Home › Who We Are › Successes › Success

Our Successes

  • Colombia: Increased Funding for NGOs
    In October 2011, with serious cuts to foreign assistance looming, RI advocates pushed for and secured $8 million in U.S. aid to Colombian refugees, almost half the total funding for international NGOs working on this issue.
  • Afghanistan: Increased Protection Staff
    Following our June report on Afghanistan, in September 2011 the United Nations High Commission for Refugees increased the number of protection staff to track displacement in the country’s northern regions.
  • Return and Reintegration: Transport for Southern Sudanese back home

    After we sounded the alarm in May 2011, that 5,600 southern Sudanese were stranded in a transit facility south of Khartoum that was built for 800 people, agencies provided transportation to help them return to South Sudan.
  • Peacekeeping: Reconciliation in the DR Congo and Civilian Protection in South Sudan

    In March 2011, two communities in Equateur province in the DR Congo signed a non-aggression pact ending more than a year of deadly conflict.  We are pleased that peace has arrived after the UN and other agencies followed RI’s recommendation to support reconciliation efforts.

    Then in August 2011, as the new UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) was being formed, RI was instrumental in pushing the UN Security Council to prioritize the protection of civilians and authorize the greatest possible number of troops.

  • Iraq: Improved Conditions for Iraqis in Squatter Settlements
    February 2011: After RI called for greater assistance to displaced Iraqis living in squalid squatter settlements, the U.S. government and UNHCR made the provision of assistance to these communities a top priority.  Today, some of the funding helps these Iraqis stay dry from the winter rains, watch their children play in safe spaces, and drink clean water.
  • Statelessness: Ammendment to Laws Affecting Citizenship for Stateless People in the US

    For six years, RI has continued to promote the human rights of the some twelve million people worldwide who lack citizenship. These stateless people are deprived of accessing basic services and exercising their political and civil rights. By prompting positive change in the UN system and strengthening US government attention to the issue, the US refugee bureau gave $320,000 to UN efforts to identify people at risk of statelessness in the Sudan. The US Senate also introduced an amendment to legislation that would create a legal pathway to citizenship for stateless people in the United States. Furthermore, the UNHCR pledged greater attention to stateless people during field visits and requested that the UN General Assembly support efforts to prevent statelessness.

