The New Face of Peacekeeping

One of the more notable headlines from the past week is the arrival of the first ever all-female peacekeeping force to Liberia. The force, consisting of more than 100 Indian policewomen, has been training since September 2006. They will initially be deployed to Liberia for 6 months.

The all-female Formed Police Unit (FPU) is a welcome addition to the 15,000 peacekeepers already with the UN Mission in Liberia. The female police force will help in rebuilding the Liberian National Police (LNP). Few women in Liberia currently consider pursuing a career in the national police force. This is due to lower educational standards for women in Liberia, as well as lingering negative views of the Liberian police, who have a history of corruption and took part in fighting during the country's civil war. The hope is that the involvement of the female Indian police force and a special UN education program for women interested in joining the force can reverse this trend.

With continuing reports of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) by UN peacekeepers, including in Liberia, an all-female force will also hopefully make it easier for victims of abuse, particularly women and girls, to come forward and receive assistance. Refugees International’s own report on the topic, Must Boys Be Boys? Ending Sexual Exploitation and Abuse In UN Peacekeeping Missions, recommended that more women be included in peacekeeping missions, but noted that a “hyper-masculine culture that encourages sexual exploitation and abuse” has evolved in UN peacekeeping missions. The UN has made important steps to address the problem of SEA. However incidents are still taking place despite the UN’s official policy of zero tolerance. More needs to be done to ensure that UN staff in the field implement the rules set forth by headquarters.

An all-female peacekeeping force is an important step in combating the prevalence of SEA in UN peacekeeping missions. As this recent Washington Post article quotes, "Women police are seen to be much less threatening, although they can be just as tough as men. But in a conflict situation, they are more approachable and it makes women and children feel safer." The UN also reports that there are less incidents of SEA when there is a significant presence of female peacekeepers in a larger force.

More than 250,000 people were killed in the 14-year civil war in Liberia and an estimated 500,000 out of a population of 3 million were internally displaced. In 2005, RI conducted a mission to Liberia to look at the return of displaced persons in time for the presidential elections, which consequently saw the election of the first female president in Africa, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Our findings from that mission included the need for UN peacekeepers to do more to assist internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning home. The good news is that the majority of those who were displaced during the conflict have since returned home, but Liberia still continues to need humanitarian assistance and international support.

President's Corner: Combating Statelessness

Over the weekend I got a call from a friend whose son-in-law, an Israeli, had just been detained and charged with violating U.S. immigration laws. He had gone to renew his driver’s license in Texas and a routine search of computer records found that he had failed to renew his Green Card some 20 years ago and had been living here illegally. During that time, he raised a family, started a business and paid taxes. Also, during that time his Israeli passport expired, so he has no official documentation as a citizen of any country and no rights. For the time being, this man illustrates the plight of stateless people—he has no legal protections.

Refugees International estimates that there are more than 11 million stateless people in the world today. “Everyone has the right to nationality,” the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares, but a stateless person lacks the basic rights and privileges that citizenship confers—the right to work, access to school and healthcare, basic legal protections, and, in some countries, the right to vote. What’s more, stateless people frequently fall between the cracks of international relief efforts, as well as national development plans. In many places, they are invisible people.

Who are the stateless? Some people become officially stateless because they fail to keep up with immigration laws. This is the case of the man in Texas. If he is deported, he will reactivate his Israeli citizenship and no longer be stateless. Others belong to groups that fled their countries to escape war or persecution, have been targets of ethnic discrimination, were caught in the wrong place by history, or may be a child born to refugee parents, to migrant workers, or be of mixed parentage in countries whose laws or politics prevent their acquisition of a nationality and an identity. These groups include denationalized Kurds in Syria, Biharis in Bangladesh, Haitians in the Dominican Republic, Nubians in Kenya, Russians in Estonia, and some Palestinians.

The world paid scant attention to stateless people until two years ago, when Refugees International published a report, Lives on Hold: The Human Costs of Statelessness. That report and subsequent studies told the sad stories of stateless people.

“I am very much in love with a woman, but her father refused to allow us to marry, telling me that because I have no nationality, I have no future….To this day we both remain single,” a stateless Kurd in Syria told RI.

“There is no health, no sanitation, no education,” said a stateless Bihari in Bangladesh.

A Bidoon man in the United Arab Emirates said that being stateless is like “a boat without a port.” (In Arabic, Bidoon means “without”, and several hundred thousand stateless people in the Persian Gulf states do feel that they lack protection.)

