Publications: Extraterr. Processing & Intercep. at Sea, IDPs/Burma, Palestinians/Lebanon, Refugee Policy/US, Women & Protection

A Call to Better Protect Women and Girls: Visibility, Dignity and Livelihoods (UNHCR, Oct. 2010) [text]

Maritime interception operations and the processing of international protection claims: legal standards and policy considerations with respect to extraterritorial processing (UNHCR, Nov. 2010) [text]

Protracted Displacement and Chronic Poverty in Eastern Burma/Myanmar: 2010 Survey (Thai Burma Border Consortium, Oct. 2010) [access]

A Staircase in Nahr el Bared: The Future of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon (The Aspen Institute, Oct. 2010) [text]

"The United States' Response to Humanitarian Refugee Obligations: Inconsistent Application of Legal Standards and Its Consequences," Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, vol. 33, 2010 [text]

Tagged Publications.

More November Happenings...

(updated)

New Approaches in Preventing Human Trafficking: Integrating the European Knowledge, Brussels, 16-17 November 2010 [info]
- Hosted by the Centre for Parliamentary Studies.

Seeking Asylum in the Region, La Trobe Refugee Research Centre, 18 November 2010 [info]
- Seminar given by Dr. Savitri Taylor.

Request for Statements of Interest: G/TIP FY 2011 International Programs to Combat Trafficking in Persons [info]
- From the US State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; applications due 19 November 2010.

Nominations for Honorees of Voices of Courage Awards 2011, "Urban Refugees" [info]
- See related blog post; sponsored by the Women's Refugee Commission; submit nomination by 30 November 2010.

IASFM13: Governing Migration, Kampala, 3-6 July 2011 [info]
- **Deadline for submitting abstracts has been extended to 30 November 2010.**

See earlier posts re. Nov. events & opportunities:
- More November Events & Opps.
- Looking ahead to November...

[Picture credit: Voices of Courage Honoree 2008, Women's Refugee Commission]

Tagged Events & Opportunities.

Research Organizations: Activity Records, Work Plans

UNHCR's Policy Development and Evaluation Service (PDES) recently circulated its work programme for the remainder of this year and into 2011. Readers can learn about the research activities and plans of other organizations by reviewing their annual reports. A few examples:

• Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP), Annual Report, 2009-2010 [text]
• Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS), Report of Activities, 2008-2009 [text]
• Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging (CMRB), Annual Review, 2009-2010 [text]
• Feinstein International Center (FIC), Annual Report, 2009-2010 [text]
• Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Activity Report, 2009 [text]
• La Trobe Refugee Research Centre, Annual Report, 2009 [text]
• Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Annual Report, 2009-2010 [text]
• Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), Academic Record, 2007-2009 [text]

For more, browse ReliefWeb's collection of "annual reports."

Other organizational news: The Immigration Advisory Service's Research Information and Policy Unit (RIPU) and Country Information Centre (CIC) have been closed down because of funding issues. Publications they produced in the past are available here.

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

Events, after the fact

Deportation, Migration, and Human Rights: Interdisciplinary Theory & Practice, Boston, May 2010 [conf. overview]
- Hosted by the Post-Deportation Human Rights Project at the Center for Human Rights and International Justice.

ECRE 2010 Annual General Conference, Budapest, Oct. 2010 [comment]
- See also programme.

Faith-based Humanitarianism: The Response of Faith Communities and Faith-based Organisations in Contexts of Forced Migration. Workshop Report (RSC, Sept. 2010) [text]
- Also listen to the podcast of the evening lecture.

From Relief and Works to Human Development: UNRWA and Palestinian Refugees After Sixty Years, Beirut, Oct. 2010 [comment]
- Organized by UNRWA and the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut.

ILGA Conference: LGBT Asylum Workshop Report (LGBT Asylum News, Oct. 2010) [text]
- See also the general report, ILGA-Europe Conference 2010, The Hague, 28-31 October 2010.

"Questioning Hierarchies of Harm: Women, Forced Migration, and International Criminal Law," Women and International Criminal Law, ASIL, 29 Oct. 2010 (IntLawGrrls Blog, Oct. 2010) [text]
- Preview of paper presented at a/m meeting.

Second Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, Lincoln, Nebraska, Sept.-Oct. 2010
- See program. Watch this space for presentations and papers.

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities.

