Focus: Africa

Crisis in Mali (U.S. Congressional Research Service, Aug. 2012) [text]

"The Double Burden of Obesity and Malnutrition in a Protracted Emergency Setting: A Cross-Sectional Study of Western Sahara Refugees," PLoS Medicine, 9(10): e1001320 [open access text]

Humanitarian Exchange, no. 55 (Sept. 2012) [full-text]
- Special feature on the crisis in the Sahel; eight articles included.

From Refugee to IDP in Somaliland (Refugees International Blog, Oct. 2012) [text]

Limbo for Ex-Liberian Refugees (IRIN, Oct. 2012) [text]

Mali in Crisis: Tens of Thousands of Refugees (openDemocracy, Sept. 2012) [text]

Returning Home after Civil War: The Consequences of Forced Displacement for Food Security, Nutrition and Poverty among Burundese Households, HiCN Working Paper 123 (Households in Conflict Network, Sept. 2012) [text via ReliefWeb]

U.S. Aid Runs through Displacement Camp ‘Gatekeepers’ in Mogadishu (Refugees International Blog, Sept. 2012) [text]

Tagged Publications. 

Focus: Children

Publications:

Commission Staff Working Document on the Implementation of the Action Plan on Unaccompanied Minors (European Commission, Sept. 2012) [text]

Deportation, Non-deportability and Precarious Lives (Postcards from..., Oct. 2012) [text]

Educating the Refugee Child: A Resource Guide for Teachers Working with Refugee Students from Burma (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Aug. 2012) [text]

Ensuring a Fair and Effective Asylum Process for Unaccompanied Alien Children (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, Sept. 2012) [text]
- See also related blog post.

"‘I felt that I was benefiting someone’: Youth as Agents of Change in a Refugee Community Project," Health Education Research, vol. 27, no. 5 (Oct. 2012) [open access text]

Into the Unknown: Children’s Journeys through the Asylum Process (The Children's Society, Sept. 2012) [text]

Multimedia:

To Say Goodbye [access] [press release]
- "Through innovative animation, the film tells the story of the 4000 Basque children evacuated to the United Kingdom in 1937. Forced to bid a hurried farewell to their parents, these children were told they would only be in the UK for three months. 75 years later, some are still there, forever separated from their parents and their homeland, their families torn apart and their childhood destroyed by a brutal and bloody conflict."

Tagged Publications.

CFP/New Issues of FRLAN, Humanit. Exch., JEMS, J. Intl. Humanit. Legal Stud., Soc. & Legal Stud.

Call for papers:

Anti-Trafficking Review is seeking submissions for a special issue on "Human Rights at the Border.  The deadline is 31 December 2012.

New issues:

Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter,  no. 30 (Oct. 2012) [full-text]
- News and discussion on refugee legal aid

Humanitarian Exchange, no. 55 (Sept. 2012) [full-text]
- Special feature on the crisis in the Sahel.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 38, no. 9 (2012) [contents]
- Special issue on "Migration and the Internet: Social Networking and Diasporas."  The introductory article is provided as a free full-text.

Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies, vol. 2, no. 2 (2012) [contents]
- Mix of articles including "An Analysis of Soft Law Applicable to Humanitarian Assistance: Relative Normativity in Action?"

Social & Legal Studies, vol. 21, no. 3 (Sept. 2012) [contents]
- Mix of articles including "‘Hearing the Right Gaps’: Enabling and Responding to Disclosures of Sexual Violence within the UK Asylum Process" and "The Occupation of Public Space in Bogotá: Internal Displacement and the City."

Tagged Periodicals and Events & Opportunities. 

Focus: Detention

An Economic Analysis of Alternatives to Long-Term Detention: Final Report (Matrix Evidence, Sept. 2012) [text]

Greek Authorities Unlawfully Detained an Afghan Asylum Seeker in Degrading Conditions (European Court of Human Rights, Sept. 2012) [text via Detention in Europe]
- Summary of Ahmade v. Greece judgment.

"Ins" and "Outs" of Immigration Detention (Human Rights First, 2012) [access]
- Infographic.

Invisible in Isolation: The Use of Segregation and Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention (National Immigrant Justice Center & Physicians for Human Rights, Sept. 2012) [text]

"Unlawful Detention and Refoulement of Asylum Seekers in South Africa," Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter, no. 30 (Oct. 2012) [full-text]

Tagged Publications. 

Fellowship Opportunities

Post-Graduate Training Fellowship, Refugee Law Initiative [info]
- Apply for this award for "an individual studying or researching in the refugee or human rights field" by 15 October 2012.

