Justice matters in Africa: the official blog of the International Refugee Rights Initiative

Dismas Nkunda and Lucy Hovil

What forms of justice meaningfully transform communities, societies and states? What does justice look like for those living with injustice? What does justice look like for a refugee who has been exiled for decades and feels utterly neglected by her homeland? How is justice experienced where theft of land during conflict has made access to livelihoods a daily grind? Continue reading →

The disappearance of Sudan?

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Lucy Hovil

A new report by IRRI launched yesterday in Addis Ababa urges Sudan and the African Union (AU) to take a new approach to resolving Sudan’s multiple conflicts and ending the ongoing suffering of its people.

The disappearance of Sudan? Life in Khartoum for citizens without rights examines the experience of people living in Khartoum State who identify themselves as being from one of the conflict-affected areas of Sudan. Based on interviews with 117 individuals, the research concentrates on those from the newly independent state of South Sudan, the (now) five Darfur states, and Southern Kordofan state. For decades, marginalisation and neglect of these areas by the government of Sudan has led to conflicts which, in turn, have further exacerbated their economic, political and cultural marginalisation. Continue reading →

Share on Facebook

Refugees as political activists: walking the tightrope

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Olivia Bueno

By Djibril Balde

On Monday May 7, 2013, the Senegalese authorities expelled Makaila Nguébla to Guinea Conakry. He is a Chadian blogger and activist who had lived in Senegal since May 2005. Following a similar incident in which a Gambian opposition member was arrested at the airport and expelled to Mali, this latest development calls into question the reputation that Senegal has enjoyed internationally since independence as a generous host country for those in flight from political oppression. It also highlights the complexities for states which grapple with fulfilling their obligations to provide asylum at the same time as maintaining diplomatic relations.

Continue reading →

Share on Facebook

New paper out: “I can’t be a citizen if I am still a refugee”

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Lucy Hovil

It is rare for countries to offer citizenship to groups of refugees, especially in the Great Lakes region where millions have been displaced. Instead, most governments wait for circumstances to change so that refugees can go back to their home country. In official refugee policy language, therefore, repatriation is typically favoured over local integration as the most desired “durable solution”.

In 2008, however, Tanzania challenged this trend. It took the bold and commendable decision to offer naturalisation to approximately 200,000 Burundian refugees who had fled their country in 1972 and had since been living as refugees in Tanzania. It was an offer that was unprecedented in scale not only in Tanzania, but across the globe. While some of this group of refugees opted to repatriate to Burundi, 162,256 took up the offer of applying for naturalisation.
Continue reading →

Share on Facebook

What next for Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui?

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Olivia Bueno

Please note that this blog was previously posted on www.katangatrial.org

Four months after being acquitted in the second trial verdict at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui is fighting to remain in Europe, having applied for asylum in the Netherlands. His claim is based on his contention that information he presented during his case in relation to the alleged role of the Congolese government in the attack on Bogoro will put him in danger if he is returned. Meanwhile, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one local group has taken controversial steps to ensure that Ngudjolo will face new charges at the national level if he returns there. Continue reading →

Share on Facebook

When Kenya coughs it is Uganda that catches a cold

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Dismas Nkunda

Today, 4^th March, Kenyans go to the polls to elect a new leader after current President Mwai Kibaki bows out. The elections are being watched with a keen eye across the world, and particularly throughout the region given the wider regional implications of its outcome. But no country in the region will be watching more closely than Uganda, and for good reason. Continue reading →

Share on Facebook

Northern-based researchers leaching the global South

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Lucy Hovil

I recently had a call from a young student who is planning to do fieldwork among a group of refugees in East Africa. She had been told by her professor she did not need to obtain official research permission from the relevant government insitution, she had no information about local government structures and protocol, and only had the most basic understanding of the highly charged political context into which she would be landing – without official research clearance.

