Dear List Members,
No single dictionary currently exists that covers the field of forced
migration in all its diversity. But other tools are available that can
serve as an interim measure, even though they may only cover selective
aspects of the field rather than its entirety. Here are a few titles online
that you may find useful.
**Glossaries**
Conflict Early Warning: The Main Issues (Fewer, UK) -
http://www.fewer.org/functions/issues/index.htm
Glossary (CRED, Belgium) - http://www.cred.be/emdat/glossary.htm (note:
definitions are from “International Agreed Glossary of Basic Terms Related
to Disaster Management,“ UN-DHA, 1992)
Glossary of Terms (U.S. Committee for Refugees) -
http://www.refugees.org/world/glossary.htm
Les mots de la guerre (l'Association Internet pour la défense et la
promotion des droits de l'homme, Switz.) -
http://www.droitshumains.org/Biblio/Vocabulaire/Conflits.htm
Les mots de l’immigration and de l’integration (Ministere de l’emploi et de
solidarite, France) - http://www.social.gouv.fr/htm/modedemploi/vocab.htm
Thesaurus and Glossary of Early Warning and Conflict Prevention Terms
(PIOOM, Neth.) - http://www.fewer.org/research/thes.htm (note: this abridged
version only includes the glossary)
**Thesauri**
In libraries, books and reports are normally accessed by searching for an
author or a title. The third point of access is by subject. In order to
ensure consistency throughout a collection, subject terms are normally
selected by documentalists from a thesaurus. Thesauri are usually
structured hierarchically in order to show the relationships between terms,
i.e., is this a broader or narrower term? Is it a related term? etc.
Thesauri also often include "scope notes," or directions for how to use a
term (usually a definition). Finally, many thesauri are multilingual and
will display other language equivalents to a particular term.
Many of you may already be familiar with the "International Thesaurus of
Refugee Terminology." It's used by a number of organizations to catalogue
materials, e.g., the Refugee Studies Centre, UNHCR's Centre for
Documentation and Research, the Norwegian Refugee Council, etc. However, it
is not currently available online, although the alphabetical listing is
included in the REFWORLD CD-ROM, produced by UNHCR.
Other examples of titles relevant to our field:
CALL Dictionary and Thesaurus - http://call.army.mil/call/thesaur/index.htm
- Produced by the U.S. Department of Defense; in addition to military
jargon, includes terminology relating to peace, conflict, humanitarian
assistance, international law, diplomacy, etc.; numerous scope notes.
Searchable and browsable.
Disasters Controlled Vocabulary -
http://www.crid.desastres.net/crid/eng/REGSYS/vocabu.htm
- Developed by CRID, the Regional Disaster Information Center for Latin
America and the Caribbean; in .pdf format so currently only browsable. Use
Acrobat’s “find” feature (usually, the binoculars icon) to locate a term.
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Thesaurus -
http://shr.aaas.org/ethesaurus.nsf
- In addition to serving as a thesaurus, this resource cites the relevant
article from the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights; can be searched or browsed; available in English and Spanish.
Human Rights Thesaurus, “Selected Terms” -
http://www.hri.ca/doccentre/hrreporting/handbook97/thesaurus.shtml
- Extract from the complete edition of the thesaurus, developed by Human
Rights Internet (HRI) and the Human Rights Centre of the University of
Ottawa; simple alphabetical listing.
INFOTERRA Thesaurus Database - http://p5uni.ii.pw.edu.pl/envoc
- Environmental thesaurus used by UNEP. In English, French and Spanish.
OECD Macrothesaurus - http://www.uibk.ac.at/info/oecd-macroth
- Can be searched or browsed; available in English, French and Spanish.
Population Multilingual Thesaurus -
http://www.cicred.ined.fr/thesaurus/integral/
- In .pdf format, so better for browsing. Use Acrobat’s “find” feature to
locate a term. In English, French and Spanish.
I'm sure there are many other glossaries and thesauri on the web that I have
not yet discovered. As always, I would be grateful to receive your
suggestions.
Elisa Mason
Consultant, Forced Migration Portal Project
Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford
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