005/hrd2005.htm

World Organization against Torture Site - http://www.omct.org/base.cfm?page=omct&consol=OPEN&cfid=2771894&cftoken=24581096

Posted in Events & Opportunities.

International Alert Job Announcement

"International Alert seeks Great Lakes Programme Manager"

See the job announcement and contact details on ELDIS. The closing date for applications is 13 January 2006.

Posted in Events & Opportunities.

New Issue of Third World Q.

Third World Quarterly: Journal of Emerging Areas has recently published its Nov. 2005 issue, vol. 26, no. 8; view the contents and abstracts here.

Posted in Periodicals.

EU Asylum Developments

The European Union recently adopted an "Asylum Procedures Directive" as part of its work on defining a new Common European Asylum System. Here are a few resources relating to this and other asylum developments in the EU.

Vice President Frattini welcomes 'major milestone' on asylum in the EU
http://tinyurl.com/d5c3k

UNHCR press release: EU directive may trigger downgrading of asylum standards http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=4390253a4

UNHCR Observations on the European Commission Communication "A Common Agenda for integration: Framework for theIntegration of Third-Country Nationals in the European Union"
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/protect/opendoc.pdf?tbl=PROTECTION&id=437b513c2

Other comments from UNHCR on EU asylum law and policy are available at http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/protect?id=43672f0a2

ECRE comment: Response of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on A Common Agenda for Integration COM (2005) 389 final
http://www.ecre.org/policy/position_papers.shtml

Other information about developments in Europe can be found in the Forced Migration Review issue on "Asylum in Europe": http://www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR23/FMR23contents.pdf

Another useful resource is EurActiv's "Illegal immigration, asylum and border control" policy section, with news, latest developments and a policy summary
http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-117508-16&type=LinksDossier

Posted in Publications.

Who Does What in US Immigration

The Migration Policy Institute compiled this overview for the Migration Information Source. It explains the roles and responsibilities of the various U.S. government departments that undertake immigration activities, and includes a very useful diagram. See http://www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?id=362

Posted in Publications.

Human Rights Watch Report on IDPs in Zimbabwe

Human Rights Watch released a report 1 December 2005 entitled Evicted and Forsaken: Internally Displaced Persons in the Aftermath of Operation Murambatsvina, which documents Zimbabwe's denial of assistance and protection to forcibly evicted persons.

Posted in Publications.

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery - 2 December

December 2 marks the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. For more information, please visit the Dag Hammarskjold's library page at http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/slavery/ ; this notes that Dec. 2 "recalls the date of the adoption, by the General Assembly, of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (resolution 317 (IV))" in 1949.

A few resources relating to human trafficking:

2005 Human Rights Report on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children - http://www.protectionproject.org/

FMO Research Guide: Human Smuggling and Trafficking - http://www.forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo011/

Refugees and Trafficking - http://www.womenscommission.org/projects/P&P/trafficking.shtml

Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons , especially in women and children - http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/trafficking/index.htm

In partnership with the Global Alliance against Traffic in Women, Forced Migration Review will publish an issue focusing on human trafficking in March 2006.

Posted in Events.

Updated web sites: IASC, IDMC (former IDP Project)

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) site has been given a new look and re-organized structre. Visit http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/default.asp to explore its resources.

The former Global IDP Project has been re-named the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC); its new URL is http://www.internal-displacement.org/. The site has been completely overhauled, but still provides access to the ex-IDP Project's familiar information resources. Beginning in 2006, the IDMC will be the sponsor of an IDP Network, described as "a platform for members to share contact details, descriptions of their work and experiences."

Posted in Web Sites/Tools.

New Issue of IJRL

The December 2005 issue of International Journal of Refugee Law (vol. 17, no. 4) is now available; full table of contents and abstracts can be read at http://ijrl.oxfordjournals.org/content/vol17/issue4/index.dtl?etoc

Articles include:

Inadmissible in Iberia: The Fate of Asylum Seekers in Spain and Portugal
Maryellen Fullerton

Neither Here Nor There: Temporary Admission to the UK
Caroline Sawyer and Philip Turpin

Domestic Violence and Asylum: Toward a Working Model of Affirmative State Obligations
Michael G. Heyman

The Use and Misuse of 'National Security' Rationale in Crafting U.S. Refugee and Immigration Policies
Donald Kerwin

Posted in Periodicals.

