September 02, 2010
| Melanie Teff
The Dominican government has been rightly praised for its impressive response to the earthquake in neighboring Haiti. But less attention has been given recently to its own policies regarding people in the Dominican population who have Haitian ancestry. Two weeks after the quake, the Dominican Republic changed its constitution, and took away “birthright citizenship,” where if you are born in the country you are automatically granted citizenship.
August 30, 2010
| Erin Weir
| Tagged as: Africa, DR Congo, Unfiltered
I am just getting back to the U.S. after several weeks traveling around the eastern regions or the Democratic Republic of Congo. Matt and I set out at the end of July to identify the priority issues that need to be addressed in the DRC before the UN peacekeeping mission (formerly called MONUC, and now re-named MONUSCO) begins to withdraw.
The peacekeeping mission has – in one form or another- been present in DRC for over a decade. The peacekeepers – military, police and civilians – have been tasked with protecting civilians, supporting the rag-tag Congolese military, developing good governance structures and state authority, and generally bringing stability, security and democracy to a place where all of these things are unfamiliar in the extreme.
August 26, 2010
| Dawn Calabia
| Tagged as: Climate Displacement, Pakistan, Internal Displacement, Asia, Return and Reintegration
Five years after Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf Coast,
destroying homes and leaving people desperate for food and shelter,
we are witnessing similar scenes of destruction coming out of Pakistan. Floods caused by torrential monsoon rains have affected an estimated 17 million Pakistanis while humanitarian agencies, local relief organizations, and the Pakistani government and military, struggle to provide desperately needed assistance and to reach over one million stranded victims.
August 24, 2010
| Refugees Intern...
| Tagged as: Sudan
by Agostine Ndung'u
With the clock ticking towards the historic January 2011 referenda in South Sudan and Abyei, concerns are rising among the international community that preparations on the ground are moving at a dangerously slow pace. Unless precautions are taken immediately, Sudan might just slip back into civil war. To avert this looming danger, humanitarian and advocacy organizations, like Refugees International are abuzz with activity in Washington, D.C. As an intern at RI I attended several events about Sudan this summer that give a glimpse into the concerns felt by the policy community here in Washington.
August 19, 2010
| Maureen Lynch
At the end of June, Refugees International’s Senior Advisor Dawn Calabia and I headed to the Fergana Valley, to southern Kyrgyzstan where from June 10 to 14, attacks by unknown assailants triggered violence between majority Kyrgyz and minority Uzbek communities, particularly in the urban centers of Osh, Jalal-Abad and Bazarkorgon. More than 300 people died, scores of others were injured, several thousand homes and businesses were burnt to the ground, and an estimated 400,000 people were displaced, about a quarter of who crossed into Uzbekistan as refugees but later returned. A crisis.
