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Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:46:18 GMT
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Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Decades of armed conflict, natural disasters and climate change, have given rise to sizable populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) throughout Africa. On October 23, African heads of state and government signed a legally binding convention on internal displacement, which as Andrew Solomon notes, demonstrates their commitment to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of IDPs, to facilitate durable solutions and to ensure that millions of people are no longer excluded from society as a whole.
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Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Massive displacement of people within and across borders has become a defining feature of the post-cold war world. It is also a major feature of human insecurity in which genocide, terrorism, egregious human rights violations and appalling human degradation wreak havoc on civilians. Though there has been a critical shift in thinking at the international level with regards to forced displacement, Cohen and Deng argue that concepts of sovereignty as responsibility and the responsibility to protect remain far ahead of international willingness and capacity to enforce them.
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Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Since 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor has issued four criminal indictments, carefully navigating turbulent national and international political waters. In each case, the timing of the indictments has elicited much controversy, particularly regarding their potential impact on peace agreements or ongoing negotiations. According to Jacqueline Geis and Alex Mundt, at issue is a fundamental debate over whether peace and justice can be pursued simultaneously.
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Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:30:00 GMT
Event Information:
- March 25, 2009, 12:30 PM to 01:30 PM
Brookings expert Elizabeth Ferris and Senior Politico Editor Fred Barbash took questions about humanitarian issues in Iraq and Darfur as well as the ICC's arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omara Hassan al-Bashir in this week’s edition of the Scouting Report.
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Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Throughout the Muslim world, millions of people have been forced to flee their homes and communities for many reasons, including both conflicts and natural disasters. This massive displacement of people affects both national development plans and individual human development, affecting relationships between countries, UN Security Council discussions, and peace processes. In short, as Hady Amr and Elizabeth Ferris argue, understanding—and resolving—displacement is central to development, peace, and security.
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Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Though there are important similarities in the impact of prolonged displacement on the lives of IDPs and refugees, there are also significant differences in their situations -- particularly when it comes to solutions. While return is often the desired solution for both IDPs and political actors, Alex Mundt and Elizabeth Ferris argue that local integration and return should not be seen as mutually exclusive alternatives, as they can encourage IDPs to build new lives elsewhere without having to give up the possibility of an eventual return.
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Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:30:00 GMT
Event Information:
- September 26, 2008, 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM
On September 26, the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement will host a discussion of the effect of the possible indictment on peace and justice, and potential impact on humanitarian and peacekeeping operations in Darfur and on the ICC itself.
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Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT
At first glance, the reaction of humanitarian actors on the ground in Darfur to potential indictments of the Sudanese president Omar Bashir seems pretty obvious. Darfur's 2.5 million internally displaced people, the 4.2 million in need of food assistnace and the 17,000 or so humanitarian workers would make easy targets for an angry Sudanese government. But like everything in Darfur, Elizabeth Ferris explains, the situation is more complicated than it seems at first glance.
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Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- June 27, 2008, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM
On June 27, the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement hosted a discussion with representatives from the Sudanese government; Lynn Fredriksson, Africa advocacy director for Amnesty International USA; and Pamela Fierst, a member of the Sudan policy group at the State Department, to examine Sudan’s 2005 peace agreement and to explore the ways in which it has been successfully implemented and the areas in which challenges still exist.
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Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Darfur has been on the international agenda for the past four years despite the advocacy campaigns, the growing public awareness, the large and expensive relief operations, and (eventual) Security Council action. Despite these efforts, as Elizabeth Ferris points out, the war is far from over.
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Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Despite the UN resolution creating an international peacekeeping force for Darfur with 26,000 troops, the force has been unable to fully deploy into the region. Brookings expert Roberta Cohen discusses the difficulties surrounding the deployment with Stephanie Hanson of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- February 05, 2008, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Gonzalo Vargas-Llosa, a senior policy adviser from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, participated in a discussion on the current realities in Darfur. He was joined by experts Colin Thomas-Jensen, a policy adviser with the ENOUGH Project, and Paul Miller, Africa adviser with Catholic Relief Services. Elizabeth Ferris, senior fellow and co-director of the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, moderated the discussion.
