Volume 6 (No 1-2)

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    A lack of legal frameworks for internally displaced persons impacted by climate change and natural disasters: Analysis of regulatory challenges in Bangladesh, India and the Pacific Islands
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) McNeill, Isaac ; Amin, Asma-Al ; Son, Giwoong ; Karmacharya, Swasti
    The issue of internal displacement of persons (IDPs) due to climate change (CC) and natural disasters (ND) is an area of global concern. With the increasing impacts of CC and ND (henceforth written as CC-ND), forced displacement and relocation are the only cogent solutions, but at huge physical, economic, and psychological costs, causing imbalances in well-being. However, despite the recognition and efforts directed towards addressing climate change and tackling its impacts, the pathways to safe relocation and, possibly, avoiding displacement are still restricted by barriers for a majority of vulnerable populations who are directly exposed to and affected by the harsh impacts of CC, ND, and displacement. This study uses a comparative case study approach to critically examine the patterns of internal displacement due to the compounding impacts of CC-ND in Bangladesh, India and the Pacific Islands, and also examines the impact on the well-being of IDPs. Furthermore, the study also attempts to critically examine the legal frameworks of each of these case studies to identify their relevance and note any gaps in addressing the issue of CC-ND induced internal displacement. Finally, it attempts to make policy recommendations to better respond to this issue.
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    An examination of the protection of the rights of internally displaced persons in Europe: From the Kampala Convention and the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement to a European convention
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Aliozi, Zoi ; Dor, Stav ; Gscheidlen, Anne Sophie ; Passuello, Chiara ; Drnovsky, Adam
    At a time when violence and climate change are causing the displacement of millions of individuals globally, this article argues that the protection of the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs) should be put at the top of the European agenda. In light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is more important than ever that Europe creates its own legal protection framework. This article addresses the two major drivers of internal displacement, climate and conflict, and their impact on the rights of IDPs. It examines the existing framework of IDP protection in humanitarian law, the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, the African Union’s Kampala Convention, and the existing case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) pertaining to IDPs’ rights. Through a human rights lens this article analyses both the merits and gaps of existing frameworks from which a European convention must learn. Using climate justice, intersectionality and psychological approaches, inter alia, it elaborates on various shortcomings identified in the areas of climate-induced displacement, mental health and the protection of vulnerable groups of IDPs, on which a European framework on IDP protection must expand. The goal of this article is to examine the above-mentioned issues not only in the context of current challenges but also in relation to future developments, since we will see further increases in internal displacement due to both armed conflict and climate change.
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    Child rights strategic litigation on deprivation of liberty for migration-related reasons: Review of selected cases in Asia and Europe
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Altafin, Chiara
    The position of children deprived of liberty for migration-related reasons entails key challenges to children’s rights and “child rights strategic litigation” (CRSL) emerges as one way to tackle them while feeding more broadly into national and international advocacy efforts. Litigation practice in this regard has emerged on the issue of deprivation of liberty in the third decade after the coming into force of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article analyses some pertinent litigation efforts undertaken in Asia and Europe. In considering selected case-law (already decided or in the process of litigation) at both national and international/regional levels, it addresses the main issues arising in relation to migration detention and children’s rights, how this litigation has been done, the actors involved, the legal standards employed, and eventually the courts’ reasoning. Concluding remarks for a children’s rights preparedness are articulated, reflecting on the pivotal importance of stakeholders’ approaches towards litigation strategies that are consistent with children’s rights and aim to advance children’s enjoyment of their rights, in order to contribute effectively to tackle such a harmful practice and bring changes against it. It is thus argued that CRSL can be a valuable means to advance access to justice for migrant children.
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    Climate displacement and the relevance of climate justice: A trend analysis of South Africa, Zimbabwe, South Sudan and Liberia
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Jegede, Ademola Oluborode ; Yeakula, Gerald Dan ; Ater, Justin Monyping ; Nare, Mosupatsila Mothohabonoe ; Fengu, Zanele Christine
    Displacement is a major consequence of climate change being faced by populations in Africa, as shown in the experiences of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Liberia and South Sudan. As a response to the injustices and inequalities experienced by vulnerable communities, the concept of climate justice has featured in academic writings and international policy documents on climate change. However, its reflection and application in domestic legal frameworks to the specific situation of climate-induced internal displacement in Africa are scant in academic engagement. Using a doctrinal approach in engaging with existing writings and instruments on displacement and climate justice, the study interrogates the extent to which the legal framework in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Liberia and South Sudan may apply in achieving climate justice for displaced persons. The study demonstrates that whereas there is a recognition of climate justice as a legal response to climate-induced internal displacement in international law, much remains to be achieved in terms of the reflection and application of the existing legal framework at the domestic level. It then makes specific recommendations on how to strengthen existing instruments to achieve climate justice for displaced persons.
