Tag Archives: human rights

New Publications on Internal Displacement; FCO Annual Report; Indonesia; Bahrain; asylum; UK Border Agency

Internal Displacement Global Overview 2011

Internal Displacement Global Overview 2011

Internal Displacement Global Overview 2011:  People internally displaced by conflict and violence.
The latest annual publication from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, (IDMC).  The report details:

The circumstances of people’s displacement and their long- term prospects were as diverse as the situations of violence or conflict which had forced them to flee. For example, while the Arab Spring uprisings resulted in short-term spikes of dis- placement throughout the year, in Iraq well over two million people remained locked in situations of protracted internal displacement. In Afghanistan, displacement was becoming increasingly protracted by 2011. As 60 per cent of the internally displaced population in Afghanistan are children, the prospects for this next generation are particularly bleak.

[Download Full Report]
(Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre).
IDMC Press Release – Conflicts worldwide uproot millions; six-­fold increase in Middle East.

Nepal: Unresolved property issues and IDP policy hiatus undermine search for durable solutions.
By the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, (IDMC).
[Download Full Report]
(Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre).

Afghanistan: Durable solutions far from reach amid escalating conflict.
By the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, (IDMC).
[Download Full Report]
(Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre).

Human Rights and Democracy

Human Rights and Democracy

Human Rights and Democracy: The 2011 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report (Cm. 8339).
The latest annual report published by the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
[Access]
(Source: The Stationary Office).
News: The Daily Telegraph – New immigration rules will keep out human rights abusers.

Indonesia: Excessive force: Impunity for police violence in Indonesia. A new report published by Amnesty International.  The report argues:

Despite moves towards reform, Indonesia’s police continue to be implicated in beatings, shootings and killings. Reports of human rights violations committed by the police continue to emerge, with police routinely using unnecessary and excessive force and firearms to quell peaceful protests. Illustrative examples are given in this briefing. Although the authorities have made some attempts to bring alleged perpetrators to justice using internal disciplinary mechanisms, criminal investigations into human rights violations by the police are all too rare, leaving many victims without access to justice and reparations.

[Download Full Report]
(Source: Amnesty International).
Amnesty International Press Release – Indonesia must end impunity for police violence.

Bahrain: Flawed reforms: Bahrain fails to achieve justice for protesters.
By Amnesty International.
[Download Full Report]
(Source: Amnesty International).
Amnesty International Press Release – Bahrain: Reforms risk appearing hollow as violations continue.

A briefing from The Children’s Society Highlighting the gap between asylum support and mainstream benefits.
Published by The Children’s Society.
[Download Policy Brief]
(Source: The Guardian – Young migrants living ‘far below poverty line’).
The Children’s Society Press Release – UK asylum system forces thousands of children to live in severe poverty.

Work of the UK Border Agency (August-December 2011).
The latest report by the UK Home Affairs Committee.
[Access] and the [Table of Contents]
(Source: UK Parliament)
Press Coverage:  Refugee Council – Home Affairs Select Committee Report on the work of the UK Border Agency – Our response ; and
The Guardian – UK Border Agency unable to fulfil its basic functions, MPs warn.

New Publications on the Arab Spring; Research on Policy; Afghanistan; Bangladeshi Workers; World Disasters Report; Women Human Rights Defenders

Afghanistan: A Case Study

Afghanistan: A Case Study

Migration, Displacement and the Arab Spring: Lessons to Learn (Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement, March 2012) [text]
(Source: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog).

The New Amendment to the ‘Prevention of Infiltration’ Act: Defining Asylum-Seekers as Criminals (Israel Democracy Institute, Feb. 2012) [text]
(Source: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog).

Linking Research and Policy in the Field of Migration, Asylum and Integration, Vienna, 12 Dec. 2011 [info]
(Source: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog).

Making Systematic Reviews Work for International Development Research (ODI, Jan. 2012) [text]
- See also related blog post.
(Source: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog).

Afghanistan: a case study – strengthening principled humanitarian response capacities.
A new report written by Andy Featherstone and published by the Overseas Development Institute,  Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection and the Norwegian Refugee Council.

This study seeks to examine the challenges to adhering to these principles in practice and how donor funding restrictions can hamper the ability to provide principled humanitarian assistance. The case study in Afghanistan is the second of four case studies (Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and South Sudan are the other three).

[Download Full Report]
(Source:  Overseas Development Institute).

Race to the Bottom: Olympic sportswear companies’ exploitation of Bangladeshi workers.
By Adrian Janes.  A new publication by War on Want.

Adidas, Nike and Puma have all invested heavily in their associations with the London 2012 Olympic Games, either through official partnerships with London 2012 or sponsoring national teams and high profile athletes. As well as gaining access to worldwide audiences to promote their products they also aim to associate themselves with the Olympic values of fair play and respect. Our research finds that for the workers making goods for Adidas, Nike and Puma in Bangladesh, there is little sign of fair play or respect. Five of the six factories covered by our research did not even pay their workers the Bangladeshi minimum wage, let alone a living wage that allow them to meet their basic needs. On average workers were paid just 16p an hour, with two thirds of the workers work over 60 hours a week, in clear breach of Bangladeshi law.

[Download Full Report]
(Source: Docubase)

World Disasters Report 2010: Focus on urban risk.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
[Download Full Report]
(Source: ALNAP)

Global Report on the Situation of Women Human Rights Defenders

Global Report on the Situation of Women Human Rights Defenders

The Global Report on the Situation of Women Human Rights Defenders has been produced by the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD IC).

