RSC newsletter autumn 2009 header right

FEATURE Protecting Palestinian children: The role of the international community

News RSC library move Funding successes Deputy Director’s presentation in China on dispossession and displacement

Activities 18 November 2009 annual Harrell-Bond lecture: Jan Egeland International conference: Protecting people in conflict and crisis

Publications Special issue of Journal of Refugee Studies: Representation and displacement Forced Migration Policy Briefing on Statelessness Studies in Forced Migration book series: looking ahead issue 33: Protracted displacement

Conferences, Workshops & seminars Seminar series: refugee voices RSC conferences International Summer School in Forced Migration 2010

Alumni Dr Peter Westoby Kamini Karlekar Anna Cervi News

Funding successes

We are delighted that the Danish Dispossession & Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently committed two million displacement of Danish Kroner to fund Summer mobile peoples School bursaries to support RSC library participants from the global RSC Deputy Director Dr Dawn move south over the next three years Chatty was invited to give a and to co-fund our conference presentation in July to the XVI The collections of the RSC on Protection held in September. Congress of the International Library were successfully moved We are equally pleased to Union of Anthropological to the Social Science Library have received 50,000 Swiss and Ethnological Sciences in (SSL) on Manor Road in Francs from the Swiss Federal Kunming, Yunnan, China. As (OX1 3UQ) in August, and are Department of Foreign Affairs Chairman of the Commission Refugee Studies Centre now available to readers. to co-finance our research on on Nomadic Peoples, she Oxford Department of All books have been environmental displacement. We spoke about the contemporary International Development integrated into the SSL book are currently seeking additional dispossession and displacement collection, contributing over support for this work. of mobile peoples from their 3,700 new titles to the SSL. The In addition we are grateful traditional grazing lands in 3 Mansfield Road key academic journals for forced for the individual philanthropic order to make way for the Oxford OX1 3TB, UK migration studies are now support we receive, which over establishment of nature reserves. stored in the SSL’s periodicals the last two months includes a China is currently engaged to Tel: +44 (0)1865 281720 section. The extensive and renewed pledge from Mrs Bruna moving its Mongolian herders Fax: +44 (0)1865 281730 unique RSC ‘grey literature’ – Johnson for the Bob Johnson off their lands and into cities. Email: [email protected] unpublished material – remains Scholarship, and a generous Chinese authorities regard www.rsc.ox.ac.uk as a discrete collection and pledge from Mr and Mrs Ron these measures as part of is easily accessible. These Olson to provide $50,000 to their strategies to prevent the documents are organised as support scholarships for MSc Mongolian steppe land from Design by www.advocate.uk.com before, using a geographical students through Linacre College becoming a dust bowl. These Printed on 50% recycled paper and subject-based scheme. for five years. strategies, however, reflect a Visitors to the RSC misinterpretation of Western collection, and those enquiring For more information please experiences. The lecture from afar, still have access contact Amelia Richards, Dispossession and Displacement to our specialist staff – who Head of Development, at to Protect Nature – available remain the same. Information [email protected] at www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/PDFs/ about the RSC collections in the dispossessionanddisplacement. SSL are available on pdf – sought to provide a www.ssl.ox.ac.uk and different perspective by outlining www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/library.html. the history of protected areas, the mistakes made, and the For more information, steps currently being taken please contact Sarah Rhodes, to recognise the rights of Forced Migration, African traditional and local people to and Commonwealth Subject their common grazing lands. Consultant, +44 (0)1865 285998; [email protected] For more information, please contact Dr Dawn Chatty at [email protected]