World AIDS Day - 1 December

World Aids Day (UNAIDS) - http://www.unaids.org/en/events/wad_2005_2.asp
- This year’s theme is “Stop AIDS. Keep the promise.”

HIV/AIDS (OHCHR) - http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/hiv/index.htm

HIV/AIDS News Service for Africa (IRIN) - http://www.plusnews.org/

Human Rights Watch Calls for Increased Support, Protections for Global AIDS Activists (HRW) - http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/wad/index.htm

Refugees and HIV/AIDS (UNHCR) - http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/protect?id=401915744

Sexually Transmitted Infections, including HIV/AIDS (RHRC) - http://www.rhrc.org/rhr_basics/sti/

World AIDS Day 2005 (MSF) - http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=DC075067-E018-0C72-09CF0A24F01A75AC&component=toolkit.article&method=full_html

For more information, visit http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/aidsday/index.html
Posted in Events and Web Sites/Tools.

New Human Rights Watch Report

The 30 Nov. 2005 report is entitled "On the Margins - Ukraine: Rights Violations Against Migrants and Asylum Seekers at the New Eastern Border of the European Union." Read the summary and link to the full-text report at http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/30/ukrain12097.htm.

Posted in Publications.

New FMR Issue on Sudan

Forced Migration Review launched issue 24 today. Its focus is on "Prospects for Peace in Sudan." The issue includes 36 articles from a wide range of contributors, including Francis Deng and Jon Bennett, and is the longest one yet produced in the FMR series.

Several general articles are also included, with discussions on statelessness and gender-based violence, among others.

Posted in Publications.

UNHCR Q&A on IDPs

UNHCR has revised its approach towards internally displaced persons (IDPs) , in light of certain operational changes agreed to within the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. Specifically, "Under the general umbrella of the office of the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, for instance, the refugee agency in future will take a 'lead’ role in overseeing the protection and shelter needs of IDPs as well as the coordination and management of any camps which are established. Other U.N. agencies will adopt similar roles in the areas of water, nutrition, health, logistics and telecommunications."

For more information, read UNHCR's updated Q&A brochure on IDPs.

Background on the discussions that have taken place regarding reforms within the humanitarian community, including IDP assistance, are available in the following:

FMR Supplement, "Protecting and assisting the internally displaced: the way forward" (Oct. 2005)

ICVA Newsletter, "Special Issue on Humanitarian Reforms," vol. 7, no. 3 (Oct. 2005)

Posted in Publications.

Finding Out about Research: Academic/Research Institutes

Locating research on forced migration issues from academic institutes and think tanks is an ad-hoc exercise. These information products are not always catalogued or indexed in library collections, thereby making them more difficult to monitor than journals or more mainstream publications. Unfortunately, several forced migration-specific endeavors to comprehensively survey ongoing research programs and projects ended up being discontinued after a couple of years (e.g., UNHCR’s Refugee Research Network (REFLINK), the ICAR/UNHCR Postgraduate Network, the European Migration Information Network’s Research Directory, among others).

Directories for identifying relevant institutes are more prevalent than actual listings of current research projects and products. But these are also quite difficult to maintain over time. ReliefWeb offers a directory of organizations that can be filtered by organization type; selecting “academic & research institutions” provides a fairly lengthy listing. Once an individual organization is selected, the user is presented with a profile of products from the organization that reside elsewhere on ReliefWeb’s site - helpful but invariably incomplete. A complementary resource is FMO’s organizations directory; while it allows filtering by country and organization type, its profiles only provide a web address and contact details. The IDP Research Network has produced a database with information on researchers, projects, and publications. However, results from a recent search suggest that the information is not very current.

