For watchers of the International Criminal Court (ICC), there has been a flurry of recent activity around the suspension of the proceedings against Thomas Lubanga. The Office of the Prosecutor is appealing and spectators are eagerly awaiting the decision from the appeals chamber. At the same time, there has been talk about the failure of…
Reports reaching IRRI and RLP indicate that on the morning of Wednesday 14th July 2010, OPM Directorate of Refugees and Police officers in Nakivale (Isingiro District) and Kyaka II (Kyenjonjo District) began rounding up Rwandans and forcing them against their will to board trucks to return them to Rwanda. Reports indicate that those targeted in…
In a research published titled “Who Belongs Where? Conflict, Displacement, Land and Identity in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo” by the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) in partnership with the New York-based Social Science Research Council (SSRC), views of the ongoing conflict in the east of the country are presented from the perspective of those displaced by it –…
Today, the International Refugee Rights Initiative and the Refugee Law Project launched a new report, “A Dangerous Impasse: Rwandan Refugees in Uganda”. The paper examines why refugees living in Uganda’s Nakivale settlement are refusing to return to Rwanda despite considerable push factors. Based on 102 interviews with Rwandan refugees, UN and government officials, the findings…
This paper outlines serious concerns regarding the protection of refugees in the country: once the camp is closed, approximately 30,000 refugees will be effectively homeless. Pressure to repatriate combined with a clear reticence on the part of refugees to return, calls into question the voluntary nature of the exercise. Meanwhile the outcome of a special…
Campaign calls on Security Council Members to Press Sudan to Cooperate (New York, The Hague, June 4, 2009) – United Nations Security Council members should convey strong support for the International Criminal Court’s efforts to bring justice to the victims of atrocities in Darfur, Justice for Darfur, a network of African, Arab and international human rights…
This paper is the first of a series of working papers that form part of a collaborative project between IRRI, SSRC, the Civil Society and the Various Academic Partners in the Great Lakes region. The project seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the linkages between conflicts over citizenship and belonging in the Great Lakes…
Human rights and civil society activists meeting on the margins of the historic first tripartite summit of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC), and Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Kampala, have asked the three regional bodies to harmonize their work, promote economic justice and ensure early warning…
Following the entry into force in June 2008 of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in Africa’s Great Lakes region (the Great Lakes Pact), the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) released The Great Lakes Pact and the Rights of Displaced People: A Guide for…
Over the last year the International Refugee Rights Initiative, with the generous project and technical assistance of the Open Society Justice Initiative, has been consulting regional experts to conduct a review of the experience of international justice in Africa. The first reflections from this project were presented at the workshop held in Kampala on 17…
On February 6, 2008, Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui became the third war crimes suspect to be transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. His arrest marks another milestone in ongoing efforts to address the impunity which facilitated the widespread commission of atrocities during the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Since 1998, the…
Please find herein the Joint NGO Statement ahead of the intergovernmental Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean being held on 29 May 2015 hosted by the Royal Thai Government in Bangkok. The signatories below represent more than 600 non-‐governmental and civil society organisations operating across Asia and the Pacific regions. Read more