Rayne Fellowships for Refugees, Praxis [info]
- Opportunity for refugees in the UK to receive support for ideas that can "make a real difference to people's lives"; application deadline is 30 November 2012.

Graduate Teaching Fellowships, Center for Applied Legal Studies [info]
- Apply for two-year teaching fellowship for July 2013 - June 2015; candidates with asylum/immigration law experience will be given preference.  Deadline is 3 December 2012.

Human Rights Fellowship, Oak Institute [info] [application]
- Focus is on "Human Rights Protection in Situations of Internment or Displacement"; apply by 15 December 2012.

Arthur C. Helton Fellowship, American Society of International Law [info]
- Provides financial assistance for "law students and young professionals to pursue field work and research on significant issues involving international law, human rights, humanitarian affairs, and related areas."  Application period runs from 15 October 2012 to 7 January 2013.

Tagged Events & Opportunities. 

Focus: Asia

"Afghan Refugees in Pakistan," Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter, no. 30 (Oct. 2012) [full-text]
- See also news stories from UNAMA and UNHCR Pakistan.

Afghanistan: Country of Origin Information for Use in the Asylum Determination Process (Danish Immigration Service, May 2012) [text via Refworld]

"China's New Exit-Entry Law," Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter, no. 30 (Oct. 2012) [full-text]

CORI Country Report: Bangladesh (Country of Origin Research and Information, March 2012) [text]

"The Factors Affecting the Development of National Identity as South Korean in North Korean Refugees Living in South Korea," Psychiatry Investigation, vol. 9, no. 3 (2012) [open access text]

The Flight of the Rohingya (Virginia Quarterly Review Blog, Sept. 2012) [text]
- Part 1 of two-part series.

Forced Labour during the Arakan Crisis: An Overview of Forced Labour Practices in North Arakan, Burma (Arakan Project, Aug. 2012) [text]

Will Aung San Suu Kyi Ignore the Rohingya? (Virginia Quarterly Review Blog, Sept. 2012) [text]
- Part 2 of two-part series.

[Photo credit: © UNHCR/N.Farhad in "Afghan returns pass 50,000 in first eight months, up on last year," UNHCR, Aug. 2012]

Tagged Publications. 

Multimedia Resources

Afghan Refugees and Returnees through the Eyes of Women on the Ground [access]
- Photo exhibit which will be shown in Geneva during the EXCOM sessions held this week.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea [access]
- Documentary that looks at the "circumstances and decisions that lead someone to become a 'boat person'."

Hamedullah: The Road Home [access]
- Documentary that follows an Afghan youth who sought protection in the UK, was placed in a detention center after he turned 18, then subsequently deported to Afghanistan.

How Gendered is Citizenship? A Teaching Resource [access]
- Video of roundtable debate.  Includes questions to guide classroom discussion.

How Much Further [access]
- A "film about the lives of refugees in Greece."

Leave to Remain [access]
- Film project that focuses on young unaccompanied asylum seekers in the UK is seeking support.

My Life as a Refugee [access]
- iPad/iPhone/Android app from UNHCR that "players contemplate the same life-changing decisions refugees make in a true-to-life quest to try to survive, reach safety, reunite with loved ones and re-start their lives."

The Plight of Internally Displaced Persons [access]
- Podcast from the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement.

Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony = Hijos de las Nubes, la última colonia [access]
- Documentary focusing on the plight of the Saharawis.

A Stand in the Sinai [access]
- A documentary from the CNN Freedom Project that focuses on "Egypt’s Sinai Desert where people-smugglers abuse, rape and hold for ransom desperately poor refugees."

For similar resources, browse the label "audiovisual media" that I use to index blog posts when they include references to photo collections, videos or podcasts.

Tagged Web Sites/Tools. 

UNHCR Offices on Facebook

UNHCR's presence on Facebook has expanded significantly. I've posted recently that PDES, the Statelessness Unit, and Innovation Unit now all have pages.  But what about offices in the field?  While many have web sites, others have turned to social media to provide updates on news and developments in their countries or regions.  Here's a list of what I have managed to turn up so far, although since I am not on Facebook myself, I'm sure it's far from complete!

