Thousands of Burundian refugees in Tanzania are coming under increasing pressure to return ‘home’. The most visible group of refugees, those living in Mtabila camp (one of the last camps remaining open in Tanzania), have been resisting return for more than two years despite significant pressure from the governments of Burundi and Tanzania. Read more
On August 26, 2011, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Appeals Chamber ruled that three witnesses, who had been called to The Hague to testify for the defense in the Katanga case, could, in principle, be returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Prior to their transfer to The Hague, the three former militia leaders…
Speculation is rife in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) surrounding the possible return of Congolese refugees currently living in Rwanda following the signing of a tripartite agreement between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the governments of Rwanda and the DRC in February 2010. Yet as…
In Ituri, victims of atrocities committed in the context of the 2002-2003 violence, which claimed an estimated 50,000 lives, and the civil society organisations that represent them have been calling out for a full accounting for crimes committed, emphasizing their right to both understand the particular individual and institutional drivers of the conflict and for…
So, last Sunday we had a football match in preparation of the Review Conference of the Rome Statute that is still ongoing here in Uganda. Dubbed as a stocktaking exercise of the last 12 years that the International Criminal Court has been in existence, the football match was bound to have some tickling moments. As…
Recent research in Burundi on the repatriation of refugees has highlighted the strong link between land and citizenship. The research (“Two People Can’t Share the Same Pair of Shoes: Citizenship, Land and the Return of Refugees to Burundi“) tracked the experience of refugees returning to southern Burundi and (re)claiming their citizenship. Most had been living…
The International Refugee Rights Initiative, in partnership with Rema Ministries and the Social Science Research Council, released a new paper,”Two People Can’t Share the Same Pair of Shoes: Citizenship, Land and the Return of Refugees to Burundi.” The paper, the second in the series Citizenship and Displacement in the Great Lakes region, tracks the…
Refugee Rights News November 2009 On 9 October 2009, the Namibian newspaper reported that 41 Congolese who were being housed in Molepolole Refugee Reception Centre near Gabarone in Botswana would be deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo. For this group, which includes both persons who had been recognised in Namibia as refugees and asylum seekers, the…
Refugee Rights News May 2009 “[The new permit is] a clear turning point in South Africa, which up until now has had a line that there is no problem in Zimbabwe.” – Gerry Simpson, a refugee researcher with HRW Over a million Zimbabweans currently residing in South Africa have finally been granted a respite from…
A note issued by the Darfur Consortium in collaboration with IRRI to the African Union It has been just over one month since the expulsion of 13 international humanitarian agencies from Sudan by the Government of Sudan and the suspension of the operations of three leading local organisations which provided protection and humanitarian aid. Along…
Recent claims by the Sudanese government that the situation in Darfur is improving are not borne out by reality, fifteen organizations said in a report released today. In an effort to bolster their argument that the U.N. Security Council should suspend the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) consideration of an arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir,…
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…
Five months after the outbreak of violence against foreigners in South Africa, civil society organisations are still working to ensure that there is an appropriate governmental response. Over the last months, civil society from across Africa has become engaged with an initiative by the Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative to conduct an African civil society…
Volume 4, Issue 6 On 15 August, the International Herald Tribune reported that former Chadian dictator Hissene Habré had been sentenced to death alongside dozens of others accused of engagement with the eastern rebellion in the country. The verdict against Habré was based, according to Chadian Minister of Justice Jean Bawoyeu Alingue, on his “financial,…
Refugee Rights News Volume 4, Issue 5 July 2008 On July 2, 2008, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Trial Chamber ruled that Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese warlord and the first person ever to be arrested on ICC charges, should be released from detention. The ruling from the Hague is the most recent in a…
Refugee Rights News Volume 4, Issue 5 July 2008 On Monday, July 14, 2008, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, presented evidence to the Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber alleging that Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir has been responsible for ten counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur. The Pre-Trial…
Refugee Rights News Volume 4, Issue 5 July 2008 As usual, media attention has quickly shifted away from the violence that took place across many parts of South Africa against foreigners in May, which left over 60 people dead and tens of thousands displaced. Yet, little has been done either to address the consequences of…
Refugee Rights News Volume 4, Issue 4 June 2008 Questions of legitimacy, over who has the “right” to live where, are growing around the world, and nowhere have antagonistic articulations of identity been more graphically illustrated than in the recent attacks on foreigners in South Africa. The sheer scale and brutality of the attacks, which…
Concept paper presented by Lucy Hovil at the Violence and Transition Project Roundtable in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Refugee Rights News Volume 4, Issue 3 May 2008 The question of justice and accountability has been a critical question in the ongoing peace talks between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GoU). On February 19, 2008, the LRA and the GoU made an important step forward in negotiating these issues…
