June/July Events

June and July promise to be busy months with summer courses, conferences, and other international events. Here's a partial listing.

The Centre for Refugee Studies' annual Summer Course on Refugee Issues is scheduled for 10-18 June 2006. Topics and more information are provided here.

The Canadian Council for Refugees' International Refugee Rights Conference will be held 17-19 June 2006 in Toronto, somewhat overlapping with IASFM10. The aim is for NGOs to examine the state of refugee protection and to "agree on strategies to ensure that NGOs work together more effectively across borders to protect the rights of refugees." More information is available at the conference web site.

Hosted by the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), the 10th biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) will take place in 18-22 June 2006 in Toronto. A preliminary schedule for the conference has just been posted. Some speakers are yet to be confirmed, but the opening plenary session will focus on "the state of forced migration studies" and will be delivered by James Hathaway (Refugee and Asylum Law Program, University of Michigan) and Zachary Lomo (Refugee Law Project, Makerere University). Plenary sessions for subsequent days will address IDPs, North-South dialogues on forced migration, Canadian issues, and migration-asylum dialogues.

World Refugee Day is June 20th. This year's theme is "Keeping the Flame of Hope Alive." To learn about commemorative events in your country, visit UNHCR's information page.

The American University in Cairo's Forced Migration & Refugee Studies Program is offering several short courses in June and July. Descriptions are provided online.
- 18-22 June 2006: Responding to Refugee Women at Risk - From the Camp to the United Nations
- 26 June-July 1, 2006: Meeting the Psychosocial Needs of Refugees
- 2-8 July 2006: International Refugee and Human Rights Law

The Odysseus Network hosts its 2006 Summer School on European Union Law and Policy on Immigration and Asylum from 3-14 July 2006 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Check the programme for more information.

The Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) offers its International Summer School in Forced Migration from 3-21 July 2006 in Oxford. For a description of the programme and its objectives, go to the RSC home page, hover over "Teaching" in the left-hand navigation menu, and select "Summer School."

Posted in Events & Opportunities.

Detention of Refugees and Asylum Seekers

The latest report in UNHCR's Legal and Protection Policy Research Series is "Alternatives to Detention of Asylum Seekers and Refugees" (April 2006). The study "undertook research into the practices regarding the use of alternatives to detention for asylum seekers and/or refugees of thirty-four States."

Other resources that provide information about the detention practices of receiving countries include:
- European asylum systems: legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in Western Europe (ECRE)
- World Refugee Surveys (USCRI)

Posted in Publications.

Amnesty International Annual Report

Amnesty International (AI) released its 2006 human rights survey today. The report includes regional overviews, country profiles, and analyses of key issues including displaced peoples. Accompanying this year's release are several video and audio files, as well as a number of photographs, all of which can be accessed through the Launch pack. The AI Report's podcasts can also be downloaded via the homepage.

Previous annual reports can be accessed in full since 1998; summaries are available for 1996 and 1997. Visit the annual report index for more information.

Posted in Publications.

Free Scholarly Journal Issues

Individual publishers often offer free sample issues for information and marketing purposes. Here is a list of several individual journal issues that are made available in full at no cost:

Development in Practice, vol. 15, no. 6 (Nov. 2005) [contents]
- Registration is required to access the full-text.

Disasters, vol. 30, no. 1 (March 2006) [access]
- The focus of this issue is “Natural disasters and climate change.”

European Journal of Migration and Law, vol. 6, no. 4 (2004) [access]

International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 16, no. 4 (Dec. 2004) [journal page]
- Click on the “free sample issue” link and follow the instructions. A description of the contents I was provided free access to is available here, but it may vary by individual visitor.

International Migration, vol. 44, no. 1 (March 2006) [access]
- This issue includes comments on the report of the Global Commission on International Migration, as well as articles on immigrant/refugee social change and on language acquisition.

International Migration Review, vol. 40, no. 1 (Feb. 2006) [access]
- This issue focuses on “gender and migration studies.”

