Joel Charny
Joel R. Charny is vice president for policy with Refugees International, a Washington-based humanitarian advocacy organisation. He has extensive experience in Asia for RI, Oxfam America and the U.N. Development Programme. He has managed and assessed emergency response and post-conflict recovery programmes in Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Climate Displacement: The Muddle on Terminology
As fears of the global impact of climate change grow, Im seeing more and more references in the media to climate refugees, the millions of people who may be forcibly displaced by the natural and man-made disasters that climate change will provoke. As a descriptive phrase it has the advantage of being short and clear. The problem is that from a refugee rights perspective it is nonsensical, and therein lies yet another dilemma for anyone who wants to communicate clearly about a complex issue. The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as someone who is outside the country of her or his nationality owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. While in the succeeding decades fleeing conflict has become an accepted rationale for claiming international protection, flight from natural disasters has not. Thus, under international refugee law there can be no climate refugees. ...
Somalia: Providing Aid in Difficult Places
Somalia may be the most difficult place to provide aid in the world. The needs are tremendous after years of conflict and drought. The central government controls a few square blocks of the capital and is under threat from an Islamist insurgency that includes both local and foreign elements. Infrastructure is badly degraded. In such a resource poor environment, aid itself has a value out of proportion to its actual cost. These factors combine to make providing aid in Somalia, especially central and southern parts of the country, a very risky business. Aid agency staff, both local and international, deserve a tremendous amount of respect for being willing to carefully negotiate for and expand humanitarian access in such a fraught environment. ...
Somalia: Learning to Expect the Worst
I spent a night in Mogadishu this past March. It was less dramatic than it sounds. Two colleagues and I stayed at the base of the African Union peacekeeping force, AMISOM, which is reached by a back road directly from the airport. We didnt dare venture into the city. It was an optimistic time in Somalia, though in Somalia optimism is a relative concept. The buzz was that the new President, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, elected by a select group of his compatriots in Djibouti, had returned to Mogadishu. After some initial fighting, the city had been calm for eight days. Eight days of no fighting! The news was conveyed to us as if eight days without violent clashes were nothing less than a miracle. ...
Refugee Day: Putting host communities centre stage
In the world of refugees and internally displaced people, host communities tend to be nearly invisible. They are the backdrop to the core drama of refugee protection, part of the scenery. Or perhaps a source of cheap labor for the manual and clerical tasks that undergird camp operations. On the occasion of World Refugee Day, however, let's attempt to put host communities on center stage where they belong. ...
New Head of U.S. Refugee Bureau Will Face Immediate Challenges
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee today is holding a hearing on the Obama administrations nomination of Eric Schwartz as the State Departments Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees, and Migration. Schwartz will testify and then respond to questions from the Committee. Schwartzs nomination was long overdue, and Refugees International hopes that the confirmation process will be swift. With the PRM position held by an Acting Assistant Secretary for over a year, and the USAID Administrator and director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance positions also held by placeholders, the Obama administrations management of its humanitarian responsibilities has been hobbled. Schwartz will face a number of immediate challenges. In Pakistan, the government offensive against militant groups has displaced more than 2.5 million people in a little over one month, a situation which the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is calling the most rapid large-scale displacement since the immediate aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. The Refugee Bureau and the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance must ensure that U.S. funding is provided swiftly to organizations with the capacity to make an immediate difference in the lives of displaced people, most of whom are living with host families rather than in camps. It is especially important for Schwartz and his colleagues to ensure that UNHCR is able to respond on a scale commensurate with the need. ...
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