The UN Security Council Approves New Peacekeeping Force in Sudan
This past week marked a significant step for peace in the Darfur region of"There is not enough attention on the fact that four million people have been displaced and they live in very, very difficult circumstances, some of them, both inside Iraq and outside Iraq."
- Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, April 17, 2007
Despite these words from the Secretary General, the United Nations has yet to respond adequately to the Iraqi refugee crisis. The UN regional response remains weak, and while the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) plays an increasingly positive role, other UN agencies have failed to be proactive in their response to the crisis. Coordination between agencies is inadequate, and leadership from UN Resident Representatives on the issue of Iraqi refugees has also been lacking. The UN as a whole must put the Secretary General's words into action in the near future and exert the political and operational will to respond in a coordinated and effective manner to their needs.
From Refugees International:
Kuwait: State of Exclusion
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The Arabic word, "bidun," meaning "without" and short for "bidun jinsiya" (without citizenship), is used to denote longtime residents of Kuwait who are stateless. The estimated number of bidun in Kuwait ranges from 90,000 to 130,000, less than half the number who resided in the country prior to Iraq's invasion in 1990. Those who remain are subject to systematic discrimination and their future is uncertain.
Many bidun are descendants of Bedouin tribes such as the Shammar and cAneza that roamed freely across the borders of present day Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq. Either because their ancestors failed to understand the importance of citizenship or, given their centuries-old nomadic way of life, demurred at the idea of belonging to any one country, or because they were living outside the city walls, in the desert or "badiya," and often illiterate, they could not furnish adequate proof that they were settled in the country and were consequently classified as stateless.
Denied the right to register officially a birth, marriage, or death, bidun are relegated to a bureaucratic no man's land. In Kuwait, nationality is deemed a matter relating to sovereignty and by law courts can not review sovereign actions of the state. Accordingly, the bidun can not petition the courts to have their citizenship claims adjudicated. Their children are barred from free education in public school. They are not permitted to own property, register a vehicle, obtain a telephone line or purchase a SIM card for a cellular telephone. Healthcare offered free of charge to citizens is withheld from them. On driving licenses they are characterized as "illegal residents." Their passports, grey in color and valid for five years, must be renewed after only one journey.
The majority of the bidun live in virtual exile, in squalid housing projects in Sulaibiya and Jahra, in Ahmadi and the rundown neighborhood of Jilib ash-Shuyukh. They are nevertheless indistinguishable from citizens and for years enjoyed the same services and privileges. They share a common language and culture. It is common that families comprise members who are citizens and others who are bidun.
Bidun once made up the bulk of the armed forces and police and served their country loyally. They believed that eventually the government would extend them citizenship. After 1985, however, the government took a number of punitive steps to disabuse them of this belief. Bidun were dismissed from their jobs, children were barred from public and private schools, and driving licenses were revoked. They could no longer carry passports (known as Article 17 passports) unless they left the country and renounced the right to return.
Following the liberation of the country from Iraqi occupation in 1991, the government stepped up its efforts to strip the bidun of their rights. They were fired en masse from positions in the military and police, and only a small fraction was rehired. Those dismissed could not collect their severance pay unless they produced a passport, either Kuwaiti or foreign, or left the country. Tens of thousands of bidun who had fled the country or were forced to the leave subsequently were not allowed to return.
With a foreign passport, bidun would have been able to obtain five-year residence permits like other guest workers. In desperation, many bidun bought counterfeit passports from countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea and the Dominican Republic. There have been instances when bidun traveling with forged documents were forcibly returned to Kuwait, and the country was compelled to admit them. There are now 15 bidun in prison awaiting deportation. They can not be deported, however, because no country will take them in, and so they languish in jail.
The country's 1959 Nationality Law defined Kuwaiti nationals as persons who were settled in Kuwait prior to 1920 and who maintained their normal residence there until the date of the publication of the law. Approximately one third of the population was recognized as bone fide citizens, the founding families of the country. Another third was naturalized and granted partial citizenship rights. The remaining third was classified as "bidun jinsiya." The law has been amended 14 times since and with almost every amendment, it has become more restrictive. For example, the 1959 law (Article 3) granted citizenship to children of a Kuwaiti mother when at least one of four circumstances existed: the father was unknown, paternity could not be proven, the father's nationality was unknown, or he was stateless. When amended in 1980, the mention of unknown nationality and statelessness was omitted.
Citizenship in Kuwait is passed on to children through their fathers, not their mothers. Consequently, the children of a Kuwaiti woman and a bidun husband are also bidun. A child of a divorced Kuwaiti woman or widow can acquire citizenship, so that there is an incentive for couples to divorce to guarantee their children's future.