Journal of Refugee Studies, vol. 17, no. 4 (Dec. 2004) [journal page]
- Click on the “free sample issue” link and follow the instructions. A description of the contents I was provided free access to is available here, but it may vary by individual visitor.

Refugee Survey Quarterly, vol. 23, no. 4 (Dec. 2004) [journal page]
- Click on the “free sample issue” link and follow the instructions. A description of the contents I was provided free access to is available here, but it may vary by individual visitor.

Other resources:

- To find free sample issues that are available in other journals, browse through FreeFullText.com.
- To access full-text back issues of Disasters, International Journal of Refugee Law, International Migration Review, and Journal of Refugee Studies, visit Forced Migration Online's journals database. For copyright reasons, there is a time lag of 3-5 years between issues that can be accessed through FMO and the most recently published issue.
- Other full-text journal/newsletter titles that focus on forced migration issues are listed in my Guide to Forced Migration Periodicals.

Posted in Periodicals.

New Research/Policy Studies

Andrijasevic, R., "How to Balance Rights and Responsibilities on Asylum at the EU's Southern Border of Italy and Libya," Working Paper, no. 27 (Oxford: COMPAS, 2006) [text]

Dumper, H., Navigation Guide no. 5: Women Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK (London: Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK, May 2006 update) [text]

Gardner, C., "Can the government manage migration? A study of UK legislation and policy from 1996–2006," Working Paper, no. 28 (Oxford: COMPAS, 2006) [text]

Goodwin-Gill, G., Free and Fair Elections: New Expanded Edition (Geneva: Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2006) [English text] [French text]

Iredale, R. et al., "Promoting a Process to Encourage Ratification of the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Family: Bangladesh, Korea and New Zealand," APMRN Working Paper No. 17 (Canberra: Asia Pacific Migration Research Network, April 2006) [text]

Jaspars, S., "From food crisis to fair trade: livelihoods analysis, protection and support in emergencies," ENN Special Supplement Series, no. 3 (Oxford: Emergency Nutrition Network, March 2006) [text]

Moret, J. et al., "The Path of Somali Refugees into Exile. A Comparative Analysis of Secondary Movements and Policy Responses," SFM Studies 46 (Neuchâtel: Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies, May 2006) [text]

O'Neil, T., ed., Human Rights and Poverty Reduction: Realities, Controversies and Strategies (London: Overseas Development Institute, March 2006) [text]

Posted in Publications.

New Journal Issues: IJRL, Intl. Mig.

International Journal of Refugee Law, advance access articles [contents]
- As noted on the OUP site, these "articles are papers that have been copyedited and typeset but not yet paginated for inclusion in an issue of the journal." The three that are currently available in May are "Protection Elsewhere/Nowhere," by S. Taylor; "Dealing with non-Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East: Policies and Practices in an Uncertain Environment," by R. Zaiotti; and "The Mexico Declaration and Plan of Action: Reaffirming Latin America's Generous Tradition of Asylum and Innovative Solutions," by P. Lavanchy.

International Migration, vol. 44, no. 2 (June 2006) [contents]
- Includes articles on immigrants in France, Sweden and Southern California.

Posted in Periodicals.

UN: Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About

The UN's list of "10 Stories the World Should Hear More About" for 2006 was posted on 15 May, the UN Pulse reported. Two of the stories are particularly relevant to forced migration:

- "Lost in migration: Asylum seekers face challenges amid efforts to stem flows of illegal migrants" [text]
- "Protracted refugee situations: Millions caught in limbo, with no solutions in sight" [text]

More analysis of both issues is provided in UNHCR's latest State of the World's Refugees 2006, particularly chapters two ("Safeguarding Asylum") and five ("Protracted Refugee Situations").

For more information about these issues generally, visit the web sites of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) and Human Rights First , two organizations that advocate for the fair treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe and the U.S., respectively. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) has launched an anti-warehousing campaign to highlight the plight of refugees caught up in protracted situations.

