Facts, figures, things to remember to review for the grant application
Kenyan refugee camps worst and why
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31687&Cr=UNHCR&Cr1=Kenya
US Institute of Peace - Special Report
Land, Property, and the challenging of return for Iraq's displaced
http://www.iom-iraq.net/Library/SR_221_IraqsDisplaced.pdf
Dear Mr Gareth Evans, Can you please help me with some thoughts. "The idea that the world should take responsibility if nations fail to protect their own population" There are more than 200 million estimated international migrants. There are 20-30 million internally displaced persons. There are 15-25 million refugees. If these people were united they would constitute the 4th largest nation. Why not give them a nation. Let them protect themselves. Let them live in peace, let them work and worship. Let them educate there children. Where ever they exist encourage the host nation to give a small piece of land. To be blunt but not callous, there would be private investors interested in owning a part of this nation. The private investment community could do what aid agencies and governments can not. Combined they could work miracles. Please let me know if you will help. Thank you, Paul R Platner 7/25/09
UN urges donors to provide $200 million for over 500,000 displaced in Chad http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31570&Cr=chad&Cr1=
It may be hard to believe, but millions of refugees spend anywhere from 10 to 60 years -- an entire lifetime -- in a refugee camp. New statistics from the recently released World Refugee Survey show that 8,177,800 refugees are part of populations that have been trapped in limbo for 10 years or more. http://uscri.refugees.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=6801.0&dlv_id=10261
http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/lang/en/pid/1 International Organization for Migration
A good site for info
Posted by David Francis on 05 June 2009 10:55:30 PM
For the first time, the United States government is using text messaging to reach out to potential donors in an effort to raise money for refugees in Pakistan.The text campaign was announced late last month. People are able to give $5 dollar to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. According to a State Department spokesman, the campaign has raised $31,390 via 5,722 received text messages.This is a relatively small amount of the $135,008 in private donations raised in the United States for Pakistani refugees. Still, it represents a fundraising milestone. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared to have high expectations for the campaign. When it was announced, she said, "Just think, if a million people in the United States gave $5, that would be $5 million." While the amount raised was significantly less, State is picking up on a growing trend. As texting becomes an everyday form of communication, an increasing number of private groups are using it to raise funds. For instance, Keep a Child Alive, a nonprofit based in New York dedicated to providing treatment to children with HIV/AIDS, accepts donations via text message. The Mobile Giving Foundation provides tools for nonprofits that want to raise money using mobile technology.
funding info - if Obama can only raise $31,390 what will "my-face-twitter" do?
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cares for more than 22 million of the approximately 50 million uprooted people in the world, including about 10 million children under the age of 18. The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most important legal framework for the protection of children. UNHCR findings reveal that: (1) more than 300,000 youths (including girls) ? many less than 10 years old - serve as child soldiers around the world; (2) HIV/AIDS has become the greatest threat to children, especially in countries ravaged by war; (3) children account for as many as half of all asylum seekers in the industrialized world; and (4) around 40 million children each year are not registered at birth and thus are without nationality or legal name. UNHCR seeks to keep pace with the needs of this population, although it regularly receives less than requested in emergency relief funding. However, if the developed countries were to meet an agreed aid target of 0.7 percent of their gross national product, an extra $100 billion would be available to help the world?s poorest nations.
facts to use in grant
Hidden Lives: Refugees in the Cities
The populations of many cities in developing countries have soared over the past decade. Estimates suggests that more than half of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa - the world's most rural region - will be living in urban areas within two decades. One prominent feature is the flow into cities of people who have been uprooted by natural disasters and/or conflict. There are many reasons why they come to the cities. Like other migrants, they are attracted by the perceived availability and better quality of basic services and by the chance to earn a living. Additional ‘pull' factors include the chance to live close to other family members and notions of the greater security that can be found in the anonymity of a bustling city. Many refugees also migrate to cities for reasons that are related specifically to their own displacement. These ‘push' factors include restrictions on their movements as a result of insecurity or natural hazards. People may have fled from violence, abuse, exploitation or coercion and the risks of forced recruitment into an armed force. Or they may be fleeing from the restrictions of camp life, and a lack of opportunities or basic services...By Sara Pavanello and Sara Pantuliano
reasons to make refugee camps an independent state
Donors have pledged $224 million for conflict victims in Pakistan, Reuters reported. The United Nations recently launched a $600 million aid appeal, noting that some 2 million Pakistanis have been displaced due to armed conflict between the federal government and Taliban rebels. Meanwhile, the European Commission earmarked 50 million euro (US$70 million) to boost food security in Pakistan. The sum, Frontier Post reported, represents part of the aid committed at a Friends of Democratic Pakista...By Ma. Rizza Leonzon on 22 May 2009
The European Commission will disburse EUR35 million (USD47 million) in humanitarian assistance for conflict and natural disaster victims in Afghanistan. Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran will also benefit from the funding. The supplementary aid is on top of the commission's EUR60 million pledge for the Asian nation at the recent donor conference in the Hague...By Ma. Rizza Leonzon on 21 May 2009
The European Commission will release 8 million euros ($11 million) in humanitarian aid for refugees and drought victims in Kenya. The funding includes at least 4 million euros for Somalis in the Dadaab refugee camp, while the rest of the sum will be used to provide food, health care, water and sanitation facilities, basic household items, and shelter for drought victims... by Ma. Rizza Leonzon on 23 June 2009 02:51:05 AM
look for a site that calculates all funding
start a page for info on major refugee camps
Posted by Tiziana Cauli on 05 July 2009 11:56:37 PM
Aid workers face increased risks as they struggle to assist refugees in war-stricken areas across the globe. The United Nations refugee agency believes joining efforts may be a way to deal with challenges more effectively.
this fact will be noted as we make plans to visit the refugee camps
A TIME TO RETHINK DEFINITIONS?
Posted by Josefa Cagoco on 14 July 2009 02:42:35 AM
Millions of refugees exist with limited legal and social protection because of a prevailing system that fails to recognize why some people are driven to flee their home countries and cross borders under unusual circumstances.
Traditionally, people who cross borders undocumented are identified to belong under only two groups – refugees and voluntary economic migrants, said Oxford fellow Alexander Betts.
The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees gives this definition: "A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."
Betts argued, however, that such distinction – which originates from the need to protect Holocaust victims in Europe after the war – is so narrowly defined, it overlooks diverse reasons for migration.
"Survival migration – or people leaving their country of origin because of an existential threat to which they have no domestic remedy – occurs for reasons other than individualized persecution," Betts said on Oxford's Global Economic Governance blog.
What prompts survival migration? Betts cited state collapse, generalized violence, severe environmental distress, widespread livelihood collapse, global economic meltdown and even climate change. But are these enough to obtain refugee status and protection? No, unless one is explicitly fleeing violence and persecution.
Broadening the coverage of the term refugee would, however, have the downside of eroding the rights of asylum seekers or forcing states to draw up new laws, Katie Nguyen wrote for Alertnet.
Betts called attention to the situation in Zimbabwe from which 3 million to 4 million people escape a collapsed state to neighboring countries such as South Africa. Only a fraction of them are recognized as refugees and the rest are forced to fend for themselves under tough conditions that result in "shocking human consequences," Betts said.
South Africa is slowly adapting to new challenges. According to Betts, the state has decided to stop deporting Zimbabweans and provide a permit that will give them access to basic services for six months. It is a start for a new national legal system.
But how about an international one?
"The world does not resemble the Europe of 1951 and neither should its protection framework," Betts said.