Home is Where the Heart Is? Forced Migration and Voluntary Return in Turkey's Kurdish Regions

What influences the decisions of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return home after prolonged displacement? This article investigates the attitudes of victims of forced migration by analysing survey data on Kurdish displaced persons and returnees in Turkey. In an attempt to give a voice to displaced persons, we survey the conditions under which IDPs return home despite continuing tensions, lack of infrastructure and risk of renewed violence. The findings suggest that integration into a new environment in Western Turkey, measured by economic advancement and knowledge of Turkish, reduces the likelihood of return. Yet contrary to conventional wisdom, more educated IDPs demonstrate a stronger desire to return to their ancestral communities, suggesting that education increases available options for displaced persons. The findings are relevant in informing global responses to forced migration as well as understanding the local experiences and perceptions of IDPs in conflict ridden societies

Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution: Africa — Regional Strategies for the Prevention of Displacement and Protection of Displaced Persons: The Cases of the OAU, ECOWAS, SADC, and IGAD

This Article seeks to examine the preparedness of certain African regional actors to protect displaced persons in times of armed conflict, and to prescribe formulas to strengthen the capabilities of such actors. The objective is to assess the conflict maintenance capacities of African regional actors and their partners to provide physical and legal protection to displaced persons in times of armed conflict, and likewise to recommend strategies to increase protection

Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons, And International Humanitarian Law

The fact that war is the primary cause of people being uprooted prompts us to ask what protection the law of armed conflict affords refugees and displaced persons. How does humanitarian law protect groups of civilians from being forced to flee? What protection does it offer those who have nevertheless been uprooted, and how does that protection interrelate with refugee law? How can the Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations, in particular the International Committee of the Red Cross (“ICRC”), come to the aid of refugees and displaced persons? These are the questions this Article aims to answer. First, however, let us recall what international humanitarian law is

Swój „Obcy”. Wewnętrzni uchodźcy w Gruzji

Strangers in their own country. Internally Displaced Persons After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia participated in the armed conflicts over South Ossetia (1991-1992 and 2008) and Abkhazia (1992-1993). As a consequence, Georgia had to accept forced displaced persons. The following thesis focuses on the Abkhazian conflict, its causes and effects. The thesis is based on the analysis of the specific situation of IDPs which has gone on since 1993. The thesis describes the living conditions and prospects of the group of Abkhazian Georgians who were displaced within the territory of their own country and became internally displaced persons

War and Homelessness

The war in Afghanistan, and the resulting increase in the number of refugees and internally displaced persons, focuses our attention on homelessness at an international level. This policy paper represents an effort to examine homelessness created as a direct result of war, and to recommend ways to reduce conflict and prevent war

Internally Displaced Persons

There were estimated to be over 20 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the end of 1999, a number that surpasses global estimates of refugees. Displacement exposes IDPs to new hazards and accrued vulnerability. These dynamics result in greater risk for the development of illness and death. Often, access of IDPs to health care and humanitarian assistance is excluded deliberately by conflicting parties. Furthermore, the arrival of IDPs into another community or region strains local health systems, and the host population ends up sharing the sufferings of the internally displaced. Health outcomes are dismaying. From a health perspective, the best option is to avoid human displacement. WHO contributes to the prevention of displacement by working for sustainable development. Placing health high on the political agenda helps maintain stability, and thereby, reduce the likelihood for displacement. Primary responsibility for assisting IDPs, irrespective of the cause, rests with the national government. However, where the government is unwilling or unable to provide the necessary aid, the international humanitarian community must step in, with WHO playing a major role in the health sector. There is consensus among the partners of the World Health Organization (WHO) that, in emergencies, the WHO must: 1) take the lead in rapid health assessment, epidemiological and nutritional surveillance, epidemic preparedness, essential drugs management, control of communicable diseases, and physical and psychosocial rehabilitation; and 2) provide guidelines and advice on nutritional requirements and rehabilitation, immunisation, medical relief items, and reproductive health. If the vital health needs of IDPs—security, food, water, shelter, sanitation and household items—are not satisfied, the provision of health services alone cannot save lives. Community participation is essential, and community participation implies bolstering the assets and capacities of the beneficiarie