The report analyses the challenges faced by women human rights defenders in different contexts. Through the prism of over 40 case studies, the connections between the context in which a woman human rights defenders works and the nature of the violations she experiences are explored.

[Download Full Report]
(Source:  International Service for Human Rights).

New Pubs. on the Middle East, Human Rights in the UK and Citizenship

Amnesty International has published a report entitled “Year of Rebellion – The State of Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa” focusing on the events of 2011 in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, and Iraq.

2011 was a year without precedent for the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa region. It was a year in which millions of people of all ages and backgrounds flooded on to the streets to demand change. Dubbed the “Arab Spring”, in fact the protests brought together in common cause people from many different communities. This report describes the events of this tumultuous year, one which saw much suffering and sadness but also spread hope within the region and beyond, to countries where other people face repression and everyday abuse of their human rights.

[Download Full Report]
[See Also - Amnesty International Press Release]
(Source:  Migrants at Sea blog – Amnesty International Report: Year of Rebellion – The State of Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa).

New Statewatch Report written by Yasha Maccanico and entitled “The EU’s self-interested response to unrest in north Africa: the meaning of treaties and readmission agreements between Italy and north African states.”
[Download Full Report]
(Source:  Migrants at Sea blog – Statewatch Analysis: The EU’s self-interested response to unrest in north Africa: the meaning of treaties and readmission agreements between Italy and north African states).

A new report by the Equality and Diversity Forum entitled: “Human rights in the UK: the challenge of winning hearts and minds.”
[Download Full Report]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network – EDF Learning Exchange report: Human Rights campaigning – what can we learn from each other?)

The Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance, based at the Open University, has launched a new quarterly newsletter.

From the Migrants’ Rights Network press release:

CCIG is a University designated Centre of Research Excellence. It has the aim of innovating research and debate on themes of citizenship, identity formation and practices of governance in contemporary society. The highlights included in this issue (multiculturalism, critical approaches to official and public discourses, social sciences’ involvement in public practices) express not only the interdisciplinary nature of CCIG but also its contributions to socially and politically conscious research that draws out new possibilities for social justice and positive social change.

 

ICA December Human Rights Working Group News

ICA Human Rights Working Group

ICA Human Rights Working Group

The International Council on Archives Human Rights Working Group has recently published the December 2011 edition of their newsletter on their website.  The December 2011 can be downloaded – [here].

The Human Rights Working Group disseminates information on the importance of archives to defend human rights and the use of archives in protesting the violations of human rights. It issues a monthly newsletter on archives and human rights, it develops projects to increase the cooperation between ICA and archival services and administrations in the field of human rights, and it supports better and wider use of the archives in the defense of human rights.

An archives of newsletters from April 2008 is also available from the website – [here].

 

 

New Reports from the UN Special Rapporteurs

A recent posting on the UN Pulse blog provides details of several newly published reports from the United Nations Special Rapporteurs ahead of the 66th session meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.  Special Rapporteurs are independen of governments and are appointed directly by the UN Secretary with individual mandates to investigate and report back to the UN on human rights issues relating to a specific country or theme, (for example, arbitarary detention, internal displacement, torture, etc).

Details of the reports published can be found here:

  • Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (A/66/254).
  • Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation (A/66/255).
  • Interim report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (A/66/268).
  • Protection of and assistance to internally displaced persons (A/66/285).
  • Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples (A/66/288).
  • Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers (A/66/289).
  • Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression (A/66/290).

(Copyright: United Nations).  the UN Pulse blog posting in full can also be found here :  Special Rapporteurs Reports.

Forced Migration Review

A special supplement edition of the Forced Migration Review journal has just been published and is entitled:  Islam, human rights and displacement.

Now online at: http://www.fmreview.org/human-rights.htm

Full details form the press release are available as follows and hard copies will me made available in the Refugee Archive in due course:

FMR’s 12-page supplement on Islam, human rights and displacement will soon be available in Arabic and English.

We hope it will enhance debate and understanding of the concepts and
instruments of international human rights in the Islamic world. More
information is online at http://www.fmreview.org/human-rights.htm

How to request copies:

All readers who usually receive the Arabic edition (NHQ) of FMR will receive a copy of the supplement in Arabic with their copy of NHQ 31 in January. You therefore do not need to request it UNLESS you would like to receive multiple copies for training purposes and/or onward distribution.

The English version of the supplement will NOT be mailed out to regular readers of FMR. You need to email us to request copies. We are keen to distribute copies to organisations which would find it useful for training and awareness-raising purposes. We would also be happy to send it to libraries and resource centres.

If you would like copies of the supplement, please email us at
fmr@qeh.ox.ac.uk, indicating:
- which language
- how many
- your full postal address
- and, preferably, how you propose using it.

REMINDER
If you have not already done so, we would be extremely grateful if you would complete our reader survey at http://www.fmreview.org/2008survey.htm This will help us make sure FMR is meeting your needs and give us ideas of how we might improve it. Thank you!

Marion Couldrey, Maurice Herson & Musab Hayatli
Forced Migration Review

fmr@qeh.ox.ac.uk www.fmreview.org
+44 1865 280700  Skype: fmreview

Posted in: Refugee Studies and Periodicals.