2 RSC AUTUMN 2009 Activities

Tenth annual Harrell-Bond lecture: Jan Egeland outer te K loeze te outer

The RSC is delighted to announce that Jan Egeland will be by W Photo giving the tenth Harrell-Bond lecture on 18 November. The title of the lecture will be ‘Beyond blankets: in search International conference on of political deals and durable solution for the displaced’. Mr Egeland will speak about enhanced humanitarian relief efforts ‘Protecting people in conflict for the world’s displaced people, arguing that only political and crisis’ agreement and effective security arrangements will lead to progress in resolving the refugee crisis. To mark the tenth anniversary of the ICRC’s landmark Mr Egeland was UN Under-Secretary-General for workshops on humanitarian protection, the RSC hosted a major Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from international conference on the theme of ‘Protecting people in June 2003 to December 2006. He took up his current position conflict and crisis: responding to the challenges of a changing as director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs world’ from 22–24 September. (NUPI) on 1 September 2007. Hosted in collaboration with the Overseas Development In 2008, Mr Egeland published a memoir, A Billion Lives: An Institute’s Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) and with the Eyewitness Report from the Frontlines of Humanity, about his generous support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, time at the UN. UNHCR and DfID, the conference brought together over Prior to his UN appointment, Mr Egeland acquired 25 years 180 participants – researchers, humanitarian practitioners of experience in humanitarian, human rights and peace work. and policy makers – from more than 50 countries to review He served as Secretary-General of the Norwegian Red Cross, the state of policy and practice in the field of humanitarian and from 1999 to 2002 he was the UN Secretary-General’s protection. Among the participants were representatives from Special Adviser on Colombia. the governments of Denmark, Japan, Norway, UK and the Earlier in his career, he served as State Secretary in the USA, as well as representatives from Médecins Sans Frontières, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1990–97). He has International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, Save the Children also been Head of Development Studies at the Henry Dunant UK, and various UN agencies. Institute in Geneva, Chair of Amnesty International, Norway, The conference was opened by the UN Assistant High and an international news reporter for the Norwegian Commissioner for Refugees (Protection), Ms Erika Feller, who Broadcasting Corporation. discussed the question of ‘Humanitarian and Protection Spaces’. The lecture will take place on Wednesday 18 November 2009, Six keynote papers were delivered by eminent speakers, including 5pm, at the University Museum, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 Professor David Keen of the London School of Economics, 3PW. The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception. Dennis McNamara of the Humanitarian Dialogue Centre, and Zonke Majodina of the UN Human Rights Committee. For more information or to reserve a place, please contact Wouter The conference considered six thematic tracks, ranging te Kloeze at [email protected] from the conceptualisation of ‘protection’ within international policy-making processes and the politics of delivering protection programmes at the global, regional and national level, to analysing community’s perceptions of protection and revisiting more practical issues relating to the implementation of protection activities. Podcasts of the plenary sessions can be found at www.forcedmigration.org/podcasts/protecting-people and the text of the keynote speeches at www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/conf_ conferences_220909.html.

For more information, please contact [email protected]

RSC AUTUMN 2009 3 feature

PROTECTING PALESTINIAN CHILDREN THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Research project of Dr Jason Hart and Claudia Lo Forte All images © R SC