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    COVID-19 highlights need for feminist human rights approach to ensure socio-economic gender equality
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Ocana Noriega, Gema
    Economics and human rights have never been close friends. Human rights advocates have rarely engaged with financial systems. Economists, in turn, seldom consider human rights principles. However, COVID-19 intensified the need for mutual cooperation to safeguard the most disadvantaged, particularly women, who have suffered disproportionate negative socio-economic impact from the pandemic, which accentuated female overrepresentation in frontline health and public sector employment as well as unpaid caring responsibilities. This article examines a series of UN reports and other research which contend that inherent economic gender bias and neoliberal financial austerity policies unduly damage women’s socio-economic rights. It recommends that human rights principles be combined with comprehensive feminist economic analysis in order to achieve gender equality and afford women more financial security in preparation for future crises.
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    COVID-19 must accelerate African push for universal healthcare
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Mayamba, Johnson
    “The greatest injustice is the lack of access to equitable healthcare” Dr Martin Luther King Jr. In a bid to achieve equitable healthcare in Africa, a total of 46 African states met in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2001. In what came to be known as the Abuja Declaration, each African state pledged to commit 15 percent of public expenditure to health. More than two decades since the Declaration was signed, only two African countries have reached this target, leaving vast swathes of the continent vulnerable to emerging health crises such as Ebola and COVID-19. Poor response and management is exacerbated by unpreparedness due to lack of research and under-developed infrastructure. Limited healthcare funding has also led to other challenges such as exploitation of patients, especially by private health providers, who see public health crises as money-making opportunities. Unfortunately, even those entrusted with managing public funds dedicated to the response and management of these crises have resorted to corruption. Whilst we tentatively celebrate having finally survived COVID-19, Africa needs to learn lessons from its past and plan for a better future. Firstly, by increasing government funding towards the health sector and secondly by addressing other still-existing challenges to equitable healthcare. This article recommends building resilient healthcare systems; adopting individual and group participation in decision-making processes; and ensuring there is Universal Health Coverage. All these must start with political will and good leadership.
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    Decades of wars in Iraq and Yemen and the protracted displacement crisis: The impact on women and children
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Ait Youssef, Iasmin ; Wangle, Kai
    Decades of armed conflict in Iraq and Yemen have forced millions of Iraqis and Yemenis to flee their homes, with most of them becoming displaced within their own countries. When displacement decreases living standards, increases protection needs, reinforces harmful gender stereotypes and perpetuates socioeconomic disadvantages, women and children, who make up 80 percent of the world’s Internally Displaced Person (IDP) population, are particularly vulnerable. Unlike refugees, who cross an international border, IDPs do not benefit from special protection under international law, leaving individual states as the most important actors in upholding the rights and meeting protection needs of IDPs. For this reason, both Iraq and Yemen have adopted national policies addressing internal displacement based on the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, a non-binding set of standards which outline the protections available and establish best practice regarding IDPs. This paper seeks to examine the main impacts of internal displacement on women and children in Iraq and Yemen in four key areas: (1) security, (2) health, (3) education and (4) livelihood; it outlines how poor outcomes in each adversely affect the others and increase the likelihood of displacement becoming chronic. It further seeks to analyse the two countries’ respective national policies on internal displacement and the humanitarian response through their impacts in the above areas on the most vulnerable IDP communities, namely women and children. It finds that while the countries’ respective IDP policies are a vital first step in addressing the issue, the ensuring of protection needs and rights of IDPs in Iraq and Yemen will require more resources, stable administration, corridors for humanitarian aid and for both countries to hold themselves to their own commitments.
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    Dominican Republic border wall: Concrete symbol of centuries-long anti-Haitian ideology
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Fernández Bravo, Ezequiel
    This article examines ongoing challenges of racism and discrimination through the lens of the long troubling history of xenophobic persecution of Haitians by the neighbouring Dominican Republic. It analyses the latter’s prejudicial two-tier migration policy toward Haitians; on one hand, ostensibly excluding them, on the other, admitting those it requires for cheap unregulated labour in sectors such as construction and agriculture but denying them and their descendants rights and citizenship. In particular, it focuses on current Dominican President Luis Abinader’s mammoth construction of a heavily fortified boundary wall stretching the entire length of the border with Haiti – a powerful emblem of the “othering” of Haitians as dangerous Black pagan usurpers of African origin while fostering the perception of “legitimate” Dominicans as white Catholic Hispanics. Setting this amid the worldwide context of the relationship between unequal distribution of wealth and a global hierarchy of migration based on race, the article calls on human rights activists inside and outside the Dominican Republic to stand together and renew efforts to dismantle the structural racism upon Haitians.