  • Climate Displacement: UN Human Rights Council's Social Forum
    In order to increase awareness of the link between climate change and displacement, The Ken & Darcy Bacon Center for the Study of Climate Displacement assessed climate-related migration and displacement in Senegal and Pakistan, worked closely with congressional leaders to promote the issue, participated in international forums and panel discussions, and hosted education and outreach events. As a result of RI’s time in Pakistan, the report from the UN Human Rights Council's 2010 Social Forum included our recommendations to better protect people displaced by natural disasters.
  • Peacekeeping: Protection of Civillians curriculum development
    RI aims to improve international peacekeepers' efforts to protect civilians from harm. We called for the peacekeeping missions in the Sudan and DR Congo to improve their information-gathering and planning processes. Due to such calls, RI is playing a central role in developing a Protection of Civilians training curriculum for UN peacekeepers. The UN Security Council also included several RI recommendations in a resolution on the UN Mission in Sudan, including the need for a comprehensive protection strategy.
  • Women's Rights: Community Protection Networks
    Systematic targeting of women has become a widespread tactic of war and the stresses of displacement often lead to increased violence against women. RI called attention to the specific needs of women in Haiti, Sudan and the DR Congo and urged the US and key UN agencies to provide more resources to respond to rape and the abuse of women. In Sudan, this translated into the UN providing funding for women's groups who set up community protection networks. Agencies also pre-positioned safe birthing kits and post-rape kits in the run-up to South Sudan's referendum for independence. Coordination in the DR Congo also improved between agencies providing emergency aid and those longer-term programs related to sexual violence, and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced a plan to increase communication over the sexual violence strategy with local and national NGOs.
  • DR Congo: Non-Aggression Pact signed
    Nearly two million people remain internally displaced from the deadly conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. RI traveled to Equateur province where aid agencies were struggling to assist some 200,000 newly displaced people. Some of those agencies told RI that our field report on this extremely neglected region, and our media outreach as well as ongoing advocacy led to greater resources in the province. Two communities in this province even signed a non-aggression pact after RI recommended that the UN and other agencies support reconciliation efforts. The US refugee bureau also funded staff to work on human rights issues for the UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo to improve the protection of its civilians.
  • Pakistan: Increased accountability in Pakistan's military
    As fighting continued between Pakistan's Army and the Taliban, RI assessed the needs of more than one million people internally displaced by violence. We published a groundbreaking report and op-ed which warned that Pakistani military units were involved in gross human rights abuses. With this information, the Obama administration announced that it would cut off funding, training and equipment to Pakistani army units that have committed such human rights abuses. Going a step further, the US Congress funded programs to protect human rights and required the Secretary of State to report on the reduction of military abuses and the military’s role in stopping aid agencies from assisting some displaced populations.
  • Iraq: Assistance to squatter settlements increased
    Seven years after the Iraq war began, nearly 500,000 displaced Iraqis still live in squatter slums amidst garbage dumps, stagnant water and without electricity. RI returned to Iraq and traveled throughout the country to meet with displaced people and called for increased support to vulnerable Iraqis and Palestinian refugees forced to flee Iraq. Because of RI's continued involvement and building awareness on Capitol Hill of the sprawling squatter settlements, US funding was designated to help tens of thousands of Iraqis return to villages in Diyala province. This successful UN-wide and US-backed project helped people access starter homes, education, livestock and tools for farming. Furthermore, UNHCR increased its resources to improve living conditions for displaced Iraqis living in squatter slums.
  • Haiti: Increased Protection and aid for the still remaining earthquake survivors
    After RI traveled to Haiti, nine months after the devastating earthquake that displaced at least 1.2 million people, it was learned that people were still in desperate situations, lacking food, water and shelter. Thanks largely to RI’s letters, panel-briefings and intimate meetings with leadership officials, the media’s attention was attracted to the poor living conditions, and RI was able to influence change. In response to RI’s efforts, the UNHCR more than tripled its staffing in Haiti to better protect the rights of the earthquake’s vulnerable survivors. Additionally, the World Food Program provided assistance to some 60,000 Haitians living in rural areas that had been neglected.
  • Sudan: Limited the spread of diseases
    As South Sudan planned for a referendum on independence in January 2011, RI pushed the US government and international agencies to prepare to respond to violence and displacement. As a result, many aid workers credited RI’s work as the catalyst that spurred contingency planning on behalf of their agencies, which were then ready to provide food, medicine and other basic needs, to the hundreds of thousands of Sudanese that returned to the South, thereby limiting the spread of disease and other suffering. Also, because of RI’s advocacy, UNHCR shifted millions of more dollars to help returnees reintegrate into their communities. 
  • Colombia

    As a result of our advocacy on behalf of the millions of people who have been displaced by the conflict in Colombia, in 2009 the U.S. Congress increased funding for Colombian refugees in nearby countries. This included support for Ecuador’s Enhanced Registration Process, a key component of that country’s refugee policy reform.

  • Iraq

    In line with our recommendations, in 2009 the U.S. provided substantial funding to the UN Refugee Agency’s Iraq programs and supported programs that prevent and respond to violence against displaced women. The U.S. also continued its resettlement program, admitting over 18,800 Iraqis last year.

  • Iraq

    Refugees International led the call to increase assistance to displaced Iraqis and in 2009 the House of Representatives passed legislation calling for stronger policies to protect and assist displaced Iraqis and to encourage the Government of Iraq to actively address the problem.

  • Sudan

    In 2009, Congress appropriated $296 million to Sudan and directed the State Department to prioritize funding for projects in south Sudan in support of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

  • Sudan

    For the last few years, Refugees International has been one of the few organizations calling on policy makers to address the rising tensions in south Sudan and to support the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended 22 years of war. Throughout 2009, more voices echoed our call and U.S. policy makers finally responded. The Obama Administration released its new policy on Sudan, and outlined the implementation of the peace agreement as one of three strategic objectives.

  • Burma

    Throughout 2009, RI met actively with State Department officials and Congressional appropriators to encourage greater aid for the Burmese people. Because of our leadership on this issue, Congress provided some $36 million for democracy and humanitarian programs largely inside Burma, a major shift in U.S. policy that had previously limited the amount of humanitarian funding available for people inside Burma.