ABSTRACTS FOR THE PANEL SESSIONS
RESÚMENES DE LOS PANELES
PANEL 1
LA DECLARACIÓN DE CARTAGENA 30 AÑOS DESPUÉS FRENTE A LA RELACIÓN
ENTRE EL REFUGIO Y LA PAZ EN COLOMBIA
La Declaración de Cartagena nació en un contexto donde los conflictos internos armados y
dictaduras militares era el común denominador de varios países centroamericanos y
suramericanos. Salvador, Guatemala y Nicaragua sufrían por la época de conflictos
internos en el marco de la Guerra Fría. Por su parte, en Colombia y Perú se vivían
procesos de agudización de los conflictos internos, también influidos por la confrontación
entre comunismo-capitalismo. En el cono sur las dictaduras Argentina y Chilena todavía
estaban vigentes. A los anteriores, se sumó la irrupción de la narco criminalidad.
30 años después la situación política regional se ha reconfigurado, principalmente por la
superación de los conflictos político-militares centroamericanos y su reemplazo por
formas de violencia asociadas a la macro-criminalidad incluyendo a México. Estos países
sufren hoy las consecuencias de su desborde a múltiples niveles en la migración,
incluyendo nuevas víctimas que encuentran dificultades en la Declaración de Cartagena
que pese a la ampliación de las causales previstas en la convención de 1951, resultan
insuficientes frente a estas realidades.
En Colombia el conflicto interno persiste pero también sufre una exacerbación de la
macro-criminalidad organizada heredera de los paramilitares, generando refugio y
desplazamiento. Al igual que en el caso centroamericano, las víctimas de la macrocriminalidad encuentran dificultades para el reconocimiento de sus derechos en el derecho
internacional de refugiados.
La ponencia trata sobre las retos que una eventual reforma a la Declaración de Cartagena
derivados de los viejos retos humanitarios asociados a situación de conflictos internos con
formas de conflictividad emergentes que desdibujan los estrechos límites en que la
condición de refugiados ha sido tradicionalmente reconocida.
1. Adriana Medina Carrillo. “Politizando las migraciones forzadas para los derechos de los
refugiados: lecciones de Centroamérica para Colombia sobre el papel de los refugiados en la
paz.
Si bien todas las formas migración forzada por violencia tienden a despolitizar los sectores
de la población que victimizan, la experiencia del refugio destruye en mayor medida las
comunidades políticas, excluyéndolos de sus derechos políticos como ciudadanos,
alejándolos de los entornos de origen y pretendiendo su más extrema despolitización.
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La persistencia de las causas que generan el refugio se encuentran profundamente
asociadas a la ausencia de paz integral en los países de origen. En este sentido, la
consolidación de la paz en Colombia integralmente concebida es una condición necesaria
para que los refugiados puedan gozar efectivamente de sus derechos, incluyendo el
derecho que tienen a superar la situación de refugio en el marco del retorno o la
reubicación.
El derecho internacional de refugiados ha resultado funcional al no ayudar a revertir la
despolitización, cuando condiciona el otorgamiento de la condición de refugio a que las
víctimas no se organicen ni reconstituyan sus comunidades políticas en los países de
destino, convirtiéndolo en una forma más de control de las migraciones, antes que un
mecanismo para el restablecimiento de los derechos políticos, viendo en el
empoderamiento de los refugiados colombianos en sus territorios una amenaza.
La ponencia busca extraer las lecciones que deja la experiencia centroamericana de los
refugiados en la construcción de la paz en sus países de origen, en especial la
guatemalteca, a los refugiados colombianos, de cara al actual proceso de paz que se
desarrolla en el país. En particular, busca comparar las condiciones del contexto
internacional en ambas coyunturas, la naturaleza organizativa y dinámica sociopolítica de
los refugiados, y el papel de los gobiernos y los actores armados no estatales en las
mismas.
2. Jorge Arturo Salcedo. “Dilemas y contradicciones de la política pública colombiana de
atención y reparación a víctimas frente al retorno de refugiados y de los desplazados
internos”.
Si bien el Estado colombiano ha registrado avances en el reconocimiento de sus
responsabilidades internas e internacionales frente a los desplazados forzados por la
violencia, los desarrollos de la política pública han sido mayores en el plano interno que
en el internacional. Por su parte, el retorno ha sido la opción que los diferentes gobiernos
han priorizado en el plano interno, por lo menos en el nivel discursivo e institucional, no
obstante se presume que la mayoría de los desplazados no han tenido más opción que
reubicarse en las ciudades, debatiéndose entre perder la vida al regreso, o morir de
hambre en ciudades que no logran integrarlos en sus mínimos vitales.
De forma reciente el Gobierno en desarrollo de la Ley de Victimas y Restitución de Tierras
de 2011, en el nivel discursivo e institucional reconoce sus responsabilidades frente a los
derechos a la reparación integral de los refugiados. Lo anterior ha generado a su vez
diversos dilemas para éstos, como la posibilidad de perder la condición de refugiados y la
protección en los países de recibo, la deportación y devolución involuntarias, y con ellos
posibilidades de nuevas re-victimizaciones ante la persistencia de las causas que dieron
origen a su errancia por otros países.
La ponencia compara las tensiones que enfrentan los gobiernos nacionales de origen y
destino, organismos internacionales, víctimas y organizaciones acompañantes, frente al
retorno tanto en el plano interno como en el internacional, en el contexto de justicia
transicional vigente en Colombia como del proceso de paz que se encuentra en curso.
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PANEL 2
THE NEW FRONTIER: ORGANIZED CRIME
MEXICO
AND
FORCED MIGRATION
IN
The current situation in Mexico is exemplary of a new wave of organised crime-related
forced migration afflicting Latin America. Oriented toward the third theme in the IASFM
Call for Papers – ‘Forced Migration in the Context of Peace’ - this panel brings together a
set of researchers on Mexican displacement in order to analyse the causes, patterns,
perpetrators and victims of this increasingly significant phenomenon in depth and to
debate the complex questions that it raises for humanitarian theory and practice.
The papers presented on this panel approach the topic from three distinct angles. Rubio
analyses the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of the internal forced displacement in
Mexico and showing the extraordinary scale and complexity of the crisis and the
humanitarian challenges that it poses. Cantor develops an analysis exploring how the
changing strategies of organised crime groups are generating distinctive new patterns of
forced migration in Mexico. Durieux concludes by examining the potential for a
humanitarian response to this new forced migration crisis from both the national and
regional standpoints. The panel thus maintains a strong internal coherence around the
central theme of new forced migration challenges in Latin America.
This three-person academic panel is convened by the Refugee Law Initiative (RLI) at the
School of Advanced Study, University of London. The RLI is an academic centre that leads
and promotes cutting edge research on the international protection of refugees and
displaced persons.
The presenters are as follows:
Speaker 1:
Laura Rubio Díaz Leal, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de Mexico
Title: Profiling Violence-induced
Methodological and Practical Issues
Internal
Displacement
in
Mexico:
Bridging
The study of forced internal displacement in Mexico due to criminal violence in the last
five years has been plagued with political, methodological, and practical obstacles.
However, through quantitative and qualitative research carried out by the author in
collaboration with the IDMC and other scholars, an irrefutable link between violence and
displacement has been established. For instance, in 2010 violent municipalities around the
country lost 4.5 times more population than other municipalities with the same
characteristics; 1.32% of Mexican families had at least one member flee their habitual place
of residence because of violence; and during 2011-2012 at least 67 episodes of massive
displacement (more than eight families) took place in seven states of the country.
This paper will then proceed to address the evidence found, the limitations of available
sources: surveys (employment; victimisation, and perceptions of public security, among
others), national statistics (i.e. population census, violence; marginalisation, and migration
3
rates); and media reports. Finally, it will discuss the political undertones of Mexican
authorities’ resistance to acknowledging the phenomenon; how the issue is framed,
discussed, and treated in political circles; and its impact on profiling, protecting and
assisting internally displaced communities.
Speaker 2:
David James Cantor, Refugee Law Initiative, School of Advanced Study,
University of London
Title: Organised Criminal Groups and New Patterns of Forced Migration in Mexico
The epidemic of forced migration in present-day Mexico is not an isolated case but rather
one configuration of the new wave of forced displacement at the hands of organised
criminal groups that affects the whole region of Mesoamerica. This paper therefore places
Mexico within the wider context of the emergence and consolidation of these ‘new forms
of violence’ within the region. By so doing, it draws attention to the lessons that may be
learned through such comparative analysis within the region.
The paper then proceeds to argue that this new phenomenon of forced migration in
Mesoamerica cannot adequately be understood without acknowledging the agency of
these criminal groups and examining the distinctive forms and patterns of displacement
that they produce. It illustrates this point by elucidating how the strategies and modus
operandi adopted by the dominant drug-trafficking structures responsible for the extreme
current violence in Mexico impacts on the nature of the resulting displacement in a
number of important ways. This analysis is developed in part through a comparison with
other organised criminal groups – such as the mara gangs - operating elsewhere in the
region. The paper concludes by marrying this analysis to a consideration of some of the
challenges inherent in attempts to design humanitarian policy to address these new and
complex patterns of forced migration in the region.
Speaker 3:
Nicolás Rodríguez (Independent researcher) and Jean-François Durieux,
Global Migration Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies,
Geneva
Title:
The Political, the Criminal, and the Humanitarian: a Mexican Case Study
The ‘new forms of violence’ shaking Mesoamerica and forcing tens of thousands to
displace are thriving on political, economic and social ailments that the peace plans of the
1990s did not manage to durably redress. However, the regional response to the 1980s
Central American refugee crisis is rightly hailed as a hallmark of ‘constructive
humanitarianism’, whereby the refugee problem could be addressed not only as a regional
concern but also as a contribution to regional peace. Although Mexico played a mediating
role in constructing this ‘humanitarian space’, this role cannot be replicated credibly
within the current displacement crisis, given the predominance of Mexican criminal
organisations in its causation.
Furthermore, the ‘criminal’ label that attaches to the displacement-generating violence
affects both perceptions of the victims and their rights and the posture of States vis-à-vis
4
violent non-State actors: whereas the rhetoric of armed conflict allowed refugee issues to
influence the search for peace in the 1980/90s, no positive synergies can be found in a socalled ‘war’ on drugs that does not have peace as either a counterpoint or objective.
Nonetheless, the ingredients of a constructive humanitarian approach to contemporary
forced migration across Mesoamerica do exist, and many of the tools necessary to
implement such an approach are in the hands of Mexican actors. Among these ingredients
and tools, the paper will examine the concept and delivery of justice; the strengths,
weaknesses and drivers of regional solidarity; the visibility and agency of the displaced;
and the mediating and facilitating roles of international organisations.
Speaker 4: Leticia Calderón. Researcher of Instituto Mora (Mexico)
Title: El nuevo éxodo mexicano por violencia:
Uno de los efectos inmediatos de la violencia incrementada en México a partir de 2008
cuando el gobierno mexicano anuncia una iniciativa para combatir de manera directa al
crimen organizado, es el aumento de la migración que huye de la violencia. Se trata de
personas directamente afectadas tanto como quienes señalan tener miedo a la situación
imperante, sobre todo en algunas zonas del país, especialmente el norte y la región
fronteriza con Estados Unidos, Inicia entonces un proceso de migración por violencia
inédito en la historia mexicana. La diversidad de experiencias que esta nueva migración
expresa se vinculan directamente con las demandas de justicia por la situación vivida pero
ante lo cual el estado mexicano se muestra incapaz de resolver (dado que la violencia se
traslada a otras regiones) Así, uno de los puntos es ver que el marco de atención a víctimas
en México no contempla a este grupo que migro de manera inmediata para salvar sus
vidas, simplemente se movieron de geografía nacional cuando en realidad simplemente se
trasladaron a donde encontraron mayor seguridad y efectivamente cruzaron una frontera.
Discutir la migración forzada desde esta experiencia es la propuesta de esta ponencia
busca presentar. También pretende exponer la experiencia mexicana que por su
inmediatez es poco conocida aun cuando ya se han producido algunos materiales y hay
algunas respuestas políticas que se han dado en un corto periodo. El reconocimiento de
este proceso migratorio y sus características es fundamental para entender el tipo de
necesidades que esta población requiere y los vacíos desde el marco legal mexicano para
atenderlos.
Acknowledgements
Support for the panel comes from the second speaker’s project entitled ‘Pushing the
Boundaries: New Dynamics of Forced Displacement and Transnational Responses in Latin
America’ funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) of the United
Kingdom.
PANEL 3
ROUND TABLE
FORECASTING SHIFTING PATTERNS OF DISPLACEMENT
This roundtable will focus on the use of ‘big data’ to help improve the early warning of
displacement in the context of humanitarian crises. Progress has been made in recent
5
decades in establishing early warning systems to provide alerts of impending
humanitarian crises. Lagging behind these systems are effective early warnings of
movements of people in response to these crises. Patterns of forced migration in
anticipation of, during, and following humanitarian crises are notoriously difficult to
predict. In many cases, there is protracted and repeated displacement, with return
occurring only after decades of exile, if at all. As such, early warning is needed at all stages
of crises, from pre-movement through return or resettlement and (re)integration of
refugees.
During this roundtable, the organizers will present preliminary findings from a planning
project testing use of big data in identifying factors that may help forecast displacement.
The big data under review is a vast unstructured archive of over 600 million publicly
available open-source media articles that Georgetown University has been actively
compiling since 2006. The project brings together Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from
multiple social science disciplines, computer science and information technology from
multiple countries who are exploring existing and novel methods for automated
forecasting of forced migration patterns. The roundtable will enable the project team to
present preliminary findings to researchers, policy makers and practitioners and discuss
with participants the utility of early warning systems to help prepare for large-scale
population displacement at each stage of humanitarian crises.
PANEL 4
SANCTUARY WITHOUT REFUGEE CAMPS: (1) UNDERSTANDING PROTECTION
NEEDS & (2) ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
Refugee camps have become one of the primary means of administering sanctuary, yet
camps rarely provide effective protection for refugees nor do they serve hosts well. While
there is now consensus that a refugee camp, especially protracted encampment, fails to
protect refugees in exile, less clear are the implications of UNHCR’s recent push to urban
policies and new strategies for the protection of vulnerable populations. This two part
panel brings together people who are working on alternatives to refugee camps to
consider the meaning of protection and the possibilities and risks for creating sanctuary
without refugee camps.
1. Understanding Protection Needs
Title: Engendering Protection In and Out of Camps
Abstract: The need for sanctuary and the pursuit of protection often become conflated in the
work of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. This paper draws upon
research of Congolese refugees in the Great Lakes Region of Africa to suggest that in terms
of women refugees, concerns for sanctuary has been mainly equated with bodily security,
and that this concern to protect women’s bodies from harm has tended to override
concerns for the protection of women’s rights. Thus, in this paper I will examine how we
can “engender protection” in the search for alternatives to refugee camps. “Engendering
6
protection” requires that we first examine empirically what protection programs have in
fact done with respect to gender issues concerning different forms of settlement and to
then address the question of what they ought to do if they aspire to offer refugee women
full respect for their rights. When we consider alternatives to refugee camps, we will need
to ask questions such as what are the implications of these alternatives for women
refugees? And what are the gender dimensions that we need to take into consideration as
we think about the protective status of women, youth, LGBTI and, indeed, men? By
“engendering protection,” we can better think about the ways in which a sanctuary (a
camp, settlement, urban shelter, etc.) provides for legal status, rights and, therefore, forms
of protection, and the ways in which a particular form of sanctuary validates (or not) rights
and political engagement as citizenship.
1. Christina Clark-Kazak, DPhil. Social age and protection needs in and out of
refugee camps
This paper presents the results of a social age analysis of protection in both urban and
camp refugee contexts. Social age refers to the socially constructed definitions and roles
attributed to different stages of the life course, as well as inter-generational power
relations. This conceptual framework informs the author’s textual analysis of UNHCR
policies, and empirical research with refugee children, young people, adults and elders in
Uganda and Canada. The latter data collection involved semi-structured interviews, focus
group discussions and observation. The paper uses findings from these diverse data
sources to interrogate the differential protection needs, perceptions and policies for
different age groups in both urban and camp refugee settings. It concludes with some
recommendations for moving away from essentialist protection categories, such as
“unaccompanied minors” and “refugee elders” towards a more relational, social agesensitive analysis of vulnerabilities and sanctuary. Age sensitivity is necessary to
counteract pervasive discrimination on the basis of chronological and social age in
migration policy and programming.
2. Amy A. Smith. Protection and Humanitarian Challenges and Opportunities for
Myanmar Urban Refugees in Malaysia
Malaysia hosts one of the largest urban refugee populations in the world, with UNHCR
reporting more than 120,000 refugees and stateless persons in Malaysia at the end of 2012.
Ninety-five percent of Malaysia’s refugee population is from Myanmar. In contrast to the
highly-profiled Myanmar refugee population that have lived in protracted displacement
confined to nine closed camps on the Thailand-Myanmar border, this group of less studied
and now more populous Myanmar refugee population live amidst the general population
in the highly urbanized capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
The open, urban environment for Myanmar refugees in Malaysia affords certain
opportunities unavailable to camp-based refugees, particularly in terms of accessing
income-generation and livelihood activities. However, the range of serious unmet needs
and considerable abuses experienced by Myanmar refugees in Malaysia raises questions
about the availability of protection within the urban environment. Myanmar refugees in
Malaysia are in constant risk of arrest, extortion, and detention by Malaysian authorities.
7
They are excluded from the formal economy and subject to exploitative, abusive work
environments. With few humanitarian agencies assisting refugees in Malaysia, Myanmar
refugees rely largely on refugee-run community-based organizations (CBOs) for assistance
and access to services. Implementation of UNHCR’s strategies also largely depends on
support from the CBOs.
Based on field experience in research and program implementation with refugee
communities in both contexts, this paper explores the opportunities and risks for
Myanmar urban refugees in Malaysia as compared to Myanmar camp-based refugees in
Thailand. It also evaluates the effectiveness of the strategies employed by UNHCR in
Malaysia to create appropriate protection and humanitarian space for refugees in an urban
environment, finding UNHCR is best positioned to ensure protection through
documentation and facilitation of durable solution for refugees. UNHCR should recognize
and directly support CBO protection mechanisms, while avoiding the harmful replication
of programming.
3. Nasreen Chowdhory. Young refugees: Narratives of Sri Lankan Tamis in India.
The paper seeks to explore narratives of young Tamil refugees in camps in Southern
Indian state of Tamil Nadu, who are grappling with the politics of displacement in present
Indo-Sri Lanka relations. The paper draws from extensive field work in 20 districts in
Tamil Nadu argues that the present young energetic Tamils from Sri Lankan have created
various layers of ‘governability’ to manoeuvre the Indian state to adopt suitable socioeconomic measure such as access to education, health and in some instance employment
etc. Some of these policies can be seen as populist gimmick of political parties’ vis-à-vis
young refugees. Furthermore this stance also suggests that the Indian state might possible
alternative to actual encampment of refugees.
PANEL 5
CRITICAL
ENGAGEMENTS WITH THE ROLE OF
HUMANITARIANISM
IN
DURABLE SOLUTIONS FOR FORCED MIGRANTS
This panel explores the promises and pitfalls of a critical engagement with
humanitarianism, borders and forced migration. Humanitarianism has proven to be a
powerful sentiment in support of the rights of forced migrants. As a tradition of thought
and a logic of practice, humanitarianism sits at the heart of the international refugee
regime and the work of global civil society actors pursuing a progressive political agenda
with respect to refugees and asylum seekers. Yet there is a growing critique of
“humanitarian governance” directed at forced migrants on account of both its paternalism
and its implication in the pursuit of geopolitical interests. This panel draws on these
critiques to engage difficult questions about the sacrosanct place that humanitarianism has
come to hold in the politic forced migration. What do we risk by problematizing
humanitarianism as a framework for action? What do we risk by failing to submit
humanitarianism to sufficiently rigorous critique? How can we reshape humanitarian
principles to better respond to the complex and dynamic challenges of forced migration
now and in the future?
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Papers:
Paper 1: Anne McNevin. Too damaged to be useful? Humanitarianism, vulnerability
and popular support for refugee resettlement.
This paper engages with recent critiques of “humanitarian governance” in order to analyse
the shift towards humanitarian frames for migration policy and popular debate in
resettlement countries. The paper poses the question as to whether this shift perpetuates a
stereotype of ‘damaged people’ that undermines support for refugee resettlement. The
paper focuses specifically on the Australian context. Since the 1970s, Australia has
operated a special humanitarian stream of migration, including a quota for refugee
resettlement. Since then, the number of categories and visa statuses applying to
humanitarian migrants has proliferated, along with service provision specifically targeted
to refugees as victims/survivors of trauma. Today, migrants arrive under such schemes
as refugees first, and only secondarily, if at all, as workers. By contrast, prior to the 1970s,
displaced persons arrived on account of selective immigration schemes explicitly designed
to add value to the country’s economic development and population growth. Such people
arrived as workers and boosters first, and as refugees second. Given the place of
resettlement in Australia’s national narrative, is there a limit to the degree of vulnerability
(victimhood, trauma etc) amongst resettled refugees that the national narrative will
tolerate? When do the deficits ascribed to refugees by humanitarian frames begin to
undermine the sense that refugees are of value to the national project?
Paper 2: Professor Jennifer Hyndman. Counterinsurgency Meets Extended Exile in Kenya:
The Place of Humanitarianism
Humanitarian assistance and host state protection for refugees, especially as it is
imbricated in international refugee law, remains a powerful constellation of norms,
practices, and spaces of sanctuary. Yet humanitarianism has also been called a ‘colonialism
of compassion’, and rightly criticized for his lack of accountability to the subjects it aims to
assist. Geopolitical interests tend to trump humanitarian obligations where they come into
conflict or competition with other state interests. The long-term situation of Somali
refugees in Kenya, some of whom have lived in the Dadaab camps for two decades, is a
vivid illustration of the subordination of humanitarian considerations to security concerns.
Counterinsurgency measures to combat extremist Islamist elements and the tying of
humanitarian aid to monitoring that ensure ‘terrorists’ are not recipients of it have
recalibrated the meaning and efficacy of humanitarianism. The November 2013
announcement that Somali refugees will be returned to Somalia, seemingly regardless of
security in southcentral Somalia, will be analyzed within this context.
Paper 3: Patrícia Nabuco Martuscelli. The Brazilian approach to refugee children and its
humanitarian logic
In 2012, Brazil received 148 asylum claims from children, 14 of them were unaccompanied
minors. The Brazilian law regarding the child’s right is one of the most advanced in the
world and the country has internalized its obligations from the Geneva Convention (1951)
9
with the law 9.474/1997. Even though the protection offered to this group by the Brazilian
government is sufficient in theory, in practice the humanitarian logic of this approach
makes it difficult to work. The Brazilian government treats this people, as other refugees,
as if they were only victims of a forced migration situation. The possibility to express
themselves, to be seen as people with a voice and a opinion could improve these children’s
integration in the country. With the study of the Brazilian case, this paper concludes that
an excellent juridical approach based in a traditional humanitarian logic is not enough to
protect and to integrate the refugees. A change in this humanitarian logic is necessary,
including when considering refugee children. This experience, as discussed in the paper,
was observed in other countries where the children’s participation was extremely fruitful
and it was crucial in their integration process.
Paper 4:
Sandy Gifford. Unsettling Settlement: A problem of the ethical immunity
of humanitarianism in refugee settlement in Australia.
The merits of Australia’s humanitarian refugee settlement programme are largely taken
for granted and, in contrast to its asylum policies, rarely critiqued. While certain practices
within the institution of humanitarian settlement are open to critical analysis, the
institution itself remains sacrosanct. Why is this so and what are the consequences?
Drawing on case studies from a decade of anthropological research on refugee settlement,
I illustrate how Australia’s humanitarian programme can be complicit in crafting policies
of exclusion through its policies of inclusion. Humanitarian settlement is itself a space of
containment and as such, is inexorably entwined with its opposite – the asylum/detention
nexus. I argue that each institution – settlement and asylum/detention – legitimate each
other. I conclude with a discussion about why it is important to challenge the ethical
immunity of humanitarianism in refugee settlement. As risky as this may be, no concepts
are above critique and there are merits to taking a critical eye to humanitarian settlement
to ensure that it remains humane.
PANEL 6
MESA REDONDA:
GENTRIFICACIÓN Y MIGRACION URBANA. CASO SAN MARTIN DE PORRES
PANEL 7
CASOS DE
ESTUDIO SOBRE LA AFECTACIÓN Y RESTABLECIMIENTO DE LOS
DERECHOS DE LA POBLACIÓN MIGRANTE. RETOS DE LAS POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS
Refugiados y desplazados internos son migrantes forzosos que, entre otras cuestiones, se
diferencian por los efectos jurídicos de su condición; no obstante, ambos comparten el
trauma del desarraigo y una vulnerabilidad derivada de la violación de sus derechos. Esto
exige por parte de los Estados medidas que, armonizadas con los instrumentos
internacionales aplicables, se traduzcan en normas y políticas públicas que conduzcan al
ejercicio de derechos y al acceso a los servicios básicos. Los programas de atención integral
a estas poblaciones abarcan, generalmente, tres etapas: prevención, asistencia humanitaria
10
y restablecimiento. La operatividad de éstas supone un sistema burocrático cuyo
funcionamiento exige diversos recursos; por ello, es importante diagnosticar y debatir de
qué manera, las política públicas se traducen en prácticas tendientes a lograr fines como la
reintegración social y la paz. Este panel presenta tres casos de estudio enmarcados en
investigaciones cualitativas y cuantitativas. Las experiencias de Colombia se sitúan, una en
la fase de atención humanitaria y registro de población desplazada, y la otra, en una
medida de restablecimiento, esto es, la indemnización por vía administrativa. El caso de
los refugiados de Karen, da cuenta de las dificultades para el acceso al servicio de salud
pública en un país como Estados Unidos que a pesar de no presentar un conflicto armado,
ha debido desplegar una política pública para la prestación de servicios a esta población,
lo que ejemplifica el carácter global del problema de las migraciones forzadas y la
necesidad de que las soluciones también lo sean.
1. United States Health Policy and Refugee Resettlement. Sarah J. Hoffman and
Cheryl L. Robertson
Introduction. Despite the evolving peace process in Burma, the most effectual solution to
address the vulnerabilities of Karen refugees situated in camps along the Burma-Thai
border remains third country resettlement. Since 2001, the United States (US) has resettled
more than 100,000 Karen refugees. The stories of these refugees do not end with their
arrival. In fact, the migration history of this refugee population is prolonged and complex,
defined first by war and forced displacement, and subsequently in the development of
post-resettlement response strategies to navigate integration. The difficulties experienced
in accessing the US health system are well documented in the literature describing Karen
resettlement challenges. The distribution of healthcare resources is inconsistent and
successful navigation of the system is multi-factorial. There is a lack of alignment in
service provision, which contributes to a reduced prioritization of mental and physical
health of new arrivals. Methods. Through a critical review of the literature and relevant
policy, the authors will consider US health-related policies that serve or undermine
refugee resettlement, drawing on the documented Karen refugee experience as an
exemplar. Anticipated Findings. Gaps will be identified both in the overarching policy
structure as well as the infrastructure developed to support the implementation of policy.
Discussion. Findings will demonstrate translational impact as the experiences of a
particular refugee group guide an evaluation of strategy in the broader policy context.
Additionally, this work will contribute to the body of emerging knowledge surrounding
the refugee health experience post-resettlement in the United States.
2. Título de la ponencia: Del papel a la práctica. Diagnóstico de la ruta de atención a
la población desplazada en Santiago de Cali. Gabriela Recalde Castañeda
La Corte Constitucional Colombiana ordenó en la sentencia T-025/2004 que la atención a
la población desplaza debía estructurarse en una política pública nacional planteada en
términos de goce efectivo de derechos humanos. Para la Corte, esto exige un proceso de
atención integral basado en los principios constitucionales de dignidad humana, igualdad,
11
libertad y solidaridad. Teniendo como marco de análisis la teoría de valor público de
Bozeman y el constitucionalismo democrático de David Rosenbloom, en esta ponencia se
presenta un caso de estudio sobre el funcionamiento de la ruta de atención a población
desplazada en la ciudad de Santiago de Cali (Valle del Cauca). A partir de datos recogidos
por el método etnográfico, se establece de qué manera las dificultades en el diseño de la
política pública, los problemas que presentan los funcionarios públicos en su
implementación, al igual que sus percepciones sobre los usuarios del sistema, se
convierten en un obstáculo para ofrecer una atención oportuna y material a la población
desplazada en la etapa de registro y acceso a programas de salud y educación.
Diagnosticar las prácticas (formales e informales) al interior de las agencias estatales
creadas para poner en marcha la política pública a escala local, resulta útil para detectar si
la atención contribuye o no, a un verdadero proceso de tránsito de la asistencia
humanitaria hacia la estabilización socioeconómica de la población desplazada y el
restablecimiento de sus derechos. Esto para formular alternativas sostenibles y coherentes
con los principios y derechos constitucionales en juego.
3. Una Visión sobre la realidad de los Desplazados en Colombia. Trabajo de Campo
en la Unidad Administrativa Especial para la Atención y Reparación Integral a
las Víctimas Regional Antioquia. Zeller Álvarez Urrego
Una de las funciones principales de la reparación integral de las víctimas del
desplazamiento forzado en Colombia es lograr el resarcimiento de los daños sufridos
como consecuencia de los hechos asociados al desplazamiento. La Ley 1048 de 2011
establece que la indemnización por vía administrativa es uno de los mecanismos
fundamentales de protección a los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales de esta
población. La ponencia evaluará las disposiciones reglamentarias de la ley en las que se
establece el procedimiento de indemnización por vía administrativa a las personas
desplazadas. Esto a fin de determinar si existen vacíos y/o incoherencias que impidan el
resarcimiento. En este nivel se determinará si la política diseñada en la citada ley y en el
Decreto 4800 de 2011, tiene en cuenta las situaciones reales de vulnerabilidad de la
población usuaria de la Unidad Administrativa Especial para la Atención y Reparación
Integral a las Víctimas Regional Antioquia. Para esto se presentarán los resultados del
trabajo de campo el cual implicó un ejercicio de observación participante en la Unidad y la
sistematización de los archivos contentivos de las solicitudes de indemnización y su
trámite, durante el último año. A partir de esto, se identifican los obstáculos y las
dificultades en la implementación de la política de indemnización. Finalmente, se ofrecen
recomendaciones para corregir los problemas detectados.
PANEL 8
JUSTICE FOR GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN THE CONTEXT
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM IN MEXICO AND CANADA
OF
MIGRATION?:
1. Justice for women fleeing gender-related persecution in a “Safe” country?: The
limits of refugee determination for Mexican women seeking refuge in Canada.
12
Rupaleem Bhuyan, Adriana Vargas and Bethany Osborne, University of
Toronto, Canada
While Canada is lauded as the first country to issue guidelines for considering gender
related persecution in refugee determination, Mexican women seeking refuge in Canada
based on gender-related persecution regularly have their claims dismissed because they
cannot verify that their home country has failed to protect them (MacIntosh, 2009). A high
proportion of “failed refugee claimants” from Mexico are part of a growing number of
Latina women living in Canada with precarious migratory status; they face a framework
of “ontological insecurity” (Giddens, 1984, Giddens, 1991, Laing, 1969) due to the
combined lack of protection in their home countries and their unrecognized humanitarian
claims in Canada. In this paper, we explore transnational implications of justice for
women who migrate to escape gender-based violence to better understand how gender
and gender-based violence is made visible, or obscured, in international human rights law
regarding forced migration. Empirically, we use feminist and critical discourse analysis
methods to analyse the construction of gender and gender-based violence in the following
sources: 1) Canadian refugee decisions for Mexican refugee claimants fearing genderrelated persecution, 2) Canadian official reports on country conditions in Mexico, and 3)
community-based reports on the status of violence against women in Mexico. Our analysis
illustrates: a) how violence is related to Mexican women’s migration to Canada, b) in what
ways is gender is visible in women’s refugee decisions, c) and in what ways perceptions of
Mexico as a “safe country” influence refugee determination for Mexican women fleeing
gender-based violence.
2. Continuum of gender based violence in the context of migration: case study of
Central American refugees in the southern border region of Mexico. Margarita
Pintin-Perez and Martha Luz Rojas Wiesner.
The following presentation analyses the narratives of Central American refugee women
residing in the states of Campeche, Chiapas & Quintana Roo in Mexico. Manifestations of
gender-based violence are prevalent throughout the migratory process, and are not
viewed in isolation, but discussed as a continuum of gender based violence in the context
of migration. The narratives included in this presentation make reference to symbolic,
structural and interpersonal violence, occurring in various contexts including civil war,
post-civil war, post-peace accords and others. The way in which women describe and
name the violence throughout the migratory process is examined as way to reflect on how
violence translates and manifests in the lives of refugee women. Based on the case studies
included, refugee women minimize experiences of violence in the destination country. The
minimization of violence expressed in these narratives reveals how the continuum of
gender-based violence applies in the context of migration, and how the context of ‘peace’
in the destination country may contribute to a tolerance and acceptance of certain gender
based violent practices. In the cases where violence is no longer situated in the context of
civil war, gender based violence is perceived as 'natural' or normal. An analysis that
considers the various contexts in which gender based violence arises and examines the
continuum of GBV allows us to examine and discuss how gender based violence is present
and particular to refugee women in these regions.
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3. La violencia hacia las mujeres centroamericanas en los procesos de migración en
tránsito por México. Martha Luz Rojas-Wiesner, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur,
México Tanya Basok, U de Windsor, Canadá and Danièle Belanger, U Laval,
Canadá
Description of the topic and connection to one of the themes identified (250 words): desde
1998 se ha hablado en México de un nuevo proceso migratorio desde Centroamérica hacia
los Estados Unidos motivado, en primer lugar, por la poca viabilidad económica para
recuperarse de los desastres ocasionados por el huracán Mitch, y más tarde por los
desastres ocasionados por el terremoto en El Salvador en 2001, y el huracán Stan en
Guatemala (2006), para mencionar los eventos ambientales más importantes, cuyos efectos
se fueron conjugando con las condiciones históricas de pobreza y marginación y los
problemas de inseguridad y violencia gestados por pandillas y delincuencia común en
Centroamérica. Este complejo de factores fue forzando y sosteniendo un proceso
migratorio internacional de tránsito, a pesar de las dificultades crecientes que han estado
aparejadas a esta movilidad. Las redes sociales y de apoyo han incidido en el
mantenimiento de este flujo, en el que hay una presencia significativa de mujeres que
buscan mejorar sus condiciones de vida y las de su familia enfrentando todo tipo de
violencia; violencia que va adquiriendo diversas formas y que, en varios casos, constituye
un continuo en sus vidas. Varias mujeres no sólo enfrentan violencia en sus lugares de
origen, sino de manera dramática en el camino y, también, en los lugares en donde
deciden quedarse ya sea temporal o más permanentemente. Desde 2003, en particular, en
México las mujeres se han visto expuestas a una violencia estructural de la que
difícilmente pueden escapar y que las hace especialmente vulnerables debido a los sesgos
de género que intervienen y que las constituye en víctimas de la violencia institucional,
fundamentalmente masculina. Mediante entrevistas llevadas a cabo en el marco del
proyecto “Zonas de precariedad en la migración en tránsito por México”, coordinado por
Tanya Basok, con esta ponencia se presentan reflexiones sobre las causas de la violencia de
género y cómo las condiciones en que se producen la migración han contribuido a
“institucionalizar” este tipo de violencia para el caso de la migración por México.