RI has been campaigning tirelessly to combat statelessness. The U.S. State Department and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees have boosted the number of people working on statelessness. One result is that the State Department’s annual human rights report is beginning to focus on statelessness as a denial of human rights. Congress is taking an interest.

Despite increasing interest, the U.S. has not taken a leadership role on statelessness. The U.S. has not signed two key UN Conventions, the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

There are some encouraging developments. In recent years Kuwait has granted citizenship to some 40,000 Bidoons, including Bidoon husbands of Kuwaiti women. Recent media reports, however, suggest that the rights of an estimated 100,000 Bidoon in the country still cannot avail themselves of a right to an effective nationality. While Kuwait has set a good example to begin the process of reducing statelessness, there is much to be done.

Until the U.S. and other nations begin to take statelessness more seriously, countries harboring large stateless populations will feel little pressure to make citizen rights and protections available.

Photos from the Field

Although I don't travel overseas as frequently as my colleagues, one thing that helps me understand the situation that refugees face is the photos that Refugees International's staff take when they're meeting with refugees. It's one thing to read about a person who has been forced to leave their home to seek safety, it's another to actually see the faces of those people.

Yemisrach Benalfew and Sayre Nyce are highlighting their photos of refugees from the Central African Republic who are now living in southern Chad. This photo is of a mother who is currently trying to raise her children in a refugee camp there.

And Sarah Martin and Kavita Shukla have recently posted a series of photos from Northern Uganda that clearly illustrate the people who are still living in camps while they wait to see if peace talks will end the 20-year civil war between the North and the South.

Last month, Rick and Andrea also posted photos of women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who are recovering from the brutal five-year war. A professional photographer and videographer accompanied them on their mission, which made these photos all the more powerful.

Anyone want to share which photo is their favorite?

Conflict and Displacement in Nigeria

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that there are around 22,000 Nigerian refugees worldwide. Since 1999, more than 14,000 Nigerians have been killed and millions have been displaced because of violence. Accurate statistics for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria, who have been forced to flee their homes but unlike refugees have not crossed an international border, are not as readily available. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reports that it is difficult to calculate the number of IDPs in Nigeria because there has never been a systematic registration or verification of the internally displaced. In addition, many displaced persons in Nigeria return home again soon after a conflict has subsided. In the most recent report by IDMC, the number of IDPs in Nigeria is listed as ranging anywhere from 500,000 to millions.

According to IDMC, displacement in Nigeria is mainly a result of poverty and unequal access to power and resources. In the latest issue of Vanity Fair, there is an interesting article about the ongoing violence in the Niger Delta, a conflict that is literally fueled by oil and the control of resources in southern Nigeria. The majority of residents in the Niger Delta have not benefited from the decades of oil extraction by foreign oil companies. The resulting damage to the environment has also bred resentment and militancy among the local population.

Clashes between the militant group the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and the Nigerian military contributes to the instability and displacement in the region. After a wave of attacks by MEND in February 2006, one sixth of Nigeria's oil production capacity shut down. The kidnapping of foreign oil workers for ransom is a common occurrence. Dozens of people were kidnapped and some killed in the Niger Delta in 2006, with a marked increase in violence towards the end of the year. In 2007, the attacks and kidnappings continue, and MEND threatens even more violence to come.

Another important development in Nigeria that may have a significant affect on the country's stability is the upcoming election in April. If successful, the election will lead to Nigeria's first democratic hand over of power. The US Institute of Peace has just issued a report on the election entitled The Fitful Path to Democratic Citizenship. Historically, elections in Nigeria have been rife with electoral fraud. If the upcoming election is seen as unfair it may lead to politically fueled tensions and conflict. According to a 2006 report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), Nigeria’s federal system and politics are deeply flawed, which contributes to the rising violence that could push the country into chaos. Observers fear that if the run-up to the presidential election prove to be violent or divisive then thousands of people could be displaced.

At Refugees International we have been monitoring the humanitarian situation in Nigeria. Although RI has never conducted a field mission there, we continue to watch the level of displacement and violence to determine if we can have an impact through our advocacy. At the very least, we will keep tracking developments in Nigeria and highlight any important events for you.

Documenting Iraq

Last night I watched the excellent documentary Control Room, which follows the work of the Arab news channel Al Jazeera during the early stages of the current war in Iraq. As I watched the footage of the war and the interviews with Al Jazeera and American journalists and US military staff I couldn't help but think about where we now find ourselves almost 4 years later. During several points in the documentary, Al Jazeera journalists predict that the war will go on for several years, while American military officials and footage of President Bush indicate that the US was victorious in Iraq and had liberated the Iraqi people once and for all.