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    Editorial
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2022) Altafin, Chiara ; Vyas, Ravi Prakash
    This is the eleventh issue of the Global Campus Human Rights Journal. It consists of eight articles resulting from a special cooperation with the GC Human Rights Preparedness Blog which has provided a valuable platform for innovative and inclusive conversations within the Global Campus network and beyond. In this regard, this blog generally invites contributors to explain the ways in which protecting, respecting and fulfilling human rights is vital in meeting the challenges of pandemics and other emergencies, or to imagine how human rights could be better prepared for such challenges in view of where, how and why human rights have failed or done less well than anticipated. Seven articles are based on shorter contributions previously published by Global Campus alumni acting as regional correspondents for the aforementioned blog after having been trained by Rosie Cowan, a member of the blog editorial team. The eighth article is written by the lead editor of the blog. All these articles provide insights into different topics from a rights-based approach taking into account that there are lessons to be learned from the past and preparations that can be made for the future.
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    Emergency response to the war in Ukraine: The role of state and non-state actors in supporting IDPs
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Bdoyan, Kristine ; Gerasymenko, Yevgen ; Khvasevich, Volha ; Kyselov, Oleksandr ; Oliveira, Nuno
    War has broken out in Europe once again, threatening the peace of nations and their people. The Russian Federation, on 24 February 2022, invaded the territory of Ukraine, starting a full-scale armed conflict that triggered serious repercussions for the civilian population. This study aims to investigate the emergency response to the initial wave of internal displacement through analysis of what humanitarian aid was supplied by state and non-state entities according to the obligations accepted and the situation on the ground. The data was collected by scrutinising reports, articles, regulatory acts and other relevant publications. Interviews with experts and internally displaced persons were conducted to generate insights and validate findings. The investigation highlights the insufficiency and lack of capacity of the Ukrainian state response in providing essential assistance to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), and reveals the obstacles to people’s movement as they searched for security. Civil society, in its turn, maintained an essential role in the humanitarian response, providing their possible assistance and solutions wherever the state failed. The lack of coordination of the existing means and the lack of empowerment of civil society organisations did not facilitate the necessary emergency, as the most needy were even more vulnerable under conditions where lines of communication were scarce. Tentative recommendations on strengthening the response capacities include adoption of the binding international covenant, detailing emergency provisions in the domestic law, granting power to a focal point for IDP protection, and facilitating administrative arrangements that empower the population and the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) alike.
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    Global Campus Human Rights Journal, Volume 6 No 1
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) [...]
    This volume of the Global Campus Human Rights Journal is a collection of articles on internal diplacement in the context of armed conflict and violence with climate change and disasters in various regions of the world. This was the theme of the Global Classroom in 2022, organised every year by Global Campus of Human Rights.
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    Global Campus Human Rights Journal, Volume 6 No 2
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) [...]
    This is the eleventh issue of the Global Campus Human Rights Journal. It consists of eight articles resulting from a special cooperation with the GC Human Rights Preparedness Blog which has provided a valuable platform for innovative and inclusive conversations within the Global Campus network and beyond. In this regard, this blog generally invites contributors to explain the ways in which protecting, respecting and fulfilling human rights is vital in meeting the challenges of pandemics and other emergencies, or to imagine how human rights could be better prepared for such challenges in view of where, how and why human rights have failed or done less well than anticipated. Seven articles are based on shorter contributions previously published by Global Campus alumni acting as regional correspondents for the aforementioned blog after having been trained by Rosie Cowan, a member of the blog editorial team. The eighth article is written by the lead editor of the blog. All these articles provide insights into different topics from a rights-based approach taking into account that there are lessons to be learned from the past and preparations that can be made for the future.
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    How energy injustice fuels Middle East conflict and human rights abuses
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Embaby, Khadija
    The abundance of Middle East oil reserves has shaped global politics for decades. United States foreign policy in particular is driven by the desire for energy security and efforts to safeguard this have inversely fuelled conflict and instability in the Middle East. Oil also plays a major role in European foreign policy, the importance of which has been intensified by the Russia Ukraine war which now threatens the continuity of Russian oil and gas supplies. Moreover, tension and inequalities within and between Middle Eastern oil-importing and oil-exporting countries have greatly contributed to human rights abuses in the region. Now is the time for the international human rights community to adopt an energy justice framework which acknowledges and considers compensation for harms committed by oil industry giants and the violent politics of oil.