This is only one example, and a mild one at that (at least she had asked for advice before getting onto the plane.) But for those of us who work for ‘South-based’ organisations it is hard not to be increasingly concerned about the fraught relationship between students and academics from the global north, and southern-based institutions or individuals. Although there can be a good symbiotic relationship between the two, more often than not it feels that things do not turn out that way. Continue reading →

Share on Facebook

The international community takes action on Mali

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Djibril Balde

The international community could have avoided the consequences of the crisis in Mali if they had mobilised earlier. And nothing can justify the inaction and slowness of the international and regional military deployment in northern Mali.

In January 2012, violence broke out in northern Mali when Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (MNLA) invaded Timbuktu, Kidal, Gao and a part of Mopti region. They succeeded in expelling the Malian army and proclaimed the independent state of Azawad. This then led to the Islamist groups of Ansar Dine and the MUJWA (Movement of Unity and Jihad in Western Africa) re-taking large parts of northern Mali with the support of international Islamist groups including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Tuareg rebels had previously carried out insurgencies in 1962, 1990 and 2009. Continue reading →

Share on Facebook

Reactions to the Ngudjolo Decision: Divisions among Iturian Communities

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Olivia Bueno

Please note that this blog was previously posted on www.katangatrial.org

Dear readers – please find below a commentary written by Olivia Bueno at the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) in consultation with Congolese activists. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the International Refugee Rights Initiative or of the Open Society Justice Initiative.

On December 18, 2012, local radio stations, France 24 television (see IRRI’s press review) and the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) own outreach section announced the ICC’s second verdict to the population of Ituri: Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui had been acquitted of crimes against humanity and war crimes. As reported on www.katangatrial.org, the decision turned on the failure of the prosecution to prove Ngudjolo’s effective control over the Lendu and Ngiti militias that actually carried out an attack in the village of Bogoro, which was the subject of the charges (read more here). As might have been expected, the reactions to the Ngudjolo verdict were split. In the Lendu and Ngiti communities, there was reportedly satisfaction – even celebration. In the Hema community, there was disappointment, frustration, and anger. For victims, most of whom are Hema, there was disappointment about the failure to hold Ngudjolo accountable.
Continue reading →

Share on Facebook

Darfurians in South Sudan

Link

What happens when you find you have suddenly become a foreigner in the country of your birth? This is exactly what happened to Darfurians last year who were living in South Sudan at the point at which it became the world’s newest state. As Darfur is geographically in the reduced (north) Sudan, technically they were no longer citizens in the South.

In response to this question, today IRRI is launching the Arabic version of its paper, “Darfurians in South Sudan: Negotiating belonging in two Sudans” at a discussion forum in Kampala with the Sudanese refugee community. The paper is about citizenship, identity and belonging at the moment when South Sudan seceded from the Republic of Sudan on 9 July 2011. Continue reading →

Share on Facebook

In Ituri, A Quiet Wait for the Verdict on Ngudjolo

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Olivia Bueno

This commentary written by Olivia Bueno at the International Refugee Rights Initiative in consultation with Congolese activists was initially published on the Trial of Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui blog run by the Open Society Justice Initiative. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the International Refugee Rights Initiative or of the Open Society Justice Initiative.

(December 17, 2012) On December 18, 2012, the ICC will announce the second verdict in its history against Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui. In contrast to the fear and anticipation which preceded the March verdict against Thomas Lubanga, this decision is being awaited quietly by people in the affected region of eastern DRC. Many opinion leaders are hesitant to speculate on the potential implications of the decision in the case, adopting a wait and see attitude. In the words of one community leader, “We must first observe the process up to the end.” (Il faut d’abord observer la procédure jusqu’au bout).

Why this more reserved response? Does this reflect a simple difference of approach between the leaders in the Lendu and Ngiti communities (to which Katanga and Chui belong) and their counterparts in Mr Lubanga’s Hema community in terms of willingness to engage in public outreach efforts? One activist speculated that the community was less willing to take a vocal stand because they felt more under pressure due to the more serious and extensive nature of the ICC charges against their militia leaders. Or is it linked to the fact that the Court has already delivered one judgment impacting Ituri and the experience is known? Does the fact that the Lubanga decision was received without major incident on the ground make people feel less uneasy? Continue reading →

Share on Facebook