Another type of resource: ID21 is a development research reporting service that summarizes recent research produced by the UK research community. It includes a “conflict and emergencies” and a “human rights” sub-heading under the “Global Issues” category, where the following titles are described:
- Can river communities benefit from resettlement? by Thayer Scudder
- Exploring the causes of armed conflict in Africa, by Chris Huggins et al.
- Poverty reduction in difficult environments: learning from humanitarian NGOs, by Charlotte Laurence

At this time, no similar resource is available for forced migration generally. Once upon a time, the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) published The Directory of Current Research on Refugees and Other Forced Migrants, but only one or perhaps a few editions were ever issued. This would be a worthy project to re-initiate.

One objective of this blog is to track down and report on recent research papers. To this end, I used ReliefWeb’s and FMO’s directories to identify around 20 research institutes in Europe, North America and Africa that regularly publish working papers. Some examples of recent titles include:

- Entrenched relations and the permanence of long-term refugee camp situations, Sussex Migration Working Paper, no. 28 (2005), by Rebecca Napier-Moore
- Evidence on Attitudes to Asylum and Immigration: What We Know, Don't Know and Need to Know, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society Working Paper, no. 23 (2005), by Heaven Crawley
- ‘There are no Refugees in this Area’: Self-Settled Refugees in Koboko, Refugee Law Project Working Paper, no. 18 (Nov. 2005), by Moses Chrispus Okello et al.

Posted in Publications.

Sphere Project Seeks New Board Members

If you are interested in helping to govern the Sphere Project, apply for board membership using the materials available at http://www.sphereproject.org/about/newboard.htm.

Posted in Events & Opportunities.

Darfur: Analysis of AU Role

Eric Reeves, professor at Smith College, recently posted a two-part analysis of the African Union's role in Darfur on his web site.

- Part 1: Ghosts of Rwanda: The Failure of the African Union in Darfur, November 13, 2005
- Part 2: Ghosts of Rwanda: The Failure of the African Union in Darfur, November 20, 2005

His article references the ICG and Brookings reports on the AU in Darfur that were highlighted in an earlier blog posting, as well as a Refugees International report.

Eric Reeves is also the author of the Sudan entry in the 2005 encyclopedia, Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present.

Posted in Publications.

Food Insecurity Report

The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005 has just been published. It's available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese. The report examines the extent to which developing areas are on track to meet Millennium Development Goals of significant hunger and poverty reduction.

Posted in Publications.

New Issue of Citizenship Studies

The Nov. 2005 issue of the journal Citizenship Studies is now available; read the contents and abstracts here.

Posted in Periodicals.

New Issue of International Migration

International Migration, Volume 43, Number 5, December 2005 -
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/imig/2005/00000043/00000005
- Focus is on immigrant labour.

Posted in Periodicals.

New Print Encyclopedia on Minorities, Related Web Resources

Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities, 3 vols. - http://www.routledge-ny.com/ref/minorities/index.html
- Includes entries for refugees, diaspora, immigration, migrations. Does not appear to cover development-induced displacement, although I have not examined a copy directly.

Other resources:

European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) - http://www.ecmi.de/
- Includes ethnopolitical map of Europe, legal resources, project descriptions, lots of publications.

Minorities (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) -http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/minorities/index.htm
- Includes workshop reports, documents, declaration on minorities.

Minorities at Risk Project (MAR) - http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/mar/
- Includes data sets on ethnic groups, “Peace and Conflict” annual reports, hot spots, and links to other resources.

Minority Rights Group International - http://www.minorityrights.org/
- Includes international instruments, online publications (though listing is not that current), and information on MRG's activities.

Posted in Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

Reach Out Refugee Protection Training Project

The Reach Out Refugee Protection Training Project will be phased out by the end of November 2005. However, its training materials will continue to be accessible via archives on partner web sites. ReliefWeb and UNHCR have already made the Refugee Protection Training Kit available; ICVA is also slated to host the documents.

Posted in Web Sites/Tools and Publications.

Wex: Online Legal Dictionary/Encyclopedia

Like Wikipedia, Wex is a collaborative effort, but with more editorial control. This resource is both a dictionary and an encyclopedia intended for the general public. The editors invite submissions from qualified experts. While there are entries for "human rights" and "immigration," more specific forced migration terms such as asylum, refugees, refoulement, etc., are not currently represented. Anyone interested in contributing?

