Thematic review on the coverage of women in Country of Origin Information (COI) reports

Background and context. Production of Country of Origin Information (COI). Country of Origin Information (COI) is an integral part of asylum decision-making in the UK and is used at all stages of the Refugee Status Determination (RSD) process to assess applications for refugee status or other forms of international protection (Morgan et al. 2003; IAS 2009; IAS 2010; Tsangarides 2010). It informs decision makers and legal advisers about the political, social, cultural, economic, and human rights situation of a particular country as well as humanitarian situations (Chief Inspector UKBA 2011). COI can enable decision makers to assess if an individual‘s subjective fear is based on objectively adverse circumstances, and therefore whether an asylum claim is well founded. It can also be used to assess the risk for individuals on return to their country of origin.1 The Country of Origin Service (COIS) produces a range of products that focus on human rights issues and matters frequently raised in asylum and human rights claims. They are compiled from material produced by a wide range of external information sources such as the United Nations agencies, human rights organisations, governmental and non-governmental organisations, and news media. Sources of information can include both published and unclassified material

Islands and despots

This paper challenges a conventional wisdom: that when discussing political systems, small is democratic. And yet, can there be paradises without serpents? The presumed manageability of small island spaces promotes and nurtures dispositions for domination and control over nature and society. In such dark circumstances, authoritarian rule is a more natural fit than democracy. By adopting an inter-disciplinary perspective, this paper argues that small island societies may be wonderful places to live in, as long as one conforms to a dominant cultural code. Should one deviate from expected and established practices, the threat of ostracism is immense. Formal democratic institutions may and often do exist, and a semblance of pluralism may be manifest, but these are likely to be overshadowed by a set of unitarist and homogenous values and practices to which many significant social players, in politics and civil society, subscribe (at least in public).peer-reviewe

Alternatives to independence: explorations in post-colonial relations

This book examines post-colonial relations in three French overseas departments, Reunion, Martinique and Guadeloupe. This highly original form of relationship is based on the argument that decolonisation can be achieved through equal citizenship within a single state (France), rather than through the equality of separate national states. The author looks at the implications of political integration for the islands' economic, social and political development, in addition to the implications of being part of the European Community in the Third World. Chapters also examine the unsettled colonial question of French Guyana, and the evolution of Franco-Algerian relations, with special reference to immigration and decolonisation. Finally, post-colonial liberation and human rights is discussed from a feminist-humanist perspective. -H.Clou