PANEL 9
FORCED MIGRATION STATE POLICIES (I)
1. Julia Bertino Moreira: The Brazilian refugee policy and the Latin American regime.
Along the 1990s and 2000s, Brazil approved a national refugee law and implemented
solidarity and regional resettlement programmes for refugees. The civil society, the
UNHCR and governmental agencies participated in this process of formulation and
approval of a national legislation and policy relating to refugees. The 1997 Brazilian
Refugee Act encompasses both 1951 UN Convention and 1984 Cartagena Declaration
rules, embodying the classic definition and the Latin American broad definition of refugee.
One of the most relevant contribution was to include severe and generalized human rights
violations as a reason for a person to be recognized as a refugee. A few years later, in 2004,
a regional resettlement program was designed especially for Colombian refugees, in line
with the Cartagena Declaration prospects. Nowadays, the country is considered an
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emergent resettlement country in the developing world. This policy has been supported
by UNHCR and counts on the work of religious institutions (basically Caritas), which help
assisting refugees in order to foster the local integration process. The Brazilian refugee
policy was developed taking into account both domestic and foreign policies factors,
including regional considerations, and non State actors pressures on the government.
Considering this brief notes, this paper aims to discuss the current Brazilian refugee policy
focusing on the regional resettlement programme. This policy was analysed on the basis
of: domestic and foreign policies factors; the relations among (state and non-state) actors;
the rules of entry and the living conditions provided to the refugees inside the country.
The main point sustained by this paper is that this policy requires further improvement,
since it has focused more on regulating an admission policy, but still lacks a properly
structured integration policy for refugees.
2. Grace Benton Applying the Kafala System to Forced Migrants in Jordan: Obstacle
or Opportunity
The word kafala has accrued a range of negative connotations, especially in the Arab Gulf
States, where abuse and exploitation of migrant workers has been increasingly linked to
this system of migration management. Under the kafala system, migrants are legally and
economically bound to a kafil, or sponsor. While popular discourse on the kafala centers
on labor migration to the Gulf region, Jordan also manages the entry and employment of
non-nationals through this system. Of particular interest is the recent use of the kafala
system in regulating the movement of Syrian refugees in Jordan, a policy that, to my
knowledge, marks the first time that such a system has been applied to forced migrants.
When Syrian refugees enter Jordan, they often go to Zaatari Refugee Camp—one of the
largest camps in the world, and now Jordan’s fourth largest city. In order to leave the
camp, Syrians must first obtain a Jordanian kafil, who agrees to assume legal and financial
responsibility for the refugee and may pay up to $7000USD in sponsorship fees. While this
is not the same kafala employed by the Gulf States to manage imported migrant labor, the
structural framework—a national who pays a fee to be responsible for a non-national—is
essentially the same. In this paper, I will explore the implications of applying such a
framework to forced migrants as a means to promote refugee protection and eventual
economic integration in a resource-scarce country that plays host to a burgeoning refugee
population.
PANEL 10
POLÍTICAS NACIONALES DE MIGRACIÓN FORZADAS
1. Rinara Granato Santos: Los obstáculos y desafíos de las peticiones de refugio en
Brasil
15
El Brasil a pesar de ser una de las mayores economías del mundo, de pretender
desempeñar un papel relevante en la escena internacional, de ser signatario de los
documentos internacionales de Derechos Humanos más importantes, entre ellos la
Convención de la ONU de 1951 y el Protocolo de 1967, acoge un número reducido de
refugiados (4.600 reconocidos).
El desempeño poco significativo del Estado Brasileño en esta política comparado a otros
países de la región como Ecuador (55.000) y la actual demanda mundial, 14 millones de
refugiados, no demuestra la aparente receptividad en relación a las peticiones de refugio.
De este modo, un estudio en relación a esta contradicción se revela importante en la
medida que coloca luz en los obstáculos y desafíos que la política de acogida de refugiados
afronta en la búsqueda de efectividad.
El presente trabajo privilegia mirar hacia los procesos y rutinas del sistema burocrático de
tramitación interna de permanencia, cuyos procedimientos se encuentran en la ley
9.474/97 y la actuación del Comité Nacional para Refugiados (CONARE), responsable por
la ejecución de la política de protección de refugiados en Brasil.
Los datos del CONARE demuestran que en 2013 el país recibió 5,1 mil peticiones de
refugio, el triple que el año anterior, aunque, el país acepto sólo 649, contra 199 aceptados
en 2012. Así, debe el Brasil repensar sus acciones para garantizar la realización de la
“Declaración de Principios del Mercosul sobre Protección Internacional de Refugiados”.
2. Rosa García: La invisibilización de los refugiados centroamericanos en México. El
pragmatismo biopolítico detrás de la política de asilo en México.
México es un país de tránsito y de destino para los migrantes centroamericanos que
cruzan este país. Dadas las crisis estructurales que aquejan actualmente a los países de la
región centroamericana, existe una cultura de migración que tiene por objetivo lograr
llegar y cruzar la frontera norte de México para establecerse en Estados Unidos, mejorar su
calidad de vida o lograr la reunificación familiar. Esta inercia migratoria, por lo general,
opaca el hecho de que estos de migrantes escapan de sus países no sólo por la precariedad
económica, sino porque además enfrentan persecuciones sistemáticas de bandas y grupos
del crimen organizado, violencia generalizada, discriminación de género y problemas
políticos.
A partir de las propuestas teóricas de la biopolítica de Michel Foucault y de la excepción
de Giorgio Agamben, este artículo de trabajo explora la política de asilo del Estado
mexicano frente a los flujos migratorios mixtos de centroamericanos que ingresan de
manera irregular a México.
A partir de una investigación de tipo documental y de un estudio etnográfico con
población centroamericana y con defensores de derechos humanos de estos migrantes, la
propuesta argumenta que el Estado mexicano ha fallado en identificar en la migración
centroamericana a un modelo particular de desplazamiento forzado con las características
propias de una auténtica situación de refugio. La concesión del estatus de refugiado para
nacionales de la región centroamericana se ha visto mermada debido a la alineación de la
16
política de asilo con los intereses de Estados Unidos en temas de seguridad y migración y
a nivel nacional, debido a la imposición de un paradigma que define a la migración en
términos de seguridad nacional. El reto se vislumbra en la formulación de una política de
asilo que responda a las complejidades actuales del contexto migratorio mexicano, que
asegure la aplicación de los términos de Cartagena y que por lo tanto visibilice y asegure
la protección internacional de los centroamericanos que han sido forzados a dejar sus
países.
3. Lorenzo Agar: Reasentamientos en Chile
Esta ponencia trata sobre la experiencia del reasentamiento solidario colombiano en Chile
y el reasentamiento humanitario palestino en Chile (2007 - 2010). Se trata de abordar
ambas experiencias en una perspectiva de respuesta regional (desde Chile) a desafíos de
reasentamiento regionales y extraregionales. Se comentarán los avances y dificultades del
proceso desde un punto de vista de la cohesión social y la pluralidad cultural en una
sociedad en la cual ha primado históricamente la tendencia a una representación de sí
misma como nación homogénea. Se analizarán asimismo los desafíos hacia el futuro de
este tipo de experiencias.
4. Rebeca Orosa Busutil: Cuba y su emigración: la historia de un conflicto
Desde enero de 1959, el tema migratorio en Cuba se convierte en objeto de manipulación y
presión por parte de los Estados Unidos, en respuesta a las profundas transformaciones
políticas, económicas y sociales inherentes al proceso revolucionario, de ahí que las
relaciones migratorias entre ambos países hayan atravesado importantes momentos de
crisis durante los últimos 50 años, influyendo, además, en el comportamiento de la
emigración cubana hacia el resto del mundo.
Aun siendo la nación norteña el principal destino de la emigración cubana, a partir de los
años 90 del siglo XX, esta se ha ido diversificando hacia otras regiones del mundo,
fenómeno condicionado por la precaria situación de la economía cubana como
consecuencia de la desintegración de la ex Unión Soviética y el colapso del socialismo en
Europa Oriental, así como del recrudecimiento del bloqueo económico y financiero
impuesto por Estados Unidos, sin obviar la influencia de factores de orden político y de
reunificación familiar.
5. Laura Parker yNicoletta Roccabianca: Invisibilización de la población refugiada:
Riesgos y oportunidades de la nueva política migratoria del Ecuador
La persecución realizada por nuevos actores armados sigue expulsando a colombianos/as
quienes se ven obligados a abandonar el país en busca de protección internacional. Debido
a la supresión de la Declaración de Cartagena de la normativa ecuatoriana y a la
introducción de un plazo de 15 días para solicitar refugio, las tasas de reconocimiento de
la condición de refugiado/a en Ecuador han bajado considerablemente, dejando
desprotegidas a alrededor de 100,000 personas que huyen del conflicto armado.
A pesar de los diálogos de paz entre el gobierno colombiano y las FARC, no han
disminuido las solicitudes de refugio presentadas ante el Estado ecuatoriano. La entrada
17
en vigor en Ecuador del Acuerdo sobre residencia para nacionales de los Estados Partes del
MERCOSUR, Bolivia y Chile, a mediados del 2014, abre nuevas oportunidades de
regularización migratoria para personas colombianas, incluyendo aquellas que no han
sido reconocidas como refugiados/as.
La Visa MERCOSUR representa un paso progresista en materia de políticas migratorias
regionales, sin embargo no ofrece una protección completa para las personas refugiadas.
Al mismo tiempo ilustra ciertas tensiones presentes en el sistema de derechos humanos.
Reconociendo las ventajas prácticas de esta nueva vía, también es preocupante la posible
invisibilización de las verdaderas razones de huida de Colombia.
En efecto, el riesgo que genera este fenómeno es que se dificulte la identificación de los/as
colombianos/as refugiados/as en Ecuador, impidiendo así responder a sus necesidades
particulares. Además, introduciría dudas sobre el futuro papel de las organizaciones
internacionales y sociales con mandato de protección.
Por último, una reducción del número de solicitantes de refugio podría ser interpretada
como un indicador del éxito del proceso de paz. Existe el riesgo de ocultar las nuevas
dinámicas del conflicto, tales como la persecución por bandas criminales.
PANEL 11
DESPLAZAMIENTO FORZADO, RETORNO, RESISTENCIA
COLOMBIA.
Y
REPARACIÓN
EN
Este panel examina la compleja relación entre migración forzada, procesos locales de
reconstrucción social y procesos nacionales de reparación y construcción de paz.
Específicamente, el panel aborda la temática del desplazamiento forzado en Colombia a
partir de las preguntas y retos que plantean la búsqueda de soluciones duraderas y el
reconocimiento de la agencia política de las personas desplazadas internas en periodos
críticos donde simultáneamente coexisten el conflicto armado y la creación de leyes y
políticas que buscan la reparación y la construcción de alternativas democráticas de
coexistencia pacífica. Desde el análisis de varios casos de desplazamiento forzado, las
ponencias exploran las temáticas de las pérdidas y los daños causados por el
desplazamiento y la reparación; la permanencia del fenómeno; el retorno, la memoria y la
justicia y, las prácticas de resistencia de la población desplazada.
1. Los daños e impactos del desplazamiento forzado: Retos para la reparación.
Martha Nubia Bello, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
El desplazamiento forzado es una forma de violencia que vulnera derechos fundamentales
de los ciudadanos. Es un delito que causa graves daños e impactos de orden económico,
político, ambiental, sociocultural, moral y emocional y que afecta de manera diferenciada a
hombres mujeres, niños, niñas y comunidades étnicas. La experiencia vivida por la
mayoría de las personas muestra que el desplazamiento no es un evento que empieza o
termina con la salida o la huida forzada, es un largo proceso que inicia con la exposición a
formas de violencia como la amenaza, la intimidación, los enfrentamientos armados, las
18
masacres y otras modalidades; por lo que la salida está precedida de períodos de tensión,
angustia, padecimientos, miedo intenso, que en algunos casos son los que llevan a tomar
la determinación de salir. El desplazamiento forzado es, por tanto, un evento complejo que
altera significativamente la existencia y los proyectos de vida de cada uno de los miembros
de una familia. Es una experiencia que implica varias y simultaneas pérdidas y
transformaciones: pérdidas económicas y de bienes, de lugares y de relaciones sociales y
afectivas. El desplazamiento ocasiona una transformación abrupta y por lo general difícil
de roles y posiciones tanto en el hogar como en al ámbito laboral y social. Reconocer los
procesos que viven las familias y los daños e impactos causados es fundamental para
pensar políticas y respuestas de atención orientadas a la reparación de las víctimas.
2. Desplazamiento forzado en Colombia: ¿Permanencia o fenómeno a cambiar?
Gloria Inés Restrepo, Universidad Javeriana
El desplazamiento forzado se ha constituido en Colombia en un fenómeno de larga
duración. Desde las guerras civiles del siglo XIX se ha constituido en estrategia y efecto de
la guerra. Se han desarrollado múltiples iniciativas desde la academia y las organizaciones
sociales para comprender el fenómeno. También desde la política pública han surgido
múltiples estrategias en materia de reparación simbólica y material. Sin embargo, el
fenómeno no parece tener reversa. ¿Se trata de una propiedad constitutiva de nuestra
sociedad?, ¿se trata de un elemento esencial en la configuración de relaciones en torno a la
propiedad de la tierra?, ¿qué impide que las iniciativas funcionen?, ¿se trata de una
realidad que no puede cambiar?. La ponencia intentará entonces responder a estas
preguntas y plantear nuevas relacionadas con el reto de comprender y responder al
desplazamiento forzado en Colombia. La reflexión resulta del trabajo de casi 8 años en
educación sobre el desplazamiento y de implementación de políticas públicas para
población desplazada en Urabá, magdalena Medio y oriente Antioqueño.
3. Desplazamiento Forzado y Retorno. Marta Inés Villa. Corporación Región
El retorno, ya sea entendido como parte del proceso migratoria o como una nueva
modalidad migratoria, hacer parte de este contexto paradójico. Durante los últimos años
en Colombia se han promovido procesos de retorno desde entidades nacionales y
gobiernos locales, y sobre todo, por la propia población. Desde la teoría migratoria se
resalta el retorno como una decisión similar a la de migración: las personas deciden
retronar o no dependiendo de los beneficios que este proceso reporte. En al caso de la
migración forzada este balance también se hace, pero factores como la seguridad en el
lugar de origen, el trauma y el dolor que significa volver a lugares arrasados por la guerra
y las posibilidades reales de rehacer la vida cuando existe una pérdida patrimonial total ,
toman peso. Esta presentación busca hacer una lectura de las especificidades del retorno
en contextos de migración forzada a partir del trabajo de memoria realizado en una
pequeña localidad de Colombia, el municipio de San Carlos. Después de que más del 90%
de su población salió de sus tierras (20mil de los 26 mil personas que lo habitaban) en un
contexto de guerra, en los últimos años, casi 10 mil han retornado. ¿Por qué lo han hecho?
¿Qué han encontrado? ¿Qué retos plantea este proceso a los gobiernos y a las políticas
migratorias?. Estas son algunas de las preguntas que pretendo explorar.
19
4. Resistencia, organización y participación de población desplazada por la guerra
en Colombia. Flor Edilma Osorio Pérez, Universidad Javeriana
La guerra en Colombia ha reconfigurado territorios a velocidades vertiginosas. Los lugares
se vacían de pobladores y de sentido. Quedarse sin lugar en la sociedad y empobrecidos
de manera abrupta, se acompaña de una pérdida importante de autoestima. Recomenzar
sus vidas material y emocionalmente, es un proceso duro en condiciones adversas e
inciertas; con el destierro no solo se pierde el fruto de muchos esfuerzos, sino también su
dignidad como vecinos, productores y ciudadanos. Las condiciones son muy adversas. Por
lo mismo, es significativo y esperanzador registrar la emergencia de actores y
movimientos que siguen resistiendo. Son luchas con un fuerte sentido territorial, en donde
la memoria de lugar confiere fuerza colectiva para demandar lo suyo, buscando
reconvertir identidades negativas. Son procesos diversos que requieren ser valorados en sí
mismos desde sus duras realidades, evitando edificar jerarquías desde las cuales se
legitiman, reconocen o invisibilizan unos u otros. Articulando viejas y nuevas prácticas y
repertorios, quienes sufren el destierro buscan reivindicaciones y negociaciones con
hegemonías fragmentadas, en medio de la ausencia de respuesta institucional y con la
terca esperanza de un mañana mejor.
5. Retorno, justicia y memoria: el desplazamiento y el retorno como eventos críticos.
Pilar Riaño, University of British Columbia.
El retorno al territorio de origen como horizonte de justicia y reparación para las personas
en situación de desplazamiento plantea numerosos retos tanto para las instituciones
responsables de garantizar un retorno digno como para los sujetos que lo han vivido. En
esta presentación exploro los reclamos de justicia y los actos de memoria e imaginación
(tanto del pasado como del futuro como horizontes de deseo) que los procesos de retorno
activan entre las poblaciones desplazadas. Tomando como referente procesos de retorno
en la Guajira (Portete) y en el Oriente Antioqueño (Santa Ana), la presentación se
aproxima al retorno como un evento social crítico que permite indagar tanto el horizonte
de posibilidades y acción social en el que operan las personas como las maneras en que
los diferentes actores involucrados discuten y negocian estrategias para rehacer sus vidas
y reclamar sus derechos.
PANEL 12
CINE FORO:
PAÍS ERRANTE. (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
¿Qué implica dejar atrás la tierra en un país golpeado y usurpado como Colombia?
La migración no sólo se traduce en un éxodo de habitantes y bienes tangibles y simbólicos.
Produce a su vez, una desterritorialización y entre los individuos y su entorno y un
desplazamiento de identidades y modos de vida.
País Errante trata de forma íntima y detallada la historia de cuatro grupos de personas
afectados por el desplazamiento y el consecuente desarraigo : los que se encuentran en
20
riesgo de ser expulsados, los que deambulan sin un lugar fijo, los que retornan y los que se
resignan a comenzar una nueva vida en un sitio extraño.
Afros, indígenas, mestizos y blancos; todos tienen lugar en esta radiografía de las
realidades del desplazamiento.
PANEL 13
ROUND TABLE
NATIONAL AND REGIONAL RESPONSES
AMERICAS
TO
CRISIS MIGRATION
IN THE
This roundtable will discuss national responses to ‘crisis migration’ within the Americas,
with a particular focus on the movement-related implications of the Haitian earthquake,
violence in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, and responses from
other countries in the region. The session will also identify effective practices and evaluate
opportunities for improved responses at national and regional levels.
Panelists from the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown
University introduced the Crisis Migration Project at IASFM 14. The three-year research
initiative addresses the movement-related ramifications of humanitarian crises that do not
fit within existing frameworks and mechanisms for protecting forced migrants. Those who
move internally or internationally, temporarily or permanently in any situation in which
there is a widespread threat to life, physical safety, health or subsistence that is beyond the
coping capacity of individuals and the communities in which they reside, fall within the
scope of the project. Of equal importance are those who become ‘trapped’, unable to move
in order to find safety and are in need of relocation.
IASFM 15 in Bogota provides an excellent opportunity to convene a regional consultation
of academics and practitioners to assess national and regional responses and sustainable
interventions to address ‘crisis migration’ within a region that has witnessed considerable
internal, cross-border and concurrent return movements amid a broad range of
humanitarian crises. Case studies for discussion will include the 2010 earthquake in Haiti
and widespread criminal violence in Colombia, Mexico and other countries in Central
America, in addition to responses designed to protect ‘crisis migrants’ by Brazil and the
United States. Where relevant to the case studies, the efficacy and potential of regional and
sub-regional frameworks will also be discussed.
PANEL 14
SANCTUARY WITHOUT REFUGEE CAMPS: ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
1. Elizabeth Holzer. Taxing Refugees? Rethinking the Relevance of a Scorned
Institution
When refugee crises bring mass influxes of people to already struggling host states, they
overwhelm existing infrastructure. In refugee camps, aid workers, hosts and refugees
create parallel systems that divorce refugees and aid workers from hosts. This proposal
presents preliminary data from Ghana on the potential of taxation to help motivate host
21
states to move beyond refugee camps and increase refugee rights. When taxation was
been instituted in the Buduburam Refugee Camp, a protracted refugee crisis in Ghana, it
offered few benefits to refugees. But scholars and activists have explored the potential of
this scorned institution to promote global economic justice elsewhere. How might this
institution be harnessed to promote refugee rights in protracted refugee situations? There
are two reasons to believe that taxation may serve as a tool for reforming refugee
encampment. First, policymakers often cite the lack of state infrastructure as a major
justification for administering refugee aid through international agencies rather than state
institutions. Political historians have shown that taxation played a pivotal role in the rise
of the state. Taxation provided states with efficient, calculable sources of revenue—a
necessary resource for public civil service and security institutions. Second, social
scientists have found that taxation strengthens the bargaining position of constituents over
public administrators. Being neither citizens nor clients of host authorities, refugees have
little power to negotiate for better treatment. Taxation may help increase their standing.
This paper explores the possibilities and practical limitations of taxation for humanitarian
action in a “second-best world.”
2.
Hyojin Im. Protection under chaos: Seeking solutions for the protracted Somali
refugee situation in Kenya
Kenya has been a primary destination of Somali refugees who have fled from violent
conflicts and humanitarian crises since the Somali Civil War erupted in 1991. Due to
prolonged turmoil in Somalia, Somali refugees in Kenya are trapped in a protracted
refugee situation, which has incubated security threats and increased tensions with the
host community. Pervasive antagonism between refugees and locals has been exacerbated
since Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia and the ensuing retaliation of Somali
militia, al-Shabaab, inducing a spate of terrorist attacks and community violence in both
urban and refugee camp settings. As a political reaction to increasing insecurity, Kenya’s
push for either encampment or repatriation has been escalating, although neither of them
has been perceived as feasible or humanitarian in nature by refugees given the geopolitical
climate. Many Somalis who have migrated to Eastleigh, Nairobi, due to dire and insecure
circumstances in the Dadaab camps have established businesses and a community as a
means for survival. The Kenyan government, meanwhile, has taken the position of not
supporting even basic services or human rights protection for Nairobi’s Somalis, leaving
the community marginalized and isolated. Against this backdrop, this paper will
investigate several strategies that are being implemented by local community-based
organizations to increase opportunities for Somalis in Kenya to assist integration while
balancing national security needs. Among these interventions are a violence prevention
program focused on youth leadership and civic participation and community mobilization
for human rights awareness. Based on mixed method research that honors the voice of
Somalis in Kenya, early results of longitudinal community development efforts will be
discussed.
3. Mark Canavera. The role of community groups and networks in protecting and
caring for refugee children in Kampala, Uganda
22
This research, undertaken at the suggestion of UNHCR, examines the perceptions of
Congolese and Somali refugees with protracted refugee status in Kampala, Uganda
concerning harm to children and the community-based mechanisms that deploy to
respond to these harms. Focusing especially on the role that education initiatives can play
in reducing harms to children, the study used a rapid ethnographic method in which a
small team of researchers lived with, interviewed, and conducted discussions and
participant-observation with refugees who had opted not to live in camps but rather to
come to Uganda's capital city. The presentation will suggest that refugees’ conceptions of
harms and protection concerns differ to a substantial degree from those laid out in
frameworks emanating from the international humanitarian community and the Ugandan
government. For example, while discrimination and access to basic services were
refugees' primary concerns concerning their children, the policies and programs designed
for children focused largely on specific forms of abuse and vulnerability, such as genderbased violence and HIV/AIDS. Moreover, the presentation will argue that although
international frameworks for humanitarian assistance to refugees do utilize a discourse of
a “family- and community-based approach,” existing interventions do not sufficiently take
stock of nor build upon the family- and community-based mechanisms available for
ensuring children’s protection, development, and well-being, including clan-based
structures and religious groups. The paper concludes with suggestions for ensuring more
robust linkages between humanitarian interventions and genuinely family- and
community-based child protection mechanisms.
PANEL 15
SPACE
MATTERS:
CONTRASTING
INTEGRATION EXPERIENCES OF RECENT
REFUGEES BY SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SITES.
1. Refugee integration in Ontario, Canada: A tale of six cities. Michaela Hynie,
Ashley Korn, Katarina Canic
This paper presents the results of an impact evaluation of the Client Support Services
program, which is a federally funded client centered support program for Government
Assisted Refugees in six cities in Ontario, Canada.
Initiated in 2009 following a two year pilot, the program was intended to facilitate
adaptation and adjustment of refugees into their community, and service agency
adaptation to refugee needs. Interviews (N = 10) and focus groups (N = 11) with service
providers, and focus groups (N = 24) and surveys with refugees were used to evaluate
integration within the six sites. Using a modification of Ager and Stang’s (2008) social
integration model, we contrast different patterns of functional integration, social
connections and sense of belonging between refugees in these six cities. This is assessed as
a function of community characteristics in the six cities. Specifically, we describe how
pathways of social integration for refugees in different cities within the same province and
graduating through the same support program differ as a result of social, economic and
structural differences in city characteristics that either facilitate or hinder functional
integration, social connections and sense of belonging among recent refugees. These
23
include the impact of the availability of co-ethnic housing clusters and the distance of
housing from services; the nature of available employment; and how community attitudes
and support for refugees can all facilitate or hinder functional and social integration.
Strategies undertaken by service providers in these agencies to respond to and modify the
local situations are also described.
2. Welcoming the Karen to the “New World”: a study of the settlement experiences of
Karen refugees in Australia. Duncan MacLaren, Susan McGrath, Ei Phyu Han
This paper examines the settlement experiences of Karen refugees in two major sites in
Australia: Melbourne and Sydney. The Karen are a minority ethnic group from Burma;
many fled to refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border starting in the late 1980s and
beginning in 2005 were designated for resettlement by UNHCR. Approximately 7000
have been settled in Australia in communities across the country. Interviews were held
with twenty-two Karen refugees along with key informant interviews with government
analysts and NGO leaders. The data is analyzed using a social integration framework
drawing on the work of Ager and Strang (2008). The results identify key barriers to
integration including lack of English language skills, lack of access to employment and
education opportunities along with low incomes and lack of affordable housing. The
Karen demonstrate agency and resilience with strong social bonds among community
members and global communication networks with refugees settled in other countries
including the US, Canada and Norway. The Karen have organized local associations and a
national Australian Karen Organisation The implications for settlement practices and
future settlement programs for refugees from protracted refugee situations are considered.
3. Unravelled: A Contextual Exploration into the Weaving of Karen Refugee Women.
Meighan Mantei
Employing critical feminist ethnography in Thailand and Canada through semi-structured
interviews, participant observation and photography, this study explores the meaning of
weaving for 10 Karen refugee women as they transition from their villages in Burma to
Thai refugee camps and eventually, for some, into resettlement in Saskatchewan, Canada.
The analysis stresses the importance of context in the formation of meaning and purpose
from weaving. The findings suggest interdependency between weaver, the weaving and
context. As the weavers leave Burma, the purpose for weaving is transitioned from the
making of clothing for community belonging, self-sufficiency, and cultural identification,
into a means of generating income and filling time in Thailand. Third country resettlement
continues the story of weaving further still, suggesting both a diminishment of purpose
and meaning, and a lingering practice. The study concludes that as Karen women resettle
in Canada, the practice of traditional weaving is used, altered and dismissed in the
formation of identity. Weaving is a connection to the past, to what has been left behind,
and can be rejected in resettlement as it binds the hopefulness of the future to the painful
memories of the past, or alternatively be gripped to, as a connection of what was. Weaving
can also be a combination of both of these elements, a push and pull of memory and
forgetting.
24
4. From Camp to High Rise: the Urban Settlement of Karen Refugees in Canada.
Susan McGrath, Michaela Hynie, Ei Phyu Han, Sheila Htoo
The Karen are a minority ethnic group in Burma also known as Myanmar. Starting in the
late 1980s, thousands fled civil conflict in Burma for refugee camps along the Thai-Burma
border. In 2005, they were designated for group resettlement by UNHCR and Canada
agreed to accept 3900 as government sponsored refugees. They were settled in small
groups (from 20 to 200) to primarily urban centres across the country. This paper presents
the findings of a qualitative study of the settlement experiences of the Karen in Canada.
Using snowball connections, in-depth interviews with 15Karen community
leaders/members from cities across the country were held. Key informant interviews
were also held with 5 settlement or government workers. The data was analyzed using a
social integration framework drawing on the work of Ager and Strang (2008) which allows
for an examination of not only the indicators of functional integration but also the role of
social connections and the development of a sense of belonging. The results identify some
expected challenges to integration including lack of English language skills, lack of access
to employment and education opportunities and health issues related to prolonged
periods in refugee camps. The strengths of the Karen include a keen sense of loyalty and
commitment to their community members. However, these strong social bonds that
supported their integration experience have also created challenges in terms of tensions
between individual and collective interests. These tensions in integration are explored and
the policy and practice implications considered.
5. The Next Stage of Vulnerability: Why Some Young Refugees Join Street Gangs in
Winnipeg, Matthew Fast
Abstract:This study explores the challenges, perceptions, and life experiences of waraffected young refugee men who became gang-involved after their families were resettled
in Winnipeg, Canada. In doing so, this study examines their descent into street gangs
while highlighting their challenges, coping strategies, and turning points. A qualitative
semi-structured interview process involving formerly gang-involved young refugee men,
community agency workers, police, and community elders was used in this study. The
data collected during this study revealed that the study participants face challenges in
multiple areas including: school, family, peer group, neighbourhood, ethnic community,
and law enforcement. These challenge areas were significant contributors for these young
people becoming involved in street gangs. Gaps were also identified in areas involving a
lack of resources or knowledge of available resources for social programming and job
training. This study is significant because it gives voice to young refugees who are often
marginalized by the dominant discourse within society. As well, this study creates an
understanding of the challenges and basic needs refugee young people have that should
inform policy and future approaches by government and community-based organizations
to assist them in their transition into a new society. Further, the study provides insight
into why refugee young people join gangs, and what influences them to leave gangs. This
valuable knowledge can be used to inform future gang prevention or gang-exit strategies
aimed at refugee young people.
25
6. Immigration policy, political discourse, and public perception of a foreign
national-crime nexus in the UK. Khamael Al-Faris
Since the 1950s, the topic of immigration has been politicised and has been one of the
leading issues in almost every election campaign in the UK. The rhetoric of different
political parties about immigration has fuelled public concern over the economic, social,
and legal impact of immigration. By the 1990s, Foreign Nationals (FNs) were largely
blamed for increasing crime, and linked to different illegal activities in spite of very little
evidence supporting the relationship between FNs and crime.
This paper will explore specifically the timing of debates about immigration, and the links
to changes in immigration policy and public opinion regarding foreign nationals.
This paper shows new evidence, which questions the basis of FNs-crime nexus in the UK.
Analysing and explaining the evidence from the ‘Hansard’ UK parliamentary website,
published political speeches from different parties’ conferences, and immigration
legislation, this paper shows how FN criminality has been exaggerated and politicised for
other purposes, such as a new means to control FNs, gain the public confidence and their
votes, or rush terrorism and crime control legislation.
PANEL 16
RESEARCHING
THE DURABILITY OF DURABLE SOLUTIONS:
THE
CHALLENGES
OF LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH AND THE TRANSLATION OF EVIDENCE FOR
POLICY ON REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT
Investigating the durability of durable solutions requires taking a long-term view to
research. Yet, longitudinal research is challenging in any context, more so when
investigating the experiences of resettled refugees over time. Findings from longitudinal
research have the potential to contribute to policy in areas such as status determination
(including detention), social integration with the host society, family reunion (or lack
thereof), return after years of internal displacement, and responses to the long-term needs
of climate-related displacement. However, political and programmatic imperatives are
more often focused on evidence from cross-sectional or short-term studies.
This panel engages with a number of key issues. First, the panel considers the
methodological challenges of long-term research with vulnerable populations in highly
dynamic and complex social contexts that are typical of refugee resettlement. In particular,
it engages with strategies to involve refugees themselves as peer researchers. Second, it
considers the practical challenges of how longitudinal research findings can best produce
“evidence” to inform policy and practice both as the study is being conducted and in the
longer term. The panel then considers what might be learnt from other disciplines in the
application of research evidence into policy and practice with a particular focus on public
health. The papers highlight the importance of engaging affected communities in
translating research findings into local solutions especially where longer-term outcomes
are difficult to predict and may challenge – rather than legitimate – current policy and
practice. The panel will conclude with discussion about innovative and strategic
26
approaches to making a difference to the everyday lives of resettled refugees involved in
longitudinal studies and to the broader policies that shape their lives in the longer term.
1. Sandy Gifford. The Good Starts for Resettled Refugee Youth Study: Steering
longitudinal research through dynamic and hostile policy contexts in Australia.
Abstract: One of the strengths of longitudinal studies of refugee resettlement is the
potential to produce evidence about longer-term settlement outcomes and the impact of
past and current government policies and institutional practices on refugee migrants. In
countries like Australia, with a dynamic and increasingly hostile policy environment in
relation to forced migrants, longitudinal studies can document the impact of the wider
socio-political context on resettled communities.
This paper reflects on ‘The Good Starts for Refugee Youth Study’, a longitudinal project
which has followed up for eight years (2004/05 to 2012/13) a group of 120 newly arrived
refugee young people resettled in Melbourne, Australia. The study was initiated
specifically to produce evidence about the long-term settlement outcomes with the aim to
inform policy and practice in the refugee youth settlement sector. Although the study is
methodologically innovative and has used a range of strategies for translating findings in
a timely and policy relevant manner, a key challenge has been navigating through a
progressively hostile policy environment. Especially challenging are findings that suggest
that past policies to support refugee background youth (e.g. education, employment and
integration) are not working, and evidence that current policy changes (e.g. family
reunion, border protection and offshore processing) appear to be having an increasingly
negative impact on youth in the study, most of whom are now Australian citizens. The
paper concludes by raising questions about what durable humanitarian settlement is or is
becoming in an increasingly hostile policy environment such as in Australia.