Posted in Web Sites/Tools.

New Journal Issues: Ethn. & Rac. Stud., Hum. Rts. Q., Comm. Dev. J.

The Jan. 2006 issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies (vol. 29, no. 1) has been published, with several articles examining conceptions of citizenship and nationhood.

Human Rights Quarterly's final issue for 2005 is available (vol. 27, no. 4), with articles on Darfur and economic, social and cultural rights, among others.

And in case anyone missed it, Community Development Journal's April issue focuses on refugees and asylum-seekers.

Posted in Periodicals.

Finding Out about Research: Part Two – Journal Databases

Most of the articles listed in the previous posting were identified using three online journal databases: FindArticles, IngentaConnect and HighWire. All three can be accessed on the web, for free. This is impressive given the size of the databases and the number of periodicals they collect. Each has its own pluses and minuses.

FindArticles offers “millions of articles from leading academic, industry and general interest publications.” Some are available in full-text for free, while others are considered premium content and come with a price tag. Results for general forced migration-related searches (e.g., refugees, internally displaced, asylum, involuntary resettlement, etc.), limited to the most current free content, appear to derive primarily from newspapers and news magazines. Those interested in more scholarly research would need to search the premium content as well. The Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Refuge are included in this repository, but access to articles in both require payment of a fee (around $10 for the latter; note that access to the full-text of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and other journals is free if readers sign up for a free trial of the service hosting the text). The advantage of this resource is one can retrieve quite a lot of free full-text; however, it tends to be geared more towards news and opinion, rather than research and analysis.

For more scholarly works, researchers should turn to Ingenta Connect. While this service does not offer any free content, it serves as an excellent resource for identifying current and relevant research. For people who want to keep abreast of the latest developments, a number of helpful features are provided: New content is highlighted in one’s search results, so it is easy to focus in on the most current articles. And RSS feeds are available for every periodical in Ingenta’s collection – another easy way to monitor journal contents. Free registration with the service allows users to save searches and run them again at regular intervals. Registered users can also have the tables of contents for up to five publications e-mailed to them directly. Coverage is quite comprehensive; for example, all the key forced migration journals are included in Ingenta (IJRL, JRS, RSQ, Disasters, International Migration…), except IMR. As noted above, full-text articles/publications must be purchased, and can run anywhere from $10-$40. Per article fees may be less costly if one goes directly to the publisher web site. Alternatively, if you live near a library, check their catalogue to see if they carry the journal in question. The only cost will be for the photocopy machine.

HighWire Press also provides access to scholarly materials, with an emphasis on the sciences. That said, all three “refugee” journals from OUP are included in the HighWire collection. This resource is particularly helpful for researchers interested in health or medical issues relating to refugees and asylum-seekers. Searches can be simultaneously conducted in HighWire and in PubMed, the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s premier search service. Free full-text articles are clearly marked in one’s search results. Costs for premium articles appear to range from $10 to $35. Users who choose to register with HighWire can benefit from a variety of additional features, including table of contents alerts, favorite journals list, etc.

My focus in this review was on recently published journal articles relating to forced migration issues. These three services compared quite favorably with a number of subscription databases which I also tested out but which are only available in academic libraries. In fact, from the point of view of currency, they proved to be excellent resources for monitoring new journal content.

Posted in Web Sites/Tools.

CERD Report

The Report of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on its 66th and 67th sessions is now available; the document symbol for the report is A/60/18, Suppl. 18. You can access the report through the UN Library's blog, along with a declaration on the prevention of genocide. More information about CERD, its mandate and activities, can be found on the committee's web page.

Posted in Publications.

Finding Out about Research: Part One - Recent Journal Articles

Here are several recent citations to forced migration research reported in the journal literature:

Bagaric, Mirko and James McConvill, “Refugee Law: The Irrelevance of the Framers' Intentions,” Nottingham Law Journal, vol. 14, no. 2, 2005, pp. 1-18.