New Issue of IJRL

A new issue of the International Journal of Refugee Law is now available (vol. 22, no. 4, Dec. 2010) with the following four articles:

- Refugee Status Determinations and the Limits of Memory, by Hilary Evans Cameron [abstract]
-Bridging the Gap Between Refugee Rights and Reality: a Proposal for Developing International Duties in the Refugee Context, by Jeannie Rose C. Field [abstract]
- Waiting for Life to Begin: the Plight of Asylum Seekers Caught by Australia's Indonesian Solution, by Savitri Taylor and Brynna Rafferty-Brown [abstract]
- UNHCR and Turkey, and Beyond: of Parallel Tracks and Symptomatic Cracks, by Marjoleine Zieck [abstract]

Three book reviews are also included.

Tagged Periodicals.

ECRE/ELENA Survey on Legal Aid for Asylum Seekers in Europe

ECRE/ELENA have published the Survey on Legal Aid for Asylum Seekers in Europe (Oct. 2010). Here's the abstract:

This survey provides a comparative overview of the provision of legal aid for asylum seekers in 19 countries across Europe. It gathers information not only on the role and tasks of those advising, assisting and representing asylum seekers but also on related aspects of the asylum procedure. The research reveals positive developments in the provision of legal aid as well as restrictions on access to legal advice and representation in practice. In conclusion, ECRE/ELENA provide recommendations to improve the provision of legal aid for asylum seekers in Europe.

Chapter one introduces the study and its methodology. Chapter two discusses the international and regional standards for legal aid. Chapter three presents the findings of the survey and is broken down as follows:
- Structure of the Legal Aid System
- Legal Aid Providers
- Access to Legal Aid
- The Role of Legal Aid in the Asylum Procedure
- Legal aid in Specific Asylum Procedures
- Monitoring Mechanisms for Legal Aid Providers

Chapter 4 "provides a detailed synopsis of the national practice in each of the countries surveyed under a list of selected themes." Four annexes are also included.

Tagged Publications.

Publications: Disaster Victims & Safe Haven, Gender & Asylum/UK, Health & Refugee Women, Lessons Learned/Haiti, Roma/Kosovo

Analysis: Are humanitarians learning the lessons from Haiti? (IRIN, Oct. 2010) [text]
- See also related ODI blog post.

"Effect of a primary health-care-based controlled trial for cardiorespiratory fitness in refugee women," BMC Family Practice 11:55 (Aug. 2010) [open access text]

Gender Issues in the Asylum Claim (UK Home Office, updated Sept. 2010) [text]

Rights Displaced: Forced Returns of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians from Western Europe to Kosovo (Human Rights Watch, Oct. 2010) [text]

Should Natural Disaster Victims Be Offered Safe Haven and Opportunity Abroad? (Global Development: Views from the Center, Oct. 2010) [text]


Tagged Publications.

New Issues of Africa Peace Confl. J., CSD, Fahamu Refugee News, Intl. J. Migr. Health Soc. Care, JEMS, Servir, TESOL Q., Women's Asylum N.

Africa Peace & Conflict Journal, vol. 3, no. 1 (June 2010) [contents]
- Mix of articles; includes "At the Margin of the City: IDPs, Citizenship, and Urban Polarization in Sudan."

Conflict, Security and Development, vol. 10, no. 5 (2010) [contents]
- Mix of articles, including "Human (in)security: Palestinian perceptions of security in and around the refugee camps in Lebanon" and "The ‘responsibility to protect’ in natural disasters: another excuse for interventionism? Nargis Cyclone, Myanmar."

Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter, no. 9 (Nov. 2010) [full-text]
- Includes these articles: "The law, policy and practice of refugee protection in India" and "Update from Japan: Asia’s only resettlement program continues."

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 6, no. 2 (May 2010) [contents]
- Mix of articles; note: two are available in full-text for free.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 36, no. 10 (2010) [contents]
- Special issue on "Theories of Migration and Social Change."

Servir, no. 49 (March 2010) [full-text]
- From the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS); includes articles on a visit to Kakuma refugee camp, the Rohingya, and forced return to Libya.

TESOL Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 3 (Sept. 2010) [contents]
- Focus of this issue is "Migration and Adult Language Learning"; includes "From Refugee to Transformer: A Bourdieusian Take on a Hmong Learner's Trajectory," "Overcoming Barriers: Adult Refugee Trauma Survivors in a Learning Community," and "Teaching English to Refugees in Transition: Meeting the Challenges in Cairo, Egypt."

Women’s Asylum News, no. 96 (Oct. 2010) [full-text]
- Lead article is "Trafficking and the National Referral Mechanism."

Tagged Periodicals.