2. Ignacio Correa-Velez. Is resettlement a ‘durable’ solution? The SettleMEN
longitudinal study of refugee men.
Abstract: Although Australia is one of 26 UNHCR resettlement countries and ranks third
in the overall number of refugees it accepts each year, since the mid 1990’s the Australian
government has increasingly hardened its attitudes and policies towards people seeking
asylum and is currently implementing one of the toughest responses in the Western
World. This has also led to an increasingly dominant anti-refugee/asylum seekers public
discourse that is having a negative impact on the wellbeing and long-term settlement of
refugee communities.
One third of refugee and humanitarian entrants to Australia are adult men. Since 2008, the
SettleMEN project has followed up a cohort of 233 men from refugee backgrounds living
in urban and regional areas of Southeast Queensland, using a peer interviewer model and
a mixed-method approach. Importantly, the study has been able to document the impact
of the 2011 Queensland floods on the health and settlement of this cohort. Three key issues
are discussed in this paper. First, the methodological successes and challenges of engaging
in longitudinal peer research with adult refugee men in a resettlement context. Second, the
27
importance of ‘being there’ when a resettled refugee population is affected by an
environmental disaster. Third, the challenges of translation of research findings into policy
and practice in an increasingly anti-refugee political and public discourse. Finally, the
paper concludes with a critically examination of the “durability” of resettlement as a
durable solution.
3. Luis Gabriel Cuervo. Research for health policy: An opportunity to bring different
sectors to work towards social and economic development.
Abstract: Research can be a driver of social and economic development and a tool to focus
different sectors on addressing the needs of populations. Refugee scholarship has often
been criticized for its narrow focus on displacement and a general failure to draw more
widely from other disciplines. The application of research evidence to public health
challenges among marginalized communities is one area where there has been significant
success – especially in partnering with affected communities to apply research findings to
local solutions.
What can we learn from these successes in the public health sector – that might be applied
to the challenges that research faces in informing local solutions to refugee resettlement?
The Americas was the first WHO region with a Policy on Research for Health. This Policy
is geared towards strengthening the stewardship and governance of research for health
and promotes a systematic approach to integrate scientific research evidence into policies
(knowledge translation) for health. This paper will show how health can drive social and
economic development and that the Policy on Research for Health can be a helpful means
to bring together different sectors of society and government towards common goals such
as finding policy options that help improving the life of vulnerable communities. The
paper will consider how the lessons learnt from the development of research agendas with
broad participation from government and civil society offers an opportunity for affected
communities to join in identifying and implementing sound policy options which are
actioned by an engaged community and empowered local teams. PAHO’s Art for
Research project and a video will showcase how research can be an important driver of
social and economic development. The paper then opens up a discussion of how these
insights from research to practice evidence with disadvantaged communities, might
usefully inform strategies that can be applied to longitudinal research with refugee
communities who are rebuilding their lives in a settlement setting.
PANEL 17
SYRIAN FORCED EXODUS: A NEW PROTECTION CHALLENGE.
1. Zeynep Kıvılcım Legal Framework for the Protection of Out of Camp Syrian
Refugees in Turkey.
As the end of April 2014, the UNCHR estimates the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey
as 800.000, only a third of them live in camps. Since October 2011, the government
implements a “temporary protection regime” for Syrians in Turkey, presented as a legal
28
framework in line with the EU legislation. Turkey has recently adopted its very first law
on migrants and refugees; the “Law on Foreigners and International Protection” is entered
in force on 11th of April 2014.
The paper aims to study the problems concerning the legal framework for out-of-camp
protection of Syrian refugees in Turkey. It will investigate with a critical and a right-based
perspective, the implementation of the “temporary protection regime”, the new Law on
Foreigners and International Protection as well as the specific circulars enacted by the
Turkish government on the issue of out-of-camp Syrian refugees.
2. Nurcan Özgür Baklacıoğlu Syrian refugees "in limbo": Problems of protection
among out-of-camp Syrian Refugees in Turkey.
For long time, Turkey has been a destination and transit country for refugee flows from
Middle East, Africa and South Asia. Since the beginning of the Syrian war, Turkey has
faced one of the biggest mass refugee influxes. Turkish government estimates that 700,000
Syrian citizens fled across the border to Turkey and that %64 of them live out of the camps
in big cities including Istanbul. The Syrian refugee influxes coincide with the adoption of
the very first and long-awaited legislation of Turkey on migrants and refugees. The new
Turkish “Law on Foreigners and International Protection” is adopted in 2013 and will be
in force on 11th of April 2014.
The paper aims to discuss the problems concerning the out-of-camp protection of Syrian
refugees in Turkey, through critical and a rights-based elaboration of implementation of
the new Law on Foreigners and International Protection and the relevant circulars on the
status of Syrian refugees. The paper will present the findings of a fieldwork and results of
in-depth interviews with the Syrian refugees living in Istanbul (Fatih, Bayramtepe, Küçükpazar,
Bağcilar) and will focus on the problems concerning their access to basic human rights, in particular
to the right to registration, residence, employment and healthcare.
3. Abbie Taylor: An Invisible Struggle: The Displacement of Men and Boys in
Syria.
Described as “the worst humanitarian crisis in a generation”, intense fighting across Syria
continues to reap unimaginable destruction and devastation on the Syrian population.
Few have been spared from the effects of the violence, and millions more have been
displaced from their homes inside Syria and across borders into neighboring countries.
Outside Syria, of the 2.5 million persons of concern to UNHCR, thirty percent are men and
boys aged between 12 and 59 years. Yet the experiences of men and boys appear to be
overlooked and their protection needs neglected in the scramble for short-term solutions
to the crisis, with little consideration for their critical importance in issues surrounding
return and future reconstruction and peace-building in Syria. Based on ethnographic
fieldwork conducted in Jordan and Lebanon, this paper explores the effects of war and
displacement on men and boys, many of whom have been forced to flee due to fears of
military conscription or forced recruitment into armed groups, in addition to concerns for
their lives and that of their families as well as their futures. For those who make it across
the border into neighboring countries - often alone - they are confronted with dwindling
opportunities for survival, a daunting loss of purpose, and little in the way of support for
their decision to flee rather than to become a part of the fighting. The paper - enriched
29
with the perspectives of men and boys forced to flee from Syria on displacement, the
future and return - seeks to unpack the intricacies of their displacement and to unsettle
constraints posed by traditional gendered conceptions of vulnerability in order to better
meet the short- and long-term needs of this underserved population.
4. Viviane Mozine Rodrigues: Responsibility to act in Syria
On its sixtieth anniversary, the UN adopted the concept of "responsibility to protect,"
which determines a set of principles that gives the international community the
responsibility to act (these actions may have a non-coercive, a less coercive or, in fact, a
coercive character) in situations of humanitarian disasters, such as those occurring in
Syria.
Non-coercive measures are those performed through the use of diplomatic, humanitarian
and other peaceful means. However, up to this point, the Security Council of the UN
hasn’t reached a consensus on practically any effective action yet. The coercive way has its
main voice, the U.S.A., in favour of the intervention in Syria that has France and the UK as
allies, taking a similar belligerent stance.
In this context, Brazil inserts itself in a vanguard attitude, granting special humanitarian
visas to Syrian citizens and people from other nationalities who are affected by the conflict
in Syria and whom wish to look for refuge in Brazil that, currently, has about 280 Syrian
refugees in its territory. Brazil is the first country in the Americas to adopt this approach to
the Syrian refugees.
PANEL 18
ÉXODOS FORZADOS EN TERRITORIOS DE FRONTERA
1. Nicolás Rodríguez: Gang and cartel-related international protection profiles in
the Northern Triangle
The urban regions of Central America’s “Northern Triangle” (Guatemala, Honduras and
El Salvador) are now among the most violent in the world. While violence, persecution
and armed conflict are not new phenomena in the region, there are fundamental
differences between the forms of violence that characterized the 1980s and early 1990s and
the eminently institutional and crime-related violence that predominates today.
Rather than triggering a humanitarian crisis in the continent, these new forms of violence
are causing a regional crisis of human rights, where powerful and sophisticated criminal
actors confront and defy the State and its institutions in an unprecedented and sustained
manner.
Within this context, marked by serious and systematic human rights violations and the
weakening of the rule of law, the number of asylum claims submitted by nationals of these
countries has increased considerably in recent years. Nevertheless, asylum rates do not
seem to acknowledge that violence and persecution, as observed and practiced in the
30
region, do give rise to protection needs of victims and potential victims, who may be
entitled to refugee status or other forms of international protection.
The purpose of this paper is to study how the particular characteristics of these forms of
armed violence affect the protection needs of its victims. This last aspect of the paper will
be presented through a number of profiles of individuals (e.g. children exposed to forced
recruitment by maras, community leaders, journalists, crime witnesses) and their
particular needs and challenges in obtaining international protection.
2. María Auxiliadora López Mendez: Analysis of Existing Information Sources
About Migration and Violence in Honduras: A perspective of Forced Displacement.
En Centroamérica, el crimen organizado transnacional es un fenómeno que afecta
considerablemente la seguridad nacional y regional, con un aumento dramático de los
índices de violencia y crimen, particularmente en los países del Triángulo Norte
Centroamericano (Honduras, El Salvador y Guatemala). A pesar del aumento marcado en
las solicitudes de asilo de centroamericanos debido al crimen organizado y del evidente
fenómeno de desplazamiento forzado causado por nuevas formas de violencia, el impacto
humanitario de esta crisis es generalmente desconocido e invisible, al no contar con
fuentes de información precisas que permitan una aproximación a la magnitud y
tendencias del desplazamiento forzado en la región.
Es por ello que emerge la necesidad de profundizar este análisis por país e iniciar con la
obtención de información secundaria cuantitativa y cualitativa confiable que dé cuenta de
la magnitud del problema, las tendencias actuales y las necesidades de protección de las
víctimas, en respuesta a ello se lleva a cabo estudios de este tipo para obtener una mayor
caracterización del desplazamiento causado por el crimen organizado y otras situaciones
de violencia, tanto al interior de los países, como a nivel transnacional, particularmente
teniendo en cuenta la falta de registros oficiales sobre este fenómeno.
El presente estudio permitirá tener un contexto concreto sobre determinantes, magnitudes
y perfiles de desplazamiento forzado interno y externo para el caso específico de
Honduras, así también mostrará la ubicación espacial de los desplazados por violencia e
inseguridad con el fin de brindar una línea base para la recolección primaria de este nuevo
fenómeno y con ello tener información precisa para focalizar políticas de protección
conjuntas entre el Gobierno y Organismos Internacionales colaboradores.
3. Gabriel Rojas: Continuidades de la desprotección: desplazados y refugiados en la
frontera colombo-ecuatoriana
El proceso de negociación entre la guerrilla de las FARC y el gobierno de Colombia
plantea nuevos retos para la protección de personas vulnerables en las poblaciones
fronterizas del país. La tendencia de los grupos armados ilegales a consolidar su control
territorial y social alrededor de las rentas ilegales que facilitan las relaciones económicas
en la frontera, ha encontrado un nuevo impulso a partir de la conformación de bandas que
hacen presencia en los mismos lugares y usan las mismas prácticas de las estructuras
paramilitares que se desmovilizaron parcialmente en 2005, pero que además amplían su
31
campo de acción no solo en Colombia, sino también en las ciudades aledañas de los países
vecinos.
Las llamadas BACRIM o “bandas criminales” por el gobierno nacional, se erigen como el
actor que más señala, intimida y amenaza a los habitantes de ciudades de frontera,
particularmente en los espacios que tradicionalmente han tenido graves carencias en
vivienda, servicios públicos, infraestructura y generación de ingresos, y que constituyen
corredores de movilidad para el contrabando de bienes y combustibles y el tráfico y
microtráfico de estupefacientes.
La supervivencia de estos grupos armados ilegales posdesmovilización se fundamenta en
la coacción sobre la población civil y su principal fuente de financiamiento y reclutamiento
está en los niños, niñas y jóvenes y en la extorsión y vacunas al comercio local. Frente a la
posibilidad de una desmovilización masiva de combatientes de la guerrilla de las FARC,
si el proceso de negociación es exitoso, la pregunta acerca de la posibilidad de una
reintegración digna de estas personas a la vida civil -que evite que empleen su mano de
obra calificada para la violencia en las zonas rurales y urbanas de las fronteras--‐ se hace
apremiante.
Mientras que la violencia se intensifica en espacios urbanos de frontera, las condiciones en
ambos lados de los límites políticos comparten las carencias que obstaculizan una
satisfacción efectiva de los derechos de las personas que se ven obligadas a desplazarse o
a buscar refugio. Es aquí donde se hace necesario pensar los nuevos retos de protección
desde una perspectiva multidimensional de la movilidad humana que incluya
consideraciones tanto sobre los actores que operan de manera similar en los contextos de
expulsión y recepción, como sobre las causas complementarias de violencia generalizada y
necesidad de generación de ingresos que llevan a las personas a desplazarse. De la misma
manera, se deben plantear definiciones flexibles y complejas de víctima y perpetrador en
un contexto en el que niños, niñas y jóvenes entran y salen de actividades asociadas a la
violencia y la criminalidad ante la ausencia de posibilidades de aprovechamiento del
tiempo libre y empleo digno.
Pensar la política pública y la legislación sobre desplazamiento y refugio en la frontera
exige entonces una aproximación multidimensional y binacional. Las continuidades de la
desprotección de los derechos de las personas en situación de movilidad se explica por la
recurrencia de condiciones locales de ausencia de oportunidades y problemas persistentes
de vivienda y por la violencia generalizada impuesta por grupos armados
posdesmovilización, tanto en los contextos de expulsión como en los de recepción. Ello
indica que nos es completo un plan de atención, asistencia y reparación en el lado
colombiano de la frontera que no tenga un correlato sobre asistencia humanitaria,
soluciones sostenibles y posibilidades de retorno en los países vecinos. Agendas bilaterales
que reconozcan acuerdos internacionales sobre definiciones ampliadas del refugio y
condiciones nuevas y cambiantes de desplazamiento forzado en contextos de criminalidad
transnacional, se vuelven los mecanismos más oportunos para una protección real de las
personas en situación de movilidad. Esta propuesta se plantea en contraste con las
medidas legislativas regresivas que recientemente están imponiendo condiciones
limitantes para lograr la condición de refugiado en el Ecuador.
32
Con base en las preocupaciones generales mencionadas, las propuestas a discutir en
espacios de frontera deben incluir elementos de diagnóstico y respuesta institucional
conscientes de los nuevos retos de protección y las nuevas dinámicas de violencia. Nuestra
ponencia tratará tres puntos de partida a este respecto:

Situar la atención sobre las causas de la movilidad humana tanto en el contexto de
la desmovilización de grupos armados ilegales cuyos combatientes retornan a
prácticas ilegales en estructuras nacionales y transnacionales con alta capacidad de
coacción, control social y territorial y vinculación de niños, niñas y jóvenes, como
en las condiciones persistentes de falta de oportunidades y acceso a vivienda,
servicios públicos y generación de ingresos en ambos lados de la frontera.

Proponer iniciativas binacionales de respuesta institucional con base en atención,
asistencia, reparación, soluciones duraderas y retorno en espacios de frontera,
atendiendo a acuerdos internacionales incluyentes sobre el refugio, la migración
forzada y el desplazamiento.

Comprender que las continuidades de la desprotección son las que obligan a las
personas a moverse por causas simultaneas de violencia generalizada y ausencia
de oportunidades y estas circunstancias los acompañan tanto en su país de origen
como en el país de recepción. En este sentido, víctimas y perpetradores que
atraviesan las fronteras siguen desplazándose en los países vecinos y encuentran o
generan nuevas condiciones de vulnerabilidad. Esto quiere decir que el conflicto
armado se agota como dispositivo de explicación de las altas solicitudes de refugio
en las fronteras colombianas, y el conflicto social de la desprotección
transfronteriza que persiste tras la desmovilización de grupos ilegales, se debe
convertir en el foco de atención de la política pública binacional.
4. Annette Idler: The Invisibility of Forced (Non-) Migration: A Study of the
Colombian-Ecuadorian and Colombian-Venezuelan Borderlands
This paper enhances understanding of how the geography of borderlands renders forced
migration and forced “non-migration” invisible. Colombia’s borderlands are critical
security zones but poorly understood. They feature weak state governance systems, a lowrisk/high-opportunity environment and a mismatch of two neighbouring jurisdictions,
fuelling impunity. Mass displacements within and across the borderlands provoked by the
activities of multiple violent non-state actors (VNSAs) including rebels, post-demobilised
groups and criminal organisations in these regions have received considerable attention
by policymakers and scholars alike. However, less visible drop-by-drop displacements
and cases of confinement remain poorly understood. Employing a transnational
borderland perspective, I argue that the “border effect”, which arises from the
characteristic features of borderlands, contributes to the invisibility of drop-by-drop
displacements and cases of confinement in these areas. In particular, the transnationality
of borderlands facilitates social control which helps foster illicit cross-border authority and
“shadow citizenship” that alienates these displaced or confined borderlanders from the
Colombian state. Therefore, when analysing drop-by-drop displacements across the
33
border, intra-urban displacements, and cases of confinement, the latter case of forced (non) migration is, as I contend, the least visible, yet most systemic threat to the states that
share these borderlands. The study is grounded in empirical data from semi-structured
interviews that I carried out during over a year of fieldwork in and on the ColombianEcuadorian and Colombian-Venezuelan borderlands.
PANEL 19
FORCED MIGRATION STATE POLICIES (II)
1. Myoungjun Hwang: Korean Perspective on Forced Migration Issues for the Far
Eastern Peacebuilding
When seen from the outside, the Republic of Korea has been bound to be considered
irrelevant to the forced migration issue. However, looking into the contemporary Korean
history, apart from the frame of the post-war partition, forced migration issue still casts
long-term aftermath for Koreans. The partition of the Korean Peninsula by USSR and USA
in 1945 and subsequent warmongering by North Korean authority in 1950 caused forced
migration across the 38th Parallel on a large scale. Since the ceasefire in 1953, the forced
migration issue in the Korean Peninsula has not been fully magnified legally by powersthat-be because of the Cold War.
Whether these migrants were categorized as refugees or IDPs may be related to the
interpretation of the territorial clause in the Korean Constitution, which has been essential
to the legal analysis of inter-Korean status. Accordingly, the categorization may be
interlinked to the application of international legal instruments for the relief of migrants
and their offspring. Meanwhile, the forced migration issue in the Korean Peninsula
appears to be complicated enough to defy the dichotomous categorization of the migrants.
The dual character may contribute to the inquiry into applicable common denominators
between refugees and IDPs.
With the cognizance of the Korean Perspective above, the peacebuilding for the right to
return, reparation and ultimate reconciliation may be elaborated in depth. Here, the
Colombian Perspective on forced migrants expressed in the Cartagena Declaration can
share meaningful empirical tools.
2. Andrew Songa: An Argument for Incident, Impact and Redress Assessment (IIRA)
as a Holistic Response to Internal Displacement: A Look at the Kenya Experience
The 2007-08 post-election violence in Kenya saw 663,921 persons displaced. The
Government undertook some ad hoc measures to assist the displaced which included: Exgratia payments to profiled IDPs; repair of houses and infrastructure; restoration of
livelihoods; resettlement of IDPs living in self-help groups; distribution of relief food;
peace-building and reconciliation.
These interventions were undertaken in the context of a mediated settlement facilitated by
the African Union to end the violence. The process also yielded a transitional justice
agenda which included: A Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence (CIPEV);
the establishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC); and a series
34
of institutional, policy and legal reforms deemed as necessary to prevent the violence from
recurring.
An assessment on the progress made in regard to these processes demonstrates a
disjointed and discordant approach to addressing the concerns of IDPs from a
humanitarian and justice perspective. This paper will utilize the Kenyan experience and
propose the IIRA tool as a holistic approach that seeks to contribute to the realisation of
redress for the impacts that bear on the dignity, well-being, wealth and habitat of persons,
as a result of internal displacement. The redress component seeks to incorporate the
concepts of durable solutions, reparations and criminal justice so as to propose redress
options that addresses all facets of violations emanating from internal displacement.
3. Laurence Juma: Protection of Rights of Urban Refugees in Kenya: The Likely
Impact of the Abebe Dadi Tullu & Others V the Attorney General Decision
This paper examines some of the issues that have recently emerged regarding the capacity
of domestic legal mechanisms to protect the rights of urban refugees in Kenya. One of
those issues, and which informs the greater part of the discussion in this paper, is the
profound inconsistency between human rights law and governmental policy on treatment
of urban refugees. This issues has surfaced in the recent disputes coming before the courts
and in the challenges arising from attempts to align governmental functions with the new
constitution. In a broad sense therefore, the analysis in the paper is framed within the
context of the new constitutional dispensation and the decision of the High Court in the
case of Abebe Dadi Tullu & Others v The Attorney General (High Court of Kenya,
Nairobi, Petition No 19 and 115 of 2013). The main argument advanced in the paper is that
positive judicial pronouncements on disputes arising from abuse of rights by government
are likely to widen the scope for legal protection of urban refugees in Kenya because they
expand rights available to refugees and limit governmental action based solely on the
policy of encampment. To support my view, I draw on studies conducted in the last two
decades that are scathing, and rightly so, on the general dearth of workable governmental
policies and programmes for the protection of refugee rights, to identify the perennial
gaps. Thereafter, I analyse the existing legal frameworks for protection of rights and
juxtapose them against the prevailing governmental approaches to refugee management
and protection and its policy imperatives. And using jurisprudence, particularly the Abebe
Dai Tullu case, I attempt to justify why the government’s approach that is solely based on
the policy of encampment may be at variance with existing rights regime created by the
new Constitution. While conscious of the fact that the policy of encampment is buoyed by
recent incidences of insecurity in main urban centres, I argue that departing from such an
entrenched policy position when faced with threat of insecurity may require radical
changes, most certainly from the courts. In the end, the paper suggests that the
inconsistency between law and policy makes judicial intervention on urban refugee issues
much more critical for the development of law and policy favourable to refugees
generally, and to urban refugees in particular, than hitherto advocated.
PANEL 20
35
RESPUESTAS A LOS REFUGIADOS HAITIANOS
1. Guliana Redin: Critica a la Política Inmigratoria Brasileña a los haitianos:
límites del “Visado Humanitario” y el descompaso en relación a la política de
intervención humanitaria encabezada por Brasil en Haití.
Especialmente después del terremoto en Haití en enero de 2010, la inmigración de
haitianos a Brasil ha intensificado significativamente. Aunque el Brasil encabece la
intervención humanitaria en Haití (Resolución n. 1542/2004 del Consejo de Seguridad de
las Naciones Unidas) por diez años, reforzado en 2010 por los efectos del terremoto en el
empeoramiento de la situación humanitaria en el país, la respuesta brasileña al tema de la
inmigración haitiana se ha hecho caso omiso de estos factores que repercuten claramente
en el Instituto del Refugio. El Brasil restringió la aplicación de la Ley 9474/97 (Ley del
Refugio en Brasil) y, teniendo en cuenta la condición de vulnerabilidad de los haitianos,
crió por la Resolución 97/2012 del Consejo Nacional de Inmigración el llamado "visado
humanitario" para estos inmigrantes, les dejando en un limbo de protección y de
interferencia del Estado: se reconoce que los haitianos están en una situación vulnerable,
pero no les reconoce la condición de refugiado y, por tanto, no se extiende a todos ellos los
derechos del instituto de protección humanitaria. Por tanto, este artículo tiene como
objetivo examinar los límites de la política brasileña en materia de protección de
inmigrantes haitianos, para identificar los efectos de la intervención humanitaria en el
Instituto de refugio, así como la demostración de la falta de adecuación de la política
exterior brasileña con los compromisos derivados de la protección internacional persona
humana, que incluye el compromiso de asilo político y refugio.
2. Juan Villalobos: Limitaciones del régimen Internacional de Refugio. El caso de
la población haitiana en República Dominicana.
La presente ponencia tiene como finalidad presentar el trabajo final para la obtención del
título de “Máster en Relaciones Internacionales con mención en Derechos Humanos y
Seguridad otorgado por FLACSO Ecuador, el cual buscó determinar que el
funcionamiento del régimen Internacional de Refugio no depende de los acuerdos
formales del mismo, sino que depende de otro tipo de factores o lo que podremos llamar
acuerdos no formales. En el caso del régimen internacional de refugio en República
Dominicana en relación a la población haitiana su funcionamiento estará marcado por un
exacerbado nacionalismo y por la política de seguridad nacional, lo cual limita la
posibilidad de esta población de obtener protección internacional.
El estudio parte de la explicación contextual de los flujos de migración forzada de Haití
hacia República Dominicana y de la explicación de las relaciones Dominico-Haitianas a lo
largo de la historia. Posteriormente explica a partir de la investigación de campo
desarrollada como estos elementos se ponen en juego, y como esto explica las limitaciones
que tiene el Régimen Internacional de Refugio en este caso particular.
En el estudio se utilizan teorías de las Relaciones Internacionales (realismo y neo
constitucionalismo) así como la Teoría de regímenes. El método propuesto para el estudio
36
vincula el Estudio de caso con el neo institucionalismo, dando así una mirada más amplia
del fenómeno estudiado.
3. Marilia Leal y Andrea Pacheco: La actuación del sistema ONU en la protección de
los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales de los haitianos en Brasil.
El objetivo de este estudio resulta la investigación de la actuación del sistema ONU en la
protección de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales de los haitianos en Brasil, con
la finalidad de esclarecer la posición que los migrantes forzados - específicamente los
desplazados ambientales - ocupan en el escenario internacional, fijándose en el hecho de la
inexistencia de una protección específica para este tipo de migrante. Se trazará un
panorama de las condiciones de vida enfrentadas por los haitianos en los campamentos
localizados en la ciudad de Brasiléia, en el estado brasileños de Acre, y si ese tipo de
asistencia que el Sistema ONU está disponiendo a eses desplazados, resulta suficiente para
la protección de sus derechos económicos, sociales y culturales, teniendo en consideración
las normas de derecho internacional humanitario. Como embasamiento teórico y
metodológico, la investigación será de cuño teórico, en un abordaje cualitativo, a partir de
las formulaciones doctrinarias de Castles (2005) y Zetter (2008 y 2010). A partir de este
análisis, se observa que tal protección se presenta insuficiente. Ese proceso de efectuación
de los derechos humanos por parte del Sistema de las Naciones Unidas, posibilita que los
actores internacionales se sensibilicen con la problemática de las poblaciones
ambientalmente forzadas a desplazarse, una vez que estas no pueden ser categorizadas
como refugiados, y por tanto, no disponen de una protección legal específica.
4. Luís Augusto Bittencourt Minchola: Refugee Protection in Cartagena’s
Declaration: an analysis from haitian’s case in Brazil.
The recognition of the necessity of juridical protection for migrants who are required to
leave their homeland has formed a part of discussions on migration in recent decades. In
this direction, environmental disasters may force large flows of people out of their original
regions. Consequently, a special treatment for those involved is required. This is the case
of Haitian migrants who arrived in Brazil after the devastation of their country due to a
large earthquake in 2010. Hoping to rebuild their lives, Haitians asked for refuge in the
Brazilian State. However, it was not granted considering the argument that they would
not fit in the requirements for categorization of a refugee, regarding an old concept of a
refugee. Therefore, a merely humanitarian visa could be granted.
Nevertheless, Brazilian legislation, influenced by Cartagena's Declaration, could lead to a
favorable interpretation to migrant's request, considering that it states that refugee status
will be granted for those who have to leave their country due to a severe and generalized
human rights violation, reflecting an advanced concept of a refugee. Taking this into
account, a refugee status had to be granted for those Haitians, exposed to situations which
don’t guarantee their own survival in their original State. Thus, this study intends to
expose the possibility of protection through the concession of refuge to Haitian migrants
according to Cartagena's Declaration, in counterpoint to the orthodox behavior assumed
by the Latin-American country.
37
PANEL 21
"DEVELOPMENT-DISPLACEMENT
RESEARCH ?
IN
LATIN AMERICA: WHY SO LITTLE
1. CHEN Xiaonan Relocation support fund of dam caused resettlement in China.
Based on the history of involuntary resettlement for reservoir construction, the macro
socio-economics and micro socio-economics background of reservoir resettlement is
analyzed, the experience and lessons of reservoir resettlement is summarized. As follow,
the present post-resettlement support (PRS) policies described from support beneficiaries,
support funds and support ways three aspects, discussed onto flow of support fund and
operation mechanism two angles. And then the stakeholders of PRS policies are analyzed,
including electricity users, owners and managers of profitable large and medium
reservoirs, people directly and indirectly affected by reservoir projects, various
resettlement institutions; the governmental intervention methods and implementation of
PRS policies are discussed. Finally, an empirical analysis on the satisfaction of 139
households resettlers induced by Xiangjia Dam in Sichuan Province is taken to assess the
impact of support fund, and some recommendations are put forward to improve the PRS
policies, including establish state resettlement institution, integrate government activities
with market rules, encourage public participation, strengthen capacity building of rural
organizations, and so on.
2. SHI Guoqing Danjiangkou Resettlement village: A case of study
PANEL 22
CONFLICT, OTHER SITUATIONS OF VIOLENCE AND THE PROTECTION GRANTED
UNDER THE 1951 REFUGEE CONVENTION AND CARTAGENA DECLARATION
The second half of the twentieth century and the first two decades of the twenty-first
century saw an unparalleled number of armed conflicts and other forms of violent
situations leading to displacement. The causes of these situations have become more
complex, the character has evolved, and the effects have diversified.
Although people should not be returned to threats to their lives or freedoms, international
refugee protection is not open-ended. In fact, the 1951 Refugee Convention has often been
set aside when assessing the eligibility for international protection of persons escaping the
effects of conflict and violence. In 2014 UNHCR will be launching its Guidelines on
International Protection for Person fleeing Armed Conflict and other Situations of Violence
that will offer substantive and procedural guidance on the interpretation and application
of international and regional legal instruments relevant for the protection of people fleeing
violence and conflict across international border, including foremost the application of the
1951 Convention and/or 1967 Protocol. It will also identify in detail those who fall outside
these instruments and explore possible alternative frameworks or instruments for those
not falling within these instruments.
38
In this sense, regional refugee protection instruments, such as the Cartagena Declaration
on Refugees, have played a pivotal role in providing international protection to persons in
need and who otherwise would not have been recognised as refugees. The relevance of
this instrument remains vital today, having provided source and guidance to strengthen
the refugee protection framework throughout the Americas, and particularly in the
development of the Mexico Declaration and Plan of Action to Strengthen International
Protection of Refugees in Latin America of 2004.
2014 will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Cartagena Declaration amidst serious
protection challenges. Among these, most prominent, those derived from new forms of
violence arising from protracted conflict situations and the emergence of new armed
actors, in particular those involved in criminal organisations’ activities, operating both at
national and transnational levels in some countries of the region. Yet, the 30th anniversary
will also find the Americas in the midst of a renewed regional commitment to refugee
protection and the strengthening of the existing legal frameworks to provide assistance
and protection to persons in need.
This Panel will touch upon the following:








How is eligibility for international refugee protection determined for people fleeing
armed conflict and other situations of violence?
How to interpret the well-founded fear concept of the 1951 Refugee Convention in
situations of indiscriminate violence?
What Convention grounds are applicable to people fleeing armed conflict or other
situations of violence and how should the ‘nexus’ be construed when people flee
the indiscriminate effects of violence?
What is the effect on the interpretation and application of the 1951 Convention of
the Cartagena Declaration definition developed explicitly to cover persons fleeing
conflict, massive human rights violations and situations of generalized violence or
public disorder, and how should the instruments interact?
The panel will further explore the origins and relevance of the Cartagena
Declaration on Refugees in the protection of persons in need in the Americas,
considering current challenges and opportunities, and focused on:
The Cartagena +30 process road map;
State practice evolution in light of the Cartagena Declaration’s application along its
30 years of existence; and
How the Cartagena Declaration remains a relevant protection tool in light of the
new situations of violence and conflict described, as per the conclusions reached by
the Expert’s Meeting on the Interpretation of the Cartagena Refugee Definition
called by UNHCR and held in Montevideo, Uruguay in November 2013.
PANEL 23
NEW SCHOLAR NETWORK WORK SHOP
39
PANEL 24
ROUND TABLE
TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE AND FORCED MIGRATION –SUBSTANTIVE LINKS.
The proposed roundtable debate will bring together experts from different continents who
will provide their opinions on the substantive links between transitional justice and forced
migration and cement the beginnings of a larger project that brings together 7 research
centers and scholars as well as activists who are directly involved with past and present
mass political violence as it relates to forced migration.
Thematic Summary
Transitional justice has long been associated with advocacy movements and a special set
of institutions that are expected to be mutually reinforcing or at least complementary in
terms of moving forward in the aftermath of mass societal and political violence. Here, in
a somewhat contrarian vein, our main tenet is to question this definition and its
presumptions about socio-political and historical change from the point of view of the
debates on transitional justice taking place across the Global South.
In an attempt to evaluate the long-term political significance and deep-seated socio-ethical
dimensions of transitional justice movements, one has to look beyond transitional justice
related policy measures and legal arrangements. Reform, reconciliation, restitution and
reparation do not exit in a vacuum. Within this regard, right of return for the displaced,
blanket amnesties, governmental and social uses of political amnesia, legal and pseudolegal accountability measures, restorative justice schemes including compensation and
redistribution programs, socio-cultural projects for recovery from societal trauma and calls
for collective responsibility. The approach chosen is informed by the work of legal scholars
and political theorists that have drawn attention to the dual role of law in relation to
violence: protective of the status quo on the one hand and regenerative of a new sociopolitical order on the other.
While law can be a tool for responding to violence and exposing abuses of power, law is
also utilized to obfuscate and legitimate abuses of political authority. As such, it is
puzzling that for many decades, scholarship emanating from the Global North
concentrated mainly on the ‘healing’ aspects of legal and semi-legal practices associated
with transitional justice measures and movements. Rarely was enough attention paid to
the challenges posed by a desire for a new form of justice in terms of questioning the
legitimacy of prior political practices by confronting institutional and societal denial of
mass violence.
In contradistinction, transitional justice debates emanating from the
Global South tend to focus on transforming the terms of the debate regarding past abuses
of power while also acknowledging that governments often use transitional justice
programs and projects as a framework to re-establish their legitimacy. In this latter
context, there is a major concern about the cooption of the challenges and demands
emanating from re-interpretations of a traumatic past.