4 RSC AUTUMN 2009 feature

In December–January 2009, around 350 Palestinian children to child protection may acquire a dominant status within the were killed and approximately 10,500 displaced during Israel’s efforts of large numbers of child protection actors. Aside from bombardment of Gaza.1 For children growing up in the consideration of the impact of intra-organisational hierarchies, occupied territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, questions were also raised about the 2005 Humanitarian the extreme effects of political violence such as witnessed at that Reform involving the introduction of the so-called Cluster time are a tragically familiar feature of everyday life. Indeed, Approach. The adoption of this approach in the occupied this violence has shaped the settings in which successive Palestinian territories (oPt) has led to the creation of a Child generations of children have grown up. Within this volatile Protection Working Group which seeks to ensure better setting numerous UN and international agencies have worked coordination amongst relevant agencies. Yet such a group for many years with the aim of protecting children and realising also has the potential for control through the insistence on a their basic rights. Yet the limits to their ability to fulfil this aim particular strategy of child protection that represents the views have been made obvious time and again. and position of certain actors while marginalising those of The research project undertaken by Dr Jason Hart and others. A similar concern was raised about the consequences Claudia Lo Forte has sought to understand the challenges of greater coordination amongst members of the Save the faced by organisations in protecting Palestinian children from Children Alliance, both in the oPt and globally. In short, the direct and indirect effects of political violence, and to our research revealed tension arising from current efforts to produce clear recommendations on how such challenges may improve coordination, while powerful intra- and inter-agency be met. This has involved enquiry in relation to three distinct hierarchies remain unaddressed. areas: concepts, institutional frameworks and politics, pursued The most challenging aspect of the research project has through seven months of fieldwork in the West Bank and East been to identify and fully comprehend the effects of the wider Jerusalem, and complemented by desk review. Regrettably, it political context upon the efforts of child protection actors was not possible to include an explicit focus upon Gaza within working in the oPt. This region of the world is constantly in this project due to issues of access and timing. the global media spotlight: a place wherein many people and At the conceptual level, our concern has been to document governments around the world have strong vested interests the different ways in which the notion of ‘child protection’ is and agendas. Moreover, it is an unusual location given the understood by actors at all levels: from governmental donors inherent weaknesses of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the to UN, international and local agencies, as well as parents consequent ambiguities around the role of local civil society and children living in situations of everyday violence. Our and the international community, respectively. How does starting point was the definition of child protection employed this political complexity impact upon the efforts to protect by UNICEF and other agencies as ‘preventing and responding Palestinian children? How are UN and international agencies to violence, exploitation and abuse against children’. Over constrained in their work not only to respond to children 100 interviews and focus group discussions revealed a range suffering from violation of their wellbeing, but to prevent abuse of views about the nature and causes of threat to children, as occurring in the first place? What political considerations shape well as the means by which the young may be protected. In the interaction of such agencies with child protection actors on various ways these views were at odds with one another. This the ground, both within the PA and local organisations? These was evident, for example, with regards to the strong association are questions with which we are currently contending as we made between child protection and domestic or school strive to produce a report summarising the key findings of the violence by various international actors which for others, risked research and recommendations arising. This report is intended obscuring the child protection task of preventing political for completion in late December/early January and will appear violence and the politically-motivated denial of access to basic in both English and Arabic. resources and services. Such divergence was evident most This project has been generously supported by the East-West strongly through discussion with Palestinian NGO workers Foundation, which has provided the core funds for this project. who, in several cases, struggled to reconcile the conceptual We are also very grateful for the additional funds offered by framework given by their employers or donors with their own the Council for British Research in the Levant and the Queen experience as parents and community members. Elizabeth House Research Fund. In terms of institutional dynamics we were particularly interested in the ways that certain concepts and actions relating For more information, please email [email protected]

1. Figures according to Defence for Children International, Palestine www.dci-pal.org accessed 28.09.09

RSC AUTUMN 2009 5 publications

Forced Migration Statelessness Review (FMR) Special issue Policy Briefing issue 33: Studies Protracted of the Journal The RSC has launched its third of Refugee policy briefing on ‘Statelessness, in Forced displacement protection and equality’ Migration Studies by Brad K Blitz (Professor The English edition of FMR of Human and Political book series 33, with a major feature on The September 2009 issue of the Geography, Kingston University The Studies in Forced Migration Protracted displacement, is now Journal of Refugee Studies is a and RSC Research Associate). book series was conceived online at www.fmreview.org/ special issue on Representation This paper provides a typology by Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond, protracted.htm. and Displacement, guest-edited of stateless people and contexts, founding director of the Increasingly, growing by Dr Eva-Lotta Hedman reviews relevant international RSC, in the mid-1990s. It is numbers of displaced people and Dr Graeme Rodgers. It law and jurisprudence, and published by Berghahn Books remain displaced for years, even highlights how representations assesses the links between in association with the RSC. decades. This latest issue of FMR of displacement routinely shape nationality and the protection With more than 25 volumes includes 29 articles by academic, processes and outcomes of of human rights. The paper published so far, the series international and local actors displacement, with particular gives recommendations for reflects the multidisciplinary assessing the impact of such focus on localised and often reducing and eliminating nature of the field and includes situations on people’s lives and highly politicised contexts. statelessness in the future. within its scope international our societies and exploring As the papers show, the social The Forced Migration Policy law, anthropology, medicine, the ‘solutions’ – political, production and reproduction Briefings highlight the very geography, geopolitics, social humanitarian and personal. of diverse forms of such best and latest policy-relevant psychology and economics. FMR 33 also includes a representation may signify the research findings from the Volume 29, to be published in spotlight on the ‘internment’ consolidation of new political fields of forced migration March 2010, will be edited by camps in Sri Lanka, a mini- communities, or uncover and and humanitarian studies RSC Deputy Director Dr Dawn feature on collective centres, and stoke existing latent political by providing a forum in Chatty and will be entitled a selection of articles on other tensions related to gender, which academic researchers, Deterritorialized Youth: Sahrawi aspects of forced migration. class, ethnicity and so on. humanitarian practitioners, and Afghan Refugees at This issue was funded by Furthermore, competing international lawyers and the Margins of the Middle East. the Australian Government forms that arise in the wake of policymakers may share Department of Immigration displacement may constitute evidence, experience, best and Citizenship, the Canadian important new forms of social practice and innovation on the International Development and political capital, exchanged broad range of critical issues Agency, and UNHCR’s Regional and contested in symbolically that arise at the intersection Bureau for Africa. powerful ways. of forced migration and The next three issues of humanitarian intervention. FMR will include features For more information please Forthcoming policy briefings on Urban displacement, contact Margaret Okole at will focus on Humanitarian Disability and displacement, [email protected], reform, UNHCR and the and the Democratic Republic Desk Editor of the Journal of protection of refugees, the of the Congo/Great Lakes. Refugee Studies situation of Iraqi exiles in the Details at www.fmreview.org/ Middle East, and regional forthcoming.htm. To subscribe to the Journal, please approaches to protracted visit http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org refugee situations. To request copies of any issue The Statelessness Policy of FMR, or to enquire about Briefing can be found at forthcoming issues, please www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/PDFs/ contact the Editors, Marion RSCPB3-Statelessness.pdf. Couldrey and Maurice Herson, at [email protected]