Bash, Leslie, "Identity, boundary and schooling: perspectives on the experiences and perceptions of refugee children,” Intercultural Education, vol. 16, no. 4, October 2005, pp. 351-366.

Briskman, Linda and Sarah Cemlyn, “Reclaiming humanity for asylum-seekers: A social work response,” International Social Work, vol. 48, no. 6, Nov. 2005, pp. 714-724.

Grove, Natalie J. and Anthony B. Zwi, “Our health and theirs: forced migration, othering, and public health,” Social Science and Medicine (article in press).

Moore, Will H. and Stephen M. Shellman, “Refugee or Internally Displaced Person? To Where Should One Flee?” Comparative Political Studies, vol. 39, August 2006 (forthcoming).

Procter, Nicholas G, “'They first killed his heart (then) he took his own life'. Part 1: A review of the context and literature on mental health issues for refugees and asylum seekers,” International Journal of Nursing Practice, vol. 11, no. 6, Dec. 2005, pp. 286-91.

Welch, Michael and Liza Schuster, "Detention of asylum seekers in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Italy: A critical view of the globalizing culture of control," Criminal Justice, vol. 5, no. 4, Nov. 2005, pp. 331-355.

Also, this issue of Social Policy and Administration (vol. 39, no. 6, December 2005) focuses on asylum and immigration matters.

Posted in Publications and Periodicals.

New Issue of Journal of Refugee Studies

The December 2005 issue of the Journal of Refugee Studies is now available. Contents include:

"Theoretical and Methodological Challenges of Studying Refugee Children in the Middle East and North Africa: Young Palestinian, Afghan and Sahrawi Refugees," by Dawn Chatty, Gina Crivello, and Gillian Lewando Hundt

"Intent to Destroy: The Genocidal Impact of Forced Migration in Darfur, Sudan," by Erin Patrick

"Whose House is this Anyway? IDP and Refugee Return in Post-Saddam Iraq," by David Romano

"Predictors of the Authorities' Decision to Grant Asylum in Denmark," by Edith Montgomery and Anders Foldspang

"Refugees in Russia: the Law on Refugees and its Implementation," by Ahoura Afshar

Ten book reviews are also included.

Back issues of the Journal of Refugee Studies are available on Forced Migration Online here.

Posted in Periodicals.

Two Reports on the AU in Darfur

Protecting Two Million Internally Displaced: The Successes and Shortcomings of the African Union in Darfur (Nov. 2005), from the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement - http://www.brookings.edu/comm/news/200511_au_darfur.htm
- The URL links to a press release describing the report. At the time of this writing, only the hyperlink on the title of the report in the body of the press release was actually functioning; the link to "complete report" was not working.

The EU/AU Partnership in Darfur: Not Yet a Winning Combination (Oct. 2005), from the International Crisis Group - http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3766&l=1

Posted in Publications.

Recent Issues of Journals/Newsletters

African Journal on Conflict Resolution, vol. 5, no. 1 (2005) - http://www.accord.org.za/ajcr/2005-1.htm (full-text)

Australian Journal of Emergency Management, vol. 20, no. 3 (Aug. 2005) - http://www.ema.gov.au/ema/emaInternet.nsf/HeadingPagesDisplay/AJEM?OpenDocument#current (full-text)

CrisisWatch, no. 27 (Nov. 2005) - http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3773 (full-text)
- Monitors ongoing conflict situations and comments on their improvement/decline.

Disasters, vol. 29, no. 4 (Nov. 2005) - http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/disa/29/4 (table of contents, abstracts)
- Includes several articles discussing the value of the Code of Conduct.

Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 28, no. 6 (Nov. 2005) – http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/openurl.asp?genre=issue&issn=0141-9870&volume=28&issue=6 (table of contents, abstracts)
- Focus is on the children of immigrants.

Human Rights Brief, vol. 12, no. 3 (Spring 2005) - http://www.wcl.american.edu/hrbrief/12/123.pdf?rd=1 (full-text)
- Note: The PDF for this issue takes quite a long time to download!

International Migration, vol. 43, no. 4 (Oct. 2005) - http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/imig/43/4 (table of contents, abstracts)
- Includes special cluster on human trafficking.