40
This roundtable is exemplary of an approach that aims to develop a better understanding
of this tension in order to shed light on problematic assumptions and unacknowledged
trade-offs associated with the claims regarding the role of transitional justice projects,
institutions and practices in advancing political reconciliation and societal
acknowledgement of responsibility for mass atrocities. In particular, it will establish a
much-needed platform of exchange among the scholars situated primarily in the Global
South by discussing the implications of the historical trends in the study, funding and
institutionalization of transitional justice projects at the global level as part of NGO/INGO
[domestic and international non-governmental organizations] involvements in the Global
South and internationally financed or endorsed advocacy programs.
Even as transitional justice projects and schemes struggle to deliver untempered truth, allencompassing societal justice and reconciliation, in effect much heftier demands are being
placed upon them in terms of providing inherent guarantees for long-term political peace.
Over the past several decades, there thus emerged a ‘transitional justice industry’ that is
keen to embrace a holistic approach to acute crises in the Global South. This rturn of
events, however, did not bring forth the result an increased attention being paid towards
historically constructed socio-economic inequalities and root causes of mass political
violence and systemic abuses of power. As a response to the ‘instrumentalization’ of
transitional justice debates by globally powerful think-tanks, INGOs and Western
academic, we witness the burgeoning of an alternative discourse from the Global South
where there is a marked shift in the definition of the very term transitional justice. In this
new context, the political and academic discourses merge together to pave the way for
discourse, projects and practices which pay respect to social histories of the societies
effected by mass political violence, internal warfare, crimes against humanity committed
by their own states, post-colonial legacies concerning state-society relations and redefining
the territory covered by the legal-political language of economic and social rights.
In this context, it is equally essential to engage in a critical examination of the efforts made
by and hopes invested in truth commissions and administrative reparations programs.
The common avoidance of the direct addressing past systemic socio-economic wrongs by
transitional justice projects is a key issue in this regard. It is true that complex legal
processes are invoked by transitional justice programs as a necessary precondition for
societies affected by mass violence in order to facilitate transition into a new period of
peace, reconciliation and future socio-political stability. However, we must question this
presumption that trials, truth commissions and other legal mechanisms would suffice to
start large-scale societal processes of claiming accountability and responsibility for mass
violence. A close analysis of classical cases in countries impacted by mass violence and
long-term political repression—including but not limited to Argentina, Cambodia,
Guatemala, Timor-Leste, Congo, Sierra Leone, and South Africa—reveals that we must
have a fuller appreciation of the historical and socio-political contexts within which
transitional justice projects take shape.
The relationship between transitional justice projects and visionary programs for socioeconomic restructuring and for reversing structural underdevelopment is yet another one
of the headlines that occupies the core agenda of the debates in the Global South. Again,
41
the angle taken by political and academic debates in the South differs significantly from
the vantage point entertained in the North pertaining to development. This issue is
formulated in a very particular way in the context of Western scholarship and advocacy
networks as they engage with the problems, concerns and future trajectories pertaining to
societies in the Global South. Often, NGO and INGO funded work emanating from the
Global North focuses mainly on the potential impact that transitional justice projects and
policies may have on a state's ability to compete for international assistance or to embark
on economic reconstruction programs in the aftermath of a crisis. The particular language
used in this setting makes a suggested link between development, finance market stability,
and justice. Studies that explore how stock markets in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil have
responded to efforts to address past human rights abuses over time are key examples of
such endeavors.
The overall concern that informs the current project is the way transitional justice
measures, trajectories and debates that effect societies in the Global South have been
tamed and streamlined in their scope and their application by Western hubs of academic,
political and legal power at a global scale. Creating strict categories of when, to whom and
for what transitional justice projects are expected to apply, global institutions and funders
typically constructed or dictated transitional justice models that focus on specific sets of
actors for predetermined circumstances of societal conflict and political crimes. This
resulted in dangerously narrow interpretations of societal, political and structural violence
as well as dictation of somewhat artificial time frames for change and restitution. It also
led to the exclusion of many key actors, social groups and classes due to the selective
emphasis on criminal proceedings. Such narrowing and resultant depoliticisation of
transitional justice projects constitutes our main concern.
Across the Global South, there is a clear demand for reformulating justice starting from the
grassroots level rather than the employment of the more traditional top-down institutional
model. Seemingly unstructured movements lacking an institutional backing on how to
cope with past political and societal violence are seen as reservoirs of immense potential
ready to be translated into practical programs of action. Scholars, communities and
activist networks in various regions and continents indeed contend that such an input is
absolutely vital for long-term socio-political change. This window of opportunity that
could allow for deepening our understanding of transitional justice points to the endemic
potential of societies in the Global South to initiate and engage in a genuine response to
violence from within.
However, in spite of recurrent calls for a more locally rooted approach to the building of
‘capacities’, internationally funded and guided transnational justice projects and
operations remain largely influenced by an orientalist and/or developmentalist mindset.
By and large, their aim is to transform ‘war-torn societies’ of the Global South into second
degree or derivative liberal democracies, in both political and socio-economic spheres. To
achieve this, the eyes are often turned to durable and reputable international structures
such as the International Criminal Court in order to augment the rebuilding of the states,
and presumably societies by extension, in question.
42
It is our belief that social movements and the politics of everyday life should not be a
secondary target in terms of crafting models of transitional justice. They should be the
primary one. In this regard, one has to make a distinction between the commonplace term
‘civil society’ and what we refer as social movements. The canonized and heavily
instrumental approach to transitional justice focuses too much on ‘objective’-- i.e. legal and
institutional-- sources of legitimacy and outcomes at the expense of those events and
changes materializing at the local level and manifesting themselves in everyday life. As
transitional justice became part of the new global liberal ethos of ‘peace-building’ since the
late 1980s, it proceeded to devise a broad, positivist and largely elusive definition of peace
itself. There is nothing wrong with the utopian impulse, and yet this application-oriented
definition of peace hardly harbors much that resonates with the needs of the populations
directly effected by long-drawn out conflicts with their own state and amidst their own
society. The peace-building mold of transitional justice aims primarily at the rebuilding
of state institutions and only as an afterthought with the reconstruction of social relations
and supposedly unfettered encounters between communities, classes, and socio-political
groups. The very state that became a battleground thus turns into the anchor upon which
the future of a whole social and political system is predicated upon.
Team of experts.
Dr. James C. Simeon is an Associate Professor and the Director of the School of Public
Policy and Administration, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, and formerly
the Acting Director and Deputy Director at the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), at York
University, Toronto, Canada.
Prior to joining the faculty at York University, James served as the first Executive Director
of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ). He is currently an
Associate Member of the IARLJ and serves as the Coordinator of its Inter-Conference
Working Party Process. He is also one of the founding members of the IARLJ America
Chapter. He is the immediate past President of the Canadian Association for Refugees and
Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS), a member of the International Association for the
Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada
(IPAC).
He served on the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) as a Member and
Coordinating Member from September 1994 to October 2005. While a Member and
Coordinating Member of the IRB he sat on a number of high profile cases, including,
Pushpanathan, an exclusion case under Article 1F of the 1951 Convention that had been
argued at the Supreme Court of Canada.
He has been awarded an International Opportunities Fund (IOF) grant from the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) with Professor Kate
Jastram (University of California at Berkeley) for a collaborative project with Professor
Guy Goodwin-Gill (University of Oxford), Professor Geoff Gilbert (University of Essex),
and Professor Jane McAdam (University of New South Wales). The research project is
entitled “War Crimes and Refugee Status: The Application and Interpretation of
International Humanitarian and International Criminal Law to the Adjudication of
43
Refugee Status in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand.”
In May 2008, he was awarded funding from Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA), Justice Canada, the Ontario Law Foundation, SSHRC and a number of other
organizations to hold a Research Workshop on Critical Issues in International Refugee
Law at York University, http://www.yorku.ca/ciirl/, that featured a number of
prominent Superior Court Judges and leading legal academic scholars from around the
world.
Dr. Roberto Vidal is Senior Lecturer at the Law School of the Jesuit University Bogotá,
Colombia and Director or the Research Group on Legal Theory and Political Philosophy,
Law and Migration Project. He has researched the legal issues around internal
displacement in Colombia. Recently he has worked on advocacy of asylum seekers and
legislation and public policy on human trafficking. At present, he leads a project of legal
clinics for international migrants in Bogota. Vidal's main subjects of interest include:
critical theories of migration, law and migration, internal displacement law, refugee law,
human rights of migrants, human trafficking and migrant smuggling, immigration law
and practices, and legal agency by migrants.
Dr. Ranabir Samaddar is the Director of the Calcutta Research Group, and belongs to the
school of critical thinking. He has pioneered along with others peace studies programmes
in South Asia. He has worked extensively on issues of justice and rights in the context of
conflicts in South Asia. The much-acclaimed The Politics of Dialogue (Ashgate, 2004) was
the culmination of his work on justice, rights, and peace. His particular researches have
been on migration and refugee studies, the theory and practices of dialogue, nationalism
and post-colonial statehood in South Asia, and new regimes of technological restructuring
and labour control. He authored a three-volume study of Indian nationalism, (Whose Asia
Is It Anyway – nation and The Region in South Asia, 1996, The Marginal Nation –
Transborder Migration from Bangladesh to West Bengal, 1999, and A Biography of the
Indian Nation, 1947-1997, 2001). His recent political writings published in the form of a 2
volume account, The Materiality of Politics (Anthem Press, 2007), and the just published
The Emergence of the Political Subject (Sage, 2009) have challenged some of the prevailing
accounts of the birth of nationalism and the nation state, and have signalled a new turn in
critical post-colonial thinking.
Professor Turgut Tarhanlı
Dean of Faculty of Law, Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey
1956 yılında İstanbul'da doğdu. 1979 yılında İstanbul Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi'ni bitirdi. 1981
yılında aynı Fakülte'nin Devletler Umumi Hukuku (Uluslararası Hukuk) Kürsüsü'ne asistan olarak
atandı. Lisansüstü çalışmalarını aynı Fakülte'de ve New York University School of Law'da
sürdürdü. 1990 yılında Kamu Hukuku alanında Hukuk Doktoru (Ph.D.) ünvanını aldı. 1996 yılında
Devletler Umumi Hukuku Doçenti ünvanına layık bulundu ve İstanbul Üniversitesi Hukuk
Fakültesi'nde bu kadroya atandı. 1999-2000 öğretim yılından itibaren İstanbul Bilgi
Üniversitesi'nde, aynı alanda öğretim üyeliğini sürdürmektedir.
44
Çalışmalarını, genel olarak uluslararası hukuk konularının yanısıra, özel olarak uluslararası insan
hakları hukuku, , uluslararası ve ulusal barış ve güvenlik hukuku, hukuk ve teknoloji, uluslararası
deniz hukuku alanlarında sürdüren Tarhanlı'nın, Türkçe ve İngilizce dillerinde, bu konulara ilişkin
kitap, derleme, makale, kitap eleştirisi, gazete makalesi şeklinde yayımlanmış çalışmaları vardır.
Tarhanlı, Christian-Albrechts Üniversitat'de (Kiel, Almanya) 'Ulusal Güvenlik' konusunda
çalışmalarda bulunmuş; Salzburg'da düzenlenen İnsan Hakları Hukuk başlıklı seminrde, Eski
Yugoslavya Ceza Mahkemesi (Lahey) Savcısı Richard Goldstone'nun başkanlığındaki Çalışma
Grubu'nda,Bosna Hersek savaşında uluslararası hukukun ihlalinden sorumlu kişilerin yargılanması
ile ilgili huhuki çalışmalara kendi incelemesi ile katılmış; Birleşmiş Milletler'in 50. Kuruluş
yıldönümü nedeniyle İtalya'da toplanan, 'Halkların Birleşmiş Milletleri' başlıklı toplantıya ve
çalışmalara Türkiye'den katılmış; ABD'de, Harvard University Law School'da yürütülen 'The
Program on Negotiation' başlıklı, kuramsal ve uygulamalı çatşma çözümü (conflict resolution)
programının katılımcılarındandır.
Tarhanlı, Helsinki Yurttaşlar Derneği'nin kurucularındandır veyönetim kurulu üyesidir. 1995
yılında, Uluslararası Af Örgütü'nün, Türkiye'de yeniden canlandırılması için yapılan girişimde
kurucu yerel grupta yer almıştır. İstanbul Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Mezunlar Derneği'nin
kurucularındandır ve yönetim kurulu üyesidir. American Society of International Law'un
uluslararası üyesidir. 1980 yılından beri İstanbul Bürosu'na üyedir.
1996 yılından beri, Radikal gazetesinde, Türkiye'nin dış ilişkileri ve dünya sorunları konularında
makaleleri yayımlanmaktadır.
Turgut Tarhanlı, 2002 yılında profesör oldu.
Prof. Dr. Turgut Tarhanlı, İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi'nde Uluslararası Hukuk ve
İnsan Hakları Hukuku dersleri vermekte ve İnsan Hakları Araştırma Merkezi Başkanlığı
yapmaktadır.
Galya Benarieh Ruffer
Director, International Studies Program
Senior Lecturer in Political Science
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
J.D., Northwestern University
Professor Ruffer is the Director of International Studies and the founding Director of the
Center for Forced Migration Studies housed at the Buffett Center for International and
Comparative Studies at Northwestern University. Her work centers on refugee rights and
protection, citizenship, human rights, rule of law and the process of international justice
with a particular focus on testimony and sexual violence in the DR Congo. She has
published on asylum law and policy, human rights litigation in transnational courts and
immigrant incorporation and integration in Europe. Her recent work focuses on methods
of documenting displacement in global crisis and the use of the Ushahidi Crowdmap
platform to document refugee rights. Aside from her academic work, she has worked as
an immigration attorney representing political asylum claimants both as a solopractitioner and as a pro-bono attorney.
g-ruffer@northwestern.edu
45
PANEL 25
CHILDREN AND FORCED MIGRATION: DURABLE SOLUTIONS
TRANSIENT YEARS.
DURING
The end of conflict rarely signifies the cessation of violence or the automatic
(re)establishment of the rule of law and human rights protection. Limited opportunities
and additional displacement remain common features of post-war societies. For children
and youth, who often constitute the largest demographic sector of displaced groups, the
search for viable solutions prioritizes needs and aspirations that reflect the transient nature
of their age group, and differ from those of their elders. Additional difficulties are posed
by the inconsistent definition and uneven implementation of the traditional “durable
solutions” to forced displacement – i.e. “voluntary repatriation”, “local integration”,
“resettlement to a third country” – on the part of national governments and assistance
agencies. Intergenerational differences regarding the impact and perceived desirability of
these alternatives are rarely considered. They thus remain largely unexamined and
insufficiently understood, impeding the transition from humanitarian aid to human
development.
Given the very high proportion of children and youth among displaced populations
worldwide, and the particular challenges and opportunities they must confront, their
experiences, needs and aspirations must be investigated and factored into relevant policy
and practice. This panel seeks to contribute to this effort by sharing findings that may
inform forced migration programming so that it better responds to the age-differentiated
priorities of displaced communities and promotes sustainable durable solutions. These
dynamics are shown to have a significant impact on the way in which access to material
assets, education, employment opportunities, political participation and other key
resources is negotiated among the youngest members of displaced groups.
1. Rethinking Repatriation as a Durable Solution: Young Refugees and Secondary
Displacement in South Sudan. Marisa O. Ensor (Center for the Study of Youth
and Political Conflict, U of Tennessee).
Even before the recent resurgence of conflict in South Sudan, secondary displacement was
a common phenomenon among repatriated refugees, especially those from the youngest
generations. Having been effectively urbanized during their exile, refugee children and
youth were often not interested in, or adequately prepared for, the rural lives that
commonly awaited them upon return. Many felt compelled to seek more suitable
alternatives elsewhere, usually in already overcrowded cities where they competed with
the local urban poor for the limited resources and services available. The majority of the
larger towns in South Sudan were affected by this trend prior to the current unrest that
has once again plunged the country in a state of violence and uncertainty, generating new
waves of displacement. Whether young displacees ultimately settle back in their
geographic origins, or seek safety elsewhere and under which circumstances, remains far
46
from established as South Sudan struggles with the ongoing crisis. Nevertheless, given the
very high proportion of children and youth among the displaced population, the
experiences of this age group must be better understood and factored into refugee
programming if durable solutions are to be found.
2. Malaya boleh? Local integration prospects and options for children and youth in
Kuala Lumpur. Elzbieta M. Gozdziak (Institute for the Study of International
Migration, Georgetown University).
Cities are quickly becoming the main sites of humanitarian response. Determining the
appropriate level of assistance can be complicated, however, since refugees often live in
neighborhoods with marginalized local populations that are also in need of greater
attention. Many of these challenges encountered by urban refugees are similar to – and
largely inter-dependent on – those facing other vulnerable groups within urban areas.
Coping strategies are often similar as well, creating the potential for both cooperation and
competition between displaced and local groups. Thus, the plight of urban refugees—
including children and youth-- must not be treated in isolation but is best addressed in the
broader context of the urban poor. Building on previous work in Amman and Cairo, this
paper seeks to understand the prospects for local integration of refugee children and
youth in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by examining their access to shelter, food and physical
security, education, healthcare, and livelihoods; discussing the evolution of Malaysian
policies on refugees and international migrants; and analyzing the involvement of civil
society in facilitating local integration of refugee children and youth.
3. Local integration as a durable solution for unaccompanied minors: does
encampment achieve this? Arnold Kwesiga (Refugee Law Project, School of
Law, Makerere University)
As refugee agencies, the ultimate goal of safeguarding the rights and protection of all
forced migrants is ensuring the availability of an appropriate durable solution. Though
international policies front repatriation as the most viable for separated and
unaccompanied children (UAM), they often face increased barriers due to their vulnerable
state and inability to self-identify as being in dire need of protection. In Uganda, the
government’s policy of encampment yet at the same time offering local integration as a
durable solution is if anything defeatist. Settlement camps are set up way out of the
vicinity of the local communities, yet again naturalization as a way of attaining citizenship
is not an option for refugees. Hence, even where an UAM has local integration as a
durable solution on offer, they will forever remain refugees. This paper will discuss the
underpinnings of encampment in the context of local integration as a durable solution for
UAM. It will also explore the obstacles UAM face in their Refugee Status Determination
processes and how these affect durable solutions in general with a focus on local
integration.
4. Implications of immigration law and policy for migrant children resettled to
Canada: Findings from a social age analysis. Johanna Reynolds (PhD
47
Candidate, Geography, York University) and Christina Clark-Kazak
(Associate Professor, International Studies, York University)
Age and generation are central to migration processes of resettlement. While government
policy and research indicate that one’s chronological age at the time of migration has a
significant impact on durable solutions in terms of resettlement and integration outcomes,
less has been written about the conceptions of social age throughout this process. Social
age refers to the socially constructed meanings and roles ascribed to different stages of the
life course and provides the theoretical framework for our analysis. Using data from
interviews, archival research and discourse analysis, this paper highlights the implications
of these age-specific provisions on the resettlement of migrant children to Canada. It
highlights positive and negative discrimination on the basis of migrants' age, and
coherence and incoherence in relation to these age-specific provisions, both within current
legislation, policy and programming, and in historical context. The authors conclude with
recommendations to make Canadian migration law and policy more child-friendly, with
reference to broader implications for social age mainstreaming within the context of
resettlement to a third country.
5. The Colombian Situation, Child Forced Migration and the Brazilian Resettlement
Program. Patrícia Nabuco Martuscelli (Centro Scalabriano de Estudos
Migratórios)
This paper studies the Brazilian resettlement program and its impact on the Colombian
children. Its main objective is to show which are the main challenges faced by this group,
considering its specific needs and the Brazilian society and culture. In 2004, the Brazilian
government recognized the pressure that the Colombian refugees’ fluxes caused in its
neighbors (Venezuela and Ecuador) and proposed a Regional Solidary Resettlement
Program to receive Colombian families in need. Today, the Brazilian Program receives
Colombian families in Ecuador that are resettled in the states of São Paulo and Rio Grande
do Sul. Another Brazilian innovation is the fast track procedure, a mechanism to help
people that demand an urgent resettlement. It is important to analyze this program
considering the child’s needs because this group is ignored in academic research and their
voice is not heard. This paper is also important because it considers the specificities of the
Colombian case: the recruitment of children to be used as child soldiers and the
impossibility of integration in the first asylum country (most of the times Ecuador and
Venezuela) because of discrimination problems.
Keywords: Refugee children, Colombia,
Resettlement Program.
Brazil, resettlement, Brazilian
Solidary
6. Transition to adulthood. Narratives of Colombian refugee youth. Juliana Arantes
Dominguez (Núcleo de Estudos da Polulação; Universidade Estadual de
Campinas)
The aim of this paper is to present discourse analysis, understood as a social practice, of
Colombian youth aged 19 to 23 years within the framework of the transition to adulthood.
The youths were living in Ecuador and Brazil for 6 years. They arrived accompanied by
48
their mothers and siblings through the Refugee Resettlement Program in the state of São
Paulo in 2005. The program comes within the framework of the Declaration and Plan of
Action of Mexico 2004 seeking durable solutions for refugees of high vulnerability in Latin
America. The narratives were collected to demonstrate the effects of forced displacement
on the youth’s life projects, dreams, and life stages.
7. Pathway of New Americans: The Nepali-Bhutanese Refugee Youth. Sreeja
Balarajan (EASOL Program, Richmond, VA)
This paper focuses on the aspect of third country resettlement offered as a ‘durable
solution’ to the Nepali-Bhutanese refugees. Since the large-scale resettlement of the
Bhutanese refugees into the US, there has been an immense body of literature on the
resettlement process and the community. However the focus on young resettled
Bhutanese has been comparatively few. Studies have focused on resettled youth from
different countries on issues as varied as trauma, conflict, gang violence etc. The
Bhutanese refugees offer a different scenario for understanding the challenges faced by the
resettled youth. The Bhutanese population was resettled into the West after nearly sixteen
years in Nepal, ethnically similar but differentiated by their refugee status. How do the
refugee youth differentiate between their ethnic identity and their national-Bhutanese
identity? How do they narrate and navigate their/ this identity in the US? The paper aims
to examine the process of resettlement through the notion of ‘being literate’. It seeks to
understand the associations that come through this notion for both the youth and the older
generation. How does this impact the resettled refugee youth’s notion of belonging and
ultimately becoming a citizen in the resettled country? Factors like language skills and
barriers, intergenerational conflict, change in family hierarchies, and identity crisis are
important issues faced in this community. Examining these would allow focus on whether
or not the official structures specifically address the need of resettled refugee youth. What
are the spaces thus identified?
PANEL 26
DEMOGRAPHY OF REFUGEE AND FORCED MIGRATION
Refugee and other forced migrations have increased substantially in scale, complexity and
diversity in recent decades. These changes have meant that traditional approaches to
management and solution of refugee and other forced migration situations and protection
of refugees have become less appropriate. Demography has an important contribution to
make in this space. While other disciplines (especially anthropology, law, political science
and international relations) have made major contributions to refugee and forced
migration studies, demography has hitherto not contributed very strongly to this topic.
The presentations included in this panel seek to, on the one hand, specify what is involved
in a demographic approach to research into forced migration and, on the other, identify
findings of demographic research which can contribute toward better policy making in
this important area.
The presentations in this panel are based on selected chapters of a book on Demography of
Refugee and Forced Migration that will be published by Springer in 2014. The presenters
will discuss how demographic research can contribute toward a better understanding of
refugees by focusing on levels and trends of refugee migration, characteristics of refugees,
49
and pathways by which refugees and forced migrants are integrated/adapted to host
societies. The importance of demographic research for developing relevant policy and
programme recommendations for providing protection for forced migrants, the solution of
refugee and other forced migrant problems and maximizing the benefits of such migration
to origin and destination areas are also discussed.
1. Abbasi, Hugo, McGrath & Crisp: Demography of Refugee and Forced Migration:
Theories, Methodologies, and Contributions
2. Kraly: Behind and Beyond Disaggregation by Sex: Forced Migration, Gender and
the Place of Demography
3. Abbasi & Sadeghi: Adaptation of Second-Generation of Refugees into host
societies: The case of Afghan refugees in Iran and Australia
4. Martin: Demographic Research, Forced Migration and Refugee Policy
PANEL 27
CONSTRUCCIÓN DE SOLUCIONES SOSTENIBLES EN COLOMBIA
1. Andrés Felipe Oviedo: Ley de Víctimas: Una mirada desde las soluciones
duraderas.
El fenómeno del desplazamiento forzado, se presenta hoy como uno de los temas de
mayor relevancia en el estudio de las migraciones. Evidencia de esto es que para el año
2012, de acuerdo con el Centro de Monitoreo del Desplazamiento Interno, existía en el
mundo un total 28.8 millones de desplazados, 5.5 de ellos en Colombia.
En este sentido, atendiendo también a los compromisos internacionales adquiridos por el
gobierno colombiano en materia de protección a la población desplazada, se sanciona por
parte de éste la Ley 1448 de 2011 orientada a la atención y reparación de víctimas. Dicha
ley, reconoce el desplazamiento como un hecho victimizante, establece un enfoque
diferencial en la atención a la población desplazada y dedica un capítulo entero a
procedimientos que apuntan al tratamiento de dicha población en especial.
Ahora bien, dado que el Marco de Soluciones Duraderas Para los desplazados Internos,
elaborado por el IASC, establece las soluciones duraderas que se podrán adoptar para la
atención a la población desplazada , y teniendo en cuenta que en dicho marco se
establecen diferentes criterios de verificación sobre la implementación eficaz de cada una
de las soluciones, se pretende por medio del presente ensayo realizar un análisis del
diseño de la ley de víctimas, desde la perspectiva del cumplimiento de los criterios
brindados por el IASC para la evaluación de las soluciones. De igual manera, se pretende
presentar los principales retos que el diseño de la ley enfrenta en cuanto a la observancia
de dichos criterios, para finalmente concluir con la sugerencia de algunas
recomendaciones para la consecución de los mismos.
50
2. Jorge Salcedo: Las dimensiones conceptuales del derecho al retorno de las víctimas
del desplazamiento y el refugio en el contexto colombiano
Frente a la inacabada tragedia colombiana del desplazamiento interno y el refugio que ya
suma alrededor de 5.700.000 víctimas, existe un relativo consenso sobre el retorno como el
escenario ideal para lograr la superación de la situación del desplazamiento y refugio de
las víctimas. Éste aparente consenso esconde una diversidad de concepciones sobre lo que
significa el retorno en general, y el derecho al retorno en particular, en ocasiones
contrapuestas entre si, en un contexto donde el retorno de las victimas habría sido
mínimo.
La ponencia trata sobre algunas dimensiones conceptuales del derecho al retorno
relevantes para el caso colombiano y sus relaciones, en especial las siguientes:
Las derivadas del derecho público interno e internacional, incluida la relación entre
retorno y reparación, restitución de bienes, restablecimiento, soluciones duraderas;
Los estudios migratorios que plantean la discusión sobre el lugar de origen al que
se retorna y los factores push-pull que lo motivan. Incluye los casos de retornos como
formas de migración forzada al darse en ausencia de voluntariedad por la mala calidad de
vida en recepción o en situaciones de confinamiento producto de fenómenos cercanos a la
trata de personas cuando el regreso es producto de la presión de actores armados y sus
redes de poder, entre otros;
Aproximaciones políticas que conciben el retorno como formas de resistencia civil
medio de violencias sociopolíticas inacabadas y ausencia de reparación integral.
La discusión sobre el derecho al retorno se acompaña de ejemplos del caso colombiano
que ilustran posibles contenidos conceptuales y políticos que el mismo adquiere.
3. María Angélica Prada: La restitución de tierras en Colombia: entre los derechos y
el modelo de desarrollo.
Al igual que otros países en el mundo que se han embarcado en procesos de transición,
Colombia se caracteriza por ser un país en desarrollo con altos niveles de desigualdad. Es
por eso que en actualmente coexisten en el país dos tipos de políticas que si bien son
complementarias han sido, comúnmente, abordados de manera independiente: i) las
políticas de justicia transicional; y ii) las políticas de desarrollo económico. El divorcio
entre estas dos disciplinas ha tenido como consecuencia la exclusión de demandas de
justicia social y redistributiva de los mecanismos de justicia transicional, los cuales
históricamente se han enfocado en resarcir las violaciones de los derechos civiles y
políticos. Esta exclusión no es algo inesperado sino que es la consecuencia lógica de los
orígenes ideológicos y políticos de la justicia transicional.
A pesar de esto, algunos académicos colombianos han argumentado a favor de integrar en
las políticas de justicia transicional consideraciones de justicia redistributiva, ya que
reconocen que las causas del conflicto son la inequitativa repartición de los recursos y la
51
concentración de la tierra. La principal expresión de esta propuesta en el país ha sido la
idea de las “reparaciones transformadoras”, articulada por Rodrigo Uprimny, María Paula
Saffon y Camilo Sánchez. Esta noción transformadora de las reparaciones fue integrada en
la Ley de Víctimas en su definición de la reparación integral, al establecer que las
“víctimas tienen derecho a ser reparadas de manera adecuada, diferenciada,
transformadora y efectiva por el daño que han sufrido”.
Sin embargo, como tradicionalmente ha ocurrido en Colombia el proceso de justicia
transicional ha recurrido a la reforma constitucional y legal como el principal mecanismo
de transformación de la sociedad. Este artículo tiene como principal objetivo presentar una
crítica a la fe en el poder transformador del derecho, demostrando que por sí mismas las
reparaciones, más específicamente el proceso de restitución de tierras que se lleva a cabo
en Colombia, sólo puede tener un efecto transformador limitado a menos de que sea
entendida dentro de un marco legal más complejo, cuya capacidad de cambio se encuentra
limitadas por el modelo de desarrollo económico que está siendo promovido en el país, las
diferentes normas de fondo que afectan el proceso de restitución – como la concepción del
derecho de propiedad, las políticas de redistribución de la misma y las políticas fiscales -,
y los diferentes actores e instituciones que hacen parte del proceso .
4. Felipe Arias: La protección y salvaguarda del desplazado en contextos de
construcción de paz: ¿un debate potencialmente excluyente?
El desplazamiento se origina por causas económicas, culturales, sociales, ambientales,
conflictos internos, proyectos económicos, entre otros, que genera movientos colectivos
continuos o escalonados de personas que abandonan sus lugares de origen. Si bien el
desplazamiento puede ser definido bajo conceptos transversales que permean cada una
dichas causas, es pertinente destacar las distintas afectaciones de derechos fundamentales
producidas según el fenómeno que lo haya originado. En contextos de producción de paz
originado por conflictos armados prolongados, como lo es el contexto colombiano, el
debate sobre la reparación a las comunidades desplazadas no puede reducirse a una sola
causa que lo haya originado: la violencia. En efecto, en los procesos para erradicar el
conflicto de una sociedad es posible soslayar las causas reales que originaron el
desplazamiento de personas, y generando dos efectos: por un lado, incluir a todos los
desplazados como víctimas del conflicto armado o, por otro lado, excluir a varias
comunidades desplazadas por no considerarlas víctimas del mismo.
En este sentido, el artículo explorará las dinámicas internas del Estado colombiano para
reparar integralmente a las víctimas del desplazamiento, cualquier que sea su causa, y
cómo este concepto muta a medida que avanza el proceso de cosntrucción de paz. Para
ello, en primer lugar se analizará la posición institucional y el marco jurídico frente al
desplazamiento interno, para así indagar si existe mecanismos particulares que permitan
al Estado proteger y salvaguar los derechos del desplazado según los derechos
fundamentales particularmente afectados; y en segundo lugar, establecer las directrices de
una agenta gubernamental para la atención a las comunidades desplazadas en el caso de
establecer acuerdos de paz, parciales o definitivos.
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5. Juan David Villa: Consecuencias psicosociales de la Participación en Escenarios
de Justicia Transicional en un Contexto de Conflicto, Impunidad y No-transición
La ponencia que se propone recoge las voces de víctimas de violencia política y
desplazamiento forzado en tres escenarios geográficos y sociopolíticos: el Oriente
Antioqueño, el sur de Córdoba y la ciudad de Medellín (Madres de la Candelaria). Este
trabajo investigativo se desarrolló a través del método autobiográfico con 62 relatos de
vida recogidos en entrevistas en profundidad y complementados con 19 grupos de
discusión desarrollados donde los y las participantes expresaron sus significaciones y
experiencias en torno a su participación en escenarios de reparación, verdad y justicia
propiciados por el Estado Colombiano (hasta junio de 2012) en el marco de las normas de
transición (ley 975 de 2005, Justicia y paz; decreto 1290 de 2008, de reparación
administrativa; y ley 1448 de 2011, ley de víctimas) que se han aplicado en un contexto
donde no ha finalizado el conflicto armado y se mantienen altos índices de impunidad y
coerción de la población civil. Se discuten, a partir de los testimonios y relatos, las
consecuencias psicosociales que se generan en las personas y en los colectivos cuando
acuden a estos mecanismos propiciados por las normas colombianas. Abordando tanto
los efectos de transformación y reparación, como aquellos que producen revictimización.
Se concluye con una propuesta de justicia anamnética, que posibilite escenarios que
respeten los derechos de las víctimas y desplazados sin que esto implique revictimización
ni obstáculos al logro de la paz.
PANEL 28
NOT JUST VICTIMS: FORCED MIGRANTS RESISTANCE STRATEGIES
1. Julieta Lemaitre: Shifting Frames, Vanishing Resources, and Dangerous Political
Opportunities: Legal Mobilization among Displaced Women in Colombia
Although Colombia is a long-standing constitutional democracy with a strong
administrative state and a steadily growing economy, the country remains submerged in a
fifty-year-old conflict that has led to massive population displacement associated with
gender-specific risks. Although there is extensive literature on women's vulnerability in
conflict, there is little understanding of how they organize. How can we make sense of the
use of legal claims and tactics under conditions of internal displacement and armed
conflict? To answer this question, the article presents a theory of legal mobilization that
takes insecurity into account by adapting concepts commonly used to explain collective
action: frames, resources, and political opportunities. Relying on examples from extensive
field research with displaced women's organizations in Colombia, the article expands on
existing theory.
2. Rumana Hashem: Resistance to forced displacement in Phulbari: a southern model
for tackling forced/ environmental migration
This paper draws on a case study of Bangladesh. It presents a discursive analysis to the
seven-year tremendous resistance to a large-scale development project, namely the
Phulbari Coal Project, which would establish one of the largest open pit coalmines in the
world and would forcefully displace up to 220,000 people including 20,000 indigenous
53
families from their homelands in Northwest Bangladesh. I discuss how a humanitarian
program, called `Phulbari Resistance’, is successfully operating to halt the project. I
demonstrate how development induced forced displacement was resisted and how
transnational activists formed alliance as a means to resist trajectories of displacement in
Bangladesh.By way of illustration, I refute mainstream approaches to humanitarianism
and I suggest a working definition of humanitarianism which includes political activism.