The instability that followed the US-led invasion in Iraq worsened dramatically this year and is leading to a huge outflow of refugees that RI is categorizing as the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world. Since our mission in November 2006 to the region, RI has issued several bulletins documenting the humanitarian situation and the needs of the more than 2 million refugees who fled Iraq. Most recently we are calling for the resettlement of the most vulnerable populations, including Palestinians and Iraqis associated with the US government or American organizations. Due to funding constraints and the lack of support from western countries, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) was only able to resettle 1,500 Iraqis in the past 3 years, while the needs of many more displaced Iraqis remain unmet.

In the last three years, the US has resettled a total of 466 Iraqis here, but the US government is finally taking notice that an international response is urgently needed for this growing humanitarian crisis. Wednesday's Senate hearing on Iraqi refugees is one positive step in this direction. RI President Ken Bacon testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on RI's findings and recommendations, specifically calling for increased funding for US Dept of State and UNHCR programs to assist the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees. In addition, several witnesses described the situation of Iraqis who were forced to flee their homes for fear of persecution.

This fall, Al Jazeera launched its first English-language station, which will offer a different perspective on international news reporting, particularly on issues like the Iraqi refugee crisis. So far American audiences can only watch the channel online since almost no cable or satellite networks are carrying it.

A Postcard from Cambodia

RI Consultant Eugene Carlson wrote the following about his visit this week to the Killing Fields in Cambodia. Eugene and RI President Emeritus Lionel Rosenblatt are currently traveling in Cambodia to meet with Phnong communities in Mondolkiri Province and assess the progress of RI-supported projects. RI has a long history of working with the Phnong, you can read more about it on our website.

If tourism is key to your nation’s economic success, and one of the most popular tourist sites is difficult to get to, it makes sense to improve access. Even if the site is one of modern history’s most horrific venues.

The Killing Fields at Choeung Ek is 15 kilometers from central Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. I drove there with a friend a couple of days ago. A visit to Choeung Ek, and its companion site in Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge’s house of torture at Tuol Sleng, is a gruesome must-see for most visitors to Cambodia.

After leaving the southern edge of the city, we bounced slowly along a deeply rutted dirt road. Tour buses coming and going from the same site, crawled slowly around deep potholes. Next to our track, however, highway crews were well along toward finishing an up-to-date paved road. In a country where road building and repair is a low priority, tourists will soon whisk from Phnom Penh to the gates of the Killing Fields in speed and comfort.

An estimated 17,000 men, women and children, marked for execution by the Khmer Rouge, were trucked to Choeung Ek. Shot or bludgeoned when bullets became scarce, their bodies were dumped in shallow pits dug among the trees of a longan orchard.

The remains of some 9,000 victims have been exhumed. Their skulls are stacked in a tall stupa, visible behind glass windows. Bone fragments are stacked in neat piles along paths that curve among three-dozen circular grassy pits where bodies were recovered.

Visitors walk slowly along the paths, lost in thought. Small butterflies flit among the trees. One lands briefly on a small stack of bone fragments near my feet. Children wave from a nearby field. All is quiet.

Except in the parking lot where the ubiquitous souvenir shop beckons. What items do you stock on your shelves for tourists who have just come face to face with genocide? Silver chop sticks. Bracelets. Ceremonial daggers. Ivory napkin holders. Sunglasses. Cotton scarves. Knock-offs of the cigarette lighters used by American soldiers in Vietnam. And, of course, tee-shirts.

Depressed by the tchotkes, I asked Kal Yan, the shopkeeper, to show me his best-selling item. He pointed to two books: First They Killed My Father, a survivor’s tale of the Khmer Rouge years by Loung Ung, and The Pol Pot Regime, by Ben Kiernan, director of Yale University’s Cambodia Genocide Project. A glimmer of good taste from the tourist trade.

President's Corner: Negotiating for Peace in Darfur

Last week I made a quick trip to Sudan with Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who went on behalf of the Save Darfur Coalition in an effort to jump start peace talks to end a four year civil war in Darfur.

We made good progress. After two meetings with the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, and meetings with several rebel leaders, the government agreed to a 60-day ceasefire if the rebel factions also agree. The rebel leaders we talked to said they wanted a ceasefire. However, since the meetings, some rebel groups have backed away from the commitment. It is now up to the United Nations and the African Union to work with government and the rebel groups to make the pledges a reality.

Other significant commitments from the government, which were summarized in a joint statement, will depend entirely on the government keeping its word. Some of these commitments involve making it easier for humanitarian workers to do their jobs in Darfur, protecting women from sexual violence, and expanding news coverage of the violence and humanitarian conditions in Darfur, where an estimated 400,000 people have died of war-related causes and 2.5 million have been displaced.

