AbstractWhile the Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) regime was formally introduced in October 1999 by the Howard Government, the concept of temporary protection was not totally alien to the Australian humanitarian landscape. Earlier examples reflected a standard use of temporary protection as a complementary or interim protection mechanism, offering short‐term group‐based protection where individual assessment under the 1951 Convention was both impractical and untimely. This paper focuses on the wider and more controversial changes in the use of temporary protection mechanisms that were to follow with the introduction of the TPV in 1999, which offered substitute protection for individually assessed Convention refugees who had arrived onshore without valid travel documents. It examines the history and evolution of the TPV policy regime from 1999 to the announcement of its abolition in 2008, arguing that the introduction and subsequent development of the policy may be understood as a product of a conservative, exclusionist political climate in Australia, following the unprecedented impact of the populist One Nation party in 1998, and later, the impact of September 11th. It also examines later amendments to the regime as a response to growing domestic disquiet about the impacts of the policy, and the abolition of the TPV policy under a new Australian government elected in late 2007.
AbstractThis article investigates how – by breaking with the historical double standards regarding civilian protection in conflicts – by the end of the twentieth century, US warfare has come to comply with International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Yet, civilians are still being killed. This has sparked controversies over what constitutes legitimate targeting practices and as to whether higher levels of civilian protection could be achieved. Through an engagement with these debates, including an exploration of the evolution of the norm of non-combatant immunity with specific reference to US warfare, the article argues that IHL does not provide fully satisfactory answers to these issues as it is too permissive in relation to the killing of civilians. The article proposes that more stringent moral guidelines, such as those underpinning the idea of 'due care', have the potential to go much further in providing protection for the innocent in war.
AbstractRefugees and asylum seekers face challenges after arriving in a host country. They carry the trauma that they may have experienced in their countries of origin, during fight, and in countries of asylum. Other stressors impact on their adjustment after arriving in the United States including basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. This is a retrospective review of data collected as part of a needs assessment by a program, which serves survivors of torture and refugee trauma. Asylum seekers (n=65) and refugees were compared (n=30). Asylum seekers were more apt to be from Africa (p<.001), need family reunification (p=.027), speak more languages (p<.001), suffer from political persecution (p<.001), move from place to place due to not having a permanent place to live (p=.031), and be unable to contribute to the rent (p<.001). Unadjusted, asylum seekers were also more likely than refugees to have gone to bed hungry in the previous two weeks (p<.001) or since arriving in the United States (p<.001). Refugees were more likely to be eating more food now than before feeing, and asylum seekers the opposite (p<.001). Being an asylum seeker made one 3.7 times more likely to suffer from food insecurity than being a refugee, and 5.3 times more likely to not have work authorization. Among asylum seekers, adjusting for gender, age, education, lack of permanent housing, English fluency, and self‐reported health status, not having work authorization made one 5.6 times more likely to suffer from hunger. Independently, being a torture survivor made one 10.4 times more likely to suffer from hunger. Asylum seekers must wait 150 days before applying for asylum in the United States. For humanitarian reasons, mandatory‐waiting periods for work authorization for asylum seekers should be eliminated.
AbstractEpisodes of urban violence, particularly those inflected by religious sectarianism, have a particular dynamic of ordering urban spaces and identity publics, not just during the episodes themselves but long after. Using sketches of urban violence in Lebanon (Beirut) and India (Delhi and Ahmedabad), this article focuses on an emerging phenomenon associated with such episodes — one that orders city spaces around rehabilitative activities in such a way that these spaces, in both material and experiential terms, bear an integral relationship with aspects of religious activity. Religiously motivated aid practices, channeled through faith‐based relief organizations, enumerate vulnerable populations and circumscribe their continued survival within bounded spatial entities, especially in those contexts where long‐term 'secular' or state‐sponsored rehabilitative effort is lacking. These processes of emplacing religiously marked populations in urban environments suggest the potential for a religiously coded bio‐politics, or a practice of governmentality that puts agents other than the state in a position of exerting power over continued social life. The three sketches variously illustrate how the intertwining of religion with survival within contemporary urban socio‐spatial formations suggest powerful intimacies between religion and individual or community life, which at the same time make place for alternative claims of governance, security and citizenship.RésuméLes épisodes de violence urbaine, notamment s'ils sont teintés de sectarisme religieux, présentent une dynamique particulière de classement des espaces urbains et des publics identitaires, à la fois pendant les événements et longtemps après. À partir de scènes de violence urbaine survenues au Liban (Beyrouth) et en Inde (Delhi et Ahmedabad), cet article s'intéresse à un phénomène qui se dessine conjointement et ordonne les espaces de la ville autour d'activités de réinsertion de sorte que ces espaces comportent, tant en termes matériels que d'expérience, une relation intrinsèque avec certains aspects d'une activité religieuse. Des aides motivées par la religion, dispensées par des organismes d'assistance aux fondements religieux, recensent les populations vulnérables et confinent leur survie future dans des entités spatiales circonscrites, notamment si les efforts de réinsertion à long terme "laïcs" ou financés par l'État sont insuffisants. Ces processus d'implantation de populations étiquetées sur le plan religieux laissent entrevoir la possibilité d'une biopolitique codifiée par la foi, ou d'une pratique de gouvernement qui permet à des agents autres que l'État d'exercer un pouvoir sur la pérennité de la vie sociale. Les trois événements illustrent diversement comment l'intrication entre religion et survie au sein de formations socio‐spatiales urbaines contemporaines sous‐entend de puissantes proximités entre religion et vie communautaire ou individuelle, lesquelles laissent simultanément le champ à des revendications alternatives en matière de gouvernance, de sécurité et de citoyenneté.
This article studies the antisweatshop movement's involvement in global social justice responsibility-taking. The movement's growth (more than one hundred diverse groups) makes it a powerful force of social change in the new millennium. The rise of global corporate capitalism has taken a toll on political responsibility. As a response, four important movement actors—unions, antisweatshop associations, international humanitarian organizations, and Internet spin doctors—have focused on garment-production issues and mobilized consumers into vigilant action. The authors examine these actors, their social justice responsibility claims, and their views on the role of consumers in social justice responsibility-taking. The authors determine four paths of consumer action: (1) support group for other causes, (2) critical mass of shoppers, (3) agent of corporate change, and (4) ontological force for societal change. The authors find that the movement mobilizes consumers through actor-oriented and event-specific (episodic) framing and offer a few results on its ability to change consumer patterns and effect corporate change.
Geneva is the living proof of openness toward the world, and the spirit of Geneva often perceived as a hope for humanity. Reinforcement of international humanitarian action is a Swiss priority, and at the base of an analysis on the future of Geneva, demanded by the Swiss government in 2006 of l'Institute Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales (IUHEI = Academic Institute of Higher International Studies). The results of this analysis: renewed efforts to defend and promote the aspect of Geneva's international humanitarian actions, the world capital of human engagement, in particular through an annual forum on humanity that will receive new NGO's in order to stimulate actions in civil society and the reinforce Geneva as a place of dialogue, meeting-point, and negotiations. Furthermore, formal training and effectiveness of humanitarian actors will be promoted, as well as academic excellence and the development and promotion of international law. The article expresses the need for an increase in efforts in risk prevention regarding natural and technological disasters, multiplied by 3 and 5 respectively since 1985, and a strengthening of bonds between prevention, preparation, and the response to catastrophes. Adapted from the source document.
In Colombia, private companies cultivating African palm oil for use as biofuel are preventing displaced communities from recovering their land. Adapted from the source document.