The paper suggests that even if state fails to ensure human security, individuals and
human rights groups can play important role to tackle forced migration prior to conflict. I
argue that the halt of the Phulbari Coal Project was made possible by the wide campaign
at local, national and transnational level, and by active participation of a diverse group of
activists and human rights advocates belonging to different geographical locations that
ranges from the South to the North. Findings of the paper are based on case study analysis
and primary data collated through my activism in the field. My involvement in the
campaign against forced displacement in Phulbari and for the halt of the project have
informed the analysis.
3. Amrita Lamba: At the Crossroads: Forest Laws, Livelihood Rights and Indigenous
Sovereignty in India.
This paper argues that empowering people by transforming governance institutions to
make them more inclusive could help respond to the social challenges (social
disarticulation and loss of a sense of self due to development-induced-displacement, for
example) of environmental change. In particular the paper will explore the sustainability
of an institutional architecture that is undergirded on the principle of viewing people not
as subjects or beneficiaries but as citizens with rights and responsibilities. I use the StateSociety Synergy approach that is predicated on building norms of trust and networks of
civic engagement between the state and the community for more effective governance.
Based on a field visit, I examine the vulnerability of the indigenous people – the Soliga
tribes in the BRT Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka, India, whose heavy dependence on the
forest ecosystem as a source of livelihood tends to be disproportionately affected by
climate change. The Soligas have been involuntarily displaced from the wildlife sanctuary
as a consequence of new forest laws which have changed the status of the natural
evergreen forests to a ‘reserved forest area’ thereby eroding the age-old concept of
sustainability which is integral to their worldview. The paper examines how governance
intervention which is based on synergistic ties between the forest department and the
Soligas has helped ameliorate the lot of the latter. For instance, what began as a health
service delivery programme by the forest department extended to participation by the
Soligas in mapping forest resource uses that is considered critical for environmental
sustainability.
4. Julie Young, Adrienne Wiebe, Miriam Harder and Luann Good Gingrich: The
“choice” of necessity: Central American migrant women negotiating the southern
border of Mexico.
While population displacement in Central America was previously the result of staterelated armed conflicts, today an unprecedented level of undocumented migration is
54
generated by exclusionary economic development models and escalating organized crime
in the region. Drawing from a community-based pilot project with Central American
migrant women involved in the sex trade in southern Mexico, we examine women’s
migration decisions and livelihood strategies in the context of current US, Mexican, and
Central American policies and practices. In-depth interviews provide insight into how
these women negotiate the various borders and structured environments that surround
them as they attempt to care for themselves and their (often transnational) families.
Undocumented migrant movements and work are analyzed to be gendered and
multiscalar – performed in ordinary and extraordinary individual efforts to make a living,
and within a framework of official state-led practices that keep border spaces both highly
controlled and capriciously porous. We consider the relationships and intersections
between these scales: the micro-perspective focusing on questions of “choice” in the lives
of these women and the systemic view that considers dynamics and forces of structural
violence (including poverty, environmental destruction, free trade agreements, etc.). The
women’s stories highlight the “choice of necessity” that shapes their relationships, living
arrangements, employment, and aspirations in constantly changing and paradoxical ways.
5. Justin Lee: A Strengths-Based Empowerment Approach to Durable Solutions:
From the Perspectives of People who are Forced to Migrate
As a social worker, researcher and professor, I am excited and passionate about people
who are former refugees and their experience in overcoming incredible hardships. My
research focuses not only on survival, but on durable solutions based on the strengths and
resilience of former refugees and a widespread desire they seem to have in common to
give hope and help to those suffering has they did. My current research also focuses on
practice and policy solutions to healthcare access and disparities among refugees and
those forced to migrate due to extreme poverty.
PANEL 29
INTEGRATION AS A DURABLE SOLUTION
1. Maria Delussu: The complexity of durable solutions in developing contexts: local
integration of refugees in Mexico and the role of state and non-state actors.
This presentation conceptualizes the vulnerability of forced migrants not only as coming
from the forced movement but as emerging from and reinforced by the socio-political
contexts of origin and destination.
Particularly in developing contexts, where most refugees and asylum seekers are located,
international protection provisions are limited by constraints such as lack of resources and
access to social services, lack of political interest and institutional capacity, social exclusion
and discrimination.
Therefore, in order to achieve durable solutions for forced migrants, it is essential to go
beyond the category of international protection and complement it with humanitarian and
social policy considerations. In particular, the concept of social protection permits to
“ground” international protection and extend its significance to a wide range of non-state,
55
community-based and private actors and to the concept of informal social protection
(family and kin, social networks).
After analysing different conceptualisations of protection, the presentation will discuss the
local integration of forced migrants in Mexico using a conceptual framework based on the
theoretical and practical interaction between international, humanitarian and social
protection. This will permit evaluating the impact of international frameworks on
domestic protection mechanisms, how political will and institutional capacity challenge
the implementation of such obligations and how formal and informal mechanisms of
collective action are established in response to the reduced room for manoeuvre left to
forced migrants.
Mexico is a signatory of the 1951 Convention and of the Cartagena declaration but, despite
significant advance in legislation in the last years, there is still a protection gap that limits
the local integration of refugees and other beneficiaries of international protection. The
characteristics and causes of forced migration in the area and, in particular, the
predominance of transit migration and mixed flows make difficult to identify individuals
in need of international protection while the lack of appropriate migration infrastructure
in term of legal framework, public policies and provisions for local integration lead to
increased vulnerability. This gap is filled by humanitarian actors, migrants’ networks and
CSOs but their capacity to offer longer-term and sustainable solutions is debated.
The actual context is marked by extremes of hospitality and xenophobia with the
coexistence of a range of different actors, a direct involvement of Mexican civil society and
a primary role for migrants’ formal and informal networks. The presentation will analyse
the main drivers and the variety of forms of civil society engagement in favour of migrants
and refugees from individual solidarity in the case of “las patronas”, to organised support
for humanitarian assistance, human rights protection and public policy advocacy.
2. Jenifer Byrne: Not Like Me: Examining Integration of Liberian Refugees in Ghana
Since 1990, Buduburam Refugee Camp has been host to more than 65,000 refugees. With
the UN declaring cessation in 2012, many Liberian refugees that called Buduburam home
were faced with tough decisions regarding their future. Aside from repatration back to
Liberia, remaining in the host country of Ghana through a local integration program is an
option for a durable solution. Local integration is a durable solution that combines three
dimensions, a legal process by which refugees attain a range of rights in the host state, an
economic process that enables refugees to have sustainable livelihoods and a comparable
standard of living to the residents of the host country, and a socio-cultural process that
allows them to become politically integrated and live in the host country without fear of
discrimination. In this inquiry, I use a grounded theory design to identify what the
Liberian refugees expect if they were to locally integrate, as well as perceived challenges
and benefits of integration. I discuss these issues from the perspective of the refugees and
in the framework of the three dimensions (legal, economic and socio-cultural) of local
integration. I explore in detail the sociocultural dimension as many Liberians cite cultural
incompatibilities as an obstacle to local integration.
56
3. Maria Paula Subia: An exploration on the possibilities for the advancement of
labour mobility schemes for refugees in Argentina
The main objective of this research project is to determine if and how labour mobility
schemes can be advanced as a strategy to enhance refugee integration, with a focus on
Colombian refugees in the City of Buenos Aires. The choice of this population is based on
the potential for it benefiting from the MERCOSUR permanent work visas and residence
agreements framework. While the geographic focus is based on the fact the Argentinean
capital is still where the vast proportion of refugees reside. This paper intends to answer to
this question through the examination of applicable laws and regulations in three
normative spheres: the regional, the national and the municipal. It will also explore if (and
thus how) protection safeguards such as non-refoulement can be incorporated to those
schemes.
In this context, “labour mobility schemes” refer to the incorporation of regularized labour
migration1 into the “durable solutions framework” in a way that better responds “to the
contemporary realities of global mobility, shrinking asylum space in the North and
regional state fragility in the South”, and overcomes the traditional assumption that has
opposed refugee continued mobility to a successful integration (Long, 2009:1). Regularized
labour migration can be contrasted to refugee irregular crossing of borders for livelihoodseeking purposes, which is usually linked to precarious employment, labour exploitation,
state hostility and/or even deportation. In Long’s view, this type of schemes can be
applicable in regional settings where inter-state agreements “already provide residency
rights and access to labour markets in other member states” (2009:8). Even if the notion of
regularized labour migration for refugees has been appearing in UNHCR papers since
2006, so far it has not been elaborated for the South American context, but most of the
available research has been African-based (see Adepoju et al.,
1 In this paper, I use IOM’s definition of “labour migration” as the “movement of persons
from one State to another, or within their own country of residence, for the purpose of
employment” (Perruchoud et at., 2011:58). Ms. Paula Subia M.A. Candidate European
Master in Migration and Intercultural Relations (EMMIR) 2007), Afghan-based (see
Monsutti, 2008) and Middle Eastern-based (see Chatelard, 2009).
Therefore, this paper will analyze whether or not labour migration can be considered a
“fourth durable solution”, or otherwise be applied so as to have a positive impact on local
integration, while serving simultaneously to reduce the need for resettlement. The
underlying hypothesis of the paper is that, if the assumed contradiction between labour
migration and refugee status is deconstructed, labour mobility can contribute to an
increase in refugee agency and enhance their international protection. Moreover, in its
Discussion Paper on Refugee protection and durable solutions in the context of
international migration, UNHCR argues that it even has the potential to impact positively
both on countries of origin and of asylum (2007:12). On the one hand, it can give refugees
an opportunity to develop their skills and send remittances to their families and
communities of origin, while a decrease in competition for jobs and scarce resources in
their country of origin can have a positive impact in the peacebuilding process. On the
other hand, refugees who work or start businesses in countries of asylum “may make a
valuable contribution to the growth and productivity of both local and national
economies.” (UNHCR, 2007:12)
57
By means of a qualitative methodology, this research project draws from the combination
of different methods such as literature review –including the examination of official
statistics and normative content analysis–, and semi-structured interviews conducted at a
preliminary stage in Geneva and then in the City of Buenos Aires during fieldwork. The
interviewees range was composed by the following stakeholders: national and municipal
government officials in charge of refugee matters, employees of local non-governmental
organizations specialized either in local integration or in resettlement of refugees,
programme staff of international organizations working on refugees and migrants issues,
and Colombian refugees who had been both recognized sur place or resettled from a first
country of asylum such as Ecuador. Ultimately, this paper intends to represent a context
and needs assessment for evidence-based policy-making on the issue of refugee
integration and the feasibility of advancing labour mobility schemes, which could
potentially be helpful for exploring the applicability of this strategy in other South
American countries.
PANEL 30
RESPUESTAS REGIONALES A LA MIGRACIÓN FORZADA
1. Bárbara Nava: Vacíos de protección a personas en situación de refugio. Visión
comparada entre Panamá, Venezuela y Ecuador.
2. João Jarochinski Silva: El debilitamiento de la protección a los refugiados en
Europa
Desde los acuerdos de Dublín, La Unión Europea empezó a practicar una política de
regulación común para la entrada de refugiados. Entretanto, tal política es marcada por
una visión que define la inmigración solo por una perspectiva de seguridad y con el pasar
de los anos, hizo con que la recepción y aceptación de refugiados se transformase en un
proceso muy burocrático y complicado que dificultó la entrada de los refugiados en solo
europeo.
Hay también que se destacar que las políticas de control migratorio de Europa que
criminaliza la entrada irregular también tiene impacto en la realidad de los refugiados,
pues muchos son impedidos de adentrar en Europa en una especie de refoulement
preventivo, que se inician en las políticas de codesarrollo con diversos países,
principalmente de la África del norte, cuando los refugiados no tienen la posibilidad de
hacer un pedido de refugio para las autoridades de estos países, o cuando hay
aprehensiones en aguas internacionales por países europeos que simplemente hacen la
devolución de los inmigrantes, siendo que algunos de estos son, con toda la certeza,
potenciales refugiados.
Las acciones europeas están en desacuerdo al previsto en la Convención de los Refugiados
y su protocolo, se transformando en un marco de la preocupación con el debilitamiento de
las normas internacionales de protección a la persona humana, principalmente en países
como los europeos, que fueron históricamente actores muy importantes en la construcción
de la protección de los refugiados.
58
3. Jorge Álvarez Nieva: Los desafíos pendientes a treinta años de la Declaración de
Cartagena
A casi 30 años de la Declaración de Cartagena, los Estados, el ACNUR, la academia, las
organizaciones de la sociedad civil y organizaciones internacionales han iniciado una serie
de reuniones de expertos a fin de aclarar la interpretación y aplicación de los elementos
del derecho internacional humanitario y del derecho internacional de los derechos
humanos, contenidos en la citada definición ampliada.
Es así que en septiembre del año 2012 tuvo lugar en Ciudad del Cabo, una mesa redonda
sobre protección internacional para personas que huyen de conflictos armados y otras
situaciones de violencia, y recientemente en la ciudad de Montevideo la reunión de
expertos sobre la interpretación de la definición de refugiado incluida en la Declaración de
Cartagena.
En este contexto es que se ha visualizado la necesidad de contar con directrices sobre
protección internacional para aclarar la interpretación y aplicación de instrumentos
jurídicos internacionales y regionales sobre refugiados de solicitudes de asilo de personas
que huyen de conflictos armados y otras situaciones de violencia.
Este trabajo se propone analizar a partir de la participación de quien suscribe en ambos
encuentros y de las conclusiones de los mismos, sobre la necesidad de un análisis
sustantivo de cada uno de los elementos de la definición ampliada, así como la práctica y
doctrina internacional y regional desarrollada en la utilización de la misma, y de cómo ha
sido interpretada por los Estados.
4. Ángela Iranzo: Debates académicos sobre trata de personas en América Latina
En la última década, en América Latina, la trata de personas ha sido un tema abordado,
principalmente, por agencias internacionales de cooperación, funcionarios judiciales y
ONGs. Muy poco se ha profundizado en la comprensión de este fenómeno desde los
análisis e investigaciones académicas. De hecho, gran parte de la literatura en la región la
conforman informes y manuales de prevención, protección y asistencia realizados, en su
mayoría, por los actores mencionados.
El propósito de esta ponencia es, por tanto: i) identificar los debates académicos que se
puedan están desarrollando en la región, ii) determinar la influencia en ellos de los marcos
conceptuales y teóricos desarrollados en EEUU y Europa, y iii) contribuir al desarrollo de
la reflexión teórica latinoamericana de acuerdo con las particularidades asociadas a la trata
en la región, bajo las tendencias de crecimiento económico, internacionalización de
mercados, desarrollo y paz. En particular, se abordará el paradigma de la víctima como
sujeto y objeto, el impacto de la globalización y la integración de mercado, los métodos
para considerar como éxito y fracaso las iniciativas gubernamentales.
PANEL 31
REDES SOCIALES Y ESPACIOS DE PROTECCIÓN DE LAS PERSONAS EN SITUACIÓN
DE DESPLAZAMIENTO. LA COMPLEJIDAD DE LA BÚSQUEDA DE SOLUCIONES
DURADERAS PARA LA CONSTRUCCIÓN DE LA PAZ
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El objetivo de este panel es presentar los primeros resultados de un proyecto de
investigación en curso, que lleva por título “Hacia un nuevo marco conceptual para la
protección del desplazamiento forzoso de población”1. El proyecto parte de la asunción
que la debida protección de la población desplazada se ve dificultada por la carencia de
un marco teórico-conceptual que defina dicha protección: es difícil diseñar programas de
protección sin saber exactamente qué significa protección para las personas desplazadas y
para los distintos actores relacionados con dicho fenómeno, ni cómo evaluar los objetivos
de un programa, ni cómo involucrar adecuadamente a la población afectada ni a los
actores responsables en protección. En estas condiciones, la prevención del
desplazamiento y la búsqueda de soluciones duraderas al mismo se torna ambigua y poco
efectiva, como muestran los distintos estudios sobre el desplazamiento. Se hace necesario
analizar cómo la población desplazada deviene sujeto socio-político y desarrolla su
capacidad de protegerse (agencia) mediante el establecimiento de relaciones e interacción
con otros actores sociales (análisis de redes sociales y de sistemas complejos) También es
posible analizar cómo la población desplazada y las instituciones humanitarias generan el
necesario espacio socio-político seguro de actuación para proteger(se) respecto al
desplazamiento. Sin reconocer la complejidad de la búsqueda de soluciones duraderas
para para las personas desplazadas desde nuevos marcos conceptuales, la construcción de
la paz se torna un objetivo difícil de alcanzar.
1. Redes sociales, espacio y poder (“social agency”) de población desplazada.
Enrique Eguren Fernández.
Frente a abordajes reduccionistas del desplazamiento forzoso (como los que
frecuentemente se dan desde lo estrictamente humanitario o desde ciertos gobiernos), se
hace necesario reconocer la complejidad del fenómeno del desplazamiento forzoso, su
carácter híbrido y las reconfiguraciones espaciales y de poder (agency) que suceden en
torno al desplazamiento y que especialmente han de suceder al buscar soluciones
sostenibles al mismo. Reconocer esta complejidad es posible al romper la etiqueta de
“persona desplazada” y analizar cómo quienes están en situación de desplazamiento
devienen sujetos y agentes, cómo la teoría de redes sociales permite analizar agencia (y
poder), y cómo a partir de dicha agencia generan nuevos espacios sociales y
eventualmente procesos de “reterritorialización” que conducen hacia soluciones
sostenibles.
2. Donny Meertens, Profesora Asociada Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá); Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellow (Washington DC.), Septiembre
2013/Mayo 2014. Desigualdades y conflictos en la restitución de tierras. Una
mirada desde el género a la implementación de la Ley 1448 en Colombia.
Colombia es uno de los pocos países – sino el único- donde se implementa la restitución
de tierras, como medida de reparación integral a la población víctima de desplazamiento
forzado y despojo. Hasta el momento, el balance de monitoreo de la Ley ha sido mixto,
reconociéndose las bondades del enfoque general pero a la vez descubriéndose las
dificultades del diseño institucional al enfrentar las realidades locales. Esta ponencia
añade otro elemento a la compleja dinámica de restitución en lo local: las desigualdades y
60
conflictos de género. Estos se presentan como micro-procesos a nivel de la comunidad y la
familia, a la vez que constituyen, en un sentido más amplio, un elemento clave de la
democratización y la justicia social en el campo, lo cual pone a prueba el potencial
transformador de la Ley y su articulación con los resultados de las Conversaciones de Paz.
La presentación se basa en trabajo de campo en la Costa Caribe; la revisión de Sentencias
dictadas en cinco departamentos y algunas “excursiones comparativas” a políticas agrarias
y género en otros países en postconflicto.
Conflict and Unequality in land restitution. A Gendered Analysis of the
implementation of Colombia´s Victims and Land Restitution Law.
Colombia is one of the few countries – if not the only one – in which land restitution is
implemented as a measure of comprehensive reparation for victims of forced
displacement and violent land seizures. Until now, monitoring results have been of a
mixed nature, balancing the benefits of the Law´s general approach against its institutional
flaws when confronted with local realities. This paper adds an additional complexity to
the restitution process: the gendered conflicts and unequalities at the local level. Although
these might be seen as micro-processes at the community and family level, they also
constitute key elements, in a broader sense, for democratization and social justice in rural
areas, and as such challenge the transformative potential of the Law and its links to the
outcomes of the Peace Conversations. This presentation draws on field work in
Colombia´s Caribbean Coast; the revisión of Judicial decisions in five departments and
some “comparative excursions” to agrarian policies and gender in several post-conflict
societies.
PANEL 32
CINE FORO:
“RETRATOS EN UN MAR DE MENTIRAS” (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
Marina, muchacha retraída, muda y amnésica, maltratada por su abuelo y por la mayoría
de la gente que la rodea, vive en un tugurio de Bogotá. Tras la muerte de su abuelo, su
primo Jairo, un fotógrafo ambulante, alegre y hablador, le propone recuperar la tierra de
la que fueron desplazados años atrás. Viajan desde Bogotá a la Costa Caribe Colombiana
en un viejo Renault 4, desafiando camiones enormes, paisajes abruptos y retenes militares.
Pero Jairo no le teme a nada y para él, el plan es evidente: encontrar las escrituras y
recobrar lo que es suyo. Durante el viaje, Marina comienza a recordar. Al regresar a su
pueblo se encuentran en medio del conflicto del que huyeron cuando eran niños.
PANEL 33
ROUND TABLE
ADVANCING PEACE AND ADDRESSING FORCED MIGRATION THROUGH
ELEARNING:
USING ONLINE COURSE INSTRUCTION, ONGOING
61
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AND CONTINUING EDUCATION
PEACEBUILDING AND PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF FORCED MIGRANTS.
FOR
It is common place to observe that the World Wide Web or Internet has transformed
economic, social and political relations in modern societies. The use of modern computer
technologies, including the Internet, for instructional purposes, at all levels, or elearning
has become all pervasive. However, what is less known or understood is how elearning
programmes and systems can be used to promote peace building, while at the same time,
protecting the rights of forced migrants. The use of online courses, certificates and degree
programmes, for generating greater capacity for the promotion of peace and the protection
of the rights of the displaced will be explored and examined in detail in this Round Table.
For instance, the speakers will seek to address some fundamental questions such as how
can elearning be used to advance the cause of peace in those societies that are wracked by
armed conflict? Can offering and promoting mass public education through elearning help
to advance peace building and peace keeping processes? Can web platforms such as the
Online Research and Teaching Tools and Practitioners Forum (ORTT & PF),
http://rfmsot.apps01.yorku.ca/,
the
Refugee
Research
Network
(RRN),
http://www.refugeeresearch.net/ and others, constructively support the efforts of online
instructors and students alike in the field of peace making, peace building and peace
keeping and, if so, how? This Round Table will undertake a cutting-edge examination and
analysis of how new communications technologies and the Internet are being used for
peaceful purposes and the advancement of the protection of forced migrants.
PANEL 34
FRAMING IDENTITIES
WAR SRI LANKA
AND REGARDING RIGHTS:
RECONCILIATION
IN POST
1. Keeping Rights Alive: Reform and Reconciliation in Post-War Sri Lanka. By
Mario Gomez (LL.B; LL.M; Ph.D).
The war in Sri Lanka came to a sudden end in May 2009 when the Sri Lankan military
defeated the LTTE. The UN and other organizations alleged that thousands of civilians
died in the final phases. These claims were denied by the government. Till now there has
been no accounting process of the final stages of the war.
Many societies that transited from war to peace or dictatorship to democracy negotiated
political compromises, established new institutions and constitutions, and in some cases
probed the past. Some societies consulted displaced populations and ensured their
participation in return and resettlement. Not so in Sri Lanka. The government’s victory
over the LTTE has enabled it to ignore the issues that gave rise to the violence and pursue
a development agenda with little participation from conflict affected populations.
Sri Lanka is a much safer place to live in than it was three years ago. Yet the unwillingness
of the state to address issues relating to justice and institutional reform, and to engage in a
consultative processes of development are generating new sets of fears, including among
62
populations that were displaced and have now returned or reintegrated. Post-war
reconstruction has been tightly controlled and the country has yet to see a genuine
transitional justice process.
This paper will explore the challenges of transition in a society that previously had a
strong commitment to multi-party democracy and the rule of law. It will explore the ‘rule
of law’ challenges the country faces and the demands of conflict affected populations,
including those who have returned or reintegrated, for justice and institutional reform.
2. ‘From War to Peace: Voices from Former War Zones’. A presentation based on the
book ‘From War to Peace: Voices from Former War Zones’ (June 2013). By Minna
Thaheer and Kasun Pathiraja
This study was an effort to understand post-war reconciliation process, as experienced by
different communities in war-affected villages, in the North and East of Sri Lanka. Since
May 2009, ‘reconciliation’ has been a growing concern for all concerned with the future
trajectory of Sri Lanka. ‘Reconciliation’ is defined, understood and constructed in diverse
and contradictory ways by the stakeholders involved, which complicates an already
complex and precarious situation. Among these stakeholders, the study looked at various
migrants and IDPs experiences in a post-war context.
It is generally held that any holistic reconciliation process at the outset should ensure the
reintegration and return of communities back to their ‘homes’. However, this study,
ironically, identified the inverse. The multiple facets of forced migration (both internal and
external) in former war zones, due to new forms of insecurities and context insensitive
reconstruction projects, highlighted several deterrents to the reconciliation process.
Four key causes of forced migration in post-war Sri Lanka were identified and discussed
in the study, along with their consequences:
1. The implementation of arbitrary resettlement programmes by the government, with
increased militarization, which has forced communities to settle in new and unfamiliar
places.
2. Unequal infrastructure and livelihood development projects in war-affected zones,
which have forced men to migrate to urban areas, leaving women alone and vulnerable in
highly militarized conflict zones.
3. Conflict-induced forced migration to India and other countries, which have been met by
a lack of inclination and lethargy towards reintegrating in post-war Sri Lanka.
4. Migration to other countries as a result of threats, fear and poverty, backed and fuelled
by national and international human smuggling networks.
This study used a pluralist research methodology consisting of a series of in-depth
interviews and dialogue sessions with communities in the former war zones combined
63
with a survey of 600 respondents. Findings of the study captured the multidimensional
relationship between migration and reconciliation on the ground.
3. Danesh Jayatilaka: Post war resettlement of IDPs in Sri Lanka: Analyzing housing
and livelihoods aid using an economics lens
This paper looks at livelihoods recovery of post-war resettled people in Sri Lanka. The
researcher selected a war affected village that had received extensive housing and
livelihoods donor aid, and conducted a series of quantitative and qualitative surveys in
2011 to measure the income recovery levels of the members. The theoretical framework for
the study was drawn from the DfID Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) and the
Impoverishment Risks and Livelihoods Reconstruction (IRLR) model, and the information
was analyzed by way of triangulating case studies, quantitative data using graphs, and
regressions that looked at income recovery along with housing and livelihoods aid and
other influencing factors. The findings using mixed methods suggested that there was no
significant or positive relationship between housing assistance and income recovery, while
there were consistent results that livelihoods aid directly supported the recovery and
economic sustainability of the people, in spite of the fraction of resources allocated for the
sector. The regressions in particular showed a very significant relationship between
livelihoods assistance and income recovery along with other factors such as beneficiary’s
sex and health. Further it was revealed that those who received larger housing packages
ended up poorer, in the long term, than those who received more modest grants, implying
that the resource weights currently allocated among housing and livelihoods needs
reviewing by policy makers to increase aid effectiveness.
4. Internally Displaced Persons: Where Do They Belong? Avanthi Kalansooriya (BA
(Hons) International Relations)
One of the major problems post-war Sri Lanka grapples with is the issue of Internally
Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North, who were forced to migrate during the last phases
of war in 2009 to the camps established for the IDPs; leaving behind land, houses,
economic assets and livelihood options.
With mounting international pressure the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) took hasty
measures to resettle the IDPs, stating that the problem of IDPs was resolved with the
official closure of Menik Farm, the largest IDP camp in Sri Lanka (UNHCR 2012). Placing
these actions in the context of realist discourses, where State priority is to safeguard
national security and state sovereignty, this paper looks at how the GoSL responded to
international pressure. It will analyse such specific events and speeches, where decisions
related to IDPs were made, in order to avoid international criticism regarding government
policies designed for the resettlement of IDPs in North. The modern discourse of security
within the discipline of International Relations however that such traditional security
approaches that focus solely on realist fundamentals and national security concerns and
are detrimental for human security.
This paper will challenge the national security discourse in order to assert that human
security must also be placed at the heart of security discourse. Further, the paper attempts
to understand the dilemmas embedded in the everyday lives of the IDPs in the relocated
64
areas, whilst emphasizing why their everyday life issues matter in macro-political decision
making. A combination of a literature survey, along with a thorough analysis of
government responses post-2009 in international forums, on Northern IDP issues will be
conducted in order to support this study.
PANEL 35
IN A STRANGE LAND: FORCED MIGRANTS EXPERIENCES
1. Ayar Ata: Kurdish diaspora in London
My research question is twofold: dealing with Kurdish displacement history and their
diaspora identity in London. I aim to explore a historical argument about the Kurds as
“powerless victims of the First World War”. I will look critically at the history of the
modern nation state in the Middle East as a context for explaining and for gaining a better
understanding of the systematic marginalization and displacement of the Kurds since
1918. I will also aim to demonstrate the complex position of the Kurds throughout history:
their different status as “victims”, “subjects”, “minority group”, and “citizens” and their
diaspora formation and transnational identity.
The second part of this study is to evaluate the integration experience of the Kurdish
Diaspora in London. I will attempt to understand the shifting position of the Kurds from
“victims” in the region to “active citizens” in London or Kurdish Londoners, including
looking at the place and perspectives of the young and second generation Kurds who were
born in Britain. This part will discuss the notion of “identity” and the idea of “home” and
“belonging” in the light of contemporary theories of Refugee and Diaspora Studies and
where necessary challenge them. Furthermore, I also aim to uncover the gaps in the
existing literature and critically highlight the dominance of policy and politics driven
research and thereby justifying the need for a new approach. This will include looking at
the living experience of members of the Kurdish diaspora communities in London; a
critical analysis of history and identity, considering the perspectives of both group and
individuals.
2. Charles Gomes, FCRB.Colombians in Brazil, Toward What Type of Resettlement?
Resettlement is one of three durable solutions to deal with the difficulties of refugees in
the world, the main goal is to provide solutions that end the cycle of displacement and
allow refugees to lead normal lives. Brazil is part of the small group of countries that
voluntarily offers resettlement places as an expression of its international solidarity intent
in foreign policy. This paper proposes a reflection on how this program has been
implemented in the country by focusing on a sample of Colombians that have been living
in Brazil for more than three years. By focusing on this group of refugees, the study
presents the successes and failures of the policies taken by the actors involved in the
resettlement program (UNHCR, NGOs, local and federal government agencies). The goal
is to balance the outputs and the outcomes of this policy. Which are the groups that better
fits in Brazilian society, which are the ones with more difficulties and why. The intent is to
65
understand the limits, the challenges and how effective is the program in Brazil and what
would be the venues for improvement.
3. Esteban Acuña: “Donde les vaya mejor ahí se quedan…” [“Where they are doing
better, there they stay…”] Mobilities, lives and journeys of Romani groups across
the Atlantic.
Recently, the labels 'Gypsy' and 'Nomad' have resurfaced in an avalanche of mediatic
attention centered on human trafficking, poverty migration, deportation and criminality.
The generalizing representations that have resurfaced have masked the complex realities
of Romani groups and their movements. The proposed paper’s objective is to revise
current approaches and state the need of a theoretical stance that can encompass, and not
reduce, the diverse contexts and the mobile strategies that can be revealed by means of
biographical narratives. For this purpose it describes the potentialities of the ‘mobilities’
concept to acknowledge ‘mixed movements’ inscribed in lives and trajectories.
PANEL 36
CHILDREN: VULNERABLE SUBJECTS
CANCELLED/CANCELADO
PANEL 37
RESETTLEMENT: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES (I).
1. Fathima Badurdeen: The Role of Development Initiatives in Promoting Peace
Among the Refugee and Host Communities in Kenya.
This paper examines the bridging of refugee – host relationships in Dadaab, Kenya. The
Dadaab refugee complex in the North Eastern Province of Kenya host’s the largest refugee
population in the country. This paper explores the context of refugee-host relationship
through an analysis of the causes of conflicts and the impact of development initiatives in
bridging the refugee-host relationship. The causes of conflicts between the refugees and
the host communities were analysed through the lenses of resource-based and identity
conflicts. Secondly, the impact of various development initiatives were analysed through
the generation of livelihood options, education opportunities, food insecurity and conflict
transformation to bridge communities.
The paper highlights that the situation of refugees created both positive and negative
opportunities for local hosts. Many host community members took advantage of these
opportunities and benefited substantially from the presence of refugees and international
relief organizations. Some did not benefit as much, and some even lost access to resources
and power which they previously enjoyed. These were the main causes for conflicts
emerging within the two communities. These realities were transformed by emerging
possibilities and new circumstances provided by development initiatives initiated by
relief/development organizations. They developed ways to cope with the negative impact
of the refugees by creating ventures that did benefit both communities. These initiatives
66
did result in promoting peace among the communities. These changing socioeconomic
opportunities were likely to have long-term implications for the ongoing process of
development in Dadaab.
2. Jessica Chandrashekar: Infrastructure Development as Peacebuilding in Sri
Lanka? Perspectives of Resettled IDP Women-Headed Households
On May 18th, 2009, the Sri Lankan government declared victory over the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam. Their victory came at a high cost with 70,000 civilian casualties and the
internal displacement of 300,000 minority-Tamil civilians. The Tamil IDPs were placed
into camps and the majority were resettled as of 2012. As a method of peacebuilding, the
Sri Lankan government had initiated several large-scale development projects in the
Northern Province and in the places were the IDPs have been resettled.
Feminist analyses have revealed the gendered norms which have limited peacebuilding
frameworks. As feminist works on militarization, conflict and forced migration have
illustrated, wars are fought in gendered ways and therefore have gendered effects. War
effects women in specific ways such as through systemic sexual violence, widowhood and
female-headed households, and a disproportionate number of those who are forcibly
displaced are women (Giles & Hyndman 2004; Enloe 2000). Works on peacebuilding and
internal displacement argue that the effectiveness of peacebuilding strategies are best
measured through post-war perceptions of peace from the perspectives of IDPs (O'Neill
2009; Price 2010). When such analyses of IDPs and peacebuilding are done through a
feminist lens, the intersections of displacement and gender can create nuanced and
sustainable peacebuilding strategies.
This paper uses a feminist approach to
peacebuilding and displacement to analyze the state-led infrastructure development in the
Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Interviews were conducted with thirty-two recently
resettled IDP women heads-of-household to determine perceptions of peace,
development, security and resettlement in post-war Sri Lanka.
3. Petra Molnar Diop and Claire Tempier: Information and Communication
Technologies and Refugee Resettlement: An International Comparative Approach
Refugee resettlement increasingly operates in a dynamic, fluid, and interconnected world
which shapes the role of technology in response to refugee migration. The use of
Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) by refugees and refugee claimants
provides a framework for discussing the various responses that host countries take when
dealing with the settlement and integration of refugees. This paper is part of an
international study of the use of ICTs by refugees commissioned by Singa, a non-profit
organization started in February 2012 and based in Paris. We work to improve the
integration of refugees in host countries and highlight the positive impacts of refugees on
the host countries. Through this research project, we provide a review of the use of ICTs
by refugee support organizations (RSOs) and refugees themselves in different countries;
encourage the sharing of best practices around the use of ICTs; and identify the potential
risks and problems that emanate from the use of ICTs for refugee support organizations
and for refugees. This paper provides a comparative approach between Australia, France,
Kenya, Tajikistan, and Canada, through interviewing refugee claimants, community
activists, and refugee support organizations. We explore how ICTs are used by refugee
claimants upon their arrival in Canada and while they go through the process of claiming
67
refugee status. We also examine how refugee serving organizations use technologies in
their daily operations to support their clients and provide their settlement services.