On paper the agreements between the government of Sudan and Gov. Richardson are a real step forward, but it won’t be clear for some time whether they are worth the paper they are written on. The government of Sudan has violated every ceasefire it has signed in Darfur, and the rebel groups are becoming increasingly strong and destructive.

Still, the agreements Gov. Richardson got exceeded what most people thought would be possible during the short visit. How did he do it?

First, it is very clear that groups that have accused the government of Sudan of genocide in Darfur and launched a massive public campaign against the Khartoum regime are having an impact. President al-Bashir was clearly annoyed by the Save Darfur campaign, which is running newspaper and TV ads in the U.S. to highlight the genocide and is now beginning to run the ads internationally. This is a credit to Save Darfur, as well as to student groups, editorial writers and columnists like New York Times' Nicholas Kristof, President Bush, Members of Congress and all the NGOs, like Refugees International, who have worked so hard to highlight and stop the violence in Darfur. The government denies that it is committing genocide and calls the fighting a series of tribal conflicts. The knowledge that the anti-genocide campaign is irritating President Bashir and his government is important. We must keep the pressure on.

(One example of the public concern will occur at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Monday, January 22, when musicians will perform Verdi’s Requiem for the benefit of the people of Darfur. See: www.requiemfordarfur.org.)

Second, at a time when the US, the UN and others are trying -- and failing -- to persuade Khartoum to accept UN peacekeepers in Darfur, Gov. Richardson saw that the most important issue was moving toward a political settlement to end the war. Without an end to the fighting, it would be difficult for any group of peacekeepers to stop the war. Thus, Gov. Richardson proposed a ceasefire as a way to start a political process.

Finally, since he coordinated with but did not represent the Bush administration, Gov. Richardson was able to negotiate with more flexibility, using his time to find common ground rather than stressing differences for diplomatic reasons. The fact that Mr. Richardson had an established relationship with President Bashir, with whom he had twice negotiated the release of detained Americans over the last 11 years, was also a huge help.

An Opening for Peace in Darfur

RI President Ken Bacon has been in Sudan this week as part of a Save Darfur Coalition delegation headed by Governor Bill Richardson. Today, the delegation announced that the Government of Sudan and the various rebel groups will cease hostilities for a period of 60 days while they work towards a lasting peace.

Ken sent in this analysis of the agreement today, and reported that he's feeling optimistic on opportunities for progress. It's true that efforts to settle the war in Darfur include numerous broken cease-fire agreements. As Ken writes, "Whether the new peace opening succeeds will depend on the will of both the government of Sudan and rebel fighters." Still, this provides an opening for peace, and the fact that President al-Bashir was personally involved in the discussions that led to the agreement adds to our hope.

For more information on the agreement, Governor Richardson and the Government of Sudan issued this joint statement. Reuters also published this article.

Governor Richardson, who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1997 to 1998, has had success negotiating with Sudan in the past. He first worked in Sudan in 1996, when he secured the release of an American pilot and two Red Cross workers, who were being held hostage by Sudanese rebels. In September, he successfully negotiated with al-Bashir to free Chicago Tribune reporter Paul Salopek, who was being held in a Sudanese prison on espionage charges.

It's too soon to say whether Governor Richardson's latest efforts will be as successful, since we need to wait and see if the cease-fire will hold. But I will still hope that the people I met in Darfur in July -- and all of the 2 million people who have been forced to flee their homes -- will see some semblance of peace for at least the next 60 days.

Recommended Reading

With all my copious time over the holidays (between flying back and forth across country, driving all over Northern California to see my friends and family, keeping my new year's resolution by going to the gym, etc.), I did manage to squeeze in a little "light reading." I highly recommend Emma's War: An Aid Worker, a Warlord, Radical Islam, and the Politics of Oil--A True Story of Love and Death in Sudan by Deborah Scoggins.

The book provides a fascinating look at the 21-year Civil War in Sudan between the North and the South by detailing the true story of an aid worker, Emma McCune, who marries an official in the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA). The war ended two years ago this weekend when a peace agreement was signed on January 9, 2004. However, the fragile peace is rapidly being threatened by the ongoing conflict in Darfur. When Sarah Martin was in South Sudan last Spring, she described that weapons were still rampant throughout the region and landmines continue to kill and maim people.

The book is definitely worth reading if you want to understand more about Sudan, the politics of humanitarian aid or to just learn more about an interesting woman. And if you're looking for a few other recommendations, check out our reading list.