Nutrition Information in Crisis Situations, vol. 7 (Aug. 2005) - http://www.unsystem.org/scn/Publications/html/rnis.html (full-text)

Posted in Periodicals.

New Issue of Development in Practice

The latest issue of Oxfam's Development in Practice has been published. The focus of vol. 15, no. 6 (Nov. 2005) is on peace-building, and included are a review essay and an annotated bibliography on post-war reconstruction. The table of contents and abstracts, plus a full-text editorial are available at http://www.developmentinpractice.org/abstracts/Vol15/15-6/v15n06Contents.htm.

Posted in Periodicals.

New Issue of Conflict Trends

Conflict Trends, published by the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), is issued 4 times per year. The third issue is now available, and it focuses on refugees and confict in Africa. The full-text is available at http://www.accord.org.za/ct/2005-3.htm.

Posted in Periodicals.

Learning Opportunities: HREA, IDHA

Courses - http://www.hrea.org/courses/index.html
- Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is offering a number of short courses in 2006 that can be taken via distance education. Examples include introductions to the various human rights systems (universal and regional), human rights advocacy and human rights monitoring. Visit the a/m URL for descriptions and application information.

International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance (IDHA) - http://www.cihc.org/plaintext/index.php?section=3&id=19&title=What%20is%20IDHA
- Described as a “comprehensive, unified training program suitable for all international relief agencies.” Courses will be offered March 5 - March 31, 2006 in Geneva and June 4 - June 30, 2006 in New York. Use the online application form available via the link in the left navigation menu.

Posted in Events.

Arthur C. Helton Fellowship Program

Arthur C. Helton Fellowship Program - http://www.asil.org/aboutasil/heltonindex.html
- In honor of Arthur Helton, the American Society of International Law (ASIL) established a program to award small grants to “to law students and young professionals for the pursuit of fieldwork and research on significant issues involving international law, human rights, humanitarian affairs, and related areas.” Applications for 2006 fellowships are due by 15 February 2006. Visit the a/m URL for more information and an online application.

Posted in Events.

HIV & AIDS in Emergency Settings

This site was created by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and UNAIDS. It includes the following sections: an introduction to the issue; HIV/AIDS Response; HIV/AIDS and Security; Refugees; Women & Children; Food Insecurity; Migrants (currently under construction); and Tsunami Relief. In each section, related documents and links are provided. A separate Guidelines section is available, with links to supporting materials.

Posted in Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

New from the Global Comm. on International Migration

Global Migration Perspectives (Oct. 2005) - http://www.gcim.org/en/ir_gmp.html
- Six new papers have been added to the series.

Migration in an interconnected world: New directions for action (Oct. 2005) - http://www.gcim.org/en/finalreport.html
- A “comprehensive overview of international migration issues, accompanied by a set of six principles for action and 33 recommendations”; download individual chapters or the complete report.

Newsletter of the Global Migration and Gender Network (Oct. 2005) - http://gender.gcim.org/newsletter/
- This issue includes links to articles and web sites focusing on gender, migration and HIV/AIDS, and a useful list of information resources relating to various aspects of gender and migration.

Posted in Publications.

New from UNHCR: Protection evaluation, Statelessness handbook

Evaluation of the Department of International Protection’s Protection Information Section (PIS) (Oct. 2005) [text]
- This looked at the role and activities of the Protection Information Section, particularly its production of the CD-ROM database, REFWORLD.

Nationality and Statelessness: A Handbook for Parliamentarians (Nov. 2005) [text]
- Produced in conjunction with IPU.

Posted in Publications.

Reviewing Developments in 2004

Two review reports were recently issued. The first is from ALNAP and looks at humanitarian action in 2004. It includes an overview of findings, and chapters on “Institutional capacity building amid humanitarian action,” “Lessons learned: the Darfur experience,” and “Meta-evaluation.” The second is ECRE's Country Report, which "contains reports on major policy and legal developments in 2004, along with statistics on asylum applications, for 27 European countries."

Posted in Publications.