4. Marcia Vera Espinoza: Resettlement in South America: Experiences of Colombians
and Palestinians resettled refugees in Chile and Brazil.
The paper aims to explore the experiences of integration of Colombian and Palestinian
resettled refugees in Chile and Brazil, reviewing the differences and similarities in the
resettlement process of a refugee community from within the region and one from outside
the region. Through the analysis of the individual and collective experiences of
integration, the paper aims to ground the resettlement regional agenda in Latin America
and to explore its implementation from the voice of the refugees themselves. This exercise
would allow to revise the dialogues and tensions related to the implementation of the
program, but at the same time it would provide elements to theorize and discuss refugee
integration. In this sense, the initial research findings explores refugees’ negotiations and
understanding of their role in an ongoing process of integration and in relation with
multiple actors.
The paper is part of my PhD research and builds up from data collected during two
extended fieldworks in Chile and Brazil, where I interviewed more than 40 resettled
refugees and 30 other actors involved in the programme in both countries.
By reviewing how and to what extent resettled refugees from different origins are
integrating in Chile and Brazil, the paper will propose novel approaches to discuss
integration. At the same time, it will describe the developments of the resettlement
program and set some of the main challenges that resettlement faces in South America as a
protection tool and durable solution.
PANEL 38
MÁS QUE
VÍCTIMAS: ESTRATEGIAS DE RESISTENCIA DE LOS MIGRANTES
FORZADOS
1. Adriana Medina y Camilo Molina: Memorias y resistencias para la construcción
de una ciudadanía desde abajo. Experiencias organizativas de la población
refugiada como ampliación dinámica a las soluciones duraderas.
Analizar los riesgos que el derecho internacional de los refugiados puede generar al
acentuar la despolitización de sujetos ya despolitizados por efectos de la migración
forzada, y las dificultades para su la reconstrucción efectiva de sus derechos en los países
de destino. Para esto, siguiendo a James Scott, se revisan la dinámica y demandas desde
debajo de la población refugiada que adelanta prácticas de resistencia cotidiana y civil.
Así, retomando el enfoque agambeniano de nuda vida, se analiza el caso de procesos
organizativos de refugiados en Ecuador como una forma subalterna de confrontar los
impactos devenidos por la migración forzada y por la revictimización o victimización
68
secundaria en los sitios de destino debido a la indefinición del goce de derechos desde la
ciudadanía.
A su vez se describen los procesos en los cuales los refugiados agencian sus derechos
frente a la despolitización derivada por el “interludio de soberanía” que representan para
sus sociedades de origen y destino, propulsando un abordaje que complejiza y subvierte
las “soluciones duraderas” más allá de un concepto de “desarrollo”, e incorporando la
necesidad de superación de las causas de la migración forzada, especialmente por la
persistencia de la violencia sociopolítica y la ausencia de paz integral.
Ahora bien, en esta ponencia también se revisan las derivas con que se han encontrado las
iniciativas desde organizaciones de refugiados colombianos, los sistemas de protección, la
imposibilidad de retorno ante la ausencia de paz en un contexto de diálogo dentro del
conflicto y la persistencia y surgimiento de nuevas formas de violencia.
Finalmente, se elaboran algunas propuestas para la comprensión de las soluciones
duraderas, la superación de una perspectiva desarrollista contenida en la propia ayuda
humanitaria, el enfoque de derechos humanos, la articulación entre comunidad
internacional, Gobiernos y SC para garantizar los derechos de los refugiados en escenarios
de posconflicto, la articulación entre las organizaciones, recalcando la necesidad de abrir
espacios de diálogo en la construcción de las políticas binacionales y un seguimiento a sus
efectos.
2. Juliana Vargas: Factores de éxito de los proyectos agropecuarios de las
poblaciones desplazadas retornadas en Colombia. Estudio de caso sobre El Salado
(Montes de María).
En esta investigación se usó la metodología de estudio caso y herramientas cualitativas
(entrevistas y análisis documental) para responder a la pregunta sobre cuáles son los
factores que inciden en el éxito de los proyectos agropecuarios desarrollados por
poblaciones desplazadas retornadas en Colombia. Se seleccionó el caso de El Salado, en los
Montes de María, por tratarse de un retorno rural con más de 12 años, que ha contado con
la participación activa de la comunidad, que se ha beneficiado de procesos regionales de
reactivación económica y reintegración social y que desde hace más de 4 años cuenta con
un ambicioso proyecto de reconstrucción integral (la alianza El Salado Revive). En éste
participa un número significativo de actores privados (más de 70) y de instituciones
públicas (20), bajo el liderazgo de la Fundación Semana, en una acción coordinada y
planeada inicialmente para 5 años. En esta investigación se estudiaron 6 proyectos
agropecuarios que cuentan con características y modelos de intervención diferentes. Se
construyeron líneas de tiempo para cada uno de éstos, que serán entregadas a los
entrevistados. Se evaluó el nivel de éxito alcanzado en cada uno de los proyectos,
empleando un concepto de éxito elaborado en esta investigación. Este tiene en cuenta la
generación de ingresos sostenibles y suficientes para la subsistencia en condiciones dignas,
pero también incorpora otras variables propias de la reparación transformadora y la
reconstrucción del tejido social. Se concluyó que los proyectos agropecuarios para la
población desplazada retornada: i) se construyen sobre la base de aprendizajes previos, ii)
se benefician de las dinámicas económicas y sociales regionales y contribuyen a su vez al
fortalecimiento de éstas y iii) tienen a la asistencia técnica permanente como un factor para
69
su éxito. Se formularon recomendaciones de política pública que tienen en cuenta las
subvenciones vigentes para el sector agropecuario y los mecanismos existentes para la
integración regional.
3. Diana Fuentes Becerra y Clara Atehortua: Entre la asistencia y el desarrollo:
ciudadanía desplazada.
En la normativa colombiana existe un contexto favorable para el restablecimiento de los
derechos de las víctimas de desplazamiento forzado. Por tanto, las condiciones para el
ejercicio de la ciudadanía están dadas en términos formales. El concepto de ciudadanía al
que se espera que llegue la población en situación de desplazamiento, se encuentra en las
políticas de atención humanitaria y desarrollo. A partir de ahí, se genera un enfoque para
la atención y una perspectiva de lo que debe hacerse para superar la situación de
desplazamiento. Esa perspectiva establece una inclusión especial de las víctimas. No
obstante, la autorepresentación y participación de las personas en situación de
desplazamiento está limitada. Parte de esta limitación surge de entender la victimización
como una condición en donde subyace una situación traumática. Esto ha permitido, que
durante el periodo en que existe dicha situación, personas se abroguen la representación
de las víctimas de desplazamiento. Esto genera una respuesta de la población víctima,
tanto para lograr la inclusión como ejercicio de autorepresentación paralelo a la propuesta
institucional. Es necesario entender el papel de la condición traumática en términos de la
disminución de la ciudadanía de la población desplazada. En este orden de ideas, la
ponencia se dirige a establecer cómo la concepción de víctima centrada en el trauma crea
una brecha para que la población desplazada alcance el goce pleno de la ciudadanía.
PANEL 39
RETURN AS DURABLE SOLUTION
1. Alexandra Saieh: The International Community and Its Influence in Defining the
Palestinian Right of Return
Following the 1993 Oslo Accords, there was an influx of foreign aid as well as
development and humanitarian organizations tasked with transitioning Palestinians into
independent statehood. The Oslo Accords redefined the terms of engagement between the
Palestinians and Israel while also leaving the most critical and contentious issues
unresolved, paramount among them the Palestinian right of return. This paper will
explore the role of INGOs in redefining the Palestinian right of return and their complicity
in removing it from the international agenda and discourse around a final resolution for
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The series of agreements known as the Oslo Accords primarily dealt with issues that
emerged from Israel’s 1967 war, while refugees from 1948 were ignored and further
disenfranchised with the birth of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA, whose
establishment was one of the most significant outcomes of the series of agreements,
partook in the “territorialization” of Palestinian identity. For this paper, I will explore the
role of international stakeholders as well as Palestinian leadership in shaping the
stipulations of the Oslo Accords and the approach to the refugee question. I will examine
70
the mandates of key international NGOs, specifically examining how their mandates in the
oPt were formed and how these organizations have approached the refugee issue. Finally,
I will identify ways in which these international organizations could instead play a role in
reaffirming the right of return for the millions of Palestinians still living in exile and once
again including it on the international community’s agenda.
2. Ina Jahn and Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon ‘Bones in the Wrong Soil’: Reburial,
Belonging and Durable Return in Post-Conflict Northern Uganda.
In the aftermath of the civil war in northern Uganda between the Lord’s Resistance Army
and the Ugandan government, most of the internally displaced have returned home.
Efforts to remake these homes and reorder lives have since taken centre stage. A
prominent concern among returning families regards relatives who died during the
displacement period and had to be buried in the camp. Life in internal displacement
camps also hampered the appropriate ritualization of burial, which is widely believed to
cause spiritual distress to the families. Many families hence invest in reburials to return
such “bones in the wrong soil” from former camp sites to the deceased’s home villages.
Based on an ethnographic study of reburial in northern Uganda, the paper thus argues
that reburials stem from a cosmological idiom in which belonging is spiritually embedded
and territorially circumscribed. Further, the very materiality of reburial further becomes
implicated in post-conflict land disputes and agendas of ‘reconstruction’. Yet, these issues
are rarely engaged with in contemporary debates around ‘durable solutions’ and the
return of the displaced. In policy debates on durable solutions, local ideas informing
relationships of people to place are overlooked with the emphasis being put on livelihood
and economic and infrastructural concerns. Moreover, much of the academic debate has
been oriented towards the deconstructing of common sense ideas of linear and ‘natural’
relationships between people and place (e.g. Malkki 1994, Warner 1992, 1994). The paper
thus argues that contemporary debates in forced migration studies have failed to grasp the
importance of territory and local cosmologies in the post-displacement phase. In showing
that territorialized approaches towards resettlement are not simply a function of an
outdated refugee discourse, the case is made for durable solutions to also be informed by
an understanding and respect for local cosmologies.
3. Brittany Wheeler: ‘If repatriation is the solution, what then is the problem?’ The
Repatriation of Human Remains as a Lesson on Durable Solutions
This paper aims to critically examine the process of voluntary repatriation and durable
solutions by utilizing the lessons found in the practical work of returning human remains
from protracted situations within museum collections. The contemporary policies and
guidelines that encourage or require the return of individuals from these institutions often
strike upon similar and important themes facing practitioners and policymakers when
they attempt to understand or surmount obstacles or propose and effectuate durable
solutions in the form of repatriation. These areas of similarity include but are not limited
to the categorization of displaced people (especially over time), the role of the state or
institution in acceding to or flouting relevant laws, and the conceptualization of what
constitutes a completed or successful repatriation. This paper will draw on several UN
frameworks such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
71
(UNDRIP), a document in support of the repatriation of human remains, and the
UNHCR‘s proposed durable solutions for displaced persons, in addition to other
documents in both museum and migration literature. This paper aims to shed light and
raise questions around the presentation of the voluntary repatriation process as a linear,
goal-oriented, or codified cultural understanding of expected return by drawing insight
from the repatriation work of museum institutions, which have acted as both complicit
parties to colonial displacement and its spoils as well as contemporary centers for
proactive discussion and work surrounding the ethics of representing ongoing global
flows.
4.- Callixte Kavuro and Alice Wamundiya Regional responses to forced migration:
Exploring the relationship between Rwandan refugees proacted situation and insecurity in
the Great Lake Region.
This paper critically analyses the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) responses to the 1994 forced exodus of Rwandan populations into neighbouring
countries (mainly the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, Burundi and
Tanzania) in finding durable solutions in the context of repatriation to the said exodus. It
seeks to reflect on the complex dynamics of the relationship between forced migration and
insecurity, and how the UNHCR’s misconceived and misguided responses to Rwandan
refugees’ exodus contributed to the current protracted political anarchy and armed
conflict prevailing in the Great Lakes region. Furthermore, it seeks to contribute to
theoretical understanding of Rwandan refugee protracted situations as well as helping
regional and international actors to effectively respond to it. Unresolved aspects of
Rwandan refugee problems are, according to human rights reports, major contributory
factors to armed violence occurring in the eastern of DRC. Lack of an impartial and holistic
approach to resolving Rwandan refugee problems led Rwandan refugees to take arms in
an effort to resolve their problems through violence, instead of peaceful means. This
violence has claimed millions of lives and have forced millions others to migrate, as well
as contributing to the perpetual and protracted regional crisis in the Great Lakes region.
This paper intends to demonstrate that a lack of a more holistic and comprehensive
dialogue, in which refugees must actively participate in, as well as other peace building
mechanisms has not and will not respond to the concerns or issues that caused them to
flee. It will argue that a lack of consultation would, in various respect, lead to resisting a
forced repatriation as it undermines refugees’ autonomy and runs against their
fundamental rights to participate in the decision making that might adversely affect their
lives. Accordingly, this paper will conclude by suggesting that regional and international
actors' responses to aspects of refugee problems should take into account the voices of
refugees for a dignified repatriation and a long lasting peace. Facilitation of dialogue
between refugees and their country of origin should not be overlooked. Refugees and their
home country should set and drive the agenda for peace, with the support of the
international community, as without the victims (refugees) themselves being actively
involved in the quest for durable solutions, long-term peace will remain elusive.
PANEL 40
DESPLAZAMIENTO POR CAUSAS AMBIENTALES
72
1. Robert Niantello: OIM Migración y Cambio Climático: Una Realidad Mundial
que Toca a Colombia.
El desplazamiento interno o migración como respuesta a los desastres climáticos y
degradación ambiental implican la consideración en todo momento previo durante y
posterior al desastre de la garantía de derechos y asistencia humanitaria. Frente a esta
población que desde OIM hemos denominado los Migrantes ambientales, no se han
logrado generar consensos, ni standars en definición, marco conceptual, impacto y
necesidades, que deban abordarse, pues depende de cada tipo del impacto climático o
ambiental, y de cómo cada gobierno aborda sus obligaciones con las comunidades
afectadas.
Los derechos humanos estándar y las obligaciones de cada estado, deben ser aclarados
para proteger a todas las víctimas, incluidas aquellas poblaciones que han adoptado la
migración de manera voluntaria, asociada a un desplazamiento consciente, planeado y
ordenado o, aquellos afectados por una migración forzada como respuesta a un evento
repentino climático. Las sequías y desertificación, están obligando a la población a entrar
en un esquema de migración laboral. Un gran porcentaje de la zona de frontera
colombiana está acotada por ríos y otra por mares. La búsqueda de protección temporal en
zonas de frontera se ve condicionada al grado de afectación de sus terrenos, hogares y
medios de vida. Los esquemas de retorno no están siendo monitoreados ni acompañados
por el país de origen. La comunidad en general y las entidades de cada estado llamadas a
brindar protección desconocen su rol tras la frontera, tiempo de acción y mecanismos de
financiación. Es momento de fortalecer a los estados es esta realidad que son los
migrantes ambientales en Colombia.
2. Sebastián Rubiano, Universidad de los Andes Migraciones forzadas por desastres
y por cambio climático en Colombia.
La política sobre desplazamiento interno en Colombia sólo contempla el conflicto como
causa admisible de desplazamiento que merece protección. El hecho de tener una de las
políticas de desplazamiento interno más sofisticadas del mundo y ser un país altamente
vulnerable a desastres ambientales y especialmente sensible a los impactos del cambio
climático, hacen que sea pertinente reflexionar sobre esta omisión. La presentación tiene
como objeto mostrar un estado del arte de la discusión en el derecho internacional y en el
derecho interno sobre la protección de la migración forzosa producida por desastres
medioambientales y por transformaciones asociadas al cambio climático. También se
mostrarán las posibilidades de desarrollo de una política y una institucionalidad a nivel
interno que responda a este fenómeno considerando la coyuntura actual en el cual se está
elaborando un plan nacional de adaptación al cambio climático en Colombia.
3. Manuel Guzmán Hennessey Klimaforum Latinoamérica Entre 2020 y 2050 el
problema central del mundo será el de las migraciones climáticas.
Los impactos cruzados del cambio climático repercutirán sobre las poblaciones más
vulnerables, principalmente, entre 2020 y 2050. En esta presentación se planteará la
73
necesidad de estudiar a profundidad este tema, desde una perspectiva compleja. A la luz
de los datos actuales y de las proyecciones de la ciencia. El experto en alimentos Norman
Myers ha dicho que es probable que en 2050 haya mil millones de migrantes climáticos.
Las catástrofes naturales desplazaron en 2009 a 17 millones de personas en el mundo. Este
dato subió a 42 millones en 2010.
El cambio climático y el cambio global amenazan ya los medios de vida de las personas,
quienes deben emigrar en busca de agua y comida. Los desplazamientos poblacionales por
esta causa son cada vez mayores y no han sido categorizados debidamente.
Se analizarán las complejas interacciones entre los factores que pueden dar lugar a
distintos tipos de migraciones climáticas. Y se planteará la necesidad de incorporar estos
factores a las políticas públicas de adaptación al cambio climático, prevención de riesgos y
desastres y atención de emergencias humanitarias.
El trabajo toma como fuentes principales los datos de OIM, el Informe DARA 2012 y el
Quinto Informe de Evaluación del Cambio Climático del IPCC.
4. Clara de la Hoz: Universidad de Versailles. Proyecto de tesis sobre
desplazamiento climático y procesos de reinstalación de poblaciones en Colombia
En el 2010-2011, Colombia vivió uno de los peores desastres naturales de su historia. La
temporada de lluvias resultó anormalmente intensa, provocando inundaciones masivas en
gran parte del país. Una de las zonas más afectadas se encuentra en el sur del
departamento del Atlántico, en donde las fuertes lluvias causaron la ruptura de un
boquete del Canal del Dique, desencadenando inundaciones repentinas y provocando el
desplazamiento de miles de familias. Tres años después del desastre y de los primeros
desplazamientos, el gobierno se propone reubicar a las familias vulnerables en el marco de
un programa de reinstalación. A partir de un enfoque etnográfico, este proyecto de
investigación busca analizar el impacto de los procesos de reinstalación de las poblaciones
en situación de desplazamiento por causa de desastre en el desarrollo de factores de
resiliencia ante los riesgos asociados a las variaciones y cambios climáticos en el sur del
departamento del Atlántico.
PANEL 41
CINE FORO
HASTA LA ÚLTIMA PIEDRA. (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
El lunes 21 de febrero de 2005 en el municipio de San José de Apartadó, (Urabá
Antioqueño, noroccidente de Colombia), ocho personas (entre ellas cuatro niños) fueron
masacradas por un grupo de soldados del ejército de Colombia. ¿La razón? Hacer parte
de la Comunidad de paz de San José de Apartado. ¿La respuesta del Gobierno colombiano
ante las declaraciones de la comunidad internacional? Ni condena ni rechazo frente al
crimen y la orden de instalar un puesto de policía en el casco urbano del pueblo. ¿La
reacción de los campesinos a la llegada de la fuerza pública? Abandonar el pueblo,
instalarse en una finca de la comunidad y comenzar la construcción de un nuevo caserío.
Realizado pocos meses después de la masacre, el documental de Juan José Lozano es un
testimonio del valeroso acto de los habitantes de San José de Apartadó de ejercer, como
74
población civil en medio de la guerra, el derecho a declararse zona neutral. Un derecho
reconocido por la Convención de Ginebra, violado por el gobierno colombiano. Un
derecho que se convierte en la lucha diaria, sin armas, de más de setenta familias por vivir
pacíficamente en su tierra, prefiriendo desplazar el caserío a convertirse ellos mismos en
desplazados.
PANEL 42
TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE AND FORCED MIGRATIONS
1. Anna Purkey: Transitioning to Justice: Legal Empowerment in Protracted Refugee
Situations
There is a growing acknowledgement that the resolution of conflict and the resolution of
situations of displacement are inseparable and that one component critical to the success
of transitional justice initiatives is the engagement of displaced populations. Nevertheless,
there are substantial impediments that may prevent the meaningful participation of
refugees in these initiatives, not least of which is their lack of legal agency and a tradition
of exclusion from the law. The effective engagement of refugees is dependent upon the
existence of a facilitating institutional framework and upon their ability to use the law to
further their rights and interests. Consequently, in this paper I argue for the overriding
importance of the legal empowerment of refugees as a central capability in itself and as a
crucial enabling mechanism for the realization of the rights enshrined in both international
treaties and domestic legislation. Moreover, I argue that facilitating the legal
empowerment of refugees is not only a moral and ethical duty but also a legal obligation
that arises as a function of the fiduciary relationship that exists between refugees and
those that exercise unilateral power over them, specifically the host state and UNHCR.
Not only does legal empowerment protect refugees from domination and
instrumentalization by powerful actors, it ensures that they have the capabilities to claim
their rights, to demand justice and to contribute to the establishment of accountable
governance both during exile and during transition without which there can be no
transitional justice and no resolution of displacement or conflict.
2. Fathima Badurdeen: Linking Transitional Justice with Durable Solutions for the
Displaced: Exploring the Case of Protracted Displacement and Transitional Justice
in Sri Lanka
This paper addresses the prevailing knowledge gap on examining the relationship
between transitional justice and internal displacement. Sri Lanka has faced massive waves
of displacement throughout its history of the twenty six year old deadly conflict between
the Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). These
displacements have resulted in massive human rights violations such as arbitrary arrests,
torture, rape and killings. Debates also surround on the context of whether certain waves
of displacement were intentional and constitute a war crime. This also includes violations
associated with displacement along with specific abuses of rights associated to durable
solutions. Amidst these contexts, it becomes futile to address transitional justice without
addressing the human rights violations of the displaced. For, transitional justice
incorporates the addressing of legacies of massive human rights abuses that occur during
75
armed conflicts which includes the displaced, as well as the rights of the displaced in the
context of durable solutions.
Truth commissions, reparation programmes and reparative measures such as restitution of
housing, land and property have directly addressed the aspect of human rights of the
displaced which are the core attributes of transitional justice. The paper brings in a
comparative approach based on best practices from different countries that have
highlighted this relationship between displacement and transitional justice.
Based on an analysis of secondary literature, the paper highlights that effective transitional
justice measures need to address the issue of displacement. The efficacy of such processes
is dependent on the meaningful engagement of displaced persons through participation.
Engagement of women does assist in incorporating a gender perspective to transitional
justice and also redress gender-based injustice. Transitional justice can also facilitate the
political integration/reintegration of displaced persons by reaffirming basic norms that
were systematically violated and thereby strengthening their rights as citizens of the
country.
3. Hulya Dincer: Internal Displacement and The Right to Truth and Reparation in
Turkey
During the fifteen-year conflict between state forces and Kurdish Workers Party,
according to official records (1,5 million at least according to nongovernmental
organizations) 380.000 Kurds were displaced from the southeast Turkey and were
condemned to live in urban poverty and destitution after their domiciles and villages have
been destroyed. This systematic and deliberate displacement policy has been accompanied
by large-scale atrocities committed by paramilitary forces. Avoiding to acknowledge state
responsibility of destruction and eviction of villages and in the absence of a judiciary
mechanism willing to prosecute the perpatrators and reveal the truth, State has confined
itself to elaborate a law in order to cease the flue of hundards of cases leading to the
European Court of Human Rights. Bounding the right to a compensation by very strict
evidence rules and avoding the formal recognition of the dignity of victims of
displacement, this law merely offers pecuniary compensation for the material losses. Faced
by thousands of cases of displacement, ECHR has limited its assesment to the pecuniary
compensation and refused to engage in a discussion as to the intentional public policy of
displacement conducted by Turkey. The reparation scheme drawn by the Court has failed
to offer a full and fair satisfaction to victims of displacement and remained incapable to
lead to a public acknowledgement based on an comprehensive and effective legal
investigation. Departing from the reparation policies elaborated in Turkey and intending
to a critical analysis of the ECHR jurisprudence, this paper aims to discuss the current
economic based reparation policies for displacement and will defend that a full and
effective satisfaction must not only focus on easing the immediate effects of displacement
but has to opt for a justice based perspective by providing accountability and full
disclosure of truth.
PANEL 43
COMPLEX FORCED MIGRATION SCENARIOS.
76
1. Georgia Cole: The Politics and Paradox of the Rwandan Cessation Clause
This paper will critically examine the politics of the refugee Cessation Clause by
explaining the paradox seen whereby this proxy declaration of ‘peace’ and stability has
resulted in regressive patterns of forced migration. Drawing upon the Cessation Clause for
Rwandan refugees, it will argue that the emergence of a temporally restricted
determination of ‘peace’ within the international refugee regime has provided a paradigm
through which states and institutions can defend certain interests in ways often anathema
to the protection of refugees. Armed with an internationally-endorsed determination that
its country is ‘safe’ for the repatriation of some of its refugees, the Rwandan state has, for
example, been bolstered in its efforts to delegitimise all continuing claims for protection
registered by its citizens seeking asylum abroad. This has generated new patterns of
forced migration as Rwandan refugees, fearing the cancellation of their status, have
undertaken irregular secondary movements to guarantee protection. This paper thus
problematizes the axiomatic interpretation of peace as signalling the end of forced
migration. It instead argues for a more precautionary approach informed by contemporary
examples of refugee cessation during which determinations of peace have done nothing to
alleviate the need for continuing international protection.
2. Dacia Douhaibi: Refugees: Security risks or agents of peace and development
This paper builds a bridge between the growing body of diaspora literature, which
increasingly focuses on the capacities and capabilities of displaced communities and their
use of transnational networks, and literature from refugee studies, which has only recently
begun to incorporate work on the transnational behaviours of refugees. Linking these two
bodies of literature provides an opportunity to consider the ways that refugees are
practicing subtle and overt forms of resistance, stepping out of the ‘bareness’ imposed on
them and acting, in fact, as agents of peacebuilding in countries of origin.
We are facing a period of increasing precarity for those displaced by conflict, evidenced by
the growing tendency of states to securitize borders and criminalize refugees. As the
spaces refugees inhabit become narrower and more perilous, refugees simultaneously
develop creative ways to resist processes that may represent them as voiceless, vulnerable
and apolitical. Diaspora communities, inclusive of refugees as ‘conflict-generated’
diasporas, often form strong transnational linkages that overcome barriers that constrain
action. These linkages facilitate the transfer of information, as well as social, political and
economic supports. Interviews of South Sudanese conflict generated diasporas in Canada
and Kenya demonstrate how forced migrants work to create and support peacebuilding
channels by employ creative use of transnational networks, achieving beneficial outcomes
both for members of the diaspora and people at home. I argue that greater attention to the
transnational activities of refugees demonstrates the crucial peacebuilding role that
refugees play and, significantly, demonstrates the folly in labeling refugees as ‘security
risks.’ This, in turn, points to the benefit to the international community of supporting
refugee communities through resettlement as opposed to deterrence, encampment or
detention.
3. Fabio Díaz: Managing Peacebuilding: The use of Managerial Tools to Support
Policymaking after a Peace Process.
77
For more than 50 years, Colombia has suffered from internal conflicts between the
government and different armed groups (guerillas, paramilitary forces, drug lords, private
armies). Since last year, the negotiation process between the main guerilla group (FARC)
and the government has defined a broad 6-topic agenda which hopefully will lead to a
peaceful end of war.
A key component to the success of this negotiation is to incorporate public policies
regarding victim´s reparation of this conflict (almost ten percent of the population in
Colombia) or otherwise it could end like what happened in South Africa or Mozambique,
where the reparation efforts ended up being limped initiatives mostly by the
administrative limitations of the governments after the peace process. Peace was achieved
but reparation ended being an incomplete task of the peacebuilding effort.
The purpose of this paper is to show how simulation tools such as system dynamics can be
an effective approach to evaluate organizational requirements of comprehensive victim´s
reparation policy in relation with forced displacement before implementing them. Under
this approach policy makers could be able to evaluate, under different scenarios and
incorporating elements such as information delays, feedback cycles, and other
characteristics, the requirements that will be needed in order to support a successful
implementation. To illustrate the importance of this approach we built a simulation model
exemplifying the implementation of a policy aiming to repair victims from forced
displacement in Colombia. To validate this approach we assess the land restitution
policies towards the displaced population in Colombia.
4. Danesh Jayatilaka, Kopalapillai Amirthalingam, Rajith W. D. Lakshman and
Asela Ekanayaka: Development Induced Displacement (DID) and Conflict Induced
Displacement (CID): Commonalities and Differences in Wellbeing among Resettled
Populations
Researchers studying resettlement had documented the asymmetric impacts of
displacement. The divides between DID and CID had been particularly troubling with
calls for greater investigations using enhanced methods. Victims are known to face a range
of problems at individual, household, and community level as they transit between
various phases of vulnerability. Instruments such as the IRLR had been useful to assess the
depravations and risks of people while others such as the DfID SLF has been suitable for
analyzing the dynamic ways people respond to livelihoods. Studies on wellbeing, though
strictly not in the displacement or resettlement settings, have lent opportunities to
understand the multidimensionality of human needs in material, non-material, objective
and subjective terms. This paper provides empirical findings from a study conducted in
the post war environment in Sri Lanka. The investigation targeted two resettled locations,
namely Colombo for DID and Jaffna for CID to assess the impacts victims had undergone
in relation to their wellbeing. Three crucial lenses were brought to bear: poverty;
inequality; and violence for the assessment. Quantitative data along with qualitative
fieldwork unearthed rich findings differentiating impacts that DID and CID have, with
medium and long term implications, that are relevant for broader research. The questions
and answers lend ground to revisiting existing debates on resettlement and critically
engaging their ultimate objectives.
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PANEL 44
VULNERABLE GROUPS: PROTECTION CHALLENGES.
1. Elsa Oliveira: 'I am here, and this is my life, but it's not all of me': Insights into the
lives of migrant women sex workers in inner-city Johannesburg
In line with global trends, approximately 3.3% of the South African population is
comprised of cross-border migrants. The 2011 UN World Urbanization Prospects Report
projects that 60% of the global population will live in urban areas by the year 2030; 93% of
this urban growth is estimated to take place in developing countries and approximately
80% of urban growth occurring in Asia and Africa. South Africa has urbanized at a faster
rate than neighboring countries, and over 60% of the population now reside in urban
areas.
This paper will discuss a participatory photo project with migrant women, men and
transgender sex workers living and working in inner-city Johannesburg. This paper will
examine the use of 'innovative' methods as a tool to gain further insight into the lives of
under-represented groups of urban residents, such as migrant sex workers. Furthermore,
this paper will engage with some of the more prevalent themes- migration, displacement,
belonging (or not), discrimination, health and justice- that arose during the participatory
photo project.
As global migration patterns are increasingly connected to urban centres, urban health
practitioners, city planners, and government officials need to create appropriate responses
to the populations that they serve. However, appropriate responses are often incomplete,
nonexistent and/or fail to meet the specific needs of the more marginalised urban
communities, such as migrant sex workers, that live and work in complex spaces of the
central city.
2. Bani Gill: Behind the Silence: Sexual violence against Afghan and Burmese refugee
women in Delhi.
Despite housing one of the world’s largest refugee populations, India is not a signatory to
the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol. Instead, the
Registration of Foreigners Act of 1939, the Foreigners Act of 1946, and the Foreigners
Order of 1948 are the primary documents that regulate the status of refugees and asylum
seekers in India. While recent developments have opened up the possibility of long term
visas and work permits (2012), refugee communities in India continue to face
discrimination and intimidation by often poor and disadvantaged host communities. In
the absence a national framework, the experiences of refugees, particularly women, reveal
that they remain vulnerable to multiple forms of sexual and gender based violence
including domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape. On the basis of field research
conducted with Afghani, Chin and Rohingya refugees settled in New Delhi, this paper
investigates the multilayered categorization of these refugee women as a sexualized,
racialised ‘Other’ which in a sense legitimizes multiple forms of violence against them,
recreating cycles of marginalization. An acknowledgment of this violence, as well as the
silence surrounding it, is crucial to understanding how the bodies of women continue to
79
become the sites of political and ethnic conflict/ stereotyping, even in a supposed ‘safe’
space of refuge. What is the impact of such disempowering experiences upon refugee
women and how can regional responses be structured accordingly? How do refugee
women themselves challenge these conventional constructions of victimhood?
3. Sheila Gruner: “The textual mediation of displacement whether North or South:
development policy as process”
Displacement is often seen primarily as a result of conflict and violence, rather than
“produced” within the norms, policies and practices of dominant development even in
times “peace”, coordinated or mediated “textually” through the application of global
economic and environmental policies and projects. It is often overlooked that such
displacement also occurs in the Global North, where Indigenous people, among others,
have been affected by displacement via development and environmental policies, both
historically as well as in the contemporary period. Forced displacement of Indigenous
people in countries such as Canada for example, includes cultural, economic and
territorial-political displacement, which has had lasting and inter-generational effects, in
often similar ways as experienced by other systematically displaced people in the Global
South. This paper will examine displacement as a hegemonic process of dominant
development policy as a textually coordinated process, where “producing displacement”
should be considered generally within the social relations of globalized and globalizing
economies, in times of conflict or peace, whether North or South.
4. Johana Higgs: Transitions from Childhood: Child combatants of the Fuerzas
Armadas Revolucionarias
Despite the wide range of literature on war, there has been limited research that examines
the experiences of child soldiers and how they understand war. There has been even less
research about how children experience movement during wartime, be it physical forced
migration due to displacement, a change in their live due to structural conditions or less
tangible factors that bring about a change in identity. How do children understand their
experience when war forces them to migrate between places and how do children make
these transitions between the different worlds in which they are forced to live, be it a
civilian world or a militarized world? Taking a phenomenological approach and using ‘life
worlds’ as a theoretical construct I seek to understand how the world of a child is
structured by their political, economic, social and cultural environment and how children
themselves understand their worlds in both a civilian context and a militarized context. I
seek to understand the cultural aspects of each ‘world’ and how the transition process
from civilian to soldier occurs when transitioning, forced or otherwise, from home life into
life with an armed group. How does a child ‘become’ a soldier from civilian and then
‘become’ a civilian again once the war is over. Such understandings may shed light on
how children are able to kill and commit crimes against others, the particular meanings
that children formerly involved in war may attach to those conditions, and finally the
tactics and strategies young people adopt in those circumstances. Through such
understandings we can work towards creating safer environments for children.
PANEL 45
80
DEJAR
EL DESPLAZAMIENTO ATRÁS:
CONDICIONES
NECESARIAS PARA LAS
SOLUCIONES DURADERAS.
