Call for papers
‘Is humanitarianism compatible with refugee rights?’
Panel at the World Conference of Humanitarian Studies
4 – 8 February 2009
Groningen, The Netherlands
Dear colleagues,
We are soliciting abstracts for papers to be included in a panel
entitled Is humanitarianism compatible with refugee rights? This panel
will be part of the World Conference of Humanitarian Studies
(http://www.humanitarianstudies2009.org), organised by the universities
of Bochum, Groningen and Wageningen. The panel will be convened by Prof.
Dr. Barbara Harrell-Bond and the 3R Foundation (Stichting 3R), a Dutch
NGO dedicated to improving refugee rights in the global South. We
welcome abstracts related to the panel’s theme as outlined below.
Submitting an abstract
Abstracts (maximum of 250 words) can be submitted through the Conference
website (http://www.humanitarianstudies2009.org). Click through to the
‘call for papers’ section. You will be asked to create an account. Once
your account is created, you can add your abstract. The panel conveners
will then be able to accept or reject abstracts. Should your abstract
not be sufficiently relevant to this panel’s theme, the
Conferenceorganisers will assess whether it can be included in another
panel.Deadline for submissions of abstracts is 1 October 2008.Deadline
for submission of full papers is TBD with convenors
Funding opportunities
The Conference organisers have a limited number of grants available for
participantsfrom the global South. Those in need of a grant to
participate can be recommended bythe panel conveners. Also, the 3R
Foundation may be able to provide funding for travelor accommodation on
an ad hoc basis. Please contact the conveners should you
requirefinancial support to participate.
More information
For more information, please contact Chris Mommers of the 3R Foundation at
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Panel outline
Is humanitarianism compatible with refugee rights?Refugee flows in the
South force international, governmental and non-governmental agencies
toprovide for refugees’ basic needs on very short notice and often on a
massive scale. The challenge oflogistical operations involved in
providing accommodation, health care, water, food and other services,has
forced such agencies to become large administrative and operational
bureaucratic entities. Themost obvious example of this is the office of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), whichhas argued that
material assistance is complementary to – or even a precondition for –
the fulfilment ofits mandate to protect the rights of refugees. At the
same time, the UN refugee agency has comeunder criticism for, what is
seen by some, as prioritising assistance over rights, and thus for
weakeningits own mandate of protection.
More than that, however, questions have been raised whether the way in
which assistance to refugeesis managed and implemented, rather than just
weakening protection, may actually lead to the violationof the
fundamental rights of refugees. This has been particularly true for
those refugees who findthemselves in UNHCR-managed camps. The panel aims
to explore this inherent tension betweenhumanitarianism and refugee
rights in camp and other settings by focusing on the following questions:
- is humanitarian assistance strengthening or weakening the protection
of the human rights of refugees?
- should refugee rights, such as the freedom of movement, always be
respected, even when this means that it will become much more difficult
to effectively provide material assistance to them?
- are there alternative scenarios in which humanitarian assistance and
full respect for the human rights of refugees can co-exist?
The panel seeks to bring together academics from various disciplines, as
well as practitioners whowork on both sides of ‘the divide’; those who
devote their lives to provide for the basic needs ofrefugees in the
camps, and those who advocate for refugees’ rights and believe that
humanitarians are(unwittingly) violating these rights. The panel will
incorporate both the organisational perspective,focusing on the
operational difficulties of humanitarian agencies, and the perspectives
of thoserefugees who are the targets of such assistance.
Chris Mommers, 3R Foundation
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