Forced Migration Online: Blog

In this podcast Dr Elizabeth Ferris, Senior Fellow at the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, speaks on the subject of Faith-based Humanitarianism.

The title of her lecture was: ‘Improving responses: distinctiveness, partnership and professionalism’.

Dr Ferris was speaking at the Refugee Studies Centre‘s workshop on ‘Faith-based Humanitarianism: The Response of Faith-based Communities and Faith-based Organisations in the Context of Forced Migration’. The lecture took place in Oxford at The Vaults, University Church of St Marys, on Tuesday 22 September 2010.

• Listen to the podcast

The research guide to Forced Migration Periodicals has been updated and now includes sections on periodicals that address not only forced migration generally but also health, law, humanitarian assistance, emergency relief and the larger issue of international migration.

This guide lists journals, substantive newsletters and other regularly produced publications that are relevant in the field of forced migration studies. The emphasis has been placed on periodicals that are currently being published and whose online contents are up-to-date.

The collection of links is housed in the Delicious social bookmarking service and will automatically be updated when new titles are added or when existing links are edited.

• Research Guide

This podcast was recorded at the Refugee Studies Centre’s Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture which was on Wednesday 18th November 2009 at the Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford. The Harrell-Bond Lecture is held annually in honour of Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond, founding former director of the Centre and of the academic field of refugee studies or forced migration studies. Jan Egeland, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and currently director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs gave the 2009 lecture on the subject of political deals and durable solutions for the displaced.

• Podcast
• Subscribe via iTunes

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the 1949 Geneva conventions, which provide protection for the victims of armed conflict, both military and civilian, and which every nation has now ratified.

The fourth Convention, ratified on August 12, 1949, addressed the protection of civilians in armed conflict. It was negotiated in the aftermath of World War II, which took the lives of at least 60 million people, the majority of whom were civilians. The existing Geneva Conventions, which relate to the immunity of medical personnel on the battlefield and the treatment of prisoners of war, were extensively revised in 1949.

• ICRC
• BBC News story ‘Geneva Conventions’ struggle for respect’
• Relief Web ‘Geneva Conventions still going strong at 60’
• Geneva Conventions at 60 on Twitter

The film Playing Between Elephants is now available to view online. The film was produced by Aryo Danusiri, Bruno Dercon and UN-HABITAT and has just won the Human Rights Award at the Jakarta International Film Festival 2007. It documents a post-tsunami and post-conflict Aceh, where an international body that is assigned to build houses, while an Acehnese village chief leads his people through the ups and downs of the ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation process. The film very intimately shows how complicated it is to survive a traumatic event and then experience global intervention. Rebuilding a house in post-tsunami Aceh brings into play the whole world and forces the Acehnese people learn to deal with the friction between the global and local realms.

• Playing Between Elephants

In November 2007, the FMO team established a network of advisors for the OARS project, comprised of representatives of higher education (HE) institutions in the UK. Students, researchers and academics from universities and colleges form the backbone of FMO’s user community. It is therefore important to involve them in the FMO portal’s redevelopment and enhancement.

On behalf of the FMO team, the Director of the Refugee Studies Centre, Professor Roger Zetter, wrote to academic departments and centres in the UK requesting their input. They were asked to complete a brief questionnaire about their usage and opinions of FMO. This information will be used to inform the team in its work to make the enhancements to FMO through the OARS project.

We would strongly encourage all users of FMO – whether or not they be in the HE sector and/or in the UK – to contribute to the OARS project and assist the team in making the most appropriate changes to FMO to benefit all users. Further details can be found on the OARS project website, and the questionnaire can be completed and submitted online.

Issue 29 of Forced Migration Review with its feature section on ‘Humanitarian reform: fulfilling its promise?’ is now in the digital library (FMR is one of five journals available).

As with any reform, says UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes in his article in this issue, “you have the believers, the sceptics and the opponents”. The perspectives of all three camps are reflected in the 25 articles that make up this issue’s feature section on humanitarian reform – which we hope will contribute to a constructive and fruitful debate around the world. FMR 29, which will be published in English, Arabic, Spanish and French, also includes 16 other articles on a wide range of subjects.

• FMR 29: Humanitarian reform: fulfilling its promise?