Other sources of information about "forgotten crises" are listed in an earlier posting.

Posted in Publications.

Recent Journal Articles/Research

Çalişkan, Selmin and Karen Griese, "Women Fighting Violence in War-Torn Societies," Development, vol. 49, no. 1, March 2006, pp. 127-131 [full-text]

Caruso, Ngaire, "Refuge from the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda: A report from a Médecins Sans Frontières team leader," Emergency Medicine Australasia, vol. 18, no. 3, June 2006, pp. 295-298 [abstract]

Cohen, Roberta, "Developing an International System for Internally Displaced Persons," International Studies Perspectives, vol. 7, no. 2, May 2006, pp. 87-101 [abstract]

Goodkind, Jessica, "Promoting Hmong Refugees' Well-Being Through Mutual Learning: Valuing Knowledge, Culture, and Experience," American Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 37, no. 1, March 2006, pp. 77-93 [abstract]

Gushulak, Brian D. and Douglas W. Macpherson, "The basic principles of migration health: population mobility and gaps in disease prevalence," Emerging Themes in Epidemiology, vol. 3, May 2006, p. 3+ [full-text]

Harris, Madeleine, Kate Humphries, and Judith Nabb, "Delivering care for women seeking refuge," RCM Midwives Journal, vol. 9, no. 5, May 2006, pp. 190-192 [abstract]

Koehn, Peter H., "Health-care outcomes in ethnoculturally discordant medical encounters: the role of physician transnational competence in consultations with asylum seekers," Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, vol. 8, no. 2, April 2006, pp. 137 - 147 [abstract]

Mettraux, Guénaël, "Dutch Courts' Universal Jurisdiction over Violations of Common Article 3 qua War Crimes," Journal of International Criminal Justice, vol. 4, no. 2, May 2006, pp. 362-371 [abstract]

Moreno, Alejandro et al., "Characteristics and utilization of primary care services in a torture rehabilitation center," Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, vol. 8, no. 2, April 2006, pp. 163 - 171 [abstract]

Van Wassenhove, L. N., "Humanitarian aid logistics: supply chain management in high gear," Journal of the Operational Research Society, vol. 57, no. 5, May 2006, pp. 475-489 [abstract]

Posted in Periodicals and Publications.

New reports on violence against children and child exploitation

CFP Reminder: Children & Society Special Issue: "Asylum seeking and refugee children: local and global perspectives" [text of CFP]
- The Spring 2007 issue will focus on displacement and asylum. Deadline for proposals is 31 May 2006.

CRIN Newsletter 19: "Children and Violence" (May 2006) [text]
- CRIN's "new yearly thematic Newsletter. The last issue focuses on Children and Violence, to coincide with the near completion of the UN Study on Violence Against Children, and its presentation to the UN General Assembly."

ICRC, Violence Against Girls in Africa During Armed Conflicts and Crises (May 2006) [text]
- A "report on a two day conference entitled 'Violence Against Girls in Africa' held in Addis Ababa and hosted by the African Child Policy Forum, a pan-African organization working to promote children's rights." (Source: ReliefWeb)

ILPA, Child first, migrant second: Ensuring that every child matters (Feb. 2006) [text]
- "The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of recent changes in asylum and immigration law and practice on children subject to immigration control within the context of the [Every Child Matters] framework. (Source: SOSIG Subject News)

Save the Children UK, From Camp to Community: Liberia study on exploitation of children (May 2006) [text]
- "Discussion paper on children’s vulnerability to exploitation and abuse during the delivery of assistance in Liberia based on field studies carried out by Save the Children UK in Liberia." (Source: SOSIG Subject News)

Posted in Publications.

Research Updates

Browse through the following newsletters to monitor research developments in various subject areas:

id21 Insights, no. 61 (April 2006)
- Focus is on food security in Africa.