6 RSC AUTUMN 2009 CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS & seminars

RSC International conferences Summer School in Two RSC conferences are currently scheduled. The aim of Forced The politics of refugee voices the conference on ‘Deportation Migration and the development of The theme of the RSC’s forthcoming Wednesday seminar series citizenship’ (11–12 December The next International is ‘The politics of refugee voices’. Speakers are invited to explore 2009, organised in conjunction Summer School in Forced the issues of refugees’ political participation and representation, with COMPAS), is to Migration will take place from bringing insight from different disciplinary perspectives and encourage interdisciplinary 5–23 July 2010. It offers an geographical foci. and comparative scholarship intensive, interdisciplinary On 14 October, Dr Giorgia Donà (UEL) will question on deportation. The latter and participative approach to the prevailing representation of the Rwandan genocide as a is broadly conceived as the the study of forced migration, dichotomous narrative of survivors and perpetrators, which lawful expulsion power of enabling people working with renders invisible the experiences of the majority of Rwandans. states, both as an immigration refugees and other forced The following week, Prof Alessandro Triulzi (University control and as a social control migrants to examine critically of Naples L’Orientale) will introduce ‘Come un uomo sulla mechanism. The conference will the forces and institutions Terra [Like a man on Earth]’, a documentary that recounts serve as a vehicle for bringing that dominate the world of the experience of Ethiopian refugees who decided to start a together scholars from different the displaced. Beginning with joint ‘archive of migrant memories’ to create awareness for the disciplines interested in the reflection on the diverse ways of inhuman conditions of their journeys to Lampedusa in Italy study of deportation, including conceptualising forced migration, and of their experiences in the Italian asylum system. politics, sociology, history, the course considers political, On 28 October, Dr Leah Bassel (City University) will review international relations, law, legal and well-being issues current debates over gender equality and minority inclusion, criminology and anthropology. associated with contemporary and identify two spheres of contestation at the interface of A conference on ‘Romani displacement. Individual course asylum and integration, each of which enables certain voices mobilities in Europe: modules tackle a range of other while silencing others. multidisciplinary perspectives’ topics, including globalisation Dr John Nassari (UEL), on 4 November, will explore ways in (14–15 January 2010) will and forced migration, and which national charities, galleries and museums promote and map the variety and directions negotiating strategies in facilitate the visibility of refugee experiences in Britain, and how of contemporary Romani humanitarian situations. refugee groups themselves have intervened in these initiatives. mobilities into, out of and The course, which is In the following seminar, on 11 November, Prof Robin within the EU, including residential, is held in Oxford. Cohen, director of the International Migration Institute economic and forced migration Teaching is conducted in English. (Oxford University), will reflect upon the formation of social as well as forced or voluntary A number of bursaries are identities among refugees and migrants. repatriation. It will locate offered on a competitive basis to The final two seminars, on 25 November and 2 December, these mobilities in the broader applicants from less-developed will be given by Prof Robert Barsky (Vanderbilt University) and political, social, historical and countries. Dr Miriyam Aouragh (Oxford University), talking respectively cultural context. on the precarious and dangerous routes of potential refugees Both conferences are part For further information, please into US cities in search for their own version of the ‘American of projects funded by the John visit www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/teaching_ Dream’, and on the impact of the internet on the transnational Fell summer.html or email: Palestinian nation. Research Fund. [email protected]; Tel: +44 (0)1865 281728/9 All seminars are open to the public and take place at Seminar Contact Dr Emanuela Paoletti Room One, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB, starting at 5pm. at emanuela.paoletti@qeh. For more information, please contact the convener Nando Sigona: ox.ac.uk and Nando Sigona at [email protected] [email protected] respectively for more information