• Americas
• Australia
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Central Asia
• Central Europe
• Chad
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Djibouti
• DRC
• Ethiopia: Dollo Ado
• Greece
• Hong Kong
• India
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Lebanon
• Kenya: Dadaab & Alinjugur
• Malaysia
• Malta
• Mexico
• Moldova
• Pakistan
• South Sudan
• Spain
• Thailand
• United Kingdom
• United States: New York, Washington

And here are a few other UNHCR pages that I came across as I was searching:

• Keep in Touch with UNHCR
• Le HCR
• Regional Centre for Emergency Preparedness ("eCentre")

So what have I missed?

Tagged Web Sites/Tools.

Focus: Climate Change

"Book Review: Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives," Leiden Journal of International Law, vol. 25, no. 3 (Sept. 2012) [free full-text]

Climate Vulnerability Monitor, 2nd ed. (DARA, Sept. 2012) [access]

Human Rights and Climate Change: EU Policy Options (European Parliament, Aug. 2012) [text]

"More Complex Conflict Drivers than Environment and Climate," New Routes, vol. 17, no. 2 (2012) [full-text]

New Research on Climate Change Migration and Displacement: Should I Stay or Should I Go?, Washington, DC, 26 Sept. 2012 [access] [event report]

Part of the Solution? Rethinking Climate Change and Migration (UK Climate Change & Migration Coalition, Sept. 2012) [text]

Tagged Publications. 

Focus: Human Trafficking

Upcoming event:

6th EU Anti-Trafficking Day - Working Together Towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings: The Way Forward, Brussels, 18 October 2012 [info]
- Register by 4 October 2012.

Publications:

Challenging Existing Discourses, Approaches and Responses to Human Trafficking, Gmunden, Austria, 31 July 2012 [access]

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, vol. 18, no. 3 (2012) [contents]
- Special issue on human trafficking.

Human Trafficking in the Sinai: Refugees between Life and Death (Europe External Policy Advisors & Tilburg University, Sept. 2012) [text]

The Mafia's Shadow in the Americas: Refugees and Slavery (InSight Crime, Sept. 2012) [access]
- Special feature on organized crime and displacement in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.

Victims, Villains, and the Virtuous: Constructing the Problems of "Human Trafficking," Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School (Univ. of Minnesota, June 2012) [text]

Web site:

The Child Recovery and Reintegration Network [access]
- "Sharing learning from research and practice to support the recovery and reintegration of children affected by sexual exploitation and trafficking globally."

Tagged Events & Opportunities, Publications and Web Sites/Tools.  

Focus: Oceania

Upcoming event:

Nauru Mark II: The Politics of Seeking Asylum in Australia, Perth, 9 October 2012 [info]
- Hosted by the Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University.

Publications:

Adult Refugee Learners with Limited Literacy: Needs and Effective Responses (Ako Aotearoa, Sept. 2012) [access]
- Follow link for information about the now complete project and access to the final report.

Cultural and National Identity in the Face of Climate Change: A Case Study of I-Kiribati Migrants in New Zealand, Thesis submitted to the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (University of Otago, Feb. 2012) [text]

Do Refugees Really Receive Higher Welfare Benefits than Pensioners? (FlagPost, Oct. 2012) [text]

"The Utilisation of Mental Health Services by Children and Young People from a Refugee Background: A Systematic Literature Review," International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, iFirst Article, 30 Aug. 2012 [full-text via Foundation House]
- Click on second link in the listing; note also the first link in the list, "Barriers to and facilitators of utilisation of mental health services by young people of refugee background," which goes to a related paper.

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities. 

Focus: Americas

2011 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics (U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, Sept. 2012) [text]

The American Dream's Sojourn in Latin America: The Dynamics of Irregular Migration Flows Through Colombia and Ecuador, Dissertation submitted to the Refugee Studies Centre (Univ. of Oxford, 2011?) [text]

Guatemalan Massacre Survivor Granted Asylum (ImmigrationProf Blog, Sept. 2012) [text]

Refugees and Asylees in the United States (Migration Information Source, Sept. 2012) [text]
- Note: Summarizes data from the 2011 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics referenced above.

Remarks at the Office of Refugee Resettlement, National Consultation 2012 (U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Sept. 2012) [text]

Stateless in the United States: Current Reality and a Future Prediction (SSRN, Sept. 2012) [text]

Temporary Protected Status Extended for Haitians (USCIS, Oct. 2012) [text]

"Violence Against Women and Asylum Seeking: Global Problems and Local Practices Applied to Guatemalan Women Immigrating for Safety," Advances in Social Work, vol. 13, no. 2 (2012) [open access text]

Tagged Publications. 

