54 research outputs found
The Future of U.S. Detention under International Law: Workshop Report
The International Committee of the Red Cross Regional Delegation for the United States and Canada, the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, and the Stockton Center for the Study of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College recently hosted a workshop titled Global Battlefields: The Future of U.S. Detention under International Law. The workshop was designed to facilitate discussion on international law issues pertaining to U.S. detention practices and policies in armed conflict. Workshop participants included members of government, legal experts, practitioners and scholars from a variety of countries. This report attempts to capture the main debates that arose in each session
The analytical framework of water and armed conflict: a focus on the 2006 Summer War between Israel and Lebanon
This paper develops an analytical framework to investigate the relationship between water and armed conflict, and applies it to the âSummer Warâ of 2006 between Israel and Lebanon (Hezbollah). The framework broadens and deepens existing classifications by assessing the impact of acts of war as indiscriminate or targeted, and evaluating them in terms of international norms and law, in particular International Humanitarian Law (IHL). In the case at hand, the relationship is characterised by extensive damage in Lebanon to drinking water infrastructure and resources. This is seen as a clear violation of the letter and the spirit of IHL, while the partial destruction of more than 50 public water towers compromises water rights and national development goals. The absence of pre-war environmental baselines makes it difficult to gauge the impact on water resources, suggesting a role for those with first-hand knowledge of the hostilities to develop a more effective response before, during, and after armed conflict
Shortâ and longerâterm impacts of Child Friendly Space Interventions in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement, Uganda
Alastair Ager - ORCID 0000-0002-9474-3563
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9474-3563Karin Diaconu - ORCID 0000-0002-5810-9725
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5810-9725Background
The establishment of Child Friendly Spaces (CFSs) has become a widespread intervention targeting protection and support for displaced children in humanitarian contexts. There is a lack of evidence of impact of these interventions with respect to both shortâterm outcomes and longerâterm developmental trajectories.Methods
We collected data from caregivers of Congolese refugee children residing in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement at three timepoints. To assess shortâterm impact of CFSs, we compared indicators assessed shortly after refugeesâ arrival (baseline, T1) and endline (T2, three to six months after CFS implementation) amongst 430 CFS attenders and 161 nonattenders. Followâup assessments after the end of CFS programming were conducted 18 months postâbaseline (T3) with caregivers of 249 previous CFS attenders and 77 CFS nonattenders.Results
In the shortâterm, attendance at CFSs was associated with better maintenance of psychosocial wellâbeing (PSWB; β = 2.093, p < .001, Cohen's d = .347) and greater increases in developmental assets (β = 2.517, p < .001, Cohen's d = .231), with significantly stronger impacts for girls. CFS interventions meeting higher programing quality criteria were associated with greater impact on both PSWB and development assets (β = 2.603 vs. β = 1.793 and β = 2.942 vs. β = 2.337 for attenders at higher and lowerâquality CFSs c.f. nonattenders, respectively). Amongst boys, benefits of program attendance were only indicated for those attending higherâquality CFS (β = 2.084, p = .006 for PSWB). At followâup, however, there were no discernable impacts of prior CFS attendance on any measures. Age and school attendance were the only characteristics that predicted an outcome â developmental assets â at followâup.Conclusions
Attendance at CFSs â particularly involving higherâquality programming â supported children's wellâbeing and development. However, sustained impact beyond active CFS programming was not demonstrated. Intervention goals and strategies in humanitarian contexts need to address the challenge of connecting children to other resources to facilitate developmental progress in conditions of protracted displacement.This research was funded by World Vision International and Elrha's Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) Programme (elrha.org/r2hc), which aims to improve health outcomes by strengthening the evidence base for public health interventions in humanitarian crises. At the time of the award supporting this study, the R2HC program was funded equally by the Wellcome Trust and the UK Department for International Development.https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.1306960pubpub1
Urban warfare ecology: A study of water supply in Basrah
This article assesses the impact of armed conflict on the drinking water service of Basrah from 1978 to 2013 through an âurban warfare ecologyâ lens in order to draw out the implications for relief programming and relevance to urban studies. It interprets an extensive range of unpublished literature through a frame that incorporates the accumulation of direct and indirect impacts upon the hardware, consumables and people upon which urban services rely. The analysis attributes a step-wise decline in service quality to the lack of water treatment chemicals, lack of spare parts, and, primarily, an extended âbrain-drainâ of qualified water service staff. The service is found to have been vulnerable to dependence upon foreign parts and people, âvicious cyclesâ of impact, and the politics of aid and of reconstruction. It follows that practitioners and donors eschew ideas of reliefârehabilitationâdevelopment (RRD) for an appreciation of the needs particular to complex urban warfare biospheres, where armed conflict and sanctions permeate all aspects of service provision through altered biological and social processes. The urban warfare ecology lens is found to be a useful complement to âinfrastructural warfareâ research, suggesting the study of protracted armed conflict upon all aspects of urban life be both deepened technically and broadened to other cases
From Obligation to Action: Advancing Victim Assistance and Environmental Remediation at the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
- âŚ