Publications: Acad. & Practitioners, Asylum Evidence, HC Protecton Dialogue, North Koreans/China, Women & Emergencies

Gender and Humanitarian Disasters, Research Paper no. 10-15 (Transitional Justice Institute, Sept. 2010) [text via SSRN]

High Commissioner's Dialogue on Protection Challenges, "Protection Gaps and Responses" (Geneva, 8-9 December 2010) (UNHCR, Aug. 2010) [text]

Migrant Workers or Refugees? China’s Obligations to North Korean Defectors (Human Rights Brief Blog, Oct. 2010) [text]

"Mobilizing Academic Involvement for UN Humanitarian Action," Journal of International Organization Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, September 2010 [full-text]

Narrating Atrocity: Uses of Evidence in the Political Asylum Process, DIIS Working Paper 2010:25 (Danish Institute for International Studies, Oct. 2010) [text]

Tagged Publications.

Publications: Bisexuals & National Refugee Law, Citizenship Law/Africa, Family Reunification/UK, Non-Refoulement & Common Law/Hong Kong

"Bisexuals Need Not Apply: A Comparative Appraisal of Refugee Law and Policy in Canada, the United States, and Australia," International Journal of Human Rights, vol. 13, no. 2 (2009) [preprint posted Sept. 2010]

Citizenship Law in Africa: A Comparative Study, 2nd ed. (Open Society Institute, Oct. 2010) [text via UNHCR]

"Customary Non-Refoulement of Refugees and Automatic Incorporation into the Common Law: A Hong Kong Perspective," International and Comparative Law Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 2 (2009) [text via SSRN]

Trans-Jurisdictional Marriage and Family Reunification for Refugees in the United Kingdom, Legal Studies Research Paper no. 66/2010 (Queen Mary University of London, School of Law, 2010) [text via SSRN]

Tagged Publications.

Publications: Education Min. Stand., Expulsion of Romas/France, Family Unity/UK, Filing Deadline/US, Juvenile Justice/Iraq, Palestinian Case Law

Filling the Gap? A Survey of Palestinian Case Law on Migration (Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration, 2010) [text]

France's Expulsion of Roma Migrants: A Test Case for Europe (Migration Information Source, Oct. 2010) [text]

"Juvenile Justice in Transition: Past Challenges and New Opportunities in Post-Conflict Iraq," Journal of Humanitarian Assistance (Oct. 2010) [text]

Maintaining Family Unity throughout the Asylum Support System in Policy and Practice (Scottish Refugee Council, Oct. 2010) [text]

Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery (INEE, 2010) [Eng. text] [Fr. text]
- See also related materials.

The One-Year Asylum Deadline and the BIA: No Protection, No Process (National Immigrant Justice Center, Human Rights First & Penn State Law, Oct. 2010) [text]
- See also decisions referenced in study.


Tagged Publications.

More November Events & Opps.

Job Offer: Solicitor, Irish Refugee Council [info]
- Responsibility: To "establish and manage an independent law centre specialising in the promotion and protection of the rights of people in need of international protection." Apply by 3 November 2010.

Book Event: Refugees, the State and the Politics of Asylum in Africa, New York, 4 November 2010 [info]
- Learn about the book and hear comments from the author and other experts.

Seminar: International Refugee Law Series, London, 18 November 2010 [info]
- Topic is "The effect of legal status on Iraqi 'refugees' in Jordan: a sociolegal study."

Training: Sphere Training of Trainers, Addis, 22-29 November 2010 [info]
- Apply by 30 October 2010.

Education: Winter Short Courses, Cairo, January 2011 [info]
- Offered by the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at the American University in Cairo (AUC); courses include "Introduction to Refugee Law (January 9-13, 2011)," "Migration/Displacement, Development and Gender (January 16-20, 2011)," and "Community Interpretation for Refugee Aid Settings – CCIP Interpreter Training Short Course (January 23-27, 2011)." Submit applications by 30 November 2010.

Tagged Events & Opportunities.

First Anniversary of the Kampala Convention

One year ago today, the African Union adopted the Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (also known as the Kampala Convention), the first legally binding instrument that focuses on IDPs. To date, the Convention has 29 signatures and 2 ratifications; 15 of the latter are needed for the convention to come into force.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has issued a call for more ratifications. They also have produced a guide to help African civil society organizations "advocate with their governments for the ratification of the Kampala Convention and its incorporation into national law." It's available in English, French and Portuguese.

Additional resources relating to the Kampala Convention are available on the IDMC web site.

