23.04.2004
Resolving Refugees’ Crisis Demands Comprehensive Approach to Root Causes of Displacement
LWF Consultation Calls for Incorporation of Rights-based Approach in All DWS InterventionsMOMBASA, Kenya/GENEVA, 23 April 2004 (LWI) – The situation of African refugees must be seen as an issue with wider dimension and deeper complexity requiring a comprehensive approach to the root causes of displacement and uprootedness. “There is no clear-cut distinction between the causes nor victims,” Mr Enock Oduro, international program coordinator for Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) told participants in a regional gathering of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service (DWS).
Oduro was addressing participants in the East, North and West Africa LWF/DWS consultation, March 22-26 in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa. The meeting’s theme, “The Rights of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons,” had a special focus on a rights-based approach to displaced people’s concerns. CLWR’s refugee program coordinator Fikre Tsehai also addressed the consultation.
The CLWR representatives cited the developed countries’ commitment to an effective partnership with Africa in the framework of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD, and hoped such efforts would contribute to the sustainable return of up to 2 million refugees.
Voluntary repatriation, often the preferred solution, is not applicable if returnees flee again due to dim prospects for a peaceful and secure life. Resettlement, the CLWR representatives argued, should be considered a durable solution for refugees who have no other option. Through an agreement with the Canadian government, CLWR resettles 250 refugees annually.
An LWF partner through the DWS and Department for Mission and Development (DMD), CLWR is the development agency of the two main Lutheran churches in Canada—Lutheran Church-Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
‘September 11’ Aftermath Affects Application of Rights-based Approach to Refugee Issues in the West
But there are other concerns, the CLWR representatives explained. Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States of America there is misconception in the West that asylum seekers and refugees are criminals. This presumption poses difficulties in the application of rights-based procedures concerning the validity and legitimacy of refugees’ claims. It leads to irrational rules, which affect civil liberties and refugee rights, they argued. Oduro and Tsehai expressed CLWR’s commitment to serve refugees and immigrants and seek justice for all.
Mr Hugh Ivory, representing Lutheran World Relief (LWR), explained the organization’s approach to relief and development programs in the over 50 countries worldwide in which it is operational. In its mission and mandate, LWR focuses on people’s right to earn a living with dignity; to life and security and to have a choice in making decisions that affect their lives.
LWR is the international relief and development agency of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It provides funding to the LWF through DWS and DMD.
Mr Stein Villumstad, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) representative for East Africa, said the NCA’s strategic response to the humanitarian situation in its ten focus countries in the region is based on a concept of building human dignity. This involves ensuring security by working for peace and stability at all levels of society. He specifically mentioned combating all forms of violence against children and women; fighting the proliferation of weapons including mine clearance; and advocating for a well-trained civilian police to protect people’s rights.
Ensuring Fundamental Right to Life among Ivorian, Sudanese Refugees
The LWF/DWS Guinea program was formally established in 2001. Mr Demba Niang, the program’s coordinator, noted that although the office does not specifically apply a rights-based approach in its work, this is somewhat in-built in its projects. “By its mere presence and activities in the refugee camps of the N’Zerekore region, LWF supports the right of populations in distress to have access to humanitarian assistance, thereby ensuring protection of their fundamental right to life,” he said. The Guinea office takes care of 80,000 refugees mainly from Liberia and Ivory Coast.
The office carries out awareness-raising activities about refugees’ rights. It also fosters dialogue between the refugees and the host communities with the aim to promote peaceful co-existence including the sharing of scarce resources such as water and forests.
Mr Bobby Waddell, director of the DWS Kenya/Sudan program explained LWF’s rights-based interventions at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya. The camp was established in 1992 to accommodate Sudanese fleeing fighting between the Government of Sudan and Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). The camp currently hosts 87,000 refugees, 65 percent of whom are Sudanese. The lead implementing agency and Kakuma camp manager, the Kenya/Sudan program is responsible for water supply and distribution, logistics and food distribution, education, community services, development and security.
Waddell cited a number of challenges that lead to situations compromising the human rights of individual refugees. Shortfalls in food supply jeopardize the basic right to food, putting refugees at risk of violence in their search for alternative sources. Some cultural practices, he noted, conflict with human rights of certain refugees; a girl’s right to education may conflict with the cultural right to marry at an early age.
Heightened Human Rights Awareness among Refugees, Major Challenges Remain
Some lessons have been learnt, and there are success stories as a result of awareness raising about refugees’ rights. Addressing gender issues as well as children’s concerns from a human rights perspective has yielded results “and now gender issues are not dismissed as women’s issues, but they are seen as critical human rights issues,” Waddell said. There has been a significant change concerning sexual violence against girls and women in the camp, with 206 cases reported in 2003 compared to 1,029 in 2000. Even elderly and conservative Sudanese men “have been heard mentioning human rights in the course of case arbitration.”
Some questions remain unanswered, Waddell noted. What is the future of the current human rights awareness efforts in view of the different practices and laws in the refugees’ countries of origin? How could rights, particularly related to sexual violence against women and children be protected while maintaining cultural relativism and sensitivity?
In their recommendations, participants acknowledged the complex and diverse situations of the respective DWS programs in the East, North and West African region, and noted the lack of a clearly defined rights-based approach in humanitarian and development activities. They proposed a review of the LWF/DWS Global Strategy and Country Strategy Outlook guidelines so as to incorporate commitment to a rights-based approach for all LWF/DWS interventions worldwide.
DWS serves as the LWF’s international relief, rehabilitation and development agency, maintaining 24 service programs and emergency operations in over 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe. Ten country programs were represented at the Mombasa consultation, also attended by representatives of ten-related agencies supporting LWF’s work, and one UNHCR official. (1,114 words)
(A contribution by Kenyan-based LWI correspondent Osman Njuguna, who attended the DWS regional consultation.)
If you want to edit this article yourself and adapt it to a given format, follow our editing information