1. Diana Arie: La Educación de los Refugiados Vietnamitas en Japón
A fines de la década de los 80, luego de la guerra de Vietnam más de 1.5 millón de
refugiados vietnamitas fueron recibidos en muchos países del mundo. En Japón se recibió
a unos 11.000 refugiados, a quienes se les ubicó en centros de apoyo para refugiados, en
donde recibieron orientaciones para vivir en la sociedad Japonesa y clases del idioma
japonés. Sim embargo, en muchos estudios nos damos cuenta que la asistencia dada
especialmente de educación no ha sido suficiente.
En la presenta ponencia, primero se realizará la presentación de la política del Control
Migratorio y Reconocimiento de Refugiados de Japón. En esta parte se observará la
variación del sistema migratorio japonés a través de las normativas, enfocando a partir de
los años 80.
En la segunda parte se analizará la situación de los refugiados en Japón, tomando atención
sobre los refugiados vietnamitas. En esta parte se presentará las ayudas del gobierno
japonés para la adaptación de ellos en la sociedad japonesa y luego se observará la
realidad de sus situaciones, a través de investigaciones de organizaciones internacionales.
En la tercera parte se presentará sobre la educación de los refugiados, especialmente se
enfocará en la educación del sistema escolar. Se tratará de evaluar la asistencia de
educación dada a los refugiados vietnamitas, especialmente de los niños.
Y por último se examinará y se tratará de hacer una propuesta para la política del Control
Migratorio y Reconocimiento de Refugiados de Japón enfocando en primer lugar la
educación.
2. Consuelo Sánchez: Experiencias educativas de familias y niños refugiados
colombianos en Ecuador
Según las estadísticas del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del Ecuador, actualmente
existen cerca 55 mil refugiados colombianos en el país, de los cuales el 23,8% son menores
de 17 años. Las cifras oficiales de solicitantes de refugio alcanzan los 170 mil.
Los colombianos que han llegado a Ecuador en busca de protección internacional han
afrontado diversas dificultades para acceder a sus derechos. La discriminación y la
xenofobia, problemas cotidianos para muchos, cuentan dentro de los primeros obstáculos
para lograr su inclusión social y la posibilidad de gozar de los beneficios de las soluciones
duraderas.
Los niños/as y adolescentes no están exentos de sufrir las consecuencias de la exclusión.
Ellos, como actores también de la migración, se enfrentan en primera persona a
limitaciones en el disfrute del derecho a la educación. Pese a las normativas ecuatorianas
que garantizan su acceso a la escuela, se encuentran con obstáculos estructurales del
sistema educativo y con actitudes discriminatorias por su condición migrante y por su
nacionalidad. Cupos limitados, sobrepoblación en las escuelas públicas y ubicación en
cursos menores, son problemas que generalmente encuentran los niños/as refugiados y
sus familias en la puerta de las instituciones. Pero, si logran sobrepasarlos, la
estigmatización por ser colombianos-refugiados y diversas formas de discriminación y
81
violencia simbólica, tanto por parte de sus pares como de sus profesores, hacen parte de su
cotidianidad.
En este contexto, esta ponencia presentará los resultados de una investigación realizada
en escuelas públicas de la ciudad de Quito sobre los principales problemas del acceso a la
educación de los niños/as refugiados y su convivencia en las escuelas. Así mismo, analiza
la respuesta de diversos actores educativos ante los problemas particulares que enfrenta
esta población y la existencia o no de estrategias para su inclusión.
3. Amhed Correa: Contribución socioeconómica de la población colombiana
refugiada en Ecuador
Es difícil pensar en la integración de las personas desplazadas sin contar con mecanismos
que faciliten la inserción económica en las sociedades de recepción. Y en no pocos
escenarios, existen importantes limitaciones (jurídicas, políticas, sociales) que condicionan
formas precarizadas de inserción laboral y prácticas informales de emprendimiento
económico, coartándose así la implementación de soluciones duraderas eficaces. El
objetivo de la presente propuesta, es analizar las contribuciones de los refugiados
colombianos dentro de la economía ecuatoriana.
Ecuador ha jugado un importante papel como país de recepción de personas desplazadas
por la violencia en Colombia. Sin embargo, la presencia de población extranjera,
especialmente de refugiados, ha generado reacciones diversas que incluyen la idea de
carga económica de una población concebida como improductiva. Este tipo de
percepciones, vinculadas a la noción pasiva que implica el asistencialismo, o al simple
discurso xenófobo, invisibilizan la contribución de la población refugiada colombiana a la
economía ecuatoriana.
La inserción laboral y económica de los refugiados constituye quizás el reclamo más
recurrente y cotidiano de la población necesitada de protección internacional que reside en
Ecuador. En un contexto marcado por la precarización laboral, resulta fácil intuir que la
cotidianidad laboral de las personas refugiadas, esté atravesada por la limitación de
derechos y la restricción del emprendimiento económico. A pesar de la relatividad de los
resultados encontrados en relación a la contribución tributaria, o las estimaciones de
aportación del PIB, estos fácilmente interpelan cualquier noción de carga económica
alrededor de los nacionales colombianos en situación de refugio en Ecuador.
4. Carmen Gómez Martín: Repensando el concepto de solución duradera. El caso
saharaui cuatro décadas después de la constitución de los campamentos de
refugiados en Argelia
Han pasado cuatro décadas desde el fin del conflicto armado entre Marruecos y el Frente
Polisario, y ante la imposibilidad de volver al Sáhara Occidental – ocupado por Marruecos
desde 1975 – los saharauis emplazados en los campamentos de refugiados de la Hamada
argelina siguen planteando numerosos interrogantes acerca de los tiempos del refugio y
de la búsqueda de soluciones duraderas, estables y justas en conflictos de larga duración.
La transformación de los campamentos de refugiados saharauis en una organización con
instituciones político-administrativas que semejan una estructura estatal, transforma al
saharaui en un caso paradigmático que ha permitido a la comunidad internacional ganar
tiempo – aunque sin mucho éxito – en la búsqueda de una solución aceptable al conflicto.
Esta situación no debería entenderse, sin embargo, como la solución definitiva que
82
determine la suerte de miles de personas que viven en condiciones de pobreza extrema,
viviendo de una ayuda internacional cada vez más exigua y en una espera sempiterna a
que se den las condiciones favorables para un posible retorno a su tierra de origen.
Teniendo en cuenta otros conflictos y espacialidades, esta presentación pretende arrojar
luz sobre las posibles soluciones que se barajan con respecto al complejo caso saharauis, y
los desafíos que dichas soluciones representan a nivel regional e internacional, ya que
pueden permitirnos repensar de forma más global cómo y en qué condiciones se piensa las
soluciones duraderas por parte de organizaciones como ACNUR, cómo y de qué manera
puede producirse la restitución de derechos de ciudadanía en poblaciones que llevan
décadas en situación de refugio.
PANEL 46
LOS OLVIDADOS: POBLACIONES VULNERABLES EN ÉXODO
1. Marcela Ceballos: Desplazamiento forzado de población LGBT en Bogotá y
construcción de paz en épocas de transición
Bogotá es el principal destino de población internamente desplazada por la violencia en
Colombia. Una población invisible en las estadísticas y en el debate de políticas públicas –
sobre todo en el tema de reparación integral- es la población LGBT. Aunque la orientación
sexual y la identidad de género no son consideradas causales de victimización por la Ley
387 de 1997 ni por la Ley 1448 de 2011, consideramos que se trata de factores vinculados y
subyacentes al conflicto armado interno. Los mecanismos violentos de control social
utilizados por los grupos armados en regiones donde ejercen presencia consolidada,
incluyen estrategias de exterminio, maltrato, explotación o desplazamiento forzado de
población LGBT por ser considerada adversa a los intereses de control de estos grupos.
En los lugares de llegada en Bogotá, esta población sufre situaciones de victimización
similares a los que causaron su desplazamiento. Esta ponencia examina estos factores
causales y situaciones de inserción social, así como las acciones colectivas de población
LGBT que han impulsado políticas públicas de reconocimiento de sus derechos. Hace
recomendaciones de política con enfoque diferencial para responder a sus demandas en
materia de reparación, como parte de las garantías de no repetición y condiciones para la
sostenibilidad de la paz.
Bogotá es el principal destino de población internamente desplazada por la violencia en
Colombia. Una población invisible en las estadísticas y en el debate de políticas públicas –
sobre todo en el tema de reparación integral- es la población LGBT. Aunque la orientación
sexual y la identidad de género no son consideradas causales de victimización por la Ley
387 de 1997 ni por la Ley 1448 de 2011, consideramos que se trata de factores vinculados y
subyacentes al conflicto armado interno. Los mecanismos violentos de control social
utilizados por los grupos armados en regiones donde ejercen presencia consolidada,
incluyen estrategias de exterminio, maltrato, explotación o desplazamiento forzado de
población LGBT por ser considerada adversa a los intereses de control de estos grupos.
En los lugares de llegada en Bogotá, esta población sufre situaciones de victimización
similares a los que causaron su desplazamiento. Esta ponencia examina estos factores
causales y situaciones de inserción social, así como las acciones colectivas de población
LGBT que han impulsado políticas públicas de reconocimiento de sus derechos. Hace
83
recomendaciones de política con enfoque diferencial para responder a sus demandas en
materia de reparación, como parte de las garantías de no repetición y condiciones para la
sostenibilidad de la paz.
2. María José Montoya: Discapacidad y desplazamiento: la inclusión para la
sostenibilidad.
La Política Pública sobre discapacidad en Colombia, incluyendo las políticas de
desplazamiento, sigue concibiendo a las personas con discapacidad (PcD) bajo modelos
médicos y de presidencia, generando violaciones continuas a sus derechos. La sentencia T025 de 2000 reconoció la realidad de un conflicto armado que tiene un efecto diferencial en
diversos grupos sociales; pero no fue sino hasta el 2009, con el Auto 006, que la Corte
Constitucional reconoció la realidad que enfrentan las PcD en el país, las barreras
exacerbadas y la necesidad de transversalizar el enfoque de discapacidad en las
discusiones del conflicto armado, reparación y post-conflicto. Posteriormente, en el 2011,
Colombia ratificó la Convención sobre los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad,
imponiendo un cambio de paradigma y reconociendo a las PcD como sujetos de derechos
y deberes, no como enfermos o inválidos. Dicho instrumento trajo consigo una serie de
obligaciones de rango constitucional que deben servir de marco para las soluciones al
conflicto y al desplazamiento, incluyendo la implementación del Auto 006.
A pesar de esto, todavía se presentan barreras en la política gubernamental, que ni
siquiera contiene una concepción clara de lo que implica el enfoque de discapacidad. El
proceso de identificación y caracterización muestra deficiencias, hay barreras legales que
limitan el desarrollo de las PcD, la justicia es inaccesible y se ignora la necesidad de la
atención psicosocial de las víctimas, con o sin discapacidad, entre otros. Resulta entonces
necesario replantear el concepto de este enfoque alineándolo con la Convención e
implementándolo en las políticas de desarrollo.
3. María Margarita Echeverry: “Memorias del desplazamiento forzado internacional
colombiano: niños, niñas y jóvenes exiliados en España.
La ponencia se enmarca en las historias del exilio de los niños, niñas y jóvenes
colombianos en España. En primer lugar, se propone analizar desde un enfoque
transnacional, de género y generacional, las trayectorias migratorias de esta población, en
el marco de desplazamientos familiares forzados internacionales, de los que poco se habla
en Colombia. En segundo lugar, se debate en el marco de los procesos actuales de retorno
de la población migrante internacional colombiana, las perspectivas de los y las jóvenes
respecto a sus posibilidades y condiciones para el retorno. El análisis cierra con la
perspectiva de la Política Integral Migratoria y la Ley de Retorno 1565, sobre esta
población, y la manera cómo el discurso público y publicado en Colombia sigue
invisibilizando las vidas de muchos de los connacionales que por fuera de las fronteras,
esperan condiciones dignas para regresar. El análisis se sustenta en el trabajo de campo
longitudinal en lugares de origen y destino, desarrollado con las mismas familias durante
más de diez años, prestando especial atención a los integrantes jóvenes.
PANEL 47
84
“IS DISPLACEMENT – A STATE OF EXCEPTION”? ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES IN
FORCED MIGRATION
The panel seeks to understand displacement through the lens of location of stay of exilees.
In this context camps are often conceived as states of exception, states-of-transition with
little or no social and political rights (employment, property, education) exist. The
transitory nature of living in camps is often transformed to be the permanent place of stayof-stay that condemns inmates to a future without rights and belonging. The camp
constitutes a space removed from the social, economic and political life, and human
condition, i.e., what Agamben calls “bare life”, to their mere biological condition.
1. The Indeterminate People: Permanent Exceptions of Citizens and the Stateless. Dr.
Paula Banerjee
One of the great ironies of international law is that the “other” of a citizen is neither a
refugee nor a person who has dual or multiple citizenships but a stateless person. And a
great fallacy of international law of statelessness is that a stateless person is defined by
his/her lack. Yet to claim any legal correctives or rights the stateless has to cite definite
attributes. How can a lack be defined by attributes? This fallacy of law has given rise to
animated debates between jurist, legal and rights based activists and social scientists. The
backdrop of paper is this conversation that has been happening over the last few decades
between lawyers and social scientists about the compulsions and the limitations of laws on
statelessness. I mean to contribute to that conversation further and also to add to it a postcolonial dimension. The purport of this paper is to understand citizenship and
statelessness are part of the same grid. There are many people in South Asia who fall
within that grid who will not be accepted as a citizen by “competent authorities” within a
state and neither will they be called “stateless” by the Geneva based legal interpreters.
Those in Geneva might say that these people should be called citizens by a particular state
but the reality remains that they are completely unable to access most of the rights
attributed to a citizen. Thus, the two power blocs will refrain from defining these people
and let them remain as the “in between” people or people with indeterminate nationality/
indeterminate status of statelessness, thereby adding to their vulnerability, rightlessness
and discrimination. This paper will map some of these indeterminate people in South
Asia and discuss how national and international practices can save them from remaining
as permanent exceptions of Citizens.
2. Nasreen Chowdhory Ph.D Marginality and Agency: Problems of governability
among refugees in South Asia
In my paper Marginality and Agency: Problems of governability among refugees in South
Asia will look into the problems of Tamil refugees. In my study I view camps to be sign of
modernity or what Michel Foucault called the “pastoral power”. Typically camps tend to
represent a form of political authority that owes its origin in the function of setting up
camps, where issues of justice and injustice are suspended against the backdrop of
administrative rationality. Pursuing this argument I interrogate camps located in 20
districts in Tamil Nadu, India to study the changes in gender roles, domestically and
especially within family institutions. Furthermore, I assert that this has contributed to a
85
peculiar altered gender patterns of political participation vis-à-vis the government of
Tamil Nadu.
3. Words of Law, Worlds of Loss: the Stateless People of the Indo-Bangladeshi
Enclaves’. Atig Ghosh, PhD
According to a widespread conception, the state of exception would be situated at an
‘ambiguous and uncertain fringe at the intersection of the legal and the political,’ and
would constitute a ‘point of disequilibrium between public law and political fact.’ Viewed
from this optic, the enclaves on the border of Bangladesh and the northern district of
Cooch Behar in West Bengal, India, may be considered as spaces in which the state of
exception has become the rule. If Agamben’s formulation in Part III Section 7 of Homo
Sacer (‘The Camp as the “Nomos” of the Modern’) that the camp ‘is the space that is
opened when the state of exception begins to become the rule,’ then one may argue that
the camp-effect has struck roots in these remote enclaves (or Chhitmahals, as they are
locally known). An ethnographic understanding of the sociopolitical contours of such
‘camps’ is urgent. It may help us surmount the politico-legal paradox that is at the heart of
states of exception and suggest new pathways for expressing demands for social justice
locally. For, the social in social justice, as Ranabir Samaddar suggests, is what remains
beyond what is governmentally constituted, administratively constituted, or constituted
by considerations of rule (that is, considerations of territory, security and streamlining of
people into population groups). My paper, ‘Words of Law, Worlds of Loss: the Stateless
People of the Indo-Bangladeshi Enclaves’, will try to probe this conjoint issue of the
prevalence of the state of exception and the modes of expressing stout demands for social
justice therein.
4. Sudeep Basu Organizing for Exile! Self-Help ethics and its outcomes for Tibetan refugees.
Unlike the rehabilitation strategy for the permanent agricultural settlements in Southern
India which were built at the behest of the Tibetan Government-in-exile in Dharamsala
and the Government of India, the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre (TRSHC) which came
up in Darjeeling town, India, in 1959, emerged spontaneously and autonomously with the
idea that no refugee could ever be rehabilitated in the fullest sense of the word without
“Self-Help”, a realization that this “vital element could only come from within the
community from within one’s selves”. While drawing from the ethnographic insights into
the specificities of the ‘Self-Help’ character of TRSHC, my paper seeks to interrogate the
nature and effects of the production of “self-settled” spaces which in protracted conditions
acquire double qualities, of being at once transitory and permanent for its residents and
which also produces certain codes of conduct and ethics which moves from an inward
orientation and boundary maintenance to an eventual spilling over of these codes and
ethics into the town with varying integrative outcomes for host-refugee relations.
PANEL 48
CINE FORO.
ALGÚN DÍA ES MAÑANA. (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
86
Narcotráfico, paramilitarismo y cultivo de palma aceitera: las familias campesinas de Las
Pavas, una comunidad situada en el sur del departamento de Bolívar, han sido
desplazadas tres veces durante el último decenio.
Actualmente se desarrolla un enorme proyecto agroindustrial de palma de aceite en las
tierras que antes cultivaban. El 4 Abril de 2011 las familias campesinas retornaron por
tercera vez a Las Pavas. Desde entonces, bajo presión y amenazas constantes, siembran
alimentos y mantienen una lucha pacífica para que el Estado les entregue los títulos de sus
tierras, expropiándolas a la empresa que hoy las ocupa.
Los campesinos y campesinas de Las Pavas suelen contar sus vivencias a través de
canciones. Así conservan viva su tradición cultural e inmortalizan una historia que nadie
podría contar ni escribir como ellos.
En noviembre del 2013, las 123 familias campesinas que conforman la Asociación de
Campesinos de Buenos Aires (Asocab) fueron galardonadas con el Premio Nacional de
Paz: “por luchar durante años de forma pacífica por la tenencia de sus predios en la hacienda Las
Pavas”.
PANEL 49
RED AMERICANA DE MIGRACIONES FORZADAS
REGIONAL HUMANITARIA.
Y
II CONFERENCIA
PANEL 50
THE ROLE OF HUMAN RIGHTS NORMS IN REGIONAL REFUGEE PROTECTION
REGIMES: A COMPARISON OF TWO REGIONS.
1. Dr David James Cantor, Refugee Law Initiative, University of London. ‘Human
Rights and the Legal Protection of Refugees in Latin America.
Latin America is rightly renowned for its creativity and innovation in pushing the
boundaries of human rights law. However, the impact – both actual and potential - of
these human rights standards on the protection of refugees within the region is a topic
that, until recently, has received relatively scant attention on the part of scholars and
practitioners.
The proposed paper expounds on this subject via two inter-related lines of enquiry.
Firstly, the paper analyses how the regional practice of refugee protection – and
particularly the development and interpretation of refugee law – by Latin American States
has incorporated principles of human rights law. It shows that human rights law plays a
role in relation to refugees in Latin America that, although relatively minimal, is distinct
from that which it fulfils in other regions.
Secondly, the paper assesses the construction of a comprehensive novel framework for the
protection of asylum-seekers and refugees through the legal instruments and
jurisprudence of the Inter-American system of human rights protection. It shows the
distinctive manner in which this framework configures the relationship between refugee
and human rights law.
87
The paper concludes by identifying some of the challenges for the legal protection of
refugees in Latin America inherent in these two separate areas of legal practice. In so
doing, it assesses the possibility for further cross-fertilisation between the two arenas.
2. Susan Kneebone. Refugees Protection in Southeast Asia:
Pragmatism or Human Rights?
Humanitarianism,
The South East Asian region hosts one third of the world’s refugees, but there is little
formal recognition of the rights of refugees. It is typically considered to be a region in
which states have rejected human rights protection of refugees as being a Western \
Northern state construct. Civil society and the UNHCR are considered to be the
champions of the human rights of refugees.
This paper re-examines that paradigm by evaluating two formal processes which
indirectly impact on the rights of refugees, the Conference on People Smuggling,
Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime (‘Bali Process’), and ASEAN
(Association of South East Asia Nations) and recent ASEAN Human Rights Declaration
(AHRD). It compares these with the Asian African Legal Consultative Organisation
(AACLO) which in 1966 formulated an instrument for the protection of refugee rights.
These were reaffirmed in 2001 (‘Final Text of the AALCO’s 1966 Bangkok Principles on the
Status and Treatment of Refugees’ adopted on 24 June 2001 at the AALCO’s 40th Session,
New Delhi), in which UNHCR played a large role.
It is argued that whilst on a formal regional level there appears to be little support for
refugee rights, at the individual state level there is clear recognition of the ‘refugee
problem’ and the need for ‘refugee solutions’. The questions I pose are what it means to
say protection is provided for ‘humanitarian’ reasons, and whether there is prospect for
development of a human rights approach to protection in the Southeast Asian region.
PANEL 51
A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO THE FORCED MIGRATION.
1. Andrea Benedetti and Tatyana Sheila Friedrich: Transitional Justice and Political
Refugees: Right to Truth and Redress from the Revision of the Amnesty Act in
Brazil
Brazil lived a military dictatorship between 1964 and 1985. About 10 thousand citizens
lived in exile at some stage of the dictatorship. At the end of the regime was approved the
Amnesty Law to political and military crimes. In April 2010, the Federal Supreme Court of
Brazil ruled action seeking review of this law. It ruled that the law also granted an
amnesty for torturers who acted against resistance movements to the military dictatorship.
In November 2010, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which has compulsory
jurisdiction in Brazil, gave contrary interpretation to the Supreme Court. These are two
88
decisions in force on Brazilian amnesty, with opposed determinations. This is the context
that will serve as the backdrop for discussions on transitional justice in the present paper.
The proposal is to present important concepts of transitional justice, focusing on redress.
Further, to discuss how the Brazilian government faces the challenge of securing the rights
to truth, justice and reparation of the people who were forced to migrate and the missing
political. It seeks to demonstrate the need for revision of the Amnesty Law in Brazil, in
order to consolidate peace and strengthen democracy. The contribution to IASFM will be
to discuss the experience of the only country in the Southern Cone that still retains the
Amnesty for public officials who committed crimes of human rights violation. This is the
discussion of the current role of the Brazilian judicial system in this important moment in
the consolidation of the democratic transition.
2. Fabiano L. de Menezes: How to influence states to cooperate in the refugee regime:
international solidarity or strategic interest?
In the refugee regime, cooperation is a mechanism to solve the "unduly heavy burden"
problem in the state of first asylum by the state of second asylum. In this paper, I evaluate
two strategies defined by Latin American states in the Mexico Plan of Action to solve the
problem of the massive influx of Colombian refugees in the Andean region: the exclusion
of the contribution of states outside Latin America, and international solidarity as a
condition for the state of second asylum implement the "resettlement in solidarity". To
conduct this research, I expanded the scope of the regional analysis, assess cooperation
cases and explore documentary and empirical observations of the “resettlement in
solidarity” program. To complement the study, I carried out field work interviews in the
main state of first asylum (Ecuador) and on the major states of second asylum (Brazil,
Argentina and Chile). The general findings indicate that the state of second asylum
cooperates when the following factors are present: i) favorable political and economic
conditions (international and national), ii) hegemon with strategic interests, and iii)
domestic strategic interests unrelated to the humanitarian problem of refugees. The final
conclusion suggests two directions about Latin American cooperation. First, the strategy of
the Mexico Plan of Action is insufficient to solve the "unduly heavy burdens" in the
Andean region. Second, the next Latin American program that will come in effect on the
30th anniversary of the Cartagena Declaration will have the same mistakes and omissions
found in the previous cooperation plan.
3. Ralph Wilde: The ‘life of the nation’ extraterritorially: can states derogate from
human rights obligations, including the non-refoulement obligation, when
performing migration control and other activities abroad?
This paper explores the viability of international human rights law in the context of
extraterritorial activities by states, including those concerned with migration control (e.g.
interception at sea and extraterritorial migrant processing), through one aspect of the legal
framework: the ‘derogation’ rules that regulate extraordinary limitations on individual
rights in situations of extreme security threats. It will argue that the mis-match between
the identity of the state acting extraterritorially, and the identity of the people and territory
(including at sea) in which it is acting, has important, problematic implications for these
rules.
89
There is a question as to whether or not the test for activating a derogation—the existence
of a war/public emergency threatening the ‘life of the nation’, covers all forms of
extraterritorial security threats in relation to which a derogation would be needed in order
for extraterritorial action to be compatible with human rights law. If the ‘nation’ is defined
as the state acting extraterritorially, and not also the state/non-state territory in which it is
acting, and the affected population, does the test only cover threats extraterritorially which
can be linked back to the foreign state as their object/target? If so, would only action
relating to self-defence be covered, leaving outside the test other action? This paper will
consider these questions, with reference to relevant case law and commentary, as well as
underlying theoretical ideas and related areas of international law.
4. Simon Behrman The Ethics of Asylum
What is the ethical basis upon which refugees are granted asylum? One of the promises of
the 1951 Refugee Convention, reinforced by the 1967 Protocol, was that for the first time
there would be a universal definition of a refugee. This would guarantee that asylum
would be granted to all ‘genuine’ refugees without favour or discrimination. The coming
of refugee law thus extended the protection of the rule of law to all those fleeing
persecution. Over time a legal framework has evolved which distinguishes the ‘deserving’
from the ‘undeserving’ forced migrant. In truth, such a distinction has always been present
in the concept of asylum and sanctuary. In the past, from medieval church sanctuary to the
Huguenots to the Cold War, the determination was based on notions of religious and/or
political solidarity. Elements of that tradition remain, hidden and unacknowledged,
within the form and practice of international refugee law. Often this aspect of refugee
reception is criticised for politicising asylum. But I argue that there is nothing wrong with
that in principle. Moreover, to separate the question of asylum from the political is
impossible; to argue that the two are distinct in practice is dishonest. The problem has
been that too often refugee advocates and activists rely on a supposedly objective refugee
law, rather than engaging in contestation over the terms upon which we offer asylum.
Doing this means accepting that all of us carry ethical notions of the deserving and the
undeserving refugee. By revealing the rich tradition of religious and political solidarity
that lies at the base of sanctuary we can renew and re-energise the battle for justice in the
field of asylum.
PANEL 53
LEAVING
BEHIND
THE
DISPLACEMENT:
CONDITIONS
FOR
DURABLE
SOLUTIONS (I).
1. Diana Rodríguez: War Narratives, The Construction of a Moral Economy in
Educational Settings. A case study in the northern border of Ecuador.
My research in the northern border of Ecuador focuses on vulnerable migrant youth
between 14 and 18 years old, who have a high probability of dropping out of school due to
financial obligations, early pregnancy, and pressure from the Colombian Revolutionary
Armed Forces (FARC) to join their forces. According to the UN Commission on Human
90
Rights, in 2012 nearly 68,000 Colombian refugees were living in Ecuador, 40 percent of
whom were under the age of 18. My research pursues three questions: How do war
narratives grounded in the Colombian armed conflict permeate the learning and social
experiences of youth? How does the school community, including non-governmental
organizations that cater to refugees, use and reproduce war narratives to order and
distribute different kinds of capital within educational settings? And, what are the
alternatives for peace building and conflict resolution in this context?
My research answers these questions by tracing the use and effects of narratives of war in
the educational and social experiences of youth, as these circulate in everyday ways of
talking and acting that consciously or not, permeates daily learning experiences. My
evidence was collected throughout a year from participant observation, structured and
semi-structured interviews, and participatory visual ethnography workshops with youth.
Understanding how the presence of armed conflict, with its war narratives, affects the
everyday lives of students and their families will enable a better understanding of
teachers’, school administrators’, and non-governmental organizations’ practices as the
whole community struggles to cope with this threat. In documenting these effects, my
work provides a guide to some of the complex realities that might emerge in a process of
peace and reconciliation, and offer valuable input to imagine and implement meaningful
curriculum reform for a post-conflict environment.
2. Aida Orgocka: Facilitating access to higher education for refugees through a
Canada-Kenya partnership
This presentation focuses on Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER), a
development initiative that brings higher education programs in one of the world’s largest
refugee camps, Dadaab, Kenya. Led by York University, this multi-institutional project
makes an effort to provide a durable solution for long term refugees, primarily of Somali
Origin. It focuses on expanding university education opportunities for refugee and host
communities in situ by offering onsite and online teaching and learning with the goal of
gender parity. A systematic academic engagement from students leads to a university
certificates, diplomas and degrees based on a cost-recovery model and shared
responsibilities among universities in Canada and Kenya. This program is founded on the
philosophy of retention and inclusion, not ranking or exclusion. It knowingly admits
students who are academically weak; there is a duty to accommodate and support these
students; it fosters a mutually supportive and inclusive classroom culture and makes
gender and equity as well as community cohesion a central piece of service delivery. In
addition to presenting the initiative, the presentation discusses implementation challenges
in the context of a Canada-Kenya partnership in terms of human and infrastructural
capacity, bi-directional transfer of capacity, and negotiations on resources. Lastly, I focus
on local ownership as a key factor in sustaining the initiative.
3. Andreas von Kanel: Education as a durable solution? Becoming a citizen in a
Congolese refugee camp
91
In the Democratic Republic of Congo the deadliest armed conflict since World War II has
driven millions of people into exile. After 18 years and a series of peace agreements, no
solution is still in sight for many of the refugees originating from the chronically unstable
eastern provinces. Their plight is shared by refugees across the globe, at a time when most
conflicts persist for well over a decade.
In parallel to the increase of protracted refugee situations, education has gradually
emerged as an instrument to mitigate the consequences of prolonged displacement. Since
the 1990s, UNHCR systematically integrated education as a protection tool linked to child
rights. However, UNHCR´s Global Review (2011) insists on the more far-reaching
potential of educational delivery and advocates for a recognition of “education as a
durable solution”. In this view, quality education offers a way out of the uncertainties of
displacement, as future security is now “less connected to where one is geographically and
more to skills, capacities, and knowledge that can accompany an individual no matter
where that future may be”.
Based on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork on education in a Congolese refugee camp in
western Tanzania, this paper focuses on the intersections between formal schooling and
exile. It retraces the institutional response since the encampment of refugees from South
Kivu in 1996, showing how education served as a means to restore “normality”, “routine”
and “continuity” for refugee children, while it also came to be constituted as an arena for
reconstructing a sense of citizenship. It then turns to the practices of refugees themselves
in order to assess when, how and for whom education has served as a resource for
overcoming the lack of rights resulting from forced exodus and encampment - and in
which ways it has, on the contrary, served to reinforce certain forms of social, political and
spatial exclusion.
PANEL 53
MIRADAS AL DESPLAZAMIENTO FORZADO URBANO EN COLOMBIA
1. Andrés Salcedo: Víctimas y trasegares: ciudad y desplazamiento en Colombia
contemporánea
El desplazamiento forzoso ha sido usado a lo largo de toda la historia de Colombia como
modo de gobernar la diferencia ideológica y cultural, como medio para disputarse la
riqueza generada por economías legales e ilegales y como modo de reclutamiento de
hombres y mujeres jóvenes como mano de obra y como soldados. Las víctimas de lo que
llamo la reconquista paramilitar (2002-2005) tuvieron que vivir un largo y penoso proceso
de fracturas, dolores y dificultades ocasionados por amenazas, persecuciones y masacres
sino también de las asimetrías de poder que tuvieron que enfrentar cuando emprendieron
el extenuante y largo trasegar que los llevaba de entidad en entidad para obtener ayudas y
de cuarto en cuarto en su difícil proceso de inserción urbana. En esta ponencia quisiera
plantear que el desplazamiento forzoso no fue solamente un evento violento o una
desconexión definitiva de lugares sino un proceso de nomadismo inter urbano de
reconstrucción durante el cual poblaciones negras e indígenas articularon a las
comunidades que se quedaron atrás con una nueva y vibrante red transnacional de
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organizaciones en defensa de los derechos humanos y la puesta en marcha de proyectos
de fortalecimiento cultural e iniciativas solidarias para recomponer sus vidas.
2. Andrés Cancimance: Catástrofes Creadas y su Invisibilización en los Contextos
Urbanos: La Migración Forzada al Interior de las Ciudades en Colombia
El cambio en las lógicas del conflicto armado en Colombia, en cuanto a escenarios,
objetivos, actores y estrategias bélicas, ha hecho que la migración forzada se transforme,
de tal forma que actualmente no es posible hablar únicamente de las migraciones forzadas
con trayectorias campo-ciudad (de lo rural a lo urbano), sino que se debe reconocer la
existencia de una variación en esta lógica de movilidad impuesta: la migración forzada al
interior de una misma ciudad. En Colombia, aún no se reconoce que la migración forzada
al interior de sus espacios urbanos sea un fenómeno social que amerita el diseño de
políticas públicas para atender el desastre que la violencia está creando en un entorno
“civilizado”: la ciudad. En lo que sigue de esta ponencia me interesaré por esta temática.
3. Gloria Silva: Detenciones arbitrarias y desplazamiento forzado en Colombia
En Colombia el desplazamiento forzado interno y otras limitaciones a la libertad de
locomoción, también es generado por la práctica oficial de persecución contra sectores de
oposición social y política, y campesinos, mediante las detenciones arbitrarias,
judicialización selectiva y criminalización de la protesta social.
4. Amelia Fernández: Relaciones Entre Estructuras Familiares, Tipología, Ciclo
Vital y Estresores, que Afectan a Familias en situación de Desplazamiento
Forzada Ubicadas en Bogotá, Localidad 19 Ciudad Bolívar, 2011-2012
ANTECEDENTES Y PROBLEMA
Este estudio hace un análisis secundario de los hallazgos reportados en el marco de la
investigación titulada “Relaciones entre estructuras familiares, tipología, ciclo vital y
estresores que afectan a familias en situación de desplazamiento forzado ubicadas en
Bogotá, Localidad 19 Ciudad Bolívar.” la cual fue cofinanciada por la Pontificia
Universidad
Javeriana y Colciencias en el Programa Nacional de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas del 2011
al 2012. El estudio surgió del interés por comprender con mayor profundidad las
relaciones existentes entre las capacidades y las condiciones de vida de familias víctimas
de desplazamiento forzado asentadas en Bogotá y los estresores que enfrentan en su diario
vivir, diferenciando por estructuras familiares y por los ciclos vitales por los cuales
atraviesan.