RSC AUTUMN 2009 7 ALUMNI

To our alumni

If you have spent time at the RSC studying or working, you are very welcome to share with our newsletter readers news about your career, research, publications, organisations or anything else related to forced migration. Please contact Wouter te Kloeze at [email protected]

Dr Peter Westoby, Kamini Karlekar, ervi Summer School 2005 MSc 2000–2001 Photo by Anna C Photo Dr Peter Westoby has recently In early 2004, I went to Sudan to published a book based on work with UNHCR on a refugee Anna Cervi, MSc 2007–2008 four years of research amongst status determination project. From Southern Sudanese refugees there I moved to Liberia, working After I completed the MSC in Forced Migration in June 2008, I within Australia. The book is on issues relating to the return, started working at Intersos (www.intersos.org) as Field Officer titled The Sociality of Refugee reintegration and rehabilitation of in West Darfur, Sudan. Healing – in dialogue with Liberian returnees. Intersos is an Italian NGO that operates in emergency Southern Sudanese refugees My first book, a work of situations. It has worked in the provision of humanitarian aid settling within Australia creative non-fiction entitled (Un) to populations affected by human and natural disasters since (published by Common Ground). settled: Notes from a Shifting Life, 1992. Intersos has been active in West Darfur since 2004, trying At the heart of The Sociality of is partly travel, partly personal to support a safe and dignified return of IDPs and refugees Healing is the argument that it and partly political as the history to their area of origin. In West Darfur, Intersos is one of the is the current and present world of the two countries and weave implementing partners of UNHCR, carrying out activities of settlement that should be the in and out of the narrative of in cooperation with a number of other international donors primary focus for healing work, my life in these two countries. It focusing mainly on education, water and sanitation, agriculture, not the past. Healing, for refugees is about the discoveries I made forestry, distribution of non-food-items to vulnerable groups, and those of us living within about myself as a UN worker peace building, and profiling. host countries, is essentially and where I was, both as a Prior to my studies at the RSC, I worked on displacement about learning to live together, professional and an individual – both in Italy and in the Horn of Africa, after five years of and living together well, with my surprise at falling in love with Development Studies at the University of Bologna. Working healthy, vibrant and ‘engaged’ Sudan despite all the bad press, on displacement requires a strong theoretical background that relationships. This engagement and feeling at home in Harper, enables one to transcend the complexities faced on the ground. requires a willingness to embrace Liberia, despite the ubiquitous This was the main reason I longed to study at the RSC. past pain, but also a capacity to loitering ex-combatants and Describing the complexities entrenched in that area is a rather create a new culture, new kinds razor wire compounds. difficult task that goes beyond the aim of this article. However, of communities, and to build a in a nutshell, working in Darfur after my experience at the RSC socially just society together. Contact Kamini: has given me a unique opportunity to deepen my knowledge in The book explores some of [email protected] the field of forced migration through practical experience. the key research findings as they Living in Darfur is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Though relate to the spheres of culture, the region is adversely affected by conflict, Darfurians community and power within taught me to believe that conditions can improve even in a refugee settlement processes. context as complex as Darfur. I have come to appreciate the The book should provide new importance of and need for going beyond the commonplace thinking about how researchers, practice of labelling individuals and groups as IDPs, refugees policymakers and community and returnees, because such labels mask the more pertinent practitioners can engage in a requirements of listening to the actual practical needs of those dialogical and elicitive journey of affected and voicing them in the international arena. From my co-discovery with refugee groups. day-to-day interaction with colleagues in the Intersos base of Forobaranga, I learnt the importance of advocating for our Contact Peter: beneficiaries regardless of their tribe, origin or dialect, and [email protected] respecting their dignity and integrity as human beings.

Contact Anna: [email protected]

8 RSC AUTUMN 2009