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

Open Access Week Profile 4: Research Centres

How do forced migration research centres express their support for open access? One way is by making their research output available within their parent institution's repository. So, for example, the Refugee Research Network collection in YorkSpace provides access to research produced by the Centre for Refugee Studies; Chr. Michelsen Institute research is available through the Bergen Open Research Archive; reports and papers from the Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM) are housed in the European University Institute repository; and the Human Trafficking Team has deposited conference papers and other documents in the University of Nebraska's DigitalCommons.

Some research centres are also adopting Creative Commons (CC) licenses for their web sites. While most forced migration web sites are generous about posting full-text information, more often than not, they lack any guidance on what can be done with that information beyond reading it online. CC licenses take the guesswork out of the equation by more explicitly indicating how research works can be used, shared and adapted.

Visit, for example, the Feinstein International Centre (FIC) online; they are one of the first research centres I have noticed to have switched to a CC license (scroll to the bottom of the home page to view it). Other examples include the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), Forced Migration Online (FMO), and the Refugee Research Network (RRN).

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

CFP/New Issues of Am. J. Orthospsych., Dev. in Practice, eJournal USA, Humanitarian Exch., IMIS, OBETS, Refuge

CFP:

Health and Human Rights: An International Journal [info]
- Call for submissions to issue on "Health and Human Rights in Disasters." Deadline is 31 October 2010.

New Issues:

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, vol. 80, no. 4 (Oct. 2010) [contents]
- Includes special section on “Mental Health Consequences of War and Political Violence,” with several articles on refugees.

Development in Practice, vol. 20, no. 8 (2010) [contents]
- Issue focus is on "Rethinking impact: understanding the complexity of poverty and change."

eJournal USA, vol. 15, no. 7 (2010) [full-text]
- Focus is “Refugees: Building New Lives in the USA.”

Humanitarian Exchange, no. 48 (Oct. 2010) [full-text]
- Special feature on "Lessons learned from the Haiti Earthquake Response."

IMIS - Beiträge, no. 36 (Sept. 2010) [contents]
- Mix of articles including "Wading Through Muddy Water: Policy Challenges to Refugee Family Restoration in Resettlement."

OBETS : Revista de Ciencias Sociales, vol. 5, no. 1 (June 2010) [full-text]
- Mix of articles including "Migrantes y refugiados: reflexiones conceptuales," "Procesos de integración de personas solicitantes de protección internacional y refugiadas en la ciudad de Alicante. Cruz Roja española," and "Cruz Roja española: el trabajo con refugiados desde Cruz Roja Alicante."

Refuge, vol. 26, no. 1 (Winter 2009) [full-text]
- The theme is "Sanctuary in Context," with eight articles. Eleven other articles are included that focus on UNHCR, refugees in Turkey, resettlement, forced migrants in Serbia, internal displacement in Colombia, asylum in the UK, temporary protection in Australia, Denmark and Germany, irregular migrants in Canada, Prague Spring refugees in Canada, the rights of non-citizens in Canada, and Oromos in Somaliland.

Tagged Periodicals and Events & Opportunities.

Publications: Climate Info., Detention/S. Africa, Dev. Displacement/Mozamb., Poverty/Scotland, UNHCR Rpt., World Pop. Rpt.

"Causes and Consequences of Displacement Decision-making in Banhine National Park, Mozambique," Conservation & Society, vol. 8, no. 2 (2010) [full-text]
- See also "Response to 'Is the Displacement of People from Parks only 'Purported' or is it Real?' (Schmidt-Soltau 2009)" in the same issue.

Making Climate Information User Friendly for Humanitarian Organizations (Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, 2010) [text via PreventionWeb]

Monitoring Immigration Detention in South Africa (Lawyers for Human Rights, Sept. 2010) [text]

Refugees’ Experiences and Views of Poverty in Scotland (Scottish Poverty Information Unit, Oct. 2010) [text via BBC]

Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UN General Assembly, Oct. 2010) [text via UN Pulse]

State of World Population 2010 - From Conflict and Crisis to Renewal: Generations of Change (UNFPA, Oct. 2010) [text via ReliefWeb]
- See esp. Chapter 6, "Living without an Anchor: Refugees and the Internally Displaced."

Tagged Publications.

Open Access Week Profile 3: Forced Migration Journals

The focus in yesterday's post was on depositing eprints of subscription journal articles in digital repositories. The other principal open access vehicle for disseminating research is via OA journals. Currently, there is no scholarly OA journal title that encompasses all or even a significant part of the field of forced migration studies - although Forced Migration Review is a practitioner-oriented periodical that is effectively open access.