Ensuring Electoral Rights of IDPs in Local Elections

У статті розглянуто проблемні питання забезпечення виборчих прав внутрішньо переміщених осіб на місцевих виборах; зазначено, що такі права є базовими у контексті міжнародних стандартів щодо захисту прав людини, закріплених на рівні ООН, Ради Європи. Виборчі права внутрішньо переміщених осіб не повинні бути дискриміновані. Досліджено спеціальне законодавство щодо статусу прав внутрішньо переміщених осіб та виборче законодавство, судову практику щодо включення внутрішньо переміщених осіб до реєстру виборців. Визначено проблемні питання щодо реалізації таких прав внутрішньо переміщених осіб. Зазначено, що відсутність законодавчого механізму реалізації виборчих прав внутрішньо переміщених осіб на місцевих виборах негативно відбивається на можливості судового захисту таких прав. Ситуація, що склалася, призводить до фактичної дискримінації політичних прав ВПО. Аргументовано доцільність внесення відповідних змін у національне виборче законодавство. Досліджено досвід Азербайджану, Грузії, Республіки Молдова, Боснії та Герцеговини щодо забезпечення виборчих прав внутрішньо переміщених осіб. Запропоновано механізм реалізації виборчих прав таких осіб, який повинен враховувати особливості їх. У зв’язку з тим, що підставою набуття статусу ВПО є довідка тимчасово переміщеної особи,і саме у цьому документі визначається місце фактичного проживання такої особи, запропоновано визнати цей документ підставою для внесення внутрішньо переміщеної особи до списку виборців відповідної територіальної громади. Запропоновано у подальшому створити Державний електронний реєстр виборців, до якого внесення даних про таких осіб здійснювати у автоматичному режимі. Аргументовано доцільність закріплення у виборчому законодавстві норми, відповідно до якої внутрішньо переміщена особа в певний строк до дня виборів повинна вказати, за яким місцем реєстрації буде здійснювати голосування на певній виборчій дільниці.The article deals with the problematic issue of voting rights of internally displaced persons in local elections; states that these rights are fundamental in the context of international standards of human rights set forth at the UN, Council of Europe. Voting rights of internally displaced persons should not be discriminated against. Studied specific legislation on the status of the rights of internally displaced persons and electoral legislation, judicial practice to include internally displaced persons in the register of voters. Identified areas for the implementation of the rights of internally displaced persons. It is noted that the absence of a legal mechanism for implementing voting rights of internally displaced persons in the local elections a negative impact on the possibility of judicial protection of such rights. This situation leads to actual discrimination political rights of IDPs. Argued advisability of making appropriate changes in national electoral legislation. The experience of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina to ensure the voting rights of internally displaced persons. The mechanism of realization of voting rights of such persons, which should take into account the peculiarities of them. Due to the fact that the ground is becoming a reference IDPs displaced persons, and it is in this document defined the place of residence of the person proposed to accept the document the basis for the introduction of internally displaced persons in the voter list of the territorial community. A further create public electronic register of voters, which entering data on such persons to carry out automatically. Argued feasibility consolidation in the electoral legislation norms according to which the internally displaced person in a certain period before the election should indicate for which registration point will be to vote in a particular polling station

Protecting Internally Displaced Persons in Kosovo

In early September 1998 a New York Times correspondent in Prishtina reported: As many as 40,000 ethnic Albanians, mostly women, children and old men, were trapped today on a dirt road south of here in western Kosovo as they tried to flee an advancing Serbian armored column, a United Nations official said. These images, and the subsequent ones of tens of thousands of Kosovars literally camping under sheets of plastic or branches in the forests of Kosovo shook all observers. Then followed the images of massacred families, and an eyewitness account by a survivor of one of these massacres prompted the major powers to take some stronger political action

Preaching at Weddings and Funerals

(Excerpt) In his book, Grace Notes and Other Fragments, Joseph Sittler wrote: Most ministers are aware that it is a tough and delicate labor to insert the lively power of the Word of God into the rushing occupations and silent monologues of human beings. (p. 64) Two occasions at which the insertion of the lively power of the Word of God into the lives of people is a particularly tough and delicate labor are weddings and funerals. In the assemblies gathered to mark these life passages the pastor will, in many cases, be encountering a significant number of persons, perhaps a majority, with whom she/he has had no previous contact. Many in that significant number of persons may not profess faith in Christ Jesus, reject sin, and confess the faith of the Church, the faith in which we baptize. Both in our occasional service and in our Sunday assemblies there is an increasing number of persons who are divorced, alienated, displaced, or alone