MATERIALES Y MÉTODOS
En la investigación original, se implementó un estudio observacional de tipo descriptivo,
de correlación y corte transversal, que se centró en el análisis cuantitativo de información
recabada en el programa desde octubre de 2008 hasta diciembre de 2011, utilizando
técnicas estadísticas multivariadas, que describen su frecuencia singular y la de sus
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asociaciones. Se involucraron herramientas de tipo cualitativo; grupos focales y entrevistas
a profundidad, además de grupos de discusión, que contribuyeron al análisis de los
resultados y a la profundización en la comprensión epistemológica y metodológica de
algunas nociones y variables.
La población involucrada en el estudio primario, fueron 1284 familias (5891 personas)
víctimas de desplazamiento forzado que acudió al programa de Responsabilidad Social
Universitaria de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Vidas Móviles (Fernández, 2009),
entre el año 2008 y el 2011, programa que ofrece servicios de acompañamiento,
orientación y atención integral en la localidad 19 -Ciudad Bolívar- UPZ Jerusalén de
Bogotá desde octubre de 2006.
RESULTADOS Y RECOMENDACIONES
Establecidas las relaciones entre las estructuras familiares, los ciclos de vida familiar y las
crisis normativas y no normativas prevalentes en la población participante en el proyecto,
se analizó su incidencia en política pública, en particular en el componente de soluciones
duraderas.
Se encontró evidencia sobre cómo el desplazamiento forzado genera diversos efectos e
impactos en la estructura familiar poniendo en riesgo el sentido de identidad, pertenencia,
inclusión y seguridad de sus miembros. Se desplegó una dinámica caracterizada por la
movilidad en los roles en función de sus condiciones y capacidades.
Emergieron familias configuradas durante la travesía, en las cuales se observó el
desplazamiento como proceso que niega la posibilidad inmediata de una construcción
autónoma y sostenible de un proyecto de vida familiar, generando brechas entre la familia,
las instituciones y las realidades experimentadas en los lugares de llegada.
En materia de estructuras encontramos ad intra, niveles de jefatura femenina que
duplicaban los datos encontrados a nivel nacional, distrital e incluso superiores a los
evidenciados en el III ENV-2010 (65.4% de jefatura femenina).
El desplazamiento interno forzado además del desarraigo y del empobrecimiento, también
generó nuevos acomodos familiares y subjetividades femeninas que, impactaron a las
familias y sus ciclos vitales. Aportó información útil para la toma de decisiones y para la
atención integral y sensible a la condición de las familias.
“La familia nuclear, que durante varias décadas fue un modelo normativo en la sociedad,
es actualmente, sólo una de las tantas posibilidades de familia. Las nuevas formas
familiares generan nuevas necesidades a las que la política pública debe responder, y
seguramente también estas nuevas formas transforman aspectos importantes, tales como
la salud, por ejemplo” (Millán, en imprenta)
Contribuyó además a suscitar “nuevos” interrogantes: ¿Qué ocurrirá con las estructuras
familiares del futuro? ¿Puede configurarse la familia como sujeto colectivo de derechos?
¿Cómo se pueden abordar integralmente los efectos y los impactos de las situaciones
estresantes intempestivas y complejas en unidades de análisis cuyas estructuras y
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funciones han sido asignadas a priori? ¿Y cómo incluir estas asociaciones y relaciones en
las políticas públicas para el restablecimiento de derechos y el mejoramiento de la calidad
de vida de la población, de acuerdo con las características, problemáticas y relaciones
encontradas?
5. Nubia Ruiz Ruiz La migración interna forzada en Colombia. LA transformación de los
territorios en Colombia a la luz de la dinámica extractivista en el país y su relación con la
propiedad de la tierra. 1997-2012
La presente investigación aborda el problema de las transformaciones demográficas y
territoriales que ha vivido Colombia en los últimos 15 años, como resultado de las
migraciones forzadas y los procesos económicos de explotación de recursos naturales,
específicamente la explotación minera y petrolera en el país.
Asumimos como hipótesis el hecho de que los diferentes procesos de desplazamiento
forzado ocurridos en Colombia durante el siglo XX han sido desencadenados por
sucesivas oleadas de acumulación por desposesión; desde esta perspectiva se han
identificado las geografías del proceso de acumulación por desposesión entre 1997 y 2012,
partiendo de un Análisis Exploratorio de Datos Espaciales.
La investigación aborda el análisis de 5.056.128 millones de registros de población
migrante forzada, desde y hacia los 1.114 municipios; analiza la implantación de proceso
extractivos en el territorio e identifica la relación entre desplazamiento, acumulación de
tierras y procesos económicos extractivos por parte de grandes empresas multinacionales.
Mediante análisis demográficos y geográficos que ligan el fenómeno del desplazamiento,
con la localización de recursos y las dinámicas de acumulación, se ha encontrado la
relación entre variables de expulsión de población por municipio, la de presencia de
bloques petroleros y títulos mineros, teniendo en cuenta en el análisis la variación en los
tamaños de la propiedad rural en Colombia.
Mediante una regresión múltiple entre las variables: desplazamiento forzado, tamaño de
bloques y títulos por mineral y acumulación de tierras, se encontraron las regiones donde
desplazamiento está asociado más a la minería de metales preciosos o de extracción de
combustibles.
PANEL 54
ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO FORCED MIGRATION
1. Anita Fabos: Songs of Peace and Protest: Sudanese Music in the Diaspora.
This paper considers the role of exiled Muslim, Arabic-speaking Sudanese musicians in
peace-building processes outside of Sudan. Musicians were among the first to be targeted
by Sudan’s Islamist regime after it seized power in a military coup in 1989--for such
reasons as promoting ‘inappropriate’ comportment (such as mixed-gender dancing) or
expressing political opposition through lyrics, for example. Scores of musicians went into
exile in protest and to be able to continue their professional activities without restrictions
or penalties. Today, exiled Sudanese musicians play an active role in recording and
performing for audiences abroad, raising awareness about ongoing political instability and
recent humanitarian crises in their homeland. Similar to exiled South African musicians
95
who advocated an end to Apartheid, Sudanese have been active participants in initiatives
to promote peaceful change in Sudan. In particular, the World Music scene has become an
important forum for Sudanese musicians to mobilize to call attention to human rights
abuses in Sudan, and to use this global platform as “a powerful symbol of what could be
possible back home”. Events such as the 2007 and 2008 Sudanese Music and Dance
Festivals in the US are designed “to present a message of peace and unity for Sudan,”
while singers like AlSarah sees her music as part of a larger initiative: “I sing about
migration, voluntary and forced, I sing about people the world likes to ignore except when
speaking of them in the past, and I sing about what it means to yearn for home[2].”
Building on over 20 years of research with Sudanese forced migrants, the paper employs
semi-structured interviews and ethnographic research with Sudanese singers and bands in
the UAE, the United States and Canada to analyze the development of an exile musical
culture and its contributions to global peace efforts.
2. Janina Moninska: Migration moving mountains: Starting to erode hegemony.
The contribution of artists to the troubled situation of forced migration and refugees
should not be overlooked. Artists continue to challenge neo-liberal hegemonic structures
that seem to be caught in a double bind of both protecting notions of truth, justice and
reparation while at the same time undermining them. Indeed, the question of what are
human rights is becoming increasingly problematic.
Art can be considered a tool that can reveal what has been kept invisible and raise
uncomfortable questions. A means of giving voice to the oppressed often silenced. Well
known examples from Latin America are ‘When Faith Moves Mountains’ by Francis Alÿs
and ‘Plegaria Muda
’ by the Colombian artist Doris Salcedo.
Currently there is an explosion of artwork reflecting the migrant image and global crisis.
Migration appears to be moving mountains, and as Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben
have posited: ‘We are all refugees’.
Live art is an artform that has emerged from interdisciplinary spaces creating connections
with disciplines not usually in dialogue with each other. This paper will focus on my own
live art performances that use legal case studies to capture how an individual seeking
asylum can find him/herself both inside and outside the law. With this purpose, in this
study, I will explore the methodology used to engage with emergent refugee law to
investigate the efficacy of live art as political intervention.
3. Dianna Shandy: Narratives, Nuance, and Intention: Telling Stories to Make a
Difference
Life stories are of increasing importance across a range of academic disciplines and human
rights and humanitarian relief settings. Much human rights and humanitarian relief
advocacy and legal matters revolve around the use of peoples’ stories. This paper
explores how border crossings become knowable through storytelling. In particular, this
paper examines the relationship between migrant narratives from South Sudan and the
role of the ethnographer in the retelling. It juxtaposes the narrative alongside the
96
ethnographic intervention to tease apart text and intention in order to better understand
the role of stories in mobilizing diverse constituencies around forced migration issues. By
better understanding how these stories are crafted, we are better positioned both to think
critically about such efforts and, in a more applied sense, to understand and exploit the
shifting boundaries across research, advocacy, and policy.
PANEL 55
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS: A SCENARIO OF PROTECTION.
1. Idil Atak: Protecting Human Rights of Migrants at the External Borders of the
European Union : The Role of the European Courts
With an estimate number of up to 3.8 million irregular migrants and 336 015 new asylum
applications filed in 2012 in 27 European Union (EU) Member States, migration is a topical
issue on the EU’s political agenda. The efforts to tackle irregular migration and to prevent
abuse of the asylum system have resulted into increasing focus on the surveillance of the
EU’s external borders. Several legislative, administrative and operational measures have
been taken by the EU and its Member States to strengthen border controls.This
presentation offers a critical analysis on the implementation the recent European border
surveillance policies and on their consistence with human rights principles. It is argued
that the development of EU-wide standards regarding migration and asylum at the
regional level has not been matched by a parallel coordinated guarantee of the rights of
forced migrants. The increasing focus on border surveillance has rather increased the
vulnerability of migrants at the border who are often subject to practices which infringe
their liberty and security and to other human rights abuses. The presentation also
discusses the role of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the
European Union in the defence of migrants and asylum seekers’ rights. It examines the
recent case-law of these courts which have upheld the rights of migrants in the face of
public policies that were trampling them with apparent political impunity. It is argued
that the European courts’ decisions not only protect the rights of the individual migrants
involved, but also serve as precedents and therefore participate in educating the public on
migrants’ rights, thus contributing to changing public perceptions and fighting negative
public discourses and policies.
2. James Simeon: Ending Impunity for International Crimes, Forced Migrants, and
the Challenge of Peacebuilding in Situations of Transitional Justice.
This paper will seek to explore the normative, substantive and procedural challenges of
addressing international crimes in situations of transitional justice. The paper will seek to
explicate the core pertinent question of how persons who are responsible for clearly
violating international law for the commission of war crimes and/or crimes against
humanity, and who, therefore, ought to be brought to justice, but, who are, at the same
time, also essential for brokering a peace agreement, or at least a cessation of hostilities,
ought to be dealt with? How can and/or should this blatant moral dilemma or ethical
conflict best be addressed and/or resolved? This question is most relevant in those
situations where there has been a protracted non-international armed conflict or civil war
where the state’s military has been engaged in hostilities with rebel forces and various
97
atrocities that have been known to have been committed over the course of the armed
struggle. Indeed, over time, members of the state’s military and members of the rebel
forces may have sought refugee protection or Convention refugee status abroad, due to
the ongoing conflict and inherent instability in their country of nationality. Should the
demands for a brokered peace settlement and the demobilization of forces and the
commencement of post-conflict peace building development efforts take precedence over
ending the impunity for those who have committed serious international crimes? In
addition, the paper will look at how this moral dilemma or ethical conflict has been
addressed in the case of forced migrants who have sought Convention refugee status or
refugee protection abroad.
PANEL 56
SCREENING FOR CONFLICT AND ASYLUM RELATED SEXUAL VIOLENCE – AND
ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR JUSTICE & DURABLE SOLUTIONS
PANEL CANCELADO/CANCELLED PANEL
PANEL 57
RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: STILL PRESENT.
1. Julián Gutierrez: Internalized Racism and Displacement in Colombia
I will draw from my current research on ‘Internalized Racism among Mestizos’ to explore
the geographies of displacement and racism, as well as processes of exclusion of
Indigenous and Afro-descendants in Colombia, in order to reflect and contribute to an
essential aspect of long term solutions to the armed conflict in Colombia. There is a strong
relation between displacement and racialization; the disproportionate numbers of forced
displacement among ethnic groups have been acknowledged by CODHES, ACNUR , and
even government institutions like Defensoria del Pueblo and Acción Social; a geography of
displacement and racism could be drawn by overlapping a map of the regions that are
more affected by forced displacement and a map of the regions where ethnic groups are
predominant.
My argument is that despite that whiteness is a privilege in Latin America and that
Mestizos are, in some contexts, also oppressed by racism, we still prefer to see ourselves
closer to a white/European heritage in order to access the privileges and power of
‘whiteness’, ignoring our Indigenous and Afrodescendant ancestry. Processes of
racialization imply the construction of opposite identities, in the Colombian case, Mestizo
identity has been constructed as a non-racialized category, closer to whiteness and
separated from indigenous and Afrodescendants; but I argue that the boundaries that
divide racialized categories are not so clear given that race is socially and spatially
constructed. This abstract division provides the justification for the othering of racialized
subjects, and this othering has profound implications in the understandings and
stigmatization of displaced people and regions in conflict in Colombia. This approach goes
beyond the focus on the armed conflict, and pays attention to the way Colombians
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reproduce the oppression inflicted upon displaced Indigenous and Afrodescendants in
everyday life.
2. Jessica Anderson: Threat and the Logic of Target Selection: Migration and South
Africa’s Xenophobic Attacks
Amidst increased migration, reports of xenophobic attacks in South Africa, and globally,
are on the rise. And yet, little is known about the logic behind this kind of violence.
Meanwhile, the targets of attacks vary widely, with considerable variation in the victims,
nature, and extent of violence. This paper therefore asks: what accounts for variation in the
kinds of violence (indiscriminate, group-based, and selective) used against foreign
nationals?
While the civil and ethnic conflict literature examines target selection, the ways in which
target selection varies for different types of violence and state contexts is under-theorized.
This paper therefore puts forward a set of hypotheses based on the existing literature on
target selection in ethnic and civil conflict. It tests these hypotheses against incidences of
xenophobic violence against foreign nationals in South Africa, where the author conducted
extensive fieldwork between May 2010 and July 2012. This paper finds that xenophobic
violence is not random or uncalculated. Rather, two key mechanisms guide different forms
of target selection: 1) whether the threat is existential or hierarchical; and 2) whether
information is available about the target. Target selection based on hierarchical threats are
differentiated based on whether they are economic or social, or direct or diffuse. These
findings are based on four in-depth, typical case studies of settlements experiencing
xenophobic violence (the settlements of Itereleng, Ramaphosa, Atteridgeville, and
Diepsloot). This paper concludes by briefly discussing the implications of these findings
for theories of migration and xenophobic violence writ large, and rational motivations for
target selection in particular.
3. Sirus Kashefi "A Look at Economic, Social, Legal, and Political Racism in North
America throughout Selladurai Premakumaran and Nesamalar Premakumaran v.
Her Majesty the Queen"
This paper will critically explore the social, economic, legal, and political problems of two
immigrants, legally known as Selladurai Premakumaran and Nesamalar Premakumaran
v. Her Majesty the Queen, which is a case discriminatively ruled by the Federal Court of
Appeal of Canada in 2006. Thanks to the Canadian mass media’s mutism and to
Citizenship and Immigration Canada, a gigantic organization of manipulation and
propaganda, which did crush down a non-governmental and peaceful website
(www.NotCanada.com) denouncing Canadian racism against and exploitation of the
immigrants and international workers, such a case and similar problems are neither
known to the public, nor spoken in any Canadian law school managed by the “White
Canadian Masters”.
On the one hand, we explain how those wife and husband, both highly skilled workers
from the UK and originally from Asia, came to Canada after the Canadian Government’s
white card about finding good jobs in their fields in 1998. As a family of “the middle class”
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in London, Selladurai worked as an accountant and lecturer in the field of Accounting and
Finance, Nesamalar as an administrative officer with the British Government. Even after
sending thousands of applications, none of them could find any job in his/her field better
than manual and exploitive jobs such as washroom cleaning.
On the other hand, we show how they had really no other option than suing the Canadian
Government because of its violation of promise and advertising (i.e. working in their field
and consequently prosperity for them and their children as well) during a long,
exhausting, and extremely expensive legal process in which they had to fight alone against
State power and authority having caused their misery and racism. We also critically
analyze how the Canadian legal system rapidly and carelessly rejected their case. For
instance, the Federal Court did not bother itself even to legally and politically justify its
decision of dismissing Premakumaran’s “action against Canadian government for fraud,
negligent misrepresentation in skilled worker immigration context.” Indeed,
Premakumarans have been intentionally discriminated in spite of their degrees and
experience in the UK and of their rights guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms. As we should also affirm, the Canadian labor law is itself racist, since the article
3 of the Employment Equity Act of 1995 specifies “members of visible minorities” means
persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in
colour.” Thus, the United Nations has truly rejected this article as a type of racism.
Finally, I should conclude that Canadian racist case is not unfortunately a marginal case at
all, because, for example, I immigrated to Canada as a PhD in law from Sorbonne to
endure a life of misery and racism without being able to be a professor at any white law
school around Canada. As a “neo-liberal and highly capitalist State”, the Canadian
Government is perfectly aiming at enjoying “brain drain” and “cheap labor” to the
detriment of destroying psychologically, materially, socially, legally, and politically the life
of many immigrants and workers when cynically propagating its ideology and
mercantilism as a “multiculturalism”, “prosperity”, “human rights”, and “immigrant
paradise”. In short, Canada would actually love to accept only those “who are Caucasian
in race”. So, we, i.e. non-white people, are not really welcomed, at least not welcomed to
share its wealth and prestige, but certainly its racism, discrimination, and poverty.
4. Sadhana Manik: Zimbabwean Teachers’ Seeking Peace and Stability in South
Africa
Zimbabwean teachers are the largest cohort of foreign teachers in South Africa. This paper
explores Zimbabwean teachers’ migration experiences in South Africa after fleeing from
socio-economic and political strife in Zimbabwe. The data draws from the findings of two
studies (one qualitative and the other mixed methods) undertaken in South Africa on
migrant teachers; teachers being a category of highly skilled professionals in demand
globally. Both studies were on the nature of teacher migration to South Africa. The former
study was centred specifically on Zimbabwean teachers’ reasons for migration and their
experiences (undertaken in 2011) and the other more broadly on migrant teachers’
experiences (undertaken in 2012). Bhaba’s construct of diasporic identity was used as a
portal to understand migrant teachers’ socio-economic and professional experiences in
South Africa in their pursuance of peace and stability in a neighbouring country. The
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findings reveal that Zimbabwean migrant teachers can be conceived as nomads,
experiencing multiple struggles personally and professionally, which commenced from
their entry into South Africa, in their search for acceptance. Their ‘othering’ which locates
them in a marginalized position results in them being treated with hostility by
government officials, ignored for their contribution to educational development in South
Africa and being fearful, prone to xenophobic attitudes and behavior in schools and
society.
PANEL 58
LEAVING
BEHIND
THE
DISPLACEMENT:
CONDITIONS
FOR
DURABLE
SOLUTIONS (II).
1. Nathan Toews: Psychosocial support by the Colombian Anabaptist church to
promote healing in the midst of forced displacement
The integration of a clinical understanding of trauma treatment presented by Judith
Herman in her book, Trauma and Recovery: the aftermath of violence – from domestic
abuse to political terror (1992) with community-based psychosocial programs provides a
more integrated understand of trauma healing for people in situations of forced
displacement. Through a deductive qualitative analysis of ten semi-structured interviews
this paper examines the role Anabaptist churches have in promoting healing in the lives of
those living in forced displacement. Participants for the research were chosen using a
criterion sampling strategy based on their situation of continuous forced displacement and
for their current participation in an Anabaptist church. While Anabaptist church
programs do not focus specifically on trauma healing or provide clinical services for
trauma treatment, the research participants´ experience suggests there is evidence that the
church programs and services provide spaces for healing to happen in the midst of
Continuous Traumatic Stress (CTS). The analysis of the interviews is based on Judith
Herman´s framework of healing involving three stages of recovery: safety, recognition and
reconnection. This framework is also the basis for two practitioner oriented guides in the
field of peacebuilding: The Little Book of Trauma Healing by Carolyn Yoder (2005) and
Psychosocial Healing: A Guide for Practitioners by Paula Gutlove and Gordon Thompson
(2003). The juncture between psychology and peacebuilding represented in these works
provides a basis for demonstrating what healing can look like in situations of societal
trauma such as in the context of forced displacement in Colombia.
2. Hyojin Im: An Interpretive Study of Meaning of Peace and Conflicts among
Somali Refugees in Kenya: Evaluation of Peace Education Programme in Dadaab
Refugee Campk
The Dadaab refugee camp, located in Northeast Kenya nearby Somali border, is notorious
for meager conditions of living and insecurity due to protracted refugee situations for over
two decades. Violent conflicts, in part due to congestive living and conflicts transmitted
from the home country, have become a chronic living condition among refugees in
Dadaab, which often take place in the form of domestic and sexual violence and conflicts
among clans and ethnic groups. Given such critical conditions, it is important to explore
101
refugees’ understanding of peace and root cause of conflicts and to evaluate efforts on
peace-building and conflict resolution among refugees. The current study is to assess
Peace Education Programme (PEP) that was initiated by UNHCR and implemented by
National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) in Dadaab, while identifying gaps and
further needs for strengthening PEP. Based on six focus groups (three female and three
male groups), each of which consists of 15-16 refugee peace facilitators and peace
education teachers, this study explores the perceived causes of conflicts in both home
country and refugee camp, meaning of peace, and impact of PEP on the community. It
will also discuss additional needs and gaps of PEP, such as assistance with resettlement
and repatriation, and high demand in trainings and staff support. The identification of the
needs of refugees and their expectations of PEP suggest potential next steps for the PEP
and other peace-building and conflict resolution programs for forced migrant
communities.
3. Isabel Ruiz: Economic Consequences of Displacement Camps
During the 1990s an estimated 800,000 people were forced out of their communities by the
Burundian army and placed into camps, a policy known as “regroupment”. Those in
regroupment camps were referred to as regroupés and the regroupment camps were often
called “protection sites” as the military argued that the local population was being
protected from rebel attacks (Martin, 2003). By all accounts movement to these camps was
involuntary and enforced by the use of force (or the threat of force) on the part of the
military (Martin and Hiddleston, 2006). These camps lacked food, water, shelter and basic
sanitation but once in a regroupment camp individuals were not allowed to leave freely
and leaving without authorization would make them military targets (Amnesty
International, 1997).
There has been little analysis of the medium- and long-term implications of forced
migration. This lack of analysis affects our understanding of the consequences of forced
displacement and, more important, it limits the potential effectiveness of humanitarian
and developmental policies. This paper explores the long-term consequences of the
regroupment policy. By focusing on regroupment, our analysis avoids the self-selection
problem typically present in exploring the impacts of camp residence. Households that
experienced regroupment are less likely to own livestock and to have crop and livestock
production for subsistence as their main economic activity. This pattern could be the
consequence of displacement camp residence affecting previous agricultural skills and
resulting in fewer transfers of agricultural skills across generations.
PANEL 59
FORCED MIGRATIONS AND THE CONSTRUCTION
PROTECTION IN BRAZIL – DURABLE LESSONS TO BE
STATES IN THE REGION?
OF
HUMANITARIAN
LEARNED BY OTHER
Brazil has long been regarded as a regional leader in the field of forced migration,
especially due to the adoption of the “spirit of Cartagena” in its legislation and actions in
relation to refugees. It has been praised both for its internal actions (e.g. Law 9474/97 on
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the status of refugees) and for internationally proposing new approaches to the most
pressing regional issues on the topic (such as the resettlement in solidarity initiative
adopted in the Plan of Mexico on the 20th anniversary of Cartagena). The aim of this panel
is to analyze whether the reflexes of the Cartagena Declaration have been extended to the
Brazilian practice of forced migration beyond the refugee regime. This proposal stems
from recently adopted measures by Brazil that can be said to constitute complementary
protection aimed at securing protection for people that have been displaced for
humanitarian reasons but that do not – in the assessment of Brazil – qualify for refugee
status.
The most relevant examples are the treatment of Haitians (environmentally displaced
people), Syrians (who have been granted humanitarian visas) and the on-going
construction of a regime for victims of human trafficking. Each of this scenarios is the topic
of one of the papers that compose the proposed panel, which is completed with a fourth
contribution on security zones, aimed to analyze whether Brazil could adopt humanitarian
actions focused on protection outside its territory.
In this sense the proposed panel combines both the focus on the Cartagena Declaration
and on forced migration and peace of IASFM 15, as all of the actions adopted by Brazil for
humanitarian protection are taken in these contexts. It also congregate a few of IASFM 15
themes, especially the ones that deal with forced migration in the context of peace (in the
topics of environmentally displaced people and victims of human trafficking), regional
responses to the forced exodus (as Brazil has been a regional leader with its national
practices followed by other States in the region), and durable solutions (in the topics of
complementary protection and humanitarian protection for forced migrants).
The papers are been developed by post-graduate students supervised by professors that
have been studying the topic of international law, international relations and human
rights. The idea is to have all the papers presented in Spanish so as to, on the one hand,
assert the fact that this is research done in Latin America, with a focus on the regional,
and, on the other hand, to honor the location of the IASFM 15. The panelists will the
students writing the paper (José Carlos Loureiro, Ricardo Burratino Félix, Arisa Ribas
Cardoso e Elisa Moretti Pavanello) assisted by prof. Danielle Annoni.
It is believed that with the assessment of the conduct of Brazil, steaming from its
commitment to the Cartagena Declaration, it is possible to ascertain positive developments
in humanitarian protection in the region as well as to point out shortcomings that, if
corrected, can assist in developing a more humane humanitarian space in Latin America,
which was the core foundation of Cartagena Declaration.
1. The protection of Environmentally Displaced Persons in Brazil: an adequate form
of protection?. José Carlos Loureiro and Liliana Lyra Jubilut .
The topic of environmentally displaced persons has gain momentum in Brazil with the
arrival of significant numbers – at least from the emigration perspective of Brazil – of
Haitians to the country after the 2010 earthquake and the 2012 hurricane Sandy. In light of
said arrivals it became necessary to seek a migratory solution to these forced migrants,
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especially in relation to their migratory status in Brazil. Guided by a restrictive
interpretation of the concept of refugee – either in relation to the meaning of persecution
or to the concept of gross violation of human rights – the Brazilian government does not
recognized that people being displaced due to environmental challenges can have refugee
status, the only humanitarian protection institute for forced migrants legally wellestablished in the country. Despite this, and aiming to guaranteeing some form of
protection, Brazil has created a form of a humanitarian complementary protection to
Haitians: through a resolution (resolution 97 of January 12, 2012) adopted by an
administrative body - the National Immigration Council (Conselho Nacional de
Imigração), Brazil has started to grant permanent resident visas to Haitians. It is, thus,
necessary to ascertain (i) whether this treatment and migratory solution to
environmentally displaced persons is adequate or not, (ii) if it can be regarded as an
effective state policy for environmentally displaced persons (even if created exclusively for
Haitians), or (iii) if it constitutes a means to avoid debating and embracing the topic of
environmental humanitarian protection. These assessments are the goals of the present
paper.
2.
Brazil´s actions in the humanitarian protection of Syrians. Ricardo Burrattino
and Félix Alcindo Gonçalves
The purpose of this article is to analyze the Brazilian contribution to the protection of
Human Rights on the humanitarian crisis in Syria, regarding the granting of humanitarian
visas, through the dialogue held in the spirit of the Cartagena Declaration of 1984. In
March 2011 the Syrians, motivated by the Arab Spring, took the streets in protests against
the regime of Bashar al-Assad, demanding democratic reform to the country. The Syrian
government adopted extreme measures, which led to a conflict that still persists after
almost three years and currently intensifies. In Brazil, a growing number of Syrians has
arrived in the country in order to seek asylum. According to international procedures and
to the Brazilian refugee legislation, Law 94747/97, asylum claims in Brazil can only be
lodged from within the national territory. Due to the difficulties faced by the Syrians in
order to achieve the required documents to enter in Brazil, the National Committee for
Refugees - CONARE published on September 20th, 2013, the Normative Resolution 17,
which grants the appropriated visa, addressing the humanitarian needs, to forcibly
displaced persons affected by the Syrian armed conflict. The study attempts to reveal the
migratory flow caused by the Syrian conflict, which results in a large number of refugees.
Therefore, the study also provokes questions about the effectiveness of the measures taken
by Brazil, highlighting the importance of the cooperation between the States to protect the
Human Rights on the current humanitarian crises.
3. The protection of human trafficking victims in Brazil. Arisa Ribas Cardoso and
Danielle Annonni
Human trafficking is an illegal action present throughout the world, including in Brazil.
The Palermo Protocol against Human Trafficking was ratified by Brazil in 2004. Despite
this, the national legislation was not yet modified accordingly to combat the crime and
protect the victims. Thus, this article pursuit to analyze the existing and possible
protection to the victims of human trafficking in Brazil, demonstrating its shortages and
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weaknesses, especially concerning the foreign victims, and pointing out possible
alternatives, in accordance with the International Human Rights Law and the International
Refugee’s Law. For this, initially are presented the characteristics of the crime, particularly
in Brazil, and indicated the rights and obligations of the country to the victims in
accordance with the Palermo Protocol. Then, the existing national legislation and political
measures are identified and assessed. Finally, the possible alternatives for the protection of
the victims in Brazil, in accordance with the International Human Rights Law and the
International Refugee’s Law, to which the country is compromised, are brought forward
and analyzed. The conclusion of the study indicates that Brazil has a weak framework
protection for the human trafficking victims, but, as it is committed with international
human rights treaties, with a proper interpretation, it is possible to find mechanisms to
protect these vulnerable human beings.
4. Brazil´s assistance in establishing safety zones for the Protection of internally
displaced people. Elisa Moretti Pavanello and Alice Fushako Itani.
This paper sets out to assess the possibility of assistance by Brazil as Protecting Power to
establish safety zones aimed at protecting protection internally displaced people, based on
the third paragraph of article 3 of the IV Geneva Conventions (1949). This provision
determines the possibility to create a special agreement between the State and the rebel
armed forces agreeing to bring into forces all or parts of the other provisions contained in
this Convention. One of the provisions would be article 14 that determines that a State, in
this case, Brazil, would play the role of Protecting Power to guarantee the interests of the
parties to the conflict. Thus, the special agreement would allow Brazil to lend its good
offices and to facilitate the institution and recognition of safety zones to protect the civilian
population from the effects of internal conflict, especially internally displaced people. The
choice for the safety zones instead of neutralized zones or demilitarized zones, lays on the
fact that the former has a permanent duration, while the latter two would have a shorter
existence, an important aspect since the duration of the civil conflicts tends to be long.
Furthermore, safety zones would contribute to preserving family ties, professional, social
and cultural relations, i.e. the identity of the persons, as they would remain in their
country of origin. Whether or not this solution can be implemented by Brazil especially in
relation to other Latin American states with internally displaced population is the aim of
this paper.
PANEL 60
FORCED MIGRATION IN PEACE TIME
1. Raquel Celis y Oscar Pulido: Los Grandes proyectos de desarrollo en el origen del
desplazamiento. Repensando la migración forzada. Conclusiones del estudio de
caso del Quimbo y reflexiones desde el contexto
A partir del estudio de la repercusión de la construcción de la represa de El Quimbo, en el
río Magdalena, se pretende compartir algunas conclusiones sobre los impactos de grandes
proyectos de desarrollo en el desplazamiento de las personas y comunidades.
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La concepción de un desplazamiento como forzado se rige por los instrumentos de
protección que definen a una persona como refugiada o merecedora de otro tipo de
protección internacional o como desplazada interna. Sin embargo, no existen criterios
claros que permitan definir o delimitar cuando una violación de derechos humanos podría
constituir una migración forzada. No todos los instrumentos recogen las mismas causas
(aquellos que se refieren al desplazamiento interno son más amplios) y muchos
movimientos migratorios son categorizados como voluntarios o económicos sin un análisis
completo.
El objetivo último es proponer un debate en torno a la necesidad de consensuar una
definición inclusiva de la migración forzada que tenga en cuenta la violación de derechos
económicos, sociales y ambientales en el origen de las causas. La idea es avanzar hacia la
caracterización de la violación de derechos grave o sostenida o sistemática como
constitutiva de un desplazamiento o migración forzada.
Esta ponencia es fruto de un trabajo de investigación orientado a evidenciar la
invisibilización de las causas que fuerzan al desplazamiento en el contexto de desarrollo
global, denunciar la progresiva ‘migratización’ del asilo en Europa y avanzar en la
construcción de un concepto inclusivo más acorde con los insumos que ofrece el Derechos
Internacional de los Derechos Humanos. Para ello se ha tomado como referencia el caso
colombiano, estudiando el impacto del El Quimbo y el origen de la migración colombiana
residente en el País Vasco (Estado español).
2. Sanjula Weerasinghe and Abbie Taylor: Responding to Non-Nationals Caught in
Natural Disasters and Conflict
In times of peace, when natural and human-made disasters strike, as well as situations of
conflict, non-nationals face difficulties accessing protection and assistance because there
are no clear mechanisms or frameworks that clearly delineate responsibilities of different
actors—be it states of origin, destination or transit, employers, international organizations
and civil society. Hurricane Sandy, the 2011 floods in Thailand, the triple disaster in Japan,
as well as conflicts in Libya and Syria, are situations in which non-nationals—regular and
irregular migrant workers, stateless populations, victims of trafficking, refugees and
asylum seekers, and others—are among those most seriously affected.
Importantly, following the 2013 UN High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and
Development the US and the Philippines constituted a working group, comprised of,
among others, Costa Rica, to develop, through a consultative process a set of voluntary
guidelines to better prepare for, respond to, and protect the dignity and rights of, nonnationals caught in a limited set of circumstances.
Using desk research from the aforementioned cases, this presentation/paper seeks to
provide an overview of the challenges faced by, the needs of, and responses towards, nonnationals when they are caught in disasters or conflict in countries that are not their own.
Among the themes to be covered are:
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1.
The diversity of movements or lack of movements (trapped populations);
2.
Particular vulnerabilities of non-nationals and different categories of non-nationals
vis-à-vis nationals;
3.
Protection needs across phases (i.e. pre-crisis, during crisis and following crisis);
4.
Harmful and promising practices by different actors;
5.
Efforts and responses towards these populations; and
6.
Non-nationals caught in other situations of crises including criminal violence
Given the thematic focus of the presentation on addressing forced movements and
protection needs of non-nationals caught in disasters and conflict, this presentation relates
most directly to Track 3: Forced Migration in the Context of Peace, and also Track 5:
durable solutions, as the presentation will also touch upon a new State-led initiative to
address this issue.
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