This situation will change early next year with the launch of the peer-reviewed open access Journal of Internal Displacement. Due out in January 2011, the inaugural issue will feature articles on "Internal Displacement: Definitions, Scope, Theories and Concepts." Authors are actively encouraged to archive their contributions in repositories or on their web sites.

Several other related OA titles that carry articles on forced migration topics include the following (all are peer-reviewed):

• Conflict and Health focuses on "the intricate relationship between conflict and health, and how health interventions in war zones may contribute to peace." One of the editors is with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.
• Diversities, formerly the International Journal on Multicultural Societies, is published by UNESCO with the aim of providing a "platform for international, interdisciplinary and policy-related social science research in the fields of migration, multicultural policies, and human rights."
• The Journal of Identity and Migration Studies is edited by the Research Centre for Identity and Migration Issues (RCIMI) in Romania, whose goal is to "explore new directions in understanding the complex phenomenon of migration and its challenge in redefining identity."

You can find other titles listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). You can also search for additional forced migration-related articles via the DOAJ's search feature or by using the Open Access Journals Search Engine.

And if you are inclined to set up your own open access journal - the Journal of Forced Migration Studies, perhaps? - you can find advice for doing so here and here!

Tagged Periodicals and Web Sites/Tools.

Open Access Week Profile 2: Authors Who Self-Archive

As noted in the previous post, forced migration-related reports, organizational publications, working papers, and the like are generally pretty easy to find online at no cost. Journal-reported research is much more challenging and less predictable to locate on the web on a complimentary basis, despite the fact that journal publishers are giving the green light to authors to deposit eprints of their articles in digital repositories. I recently undertook a little study to investigate the extent to which authors of Journal of Refugee Studies (JRS) articles have archived versions of their manuscripts. I discovered only one out of 119 articles: Jenni Millbank and Laurie Berg of the University of Technology, Sydney deposited a pre-print of their JRS article in SSRN, the social science subject repository.

So why do some authors self-archive when so many others don't? I decided to ask Prof. Millbank for her views. She has kindly given me permission to reproduce her responses to my questions:

What motivated you to begin self-archiving your papers?
-The importance of having a broad international readership, particularly a US readership, when publishing in journals that may not be available overseas or through mega databases such as LEXIS and WESTLAW. Also wanting to get research out there quickly - when many journals have a time lag of over a year from acceptance to publication.

Were you familiar with the open access movement when you began to self-archive?
- Yes.

Were you familiar with journal publishers' policies regarding self-archiving?
- Yes - many of them have become more restrictive since.

Why did you choose SSRN?
- It is a big database, easy to use and free. I like that they distribute through theme based topic email lists.

Does your institution have a repository? If yes, do you also archive your papers there? If no, why not?
- Yes - but it is less easy to use and has much more limited utility - eg not searchable in the same way that SSRN is, also SSRN comes up on google, has beta links, records of views and downloads etc.

Is self-archiving complicated? Approximately how long does it take you to upload a paper?
- Once you are used to the set up it only takes 5 or 10 minutes.

Do you have any advice for other authors who have not yet taken the step to self-archive?
- Absolutely - do it, as a researcher the critical thing is to get information out there and be part of the trans-national conversations in your area of expertise.

Many thanks, Prof. Millbank!

For examples of other authors who self-archive on SSRN, browse through the "Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Law eJournal."

And if any readers out there would like to share their reasons for self-archiving, please send a comment!

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

Looking ahead to November...

The Protection Project Fifth Annual Symposium, "The United Nations Protocol and The United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act: Ten Years Later," Washington, DC, 2 November 2010 [info]

Canadian Council for Refugees Fall Consultation, Calgary, 24-26 November 2010 [info]
- These consultations "address issues of refugee protection and immigrant and refugee settlement." This year's theme is "fairness"; register by 5 November 2010.

"30th Anniversary of the Refugee Act," University Park, Pennsylvania, 12 November 2010 [info]
- Colloquium hosted by the Center for Immigrants' Rights, Penn State University.

Winter School: "Psychosocial Interventions in Emergency Displacement," Pisa, 14-26 February 2011 [info]
- Register by 15 November 2010.

ELENA Course, Paris, 19 November 2010 [info]
- Theme is "Législation et recours européens dans le domaine de l'asile."

Tagged Events & Opportunities.

61st Session of EXCOM: Addendum

As referenced in this earlier post, the Report of the Sixty-first Session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme is now available. It includes the texts of the conclusion and decisions adopted during the session. The sole Conclusion on International Protection is entitled "Conclusion on refugees with disabilities and other persons with disabilities protected and assisted by UNHCR."

Tagged Publications.