Press-related Publications

Working with the Media: A Guide for Anti-Racist Campaigners and Refugee Rights Activists (Oct. 2005) - http://www.irr.org.uk/pdf/media_guidance.pdf

- From the Institute for Race Relations, London.

World Press Freedom Index 2005 - http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=554

- Ranks 167 countries; provides overview and regional surveys.

Posted in Publications.

Recent UN Reports/Finding UN Documents

While certain UN documents can be accessed from certain UN sites at certain times, a more comprehensive source is the Official Document System (ODS). It’s available via the following links:

New York ODS site - http://www.ods.un.org/

Geneva ODS site - http://www.ods.unog.ch/

The database does not yet include all UN documents, but coverage is expanding. It’s particularly helpful for current documents, and for documents required in languages other than English. Most documents are available in the six official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Refer to the Help page for more information about coverage and searching (http://documents.un.org/help_E.htm).

The database is available for public use. Conference Room Papers (CRPs) and Working Papers are available to staff with a login and password.

Another source for current UN documents is the Dag Hammarskjöld Library’s UN Pulse blog, available at http://unhq-appspub-01.un.org/lib/dhlrefweblog.nsf/dx/about.htm.

Several recent UN documents of interest to readers include:

Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, A/60/338 (Sept. 2005) - http://www.brookings.edu/fp/projects/idp/RSG-GA_report.pdf or http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/482/79/pdf/N0548279.pdf?OpenElement

- First report of the IDP Representative to the General Assembly; presented on 28 Oct. 2005.

Report of the Secretary-General on women and peace and security, S/2005/636 (Oct. 2005) - http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/534/82/pdf/N0553482.pdf?OpenElement

- Contains Annex entitled “System-wide action plan for the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000)”.

Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, A/60/12(SUPP) (2005) - http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/540/26/pdf/N0554026.pdf?OpenElement

- UNHCR’s statute stipulates that it will follow policy directives issued by the General Assembly. The organization reports annually on its work, accordingly.

Statement by the President of the Security Council [on “Women and peace and security”], S/PRST/2005/52 (Oct. 2005) - http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/575/55/pdf/N0557555.pdf?OpenElement

Note: If you experience any difficulties following these links, you can always retrieve the document in question by going to the ODS simple search page, and searching on the document symbol.

Posted in Publications.

November 6 - International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict

In 2001, November 6 was designated by the UN General Assembly as "International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict" (see A/RES/56/4). Here are a few information resources that provide an introduction to and basic overview of the impact of war and conflict on the environment.

Armed Conflict, Refugees and the Environment (World Resources Institute) -http://earthtrends.wri.org/features/view_feature.cfm?theme=10&fid=43

Environment and Conflict (Environmental Literacy Council) - http://www.enviroliteracy.org/subcategory.php/222.html

Environment and Forced Migration: A Review Paper for 4th IRAP conference 5-9 January 1994, Oxford (W. Franklin G. Cardy) - http://tinyurl.com/d5wbc

Environment, Conflict and Cooperation (Adelphi Research, GermanWatch) - http://www.ecc-platform.org/

Post-Conflict Assessment Unit (UNEP) - http://postconflict.unep.ch/

Protection of the Natural Environment in Time of Armed Conflict, International Review of the Red Cross, no. 285 (1991), p. 567-578 - http://tinyurl.com/dxgqz

War Torn Environment: Interpreting the Legal Threshold (Brill, 2004) - http://www.brill.nl/m_catalogue_sub6_id21821.htm
- This is the table of contents for a book by Karen Hulme on the subject.

Working for People and the Environment (UNHCR) - http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home?page=protect&id=3b94c47b4

Welcome to the Forced Migration CAB!

This Current Awareness Blog or CAB has been created to help you with the following tasks: 1) keep up with new publications, new journal and newsletter issues, new events and opportunities for professional development and learning, new web sites, and other relevant online resources; 2) track who's doing what where in terms of research and publication; and 3) learn about online tools that can facilitate the search and retrieval of relevant information resources. So check in regularly or add this site's feed to your favorite newsreader, and let the FM CAB help you navigate the forced migration information highway.