Forced Migration Online: Blog

Monday 9 August marked the United Nations International Day of Indigenous Peoples.

“The world’s population of indigenous people now numbers some 350 million individuals representing over 5,000 languages and cultures in more than 70 countries on every continent. Many live on the fringes of society, in sometimes precarious and impoverished conditions. Their material, environmental and spiritual situations, together with their world-views and intimate relationship with the land and natural resources, are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of globalization. The resulting instability, aggravated by dispossession from their land and natural resources, has disrupted the handing down of their cultural heritage from one generation to the next.”

UNESCO, “International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People”

Forced Migration Online’s resource page on the subject highlights a number of key online information sources relating to indigenous peoples.

It also features a selection of full-text documents, web-based resources, and descriptions of relevant organizations available through FMO that focus on related issues.

• FMO Resource Summary: Indigenous Peoples

Saturday 26 June is the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. It provides a time to reflect on the past, to honour the victims and survivors of torture and to look to a better future.

Forced Migration Online’s resource page on the subject highlights a number of key online information sources relating to torture, organized under the following headings:

• International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
• International Conventions
• Investigation and Reporting of Torture

It also features a selection of full-text documents, web-based resources, and descriptions of relevant organizations available through FMO that focus on torture-related issues.

This year, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims also has a useful map of observations taking place around the world.

• UN: International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
• FMO Resource Summary: Torture

Sunday 20 June is World Refugee Day. First marked in 2001, World Refugee Day is an attempt to get the international community to remember the plight of the world’s millions of refugees.

A series of events and activities in more than 100 countries will seek to promote a better understanding of why people become refugees, and to highlight the challenges involved in trying to help them. These events will involve government officials, humanitarian aid workers, celebrities, civilians and the forcibly displaced themselves.

• UNHCR: World Refugee Day 2010
• Video: High Commissioner António Guterres’ message for World Refugee Day
• Red Cross – Look Beyond the Label
• Simple Acts: learn and do more with refugees
• FMO: resources on World Refugee Day and Refugee Week

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

Refugee Week is a UK wide series of events and activities that celebrate the contribution made by refugees to UK life and seek to promote a better understanding of why people become refugees.
Refugee Week takes place every year in June during the same week as World Refugee Day on June 20th. The main focus of Refugee Week activities in 2009 is the Simple Acts Campaign, which is about inspiring people to use small, everyday actions to change perceptions of refugees.

• Refugee Week
• Asylum Dialogues
• British Red Cross ‘Look beyond the label’
• FMO World Refugee Day and Refugee Week

“On this Human Rights Day, it is my hope that we will all act on our collective responsibility to uphold the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration. We can only honour the towering vision of that inspiring document when its principles are fully applied everywhere, for everyone.”
Ban Ki-moon,
United Nations Secretary-General

For resources and more information about Human Rights Day and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights see the FMO resource summary and the selected digital library documents below.

• Resource summary
• The functioning of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
• Protecting human rights: the challenge to humanitarian organizations
• A humanitarian practitioner’s guide to international human rights law
• Human rights at the dawn of the 21st century
• Human rights and refugees

This podcast was recorded at a lecture organised by the Refugee Studies Centre and sponsored by Clifford Chance, the event was held on Wednesday 18th June 2008 at the offices of Clifford Chance, London. Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister of State for Africa, Asia and the UN gave the lecture which was entitled ‘Reputational Hazard: Rescuing Refugees in the Era of Illegal Immigration and Terrorism’.

• Podcast
• Subscribe via iTunes

This podcast was recorded by Radio Netherlands Worldwide at the first of The Hague Debates on Thursday, 22 May 2008 in the Peace Palace and is entitled ‘When home gets too hot: Human Displacement and Climate Change in International Law’. The debate features Professor Roger Zetter, Director of the Refugee Studies Centre.

• Podcast
• Subscribe via iTunes

The latest podcast in a series recorded at the bi-annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) is now available online.

The third plenary event included a panel discussion ‘Regions at the Crossroads: Transregional Forced Migration’ chaired by Susan Martin, with presentations by Mark Schlakman, Aicha Belarbi, Jeffrey Crisp and Ahmet Icduygu and Susan Kneebone.

• Podcast
• Subscribe via iTunes

The latest podcast in a series recorded at the bi-annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) is now available online.

The second plenary event began with the keynote address ‘Palestine refugees in the contemporary context: a view from UNRWA’ by Karen Abu Zayd, Commissioner General of UNRWA, followed by a panel discussion ‘The situation of refugees in the Middle East’ chaired by Maysa Ayoub, and including Helen Young, Patricia Fagen and Shahira Samy.

• Podcast
• Subscribe via iTunes