Newsletter, Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty, University of Sussex (April 2006)

Refugee Livelihoods Network Newsletter, UNHCR (April 2006)

Research Update, Feinstein International Famine Center, Tufts University (April 2006)

RSC Termly Updates, Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford University (May 2006)

Posted in Periodicals.

New Journal Issues: Dev. in Practice, Disasters, FMR, Geo. Immig. L.J., HRQ, Intl. Mig., IMR

Development in Practice, vol. 16, nos. 3/4 (June 2006) [contents]
- Focus is on humanitarianism: issues, trends and dilemmas.

Disasters, vol. 30, no. 2 (June 2006) [contents]
- Issue includes "Mainstreaming Risk Reduction in Urban Planning and Housing: A Challenge for International Aid Organisations," "Psychological Assessment of Children in Disasters and Emergencies," and "Using Design Effects From Previous Cluster Surveys to Guide Sample Size Calculation in Emergency Settings," among other articles.

Forced Migration Review, no. 25 (May 2006) [full-text]
- Theme is "People trafficking: upholding rights & understanding vulnerabilities."

Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, vol. 20, no. 2 (Winter 2006) [contents]
- Issue includes "Rules Are Made to Be Broken: How the Process of Expedited Removal Fails Asylum Seekers," "Gender-Based Violence Among Refugee and Internally Displaced Women in Africa," and "Burden Sharing or Burden Shifting? Asylum and Expansion in the European Union," among other articles.

Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 2 (May 2006) [contents]
- Includes articles on the ICC, right to health care, arms transfers, energy, the International Bill of Human Rights, reproductive choice, and the war on terrorism.

International Migration Review, vol. 40, no. 1 (Feb. 2006) [free full-text]
- This issue has been available for a little while but its contents have not always been freely accessible. Take advantage of this free sample issue!

International Migration, vol. 44, no. 1 (March 2006) [free full-text]
- Ditto for this issue - free content.

Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, vol. 4, no. 3 (2006) [contents]
- Includes articles on immigrants in Canada, the Netherlands, Egypt, Ireland and New England.

Posted in Periodicals.

New Reports: Asylum, IDPs, Health Care, Migrant Labour, War on Terror

Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Regional Conference on Internal Displacement in West Africa, 26-28 April 2006 [conference docs.]

Castles, Stephen, "Back to the Future? Can Europe meet its Labour Needs through Temporary Migration?," International Migration Institute Working Paper, No. 1, 2006 [text]

Georgetown University Law Center, Unintended Consequences: Refugee Victims of the War on Terror, May 2006 [text]

Gerritsen, Annette A.M. et al, "Use of health care services by Afghan, Iranian, and Somali refugees and asylum seekers living in The Netherlands," European Journal of Public Health, Advance Access published online on May 3, 2006 [abstract]

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, In Need of Durable Solutions: the Revolving Door of Internal Displacement in West Africa, April 2006 [text]

Webber, Frances, "Asylum: from deterrence to criminalisation," European Race Bulletin, no. 55, April 2006 [abstract]

Posted in Publications.

2006 Human Rights in the OSCE Region

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) released its annual "Human Rights in the OSCE Region: Europe, Central Asia and North America, Report 2006 (Events of 2005)" on 1 May 2006. Previous reports dating to 1999 are also available on the site. For earlier IHF reports that cover events from 1989-1999, go to Forced Migration Online's Digital Library search page, click on ‘Advanced Search’, and select ‘Czech Helsinki Committee in Prague’ from the ‘Collection Name’ drop-down menu. Scroll through the search results to locate reports of interest.

Posted in Publications.

Human Rights Council Developments

Elections for the newly established Human Rights Council are being held today. The UN Pulse highlighted the UN News Centre's site which will have a live webcast of the elections. It also has updates and background information on the candidates. Amnesty International is another source for profiles of the candidates; visit its "Guide to UN Human Rights Council Candidates."

