Displaying items by tag: Vulnerable groups

  إن المرة الأخيرة التي تناولنا فيها الأزمة الإنسانية في الأراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة كانت في نوفمبر/تشرين الثاني 2004- أي قبل حوالي خمس سنوات. ومنذ ذلك الحين والوضع الإنساني يتدهور بإطراد. فقد أسفر استمرار أعمال العنف عن مقتل وإصابة وتهجير الكثيرين وعن تدمير واسع النطاق للمنازل والبنى التحتية. كما أدى التوسع في بناء الجدار المثير للجدل و“نظام الإغلاق” المرتبط به إلى تقويض سبل العيش وتفاقم الفقر وتدهور خطير في مستوى الخدمات الأساسية. وقد ساهمت هذه المعوقات في رفع معدل البطالة إلى أكثر من 40 في المائة وما يرتبط بذلك من تدني تقدير الذات والاكتئاب والعنف الأسري. وكما يوضح مقال النظرة العامة…

Colombia is in the throes of one of the world’s largest crises of internal displacement. Since the mid-1990s, more than 3.2 million people have been displaced. On average, between 2000 and 2009 300,000 people a year fled in search of protection. In 2008, 294,000 left their places of residence. In late 2008, the government estimated that nearly 40,000 households (176,000 people) had returned to their places of origin with the accompaniment of the authorities.  The official Information System on the Displaced Population in Colombia is one of the most highly developed such systems in the world (www.accionsocial.gov.co). However, it does…

Trends in violence in Colombia have been changing over the past decade. Historically, the conflict has been fought mostly in rural areas. This has led to the massive displacement of rural populations to neighbouring rural areas, local cities and more distant urban areas. In recent years, however, the majority of violence (political and criminal) has taken place in urban areas, creating new forms of displacement. As a result, a full range of displacement patterns exist in Colombia: rural to rural; rural to peri-urban; rural to urban; and intra-urban, where individuals, families or whole neighbourhoods are forced to leave their homes…

Humanitarian actors increasingly recognise the crucial importance of linking humanitarian efforts to human rights issues. In the Occupied Territories this interdependence is particularly stark. Israel’s policies restricting movement within the West Bank and between the West Bank and Israel, Gaza and other areas are a central factor in the Palestinians’ increasing poverty, unemployment and food insecurity, as well as their lack of access to urgently needed medical treatment. The lack of accountability of Israel’s security force personnel – both individual and systemic – is a direct cause of high rates of civilian death and injury. In order to address the…

Famine and drought pose a regular threat in Eritrea, along with the rest of the Horn of Africa. Consecutive years of drought, high food prices and the global economic downturn all suggest that hunger and malnutrition levels are high. However, unlike in neighbouring countries no reliable national nutrition statistics are available to show this. There have been no comprehensive nutrition surveys since 2005, and World Food Programme (WFP) general food distributions have been suspended since 2006. The activities of international NGOs are restricted. In August 2008, CAFOD was alerted to a poor rainy season by its local partner in Eritrea,…

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with 1.5 million people concentrated in an area of only 365km2. More than half of these people are children below the age of 18, of whom 69% are refugees. Violence has had an appalling impact on Gaza’s children. Between 2000 and 2008, over 600 were killed in conflict-related violence; another 300 died in Israel’s military offensive, Cast Lead, in December–January 2009. Some 50,000 were displaced. Child protection in Gaza Starting in 2006, Save the Children and its partner organisations have carried out a number of qualitative participatory…

Young people in Gaza are extraordinary. They have matured under extremely difficult circumstances dealing, on a daily basis, with structural and physical violence, lack of educational and economic opportunities, and the conservative norms of their society. But they are not simply victims of a situation into which they were born - they also have the potential to be agents of conflict or positive change. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been working with university age youth in Gaza for the past 5-6 years. Their most recent initiative, Gazan Youth Speak Out (GYSO), reaches 25 youth organisations throughout Gaza, bringing them together…

Young people in Gaza are extraordinary. They have matured under extremely difficult circumstances dealing, on a daily basis, with structural and physical violence, lack of educational and economic opportunities, and the conservative norms of their society. But they are not simply victims of a situation into which they were born - they also have the potential to be agents of conflict or positive change. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been working with university age youth in Gaza for the past 5-6 years. Their most recent initiative, Gazan Youth Speak Out (GYSO), reaches 25 youth organisations throughout Gaza, bringing them together…

The mass expulsion of aid agencies from Sudan in March 2009 showed in a single stroke just how vital and vulnerable humanitarian capacity is. The incident offers an enormous chance to learn – and not repeat. To restore capacity in the same way is to risk leaving locals in harm’s way all over again. Humanitarian policy has proven resistant to learning, at least in some respects. But now Darfur’s ‘situation has brought the modus operandi of international humanitarian assistance agencies into sharp focus’ It is a time for serious stocktaking. Failure to support the right local capacity Public statements by…

In early November last year, television images showed the world thousands of people fleeing fighting between the government and rebels in eastern DRC. But these events were only a spike in what has been a long-running crisis. Every month, tens of thousands of people are forced to flee their homes due to fighting among and between armed militias and government forces, many for the third or fourth time. The journalists and visiting dignitaries who descended upon North Kivu late last year in response to the escalation in the violence focused their attention on large camps, especially those within easy striking…