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Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Debates within the human rights and humanitarian communities have centered on the numbers who have died in Darfur, the use of the term genocide, the efficacy of military versus political solutions and the extent to which human rights advocacy can undermine humanitarian programs on the ground.
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Thu, 09 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Commentary by Roberta Cohen (8/9/07)
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Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Policy-makers and experts in America and Europe are increasingly concerned about the growing role of China’s oil companies in Africa. Erica Downs contends that Chinese oil companies are not trying to “lock up” Africa’s oil to meet China’s own needs for energy.
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Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Statement by Roberta Cohen at Harvard University's Committee on Human Rights Studies (3/15/07)
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Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Interview with Roberta Cohen, Radio Times (12/11/06)
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Tue, 10 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Interview with Roberta Cohen, Council on Foreign Relations (10/10/06)
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Fri, 29 Sep 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Over the past decade, peacekeeping forces have been increasingly called upon to play critical protection roles in humanitarian emergencies around the world. They are no longer confined to the traditional role of monitoring ceasefires between nations but are thrust into the midst of civil wars and called upon to protect civilian populations, among them IDPs.
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Mon, 04 Sep 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Erica S. Downs, BusinessWeek (9/4/06)
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Wed, 01 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT
The African Union has been struggling in Darfur to alleviate what has been called the world's "worst humanitarian disaster." Brookings expert Roberta Cohen and William G. O'Neill argue that the efforts aimed at protecting the 3.5 million people considered by the UN to be at risk--half the population of Darfur--has become a test case for African peacekeeping.
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Wed, 01 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT
On May 5th, one of Darfur's main rebel groups signed an agreement with the government of Sudan following African Union mediation efforts backed by the U.S. and European governments. But it is questionable whether the Abuja accord will protect the people of western Sudan from genocidal acts of war by their own government and the Arab militias (the Janjaweed) it supports.
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Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Sudan is a nation whose identity has been divisively distorted but which is now striving to rediscover itself, albeit in a tragically violent way. The silver lining, Francis Deng argues, is that a more constructive search for an identity framework around which Sudanese could unite may be within reach.
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Thu, 26 May 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Article by Roberta Cohen, Forced Migration Review (May 2005)
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Fri, 25 Feb 2005 10:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- February 25, 2005, 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
A Judicial Issues Forum discussion among leading experts on the calamity in Darfur and the international community's failure to empower a suitable war crimes tribunal. The session reviewed the gravity of the situation in Sudan, the controversy over efforts to grant jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court, and the limited potential of other options—such as turning to the Rwanda genocide tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, as an alternative.
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Sun, 06 Feb 2005 00:00:00 GMT
More than 300,000 people have died in Darfur from starvation, disease and violence during the past two years. Brookings expert Roberta Cohen asks how many more deaths will be tolerated before the international community will act.
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Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Francis Deng argues that the rebellion in Darfur cannot be viewed in isolation from events elsewhere in Sudan.
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Thu, 05 Aug 2004 00:00:00 GMT
Roberta Cohen argues that the United States should press France to act on Darfur, as a July 25 editorial advocated, but it also should seek action from China.
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Fri, 21 May 2004 00:00:00 GMT
What is being called the world's greatest humanitarian disaster today is occurring in Sudan, 10 years after the genocide in nearby Rwanda. Arab militias (the "Janjaweed"), backed by the Sudanese government, are carrying out deliberate mass murders, deportations, rapes, and abductions of black Africans, belonging to the Fur, Massaalit, and Zaghawa farming communities, in the western province of Darfur. Roberta Cohen argues that, as in Rwanda before, the international community still has no effective means of stopping the violence.
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Mon, 01 Dec 2003 00:00:00 GMT
Statement by Francis M. Deng (December 2003)
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Fri, 01 Nov 2002 00:00:00 GMT
When conflicts start, some people are lucky enough or have the means to cross into another country, becoming part of the worldwide refugee population and receiving help from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. However, those who do not cross a border receive no such assistance and remain the responsibility of their national government. A government, that as Roberta Cohen points out, could be the cause of the displacement or ambivalent toward it.