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    Human rights preparedness and protracted ongoing emergencies
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Annamalai, Visalaakshi
    The terms “emergency” and “refugee” often conjure up images of short-term crises quickly resolved by one-off aid efforts and people who will be able to return home at some stage in the near future. However, many emergencies around the world continue for decades and those fleeing them struggle to exist in conditions totally unsuited for the long haul. In Asia Pacific alone, Afghanistan, Tibet and Sri Lanka are all suffering ongoing long-term emergencies with tens of thousands of citizens bringing up new generations in exile: many are denied basic human rights such as citizenship, education and the ability to make a living in their host countries, not to mention the steady erosion of their cultures and traditions. With economic crashes and climate change amongst the many reasons people may flee their countries of origin in order to survive, this article recommends that the global community broadens its definition of refugees and imaginatively redesigns its approach to human rights preparedness in face of ever-increasing movement of peoples migrating from varied and complex long-term emergencies.
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    Hydropower plants in the Western Balkans: Protecting or destroying nature?
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Funa, Ana
    Urgent action is needed to save humanity from the consequences of global warming. The energy sector, especially coal-fired power plants in the Western Balkans, are amongst the worst polluters and contributors to CO2 emissions in Europe, therefore the switch to renewables is essential. Hydropower was seen as an attractive replacement with 3,000 hydropower plants (HPPs) planned between Slovenia and Turkey. However, with most of these earmarked for protected natural areas, the resulting damage to the environment, especially to fragile river ecosystems and dependent biodiversity, is hugely disproportionate to investment, particularly given HPPs’ negligible contribution to electricity production and lack of benefits for local communities. Activists and scientists across the Balkans have succeeded to some extent in highlighting the negative impact of HPPs. However, governments in the region must do more to diversify into alternative renewable energy sources and to protect nature for future generations.
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    Keynote "Internal displacement: opportunities and challenges in a world of mobility and vulnerabilities"
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Jimenez-Damary, Cecilia
    Keynote address by Cecilia Jimenez-Damary - UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) - at the Conference on Internal Displacement, for the GC Global Classroom 2022, University of Pretoria, South Africa, 30 May 2022.
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    Russian anti-war activists continue feminist tradition of opposing violence
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Koltsova, Maria
    Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several anti-war movements have been organised in Russia or by Russian emigrants abroad. One of them is Feminist Anti-War Resistance—a horizontal feminist organisation creating online and offline protest actions against the war in Ukraine. The article tells the story of the activists and explains why feminist ideas are so important in opposing the war.
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    The enigma of internally displaced persons in Latin America and the Caribbean: An inquiry into natural disasters and climate-change-related displacements in The Bahamas, Honduras, Peru and Brazil
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Fernández Bravo, Ezequiel ; Scaramutti, Mayra A. ; Feitosa, Mayra A. ; Bertolone, Gina ; Suarez Lucián, Dahyana
    This article seeks to approach internal displacement induced by climate-change-related disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) through four local analyses. The general objective of the work is to cover how the four selected countries Honduras, The Bahamas, Peru and Brazil deal with this type of internal displacement legally and pragmatically, in order to understand whether or not it is a significant issue to local governments. Specifically, the article aims to expose how different groups of people experience internal displacement in each of the settings, and to show whether public policies consider those individualisations. Finally, this is qualitative research developed as a bibliographic study through descriptive and documental techniques.
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    The intersection of internal displacement in the context of armed conflict and violence with climate change and disasters
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Atim, Teddy
    The Global Classroom is one of the flagship international activities of the Global Campus of Human Rights, the aim of which is to bring together students, professors and experts from all its regional programmes. The Classroom conducts team research on a topic of current interest for all the regions involved, and this is studied, analysed and discussed through the lenses of different regional perspectives in a week-long conference. The discussion is enriched with the participation of experts including representatives of states, United Nations (UN) agencies and civil society organisations (CSOs). The uniqueness of this annual event lies in the possibility of understanding key regional perspectives and deepening the study of global human rights and democracy challenges. Since 2014, it has become an established practice to link the Global Classroom event to the annual Global Campus (GC) research programme. The benefit of this is the opportunity for students, academics and experts to interact in an open lively forum and provide inputs which could feed into the research programme and enrich its findings. The 2022 Global Classroom was hosted by GC Africa and coordinated by the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights in Pretoria, South Africa, from 30 May to 4 June 2022. This year's Global Classroom research theme was internal displacement. Students from the GC regional programmes came together to present their work on internal displacement to an audience made up of experts from academia, government agencies, UN and CSOs. Notably, the event was attended by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
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    The socio-economic status of internally displaced people in South East Europe: The cases of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Simić, Marina ; Berezina, Alisa ; Ivaneža, Nataša ; Psaroudakis, Stamatis ; Vasilić, Veronika
    The aim of this paper is to shed light on the 30-year problem of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the former Yugoslavia, specifically in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. While the number of IDPs is in decline, the problem and its consequences are felt by many. In this paper we will present the social, political and economic context of IDPs in these three case studies by analysing the existing legal framework and policies. In particular, we will focus on violations of the fundamental human right to an adequate standard of living, the complex dilemma of choosing between return and integration, and socio-economic discrimination against IDPs.