Most wars are now civil wars. Even though international wars attract enormous global attention, they have become infrequent and brief. Civil wars usually attract less attention, but they have become increasingly common and typically go on for years. This report argues that civil war is now an important issue for development. War retards development, but conversely, development retards war. This double causation gives rise to virtuous and vicious circles. Where development succeeds, countries become progressively safer from violent conflict, making subsequent development easier. Where development fails, countries are at high risk of becoming caught in a conflict trap in which war wrecks the economy and increases the risk of further war. The global incidence of civil war is high because the international community has done little to avert it. Inertia is rooted in two beliefs: that we can safely 'let them fight it out among themselves' and that 'nothing can be done' because civil war is driven by ancestral ethnic and religious hatreds. The purpose of this report is to challenge these beliefs.

Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy

Forced migration - including refugee flows, asylum seekers, internal displacement and development-induced displacement - has increased considerably in volume and political significance since the end of the Cold War. It has become an integral part of North-South relationships and is closely linked to current processes of global social transformation. This makes it as important for sociologists to develop empirical research and analysis on forced migration as it is to include it in their theoretical understandings of contemporary society. The study of forced migration is linked to research on economic migration, but has its own specific research topics, methodological problems and conceptual issues. Forced migration needs to be analysed as a social process in which human agency and social networks play a major part. It gives rise to fears of loss of state control, especially in the context of recent concerns about migration and security. In this context, it is essential to question earlier sociological appr...

Towards a Sociology of Forced Migration and Social Transformation

Research carried out with survivors of a variety of different traumata indicates that a large proportion of them perceive positive changes in themselves after the trauma. This study investigated whether posttraumatic growth also could be found among people who had been exposed to particularly severe traumata over a period of several years (1991 to 1995) during the war in the area of the former Yugoslavia. Included in the study were two representative samples of adult former refugees and displaced people who lived anywhere in former Yugoslavia before the war and were currently living in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, three and a half years after the war. The main instrument was a new Bosnian translation of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Results indicated some differences in the factor structure as compared with the original instrument. The overall means for the scale were considerably lower than reported in most studies on other kinds of trauma. Younger people reported considerably more growth than older people.

Posttraumatic growth after war: a study with former refugees and displaced people in Sarajevo.

This fourth edition of David P Forsythe's successful textbook provides an authoritative and timely analysis of the place of human rights in an age of upheaval in international politics Human rights standards are examined at the global, regional and national levels, with separate chapters on transnational corporations and advocacy groups Completely updated and revised, the fourth edition takes account of new sources and recent scholarship, as well as recent events, such as the Syrian war, the rise of ISIS, refugee flows, South Sudan crises, and the resurgence of nationalism A new chapter has been added on the media and human rights, covering both traditional and social media Examining attempts to protect human rights by various actors, such as the United Nations, the European Union, transnational corporations, and the media, the book stresses that the open-ended fate of universal human rights depends on human agency in this context Containing further reading suggestions and discussion questions, this textbook is a vital resource for courses on human rights in an international context

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Human Rights in International Relations

In this study we explore why persons flee their homes to become refugees and internally displaced persons. We contend that individuals will tend to flee when the integrity of their person is threat...

Sometimes You Just Have to Leave: Domestic Threats and Forced Migration, 1964-1989

Since the end of the Cold War, increasing numbers of people have been forced to leave their homes as a result of armed conflict, internal strife, and systematic violations of human rights. Whereas refugees crossing national borders benefit from an established system of international protection and assistance, those who are displaced internally suffer from an absence of legal or institutional bases for their protection and assistance from the international community. This book analyzes the causes and consequences of displacement, including its devastating impact both within and beyond the borders of affected countries. It sets forth strategies for preventing displacement, a special legal framework tailored to the needs of the displaced, more effective institutional arrangements at the national, regional, and international levels, and increased capacities to address the protection, human rights, and reintegration and development needs of the displaced.

Masses in Flight: The Global Crisis of Internal Displacement

The coerced displacement of people within the borders of their own countries by armed conflicts, internal strife, and systematic violations of human rights has become a pervasive feature of the post Cold War era. The plight of the displaced poses a challenge that is not only humanitarian but a threat to the security and stability of countries, regions, and, through a chain effect, the international system. This book contains case studies of ten countries that have suffered severe problems of internal displacement: Burundi, Rwanda, Liberia, and the Sudan in Africa; the former Yugoslavia and the Caucasus in Europe; Tajikistan and Sri Lanka in Asia; and Colombia and Peru in the Americas. The contributors are Thomas Greene, Randolph C. Kent, Jennifer McLean, Larry Minear, Liliana Obregon, Amir Pasic, Hiram A. Ruiz, Colin Scott, H.L. Seneviratne, Maria Stavropoulou, and Thomas G. Weiss. Additionally, the contributors and editors offer recommendations for further action.

The forsaken people : case studies of the internally displaced

Natural disasters, particularly those related to climate change, are fast becoming a leading cause of forced displacement although conceptual, normative and institutional frameworks to provide human rights protection to the environmentally displaced 1 are not yet in place. This article discusses the human rights and protection dimensions of disaster-induced displacement, identifies the major challenges to protecting disaster victims, and proposes ways forward. The authors argue that while most environmentally displaced persons are expected to remain within their own countries, there is a lack of clarity about the status and protection needs of those uprooted by environmental degradation and other ‘slow-onset’ disasters as opposed to those displaced by ‘sudden-onset’ disasters. By far the biggest protection gap exists for those who cross borders. These individuals do not generally qualify as refugees under the 1951 Refugee Convention, there is no normative framework to address their specific needs and vulnerabilities and States have not been willing to commit to more than temporary protection on an ad hoc basis. The need is now critical for new approaches to be developed for the environmentally displaced, including expanded normative and institutional frameworks, comprehensive national policies, national and international monitoring, rights training, and more effective ways of dealing with governments that fail to protect their populations.

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Disasters and Displacement: Gaps in Protection

A pressing new problem came onto the international agenda at the end of the cold war, persons forced from their homes by conflict and human rights violations who remain uprooted and at risk within the borders of their own countries. The international system created after the Second World War to protect and assist refugees, people who flee across borders, did not extend to internally displaced persons (IDPs). Over the past fifteen years, substantial efforts have been made to create an international system to respond to the needs of the world's 20 to 25 million IDPs, but a long way remains to go in resolving issues of sovereignty, legal frameworks, institutional arrangements and strategies to protect people under assault in their own countries.

Developing an International System for Internally Displaced Persons

Conflict situations around the world regularly compel the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations to become involved in assisting both refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). In West Darfur Sudan UNHCR is helping tens of thousands of refugees from Chad as well as hundreds of thousands of IDPs both fleeing their homes and communities from military attacks and in desperate need of food shelter and protection. Across the border in Chad IDPs and refugees also face many of the same threats and problems. The similarities in the predicament of refugees and IDPs prompted UK Secretary of State for International Development Hilary Benn to ask Is it really sensible that we have different systems for dealing with people fleeing their homes dependent on whether they happen to have crossed an international border? (excerpt)

Roberta Cohen

Papers

Masses in Flight: The Global Crisis of Internal Displacement

The forsaken people : case studies of the internally displaced

Disasters and Displacement: Gaps in Protection

Developing an International System for Internally Displaced Persons

Response to Hathaway