The Start of a New Year

The RI office is now open again after a nice holiday break. Today at the morning meeting we discussed our upcoming activities and some of the areas that we plan to focus on in the new year.

Our latest bulletin on the DRC is entitled Democratic Republic of the Congo: Front-line Communities Need Help Recovering from Years of War. As Andrea and Rick write, not much attention is being given to the ongoing humanitarian needs in the country, and many people are still lacking basic services, particularly in the areas of return in central DRC. But there was some good news right before the holidays - the Senate finally passed the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act of 2006 (S.2125) which will hopefully bring much needed funding and assistance to the country.

RI's work on Iraq generated a lot of press coverage in December, and this will certainly continue in 2007. Kristele recently appeared on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer to discuss the ongoing crisis facing Iraqi refugees. And newspapers are still quoting our findings - the most recent coverage includes The Guardian and The Chicago Tribune.

Today The Daily Telegraph reports on allegations of sexual abuse of children by UN peacekeepers in southern Sudan, an issue that RI is particularly concerned about. You can read more about our work against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping Missions on our website.

The start of 2007 is already a busy time for RI as we gear up for more missions and advocacy actions. Be sure to keep an eye out on the RI blog for posts from our Advocates once they are in the field.

President's Corner: President Ford's Human Rights Legacy

In his eulogy to President Ford, Henry Kissinger recalled that the 38th president helped establish “an internationally recognized standard for human rights, now generally accepted as having hastened the collapse of the former Soviet empire.”

Mr. Ford’s contribution to the protection and expansion of international human rights is beyond dispute, although he doesn’t always get the credit he deserves.

First, as Mr. Kissinger also pointed out, President Ford attempted to protect Vietnamese who had helped support our war effort. “Throughout the final ordeal of Indochina, Gerald Ford focused on America’s duty to rescue the maximum number of those who had relied on us. The extraction of 150,000 was the consequence.”

I hope President Bush listened closely to this eulogy. In Iraq today translators, drivers and others who have helped Americans are being targeted for aiding U.S. forces seen as occupiers. Many are seeking protection from the U.S. and would like asylum here, but few are getting it. Approximately 100,000 Iraqis a month are seeking refuge in surrounding countries but so far the U.S. has done little to help them. If the U.S. had a “duty to rescue the maximum number of those who had relied on us” in Vietnam, doesn’t it have a similar duty in Iraq today?

But it was President Ford’s decision to sign the Helsinki Final Act in 1975 that made the most dramatic contribution to the expansion of human rights. Thirty-five countries, including the Soviet Union, signed an agreement that enshrined the principle of “respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.”

The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), which produced the Helsinki Final Act, was initially promoted by the Soviet Union to ratify its conquest of Eastern Europe, bolster its political standing in Europe and separate the U.S. from its European allies. But the Soviet gambit backfired badly.

At the time nobody believed that Moscow would honor any of the principles, yet the Helsinki Final Act gave a huge boost to human rights advocates behind the Iron Curtain. Lech Walesa in Poland, Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union, and Vaclav Havel all gained courage and support from the agreement. Groups to monitor compliance with the Helsinki Final Act sprung up throughout Europe, most notably Charter 77 in what was then Czechoslovakia. In the U.S. a group of human rights advocates established a U.S. Helsinki Watch committee and spawned other monitoring groups around the world. A decade later they merged to become Human Rights Watch.

President Ford’s decision to sign the Helsinki Final Act was not popular. Ronald Reagan and other conservatives opposed the trip. Editorials in newspapers as diverse as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times called the effort a waste of time or a sellout to the Soviets. As Michael Hirsch notes on Newsweek’s website, at the time the magazine dismissed the conference as one of “considerable ceremony, little substance.”

But President Ford’s State Department was determined to hold Moscow to the agreement. It began a series of regular meetings with Soviet officials to discuss human rights issues. At first these meetings seemed to have little impact, but “the Helsinki Final Act turned out to be a critical prerequisite for the political acceptance in the Soviet Union of protection of human rights as a legitimate goal,” Jack Matlock, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow wrote years later.

Since President Ford’s death, much of the commentary has focused on his unpopular decision to pardon President (“I am not a crook”) Nixon. Some analysts believe that his decision to sign the Helsinki Final Act may have been nearly as costly politically. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates served on President Ford’s National Security Council staff. In his memoirs (presumably his first; he’ll have more to write after his Pentagon stint), he wrote: “Ford paid a terrible price for going—perhaps reelection itself—only to discover years later that CSCE had yielded benefits beyond our wildest imagination.”