Humanitarian Exchange articles tagged:Refugees

The conflict in Darfur has once again highlighted the challenge of meeting the shelter and settlement needs of large numbers of displaced households in an insecure and rapidly changing environment. Traditional settlement and shelter solutions in Darfur typically enabled these needs to be met, albeit with differing degrees of adequacy. The displacement of over 1.6 million households has disrupted social networks and the self-management of established settlements through which issues of livelihood security, personal safety and essential shelter and sanitation needs were addressed. Displaced households have sought protection and support through a number of different approaches to temporary settlement, including…

If there is any useful lesson that can be drawn from the events of April 1994, it is surely one about just how personal genocide is: for those who are killed, of course, but also for those who kill, and for those, however far away, who just do nothing. Our governments are no better than we are. The United Nations is no better than its governments. Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire, UN force commander during the Rwandan genocide. The British parliament is a world away from the sprawling displacement camps in Darfur. But it would be a mistake to dismiss it as…

Darfur has always been a region apart in Sudan. The region is part of a contact zone between Saharan nomadic people, Sahelian agro pastoral groups and more sedentary farming communities. The belt from Darfur to the Eritrean border comprises a mosaic of ethnic groups organised into tribes and clans with highly intricate and heterogeneous inter-community relationships. These relationships have now been brutally ruptured by the conflict there. Nearly two million people have been affected, hundreds of thousands are internally displaced or have become refugees, villages have been razed, women raped and men massacred. This article explores the complex roots of…

The crisis in Darfur has left some 80,000 people dead, displaced over 1.6 million (nearly 30% of Darfur’s estimated six million people), and created 300,000 refugees. What makes this crisis particularly shocking is the structural character of the violence: villages have been torched, and civilians have been deliberately targeted by (aerial) bombing, summary executions, massacres and systematic rape as part of a strategy of fear instigated by the Sudanese military and the so-called Janjaweed, armed and supported by the government of Sudan. The crisis in Darfur has therefore demanded both a humanitarian and a political response. The political response has…

Refugee relief is typically thought about in the acute stages of a crisis, when water, sanitation, housing, security and disease threaten lives. Because assistance in such circumstances focuses on keeping people alive, relief is often described as an apolitical humanitarian project. But refugees by their very nature are the products of a struggle over power and authority – that is, a product of politics. Nowhere is this more evident in relief programmes than in the provision of schools. Basic schooling has emerged as a humanitarian ‘right’, just like water, sanitation, food, security and shelter. Yet education programmes for refugee children…

War epidemiology has emerged as a powerful tool for expanding our understanding of the impact of war on civilians, and for influencing policy aimed at protecting civilians from systematic harm. Mortality statistics generated from rigorous field studies can raise awareness of increased risk among vulnerable populations, and can serve as evidence that military groups and civilian combatants have violated wartime codes of conduct. Recent mortality studies illustrate the widespread (and often controversial) attention that statistical evidence of civilian casualties can generate. A study of mortality in Kosovo, published in 1999, documented a pattern of targeted assault on older men. An…

The Oslo Accords, sealed in September 1993 with the famous handshake between the late Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin on a lawn in front of the White House, were intended to bring an end to decades of confrontation and conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and to lead eventually to the establishment of a Palestinian state. But the conflict continues, inflicting an appalling cost on the populations of both sides, and an economic, social and humanitarian crisis prevails in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). Violence has claimed about 1,000 Israeli and 3,500 Palestinian lives in the four years since the…

In recent years, there have been several studies of micro-finance in post-conflict situations. However, very little attention has been paid to micro-finance (or micro-credit) in refugee camps. This article describes a micro-enterprise programme in refugee camps in Guinea, implemented by the American Refugee Committee (ARC). It is based on an evaluation of the programme carried out in April 2004, which focused on two camps, Laine and Kola, located in Guinea’s Nzérèkoré region. As part of the evaluation, a survey was conducted among 120 beneficiaries of the programme, and among a control group of 80 non-beneficiaries. Laine camp was established in…

Wars and natural disasters deny generations the knowledge and opportunities that an education can provide. Education in emergencies, chronic crises and early reconstruction is a necessity that can be both life-sustaining and life-saving. It sustains life by offering structure, stability and hope for the future during a time of crisis, particularly for children and adolescents. It also helps to heal bad experiences and build skills, and supports conflict resolution and peace-building. Education in emergencies saves lives by directly protecting against exploitation and harm, and by disseminating key survival messages, such as landmine safety or HIV/AIDS prevention. Traditionally, education in emergency…

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s longest-running conflicts. It is characterised by political instability, violence, intense international attention and media scrutiny and unprecedented amounts of aid. The occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) has become exceptionally aid dependent, receiving around $1 billion a year, or on average $315 per capita. But despite this, conflict and occupation, particularly in the last few years, have severely constrained Palestinian development, to the point where some social indicators in the OPT are comparable to parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, there is widespread agreement amongst assistance providers that, in the current conditions of…