63rd Session of EXCOM

The 63rd Session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme opened today and will continue through 5 October 2012.  Here is the provisional agenda with annotations.  The High Commissioner gave his introductory statement, noting that "UNHCR was facing a level of refugee crises unmatched in its recent history, with simultaneous new emergencies in Syria, Mali, Sudan and South Sudan, and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)."

Meeting documents are available here.

The ceremony presenting the Nansen Refugee Award takes place the first evening of EXCOM.  This year's honoree is Hawa Aden Mohamed ("Mama Hawa"), co-founder of the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development in Somalia.

[Photo credit: ©UNHCR/J-M.Ferré, in "UNHCR's Guterres says global humanitarian crises at levels unmatched in recent history" (UNHCR, Oct. 2012)]

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities. 

Legal Items

"Closing the Gap: Towards a Rights-based Approach to Refugee Law," Northwestern Interdisciplinary Law Review, vol. 4, no. 1 (2011) [full-text]

"Discretionary (In)Justice: The Exercise of Discretion in Claims for Asylum," Michigan Journal of Law Reform, vol. 45, no. 3 (Spring 2012) [full-text]

Doing Justice for Refugees and IDPs? Confronting Displacement Through Transitional Justice (Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement, Sept. 2012) [text]

Religious Persecution (Free Movement, Sept. 2012) [text]
- Reports on a recent European Court of Justice judgment.

"The Renaissance of Non-refoulement? The Othman (Abu Qatada) Decision of the European Court of Human Rights'," International and Comparative Law Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 3 (July 2012) [free full-text]

"Watered-down Rights on the High Seas: Hirsi Jamaa and Others v Italy (2012)," International and Comparative Law Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 3 (July 2012) [free full-text]

Tagged Publications. 

Action on Statelessness

*(updated)

1. UNHCR's Statelessness Unit now has a Facebook page.  Two noteworthy international developments announced on the page include:

- At the recent UN High-Level Meeting on the Rule of Law, the European Union pledged that Member States who have not yet done so will "address the issue of statelessness by ratifying the 1954 Convention and by considering ratification of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness." UNHCR's Statelessness Unit noted that "Once implemented this will result in universal accession to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons in the European Union."

- "Ecuador became the newest State party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness this week. Treaty actions by Portugal and Honduras are expected in the next few days. There are now 47 States parties to the Convention, up from 37 only 15 months ago. And 27 more States have pledged to accede."  To monitor progress on States fulfilling the pledges they made at last December's Ministerial Meeting, visit the State Action on Statelessness page.

2. Advocacy relating to the High-level Meeting, accessions and State pledges:

*- Campaign for Statelessness Conventions Gains Traction, at Last (Statelessness Programme Blog, Oct. 2012) [text]

- Dozens of Organizations Urge Member States to Accede to Statelessness Conventions (Refugees International, Sept. 2012) [text]

- No Country to Call Home (Women's Refugee Commission Blog, Sept. 2012) [text]

- Taking Stock of State Pledges to Tackle Statelessness? (European Network on Statelessness Blog, Sept. 2012) [text]

[Image credit: IDLO's infographic from its ROL meeting page]

Tagged Events & Opportunities, Publications and Web Sites/Tools.  

Focus: Europe

Publications:

Attitudes to Migrants, Communication and Local Leadership Project [access]
- Follow the link for access to more information about the project as well as the text of its final report.

EU Lawmakers Reinforce Asylum Seekers' Rights (EU Observer, Sept. 2012) [text]

Minimum Conditions for the Reception of Asylum Seekers Must Be Granted by the Member State in Receipt of an Application for Asylum Even When It Calls Upon Another Member State Which It Considers to Be Responsible for the Examination of the Application (Court of Justice of the European Union, Sept. 2012) [text]

Report on Enhanced Intra-EU Solidarity in the Field of Asylum (Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, July 2012) [text]
- See also related European Parliament Resolution.

Transfers of Asylum Seekers to Hungary (ECRE, Sept. 2012) [text]

Unaccompanied Migrant Children: More Effort Needed to Address Their Situation (European Commission, Sept. 2012) [access]

Web site:

European Asylum Support Office (EASO) [access]
- EASO "was established with the aim of enhancing practical cooperation on asylum matters and helping Member States fulfill their European and international obligations to give protection to people in need."

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools. 

Free Articles from Cambridge Journals

Do you read any journals published by Cambridge University Press?  If yes, you may be interested to know that CUP is celebrating 15 years of journals online with an offer of free access to selected articles.  Just visit the home page of a journal you follow, and click on the gold tab labeled "CJO Birthday Offer" for a list of free articles.  The offer is good until 3 October 2012.