For those who like to plan ahead, HREA is offering a12-week distance education course entitled "The United Nations Human Rights System: Transitioning from the Commission on Human Rights to the Human Rights Council" from 12 February to 5 May 2007.

Posted in Events and Web Sites/Tools.

Laws and Policies on Internally Displaced Persons

The Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement has added a new resource to its site: National and Regional Laws and Policies on Internal Displacement. Visitors can download the entire library of laws or browse by region and title. Currently, the "compilation contains existing policies and laws from 12 countries and notes 5 countries currently drafting policies and laws."

Posted in Web Sites/Tools.

New Acquisitions

The UNHCR library has just posted its most recent acquisitions list for March & April 2006. As noted in an earlier post, scanning these lists is one way of finding out about new books and research reports. The RSC library should also soon be making available its own list covering acquisitions for the first quarter of 2006. Older lists can be accessed through the library page.

Another useful service is provided by the Peace Palace Library in The Hague. Users can visit the "new titles" page at the library web site and browse through recently acquired titles by subject. From a particular subject page, users then have the option to subscribe to free email alerts for other related new titles. I selected "individuals and groups; human rights" under "public international law." References to new titles are sent out every Friday.

Posted in Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

European Refugee/Integration Policy

Two new policy papers focusing on refugee/migration issues in Europe were released recently. The first from the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) is entitled "Europe's role in the global refugee protection system. The Way Forward: an Agenda for Change," and was presented at the European Parliament on 26 April 2006.

The European Policy Centre (EPC) examines integration practices and policies in "One size fits all? Tailored integration policies for migrants in the European Union" (27 April 2006).

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) also addresses European integration issues in several chapters of its latest book, Europe and Its Immigrants in the 21st Century: A New Deal or a Continuing Dialogue of the Deaf? (March 2006) [description].

Here are a few resources to help monitor migration news and policy developments in Europe:
- Migration News (free monthly news overview; includes European coverage)
- Migration News Sheet (monthly bulletin on immigrants, refugees and ethnic minorities in Europe; requires subscription)
- Migration und Bevölkerung (free, mostly monthly newsletter; in German)

Posted in Publications.

Failed States Index 2006

The Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine have released their second index of failed states. "Using 12 social, economic, political, and military indicators, [they] ranked 148 states in order of their vulnerability to violent internal conflict and societal dysfunction." Included among the indicators are "massive movement of refugees and IDPs," "chronic and sustained human flight," and "widespread violation of human rights." The Foreign Policy articles provide an overview of the failed state phenomenon and consider some of the whys and wherefores, while the Fund for Peace pages offer additional data and analysis. Read the related article from the BBC.

Another resource for datasets and reports on failed states is the State Failure Task Force.

Posted in Publications.

Monitoring Journal Content

I recently signed up for OUP's CiteTrack service. It's accessible from an individual journal title's web page, for example, the Journal of Refugee Studies. This service allows you to do two things: 1) track citations to a particular article that appeared in the specific journal through which you register (in this example, JRS), or 2) learn about new journal articles containing keywords of your choice that are published in an OUP journal or PUBMED or HighWire. Since I am more interested in the second function of the service, I selected the following terms for monitoring purposes: "forced migration," "refugee," "internally displaced," "asylum," and "humanitarian."

And here are some of my results so far:

Caulford, P. and Y. Vali (April 25, 2006), "Providing health care to medically uninsured immigrants and refugees," Can. Med. Assoc. Journal 174(9): 1253-4 [free full-text]

Mettraux, Guenael (2006), "Dutch Courts' Universal Jurisdiction over Violations of Common Article 3 qua War Crimes," J. Int. Criminal Justice 4(2): 362-371 [abstract]

Moore, Will H. and Stephen M. Shellman (2006), "Refugee or Internally Displaced Person?: To Where Should One Flee?", Comparative Political Studies 39(5): 599-622 [abstract]


Posted in Web Sites/Tools and Periodicals.