Refugee Rights News Volume 4, Issue 2 April 2008 On February 6, 2008, Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui became the third war crimes suspect to be transferred to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. His transfer marks another milestone in ongoing efforts to address the impunity which facilitated widespread atrocities that occurred during the war in…
Volume 4, Issue 2 On February 19, Liberians in Buduburam refugee camp began a sit in protest. News reports and NGO accounts indicate that the protest was sparked by the introduction of a repatriation program. Refugees felt that the package being proposed by UNHCR was too little—and demanded more. Specifically, UNHCR’s spokeswomen in Geneva…
The region has set out on the path to peace and development. Peace agreements have been concluded in Burundi, southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Negotiations to end the war in northern Uganda are ongoing. Large numbers of refugees have been able to return to their homes in Angola, Burundi, southern Sudan…
Volume 3, Issue 2 On July 21, 2006, history was made as former Liberian President Charles Taylor appeared in a courtroom in the Hague to answer eleven charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Netherlands has agreed to host Taylor’s trial and the United Kingdom has agreed to jail him in the event…
Contact: Deirdre Clancy + 353 86 408 3797 IRRI Condemns Horrific Attack on Refugee Demonstrators in Cairo (New York and Kampala, January 2, 2006) The International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) today called on the Egyptian government to launch an immediate independent inquiry into the events of Friday, December 30 in Cairo in which over 50…
Volume 2, Issue 4 On October 11, 2005, Liberia held its first elections since 1997. This election has spurred many refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return to their homes in order to vote for their future leaders. Unfortunately, however, the way that the involvement of returnees in the elections was facilitated by the…
Volume 2, Issue 4 In our July newsletter we featured the efforts of African advocates to see justice done by seeing Charles Taylor handed over to the Special Court in Sierra Leone, where he has been indicted on 17 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes. One such effort was a case that was…
Refugee Rights News Volume 2, Issue 3 September 2005 About May 19, 2005, the government of Zimbabwe’s began what it called “Operation Murambatsvina,” or “Operation Drive Out Trash.” In the process as many as 700,000 Zimbabweans were robbed of their homes and livelihoods, in a forceful internal displacement of tremendous scale and ferocity. The aim…
As Campaigns for Liberia’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections kick off, African and International Organisations Call on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and African Union Chairperson President Obasanjo of Nigeria to Ensure Charles Taylor Does Not Interfere in Liberia’s Democratic Process from Nigeria where he is currently exiled. In a statement issued today,…
When the meeting between Burundian and Rwandan government officials on Saturday June 11 ended, a decision had been reached. The two sides had decided to rename asylum seekers from both countries as “illegal immigrants” and treat them accordingly. What followed was a quick operation to deport thousands of Rwandan asylum seekers from Burundi. About…
Refugee Rights News Volume 2, Issue 2 July 2005 It has been more than two years since the Special Court for Sierra Leone indicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since then, Taylor has managed to evade justice, sliding from Liberia as rebels closed on the capital to comfortable…
Refugee Rights News Volume 2, Issue 1 May 2005 Over the past few months the Darfur Consortium, a network of Africa-based and Africa-focused civil society organizations, has been actively engaged in working towards finding a peaceful and just solution to the ongoing violence in Darfur. Exploring the situation on the ground In February, the Consortium organized…
Report of a Consultation on the Feasibility of a Collaborative Network-Building Project Linking Research with Program and Policy Development, co-hosted by The Social Science Research Council and The International Refugee Rights Initiative in Kampala, Uganda. Download full report here
Contacts: Refugee Law Project: Zachary Lomo: + 256 77 659 731 Amnesty International: Richard Haavisto: + 256 (0)31 350215 International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI): Dismas Nkunda: +256 78 310404 Kampala: March 10, 2005 Human rights groups today called upon refugee hosting governments to abide strictly by international and regional standards of refugee rights protection during the…
Refugee Rights News Volume 2, Issue 4 November 2005 Algeria has been undergoing a long process of stabilization, since the rampant civil strife in that country began to taper off in 1998. Given the greatly improved security situation, the Bouteflika government launched a campaign this summer to encourage return of the estimated 1 to 1.5…
Refugee Rights News Volume 1, Issue 2 December 2004 In November 2004, the Solidarity Peace Trust based in Port Shepstone, South Africa released a 107-page report, “No War in Zimbabwe: An Account of the Exodus of a Nation’s People.” The report details the difficulties faced by Zimbabwean asylum seekers in South Africa. Although all asylum…