Here are a few journal titles that I am familiar with:

International Review of the Red Cross: 1961-1997 Archive [access]

International Review of the Red Cross [access]
- Although note that the ICRC web site provides free full-text access to issues dating back to 1997.

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine [access]

Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law [access]

Tagged Publications. 

Seminar Series

Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies, London, 10 October - 12 December 2012 [info]
- The first seminar will focus on "The Figure of the Trafficked Victim: gender, rights and representation."

Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, Oxford, 11 October - 29 November 2012 [info]
- The theme of this series is "Migration Journeys."  The first lecture will focus on "Researching migrant journeys: conceptual and methodological challenges."

CERIS Ontario Metropolis Centre & Centre for Refugee Studies, Toronto, 19 September - 28 November 2012 [info]
- The first seminar in October will focus on "“The Commonwealth Response in Times of Crisis."

Refugee Law Initiative, London
- Two series are scheduled, one on "International Refugee Law" (Oct. 2012-May 2013) and the other on "Refugee Protection and Psychology" (Nov. 2012-Feb. 2013).  Seminars are free and open to the public, but booking is required.

Refugee Law Initiative & Centre for Refugee Studies, October 2012 - March 2013 [info]
- The theme of this series is "The Challenge of Change: Confronting Asylum Law and Practice in the UK and Canada."  Seminars will be conducted via video link.  While the complete programme is not yet available, the first two will focus on "Whither Refugee Protection in the Reform of Canadian and British Asylum Systems?" (17 Oct.) and "Fast Track Asylum Processes: UK and Canadian Perspectives" (14 Nov.), respectively.

Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford, 10 October - 28 November 2012 [info]
- The theme for this series is "Forced Migration and Citizenship." The first presentation will be on "Deportation, crime and the changing character of membership in the United Kingdom."

Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA [info]
- Seminar series on "Exploring the History of Humanitarianism and Development"; currently, details on two are available: "Human Rights and Human Suffering: Armenian Genocide Refugees and the Practices of Interwar Humanitarianism" (27 Sept.) and "The Hungry World: America's Cold War Battle against Hunger in Asia" (25 Oct.).  I will post more info. when the schedule is finalized.

If you know of any other series scheduled this fall, please let me know!

Tagged Events & Opportunities.   

Focus: Syrians, esp. Children

The Great Syrian Exodus (Huffington Post, Sept. 2012) [access]

Greece: The Syrian Migration Invasion (Hein de Haas Blog, Sept. 2012) [text]

Helpdesk Research Report: Humanitarian Work in Syria and Yemen (Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, Aug. 2012) [text via ReliefWeb]

Syria Regional Response Plan, Second Revision (UNHCR, Sept. 2012) [text]

Syria Regional Refugee Response: Information Sharing Portal [access]

Children:

"Child Refugees Describe Life in Syria," The Guardian, 25 Sept. 2012 [access]

Syria: A War on Childhood (War Child, July 2012) [text via ReliefWeb]

Untold Atrocities: The Stories of Syria’s Children (Save the Children, Sept. 2012) [text via ReliefWeb]

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools. 

Events & Opportunities: Last Minute September, More October 2012

*(updated)

September:

*9th Annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference, Washington, DC, 1 October 2012 [info]
- Last day for advance registration is today, 26 September 2012;  however, on-site registration will be available on the day of the conference for an additional fee.

Narrowing the Resettlement Gap: Views from the 2012 Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement (ATCR), Online, 27 September 2012 [info]

CFP: Vulnerable Workers, Forced Labour, Migration and Ethical Trading, Leeds, UK, 14 December 2012 [info]
- Submission deadline is 28 September 2012.

ECRE's Annual General Conference, Dublin, 17-19 October 2012  [info]
- Registration deadline for members extended to 28 September 2012.

Annual Conference on EU Asylum Law 2012: Focus on the Impact of the Charter of Fundamental Rights on the Asylum Process, Floriana, Malta, 29-30 October 2012 [info]
- To receive a discount, register by 29 September 2012.

October:

Family Reunification: Managing Cases Involving Children, Online, 17 October 2012 [info]

ELENA Advanced Course on "The Rights of Refugees," Madrid, 30 November-2 December 2012 [info]
- The closing date for registration is 26 October 2012.

Vulnerable Workers, Forced Labour, Migration and Ethical Trading, Leeds, UK, 14 December 2012 [info]
- Registration deadline is 31 October 2012.

Tagged Events & Opportunities.