As South Sudanese leaders are set to participate in another series of talks in the coming months, their citizens continue to flee the violence, lawlessness and humanitarian disaster that characterises their country. From refugee settlements in Uganda and elsewhere in the region, they follow these discussions with a mix of scepticism, hope and rejection. Most…
In August 2014, eight months after the war in South Sudan began, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) described it as “a war on the children of South Sudan”. More than three years later, the violence in South Sudan continues, and children continue to be the victims…
Thousands of victims across the world continue to see the ICC as a beacon of hope and an avenue to obtain justice for egregious crimes perpetrated against them. Up to September 2017, over 12, 985 victims were participating in proceedings before the Court. Between August 2016 and August 2017 alone, the Court received over 4,725…
Over the last 25 years, drought, violence and human rights abuses have pushed millions of Somalis from their homes.1 Many have remained within Somalia, while others have fled across international borders, either into neighbouring countries like Kenya, or further afield to Uganda, Europe or the United States (US). As with many large groups of exiles,…
On 28 August Israel’s High Court of Justice issued its ruling in an appeal on a district court decision concerning Israel’s “voluntary departures” scheme. Under this scheme, Eritreans and Sudanese irregular migrants are transferred from Israel to unnamed “third countries” in Africa. Israel has never disclosed the names of the countries involved in this…
The first six months of this year has continued at a pace for IRRI. Not only have the areas we work in continue to be challenging but we have worked hard to ensure the voices of the displaced and conflict affected communities are not only heard but heeded at the international level. In addition, our…
Uganda is currently holding a Solidarity Summit on Refugees. The summit is taking place as Uganda hosts over a million refugees, the majority of whom have fled the upsurge in fighting in South Sudan. Despite the extraordinary speed and scale of displacement (between July 2016 and January 2017, over half a million refugees arrived in…
The International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) publishes an annual report on progress made in three focus areas: identifying the violations that cause displacement and exile; protecting the rights of those who are displaced, and ensuring the solutions to their displacement are durable, rights respecting, safe and timely. The 2016 report summarizes our work and looks…
At his inauguration ceremony yesterday, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, whilst sharing the stage with Sudan’s President Omar-al Bashir, against whom there is an outstanding International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, stated the ICC was “a bunch of useless people.” “When they started, we used to take the ICC serious but not anymore. They are a…
Imagine being denied citizenship and treated like a foreigner in the only country you have ever known, the country where you were born and spent your whole life, the place where everyone you know (friends, family, even perhaps your grandparents) live. Citizenship provides both practical rights and protections (such as the right to vote) and…
Last week the Be’er-Sheva District Court rejected a petition filed by two Eritrean asylum seekers and six Israeli NGOs against the government’s new policy of imprisoning irregular migrants who are unwilling to leave Israel to Uganda or Rwanda. By doing so, the court gave a green light to the indefinite imprisonment of Eritreans and Sudanese…
A new report launched today by the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) exposes how Israeli transfers of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers to Uganda and Rwanda leaves them without status and vulnerable to exploitation. “Our research shows that Israel is not only failing to respect its own obligations under international law, but is directly increasing…
While Europe squabbles over the acceptance of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers arriving over the Mediterranean, over the past year 154,134 refugees of South Sudanese origin alone have been assisted in Uganda, with Adjumani District receiving around 87 new arrivals every day. Despite the fact that Adjumani is itself recovering from decades of conflict,…
It is always good when research undermines the image of refugees as victims. However, there is a fine line between promoting a positive image of refugees and underestimating the levels of hardship that many face. A report released in June 2014 by the Humanitarian Innovation Project, University of Oxford, “Refugee Economies: Rethinking Popular Assumptions”, (Alexander…
On 8 April 2015, the Supreme Court of Uganda decided the matter of Uganda vs. Kweyelo and set a new precedent that narrowed the application of Uganda’s Amnesty Act, clarifying that not all crimes are eligible for amnesty – only those that are political crimes, or those that are directly linked to the rebel group’s political…
This blog first appeared on the African Arguments website. The relationship between the International Criminal Court (ICC) and African civil society is certainly an interesting one. On the one hand, the proliferation of conflict on the continent has led to an ever increasing deficit in justice, and the ICC is seen by some as a…
“We could not wait for our dead bodies to be found first” Nearly a quarter of a million South Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries, with Uganda taking the largest number – around 87,000. The International Refugee Rights Initiative’s report, Conflict in South Sudan: Refugees seek protection in Uganda and a way home explores the…
Based on interviews conducted in Nakivale settlement in Uganda and discussions of the findings with the government of Uganda and UNHCR, the briefing tells the story of a small number of Burundian refugees and asylum seekers who have fled into a second phase of exile. As former refugees living in Tanzania’s Mtabila refugee camp, they…
Today, 4th March, Kenyans go to the polls to elect a new leader after current President Mwai Kibaki bows out. The elections are being watched with a keen eye across the world, and particularly throughout the region given the wider regional implications of its outcome. But no country in the region will be watching more…