Several legal experts in Kuwait are of the opinion that the country's nationality law is in need of revision. More liberal nationality laws of other Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, where long-time residents can apply for citizenship, limit the problem of statelessness. Laws in Algeria and Tunisia, which grant mothers the right to pass on their nationality to their children, could serve as models for revisions in Kuwait's law.
In June 2000, the National Assembly passed a law requiring the bidun to register with the government to begin a process that would allow some of them to be documented as citizens. The last step in this process entails DNA testing to prove that family members are in fact blood relatives. Those who failed to register would be considered illegal residents at risk of being deported. Many bidun are able to demonstrate convincingly their families' presence in the country for several generations, and their applications for citizenship deserve consideration.
Feelings of distress, frustration, resentment, disappointment and anger among the bidun are palpable. An older generation of bidun, who once served or still do in the military and police force, are reluctant to protest their plight too strenuously. Their children however are more impatient. Unable to afford the cost of tuition, they are prevented from accessing higher education. Barred from employment in the public sector, they have to accept work that is poorly paid and intermittent. Many are reluctant to marry, because they can not support a family and fear that their children would face the same hardships. The suicide rate among bidun is reportedly high.
There is perhaps greater interest in the plight of Kuwait's stateless now than there has been in many years. In July 2006 Kuwait's parliament created a committee to address the issue of the bidun and earlier this year the parliament approved a law granting citizenship to 2,000. A list of those to be granted citizenship will be approved in October. In January, the Ministry of Interior announced that it would issue driving licenses to bidun. Loath to be identified as illegal residents, however, many if not most refuse to apply for one. More constructively, the government recently announced that 100 places in Kuwaiti universities would be designated for bidun. The bidun themselves and sympathetic citizens have formed a Popular Committee for Support of the Bidun.
There is general agreement in Kuwait that the humanitarian consequences of statelessness should be addressed immediately, leaving the contentious issue of citizenship rights to a later date. At the same time, however, many Kuwaitis acknowledge that the problems associated with statelessness will escalate. There is concern that young disenfranchised bidun may resort to crime, turn to alcohol and drugs, and subscribe to extremist ideologies. It would therefore be in the best interests of the state to find a just and equitable solution to the plight of the stateless sooner rather than later.
REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL RECOMMENDS:
The Government of Kuwait:
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:
United Nations Human Rights Bodies:
Senior Advocate Maureen Lynch and Patrick Barbieri just returned from a two-week assessment of the situation of bidun in Kuwait.
Download a .pdf of this policy recommendation.
Read more about Refugees International's recent mission to Kuwait
Contacts: Sayre Nyce and Rick Neal
ri@refugeesinternational.org or 202-828-0110
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Protection of Civilians in
North Kivu Must Go Beyond Monitoring
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In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN Security Council has given a clear mandate to MONUC, its peacekeeping mission there, to protect civilians; Directive 01/07 issued by the MONUC force commander is equally clear about this duty. Mechanisms to collect information, monitor needs, and develop recommendations are impressive, yet these improvements have not led to action in the volatile province of North Kivu. While the presence alone of peacekeepers might give hope to the population and deter abuse, MONUC must be more proactive in protecting civilians.
In a country where the majority of people are rebuilding their lives following years of war, one area remains a bed of insecurity and abuse for Congolese civilians. In North Kivu, which borders Uganda and Rwanda, 160,000 civilians have fled conflict and attacks since the beginning of the year. While there are considerable humanitarian needs, the crisis is above all one of protection.
Every day, women and girls in North Kivu face the threat of rape by armed forces. In Masisi Territory, they walk from the village of Buhabo to Masisi Center to sell their produce. On Tuesdays and Sundays, the market days, their biggest fear is encountering soldiers from the national army who attack and rob them. According to residents, sexual assault and rape is also common. While hiking this route, Refugees International met a group of women carrying heavy loads who asked about soldiers on the path. When told that four soldiers were coming their way, the women quickly decided to take an alternate path to the market, adding an hour to their route. There is a MONUC base close by, but MONUC soldiers do not patrol this road to the market.
Mechanisms exist for reporting abuses and making recommendations to protect civilians. MONUC publishes regular reports on human rights, and teams from the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) travel throughout the territories to talk with villagers about their concerns and then share recommendations with MONUC and other agencies. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has made much progress in establishing a working group on protection under the new Cluster Leadership Approach to gather information and advocate for an end to attacks and abuse of civilians.
The results of these efforts, however, are disappointing: recommendations go unimplemented and attacks continue. In some cases MONUC or NGOs may not be able to conduct protection or assistance activities; insecurity, bad roads, and insufficient operational capacity limit the amount of work that can be done. Nevertheless, MONUC and humanitarian agencies must develop creative solutions to protect the population of North Kivu from attack.
MONUC must mainstream gender concerns through all of its work, as required by Security Council Resolution 1325. Given that violence against women is one of the greatest protection problems in the DRC, and that MONUC has a protection mandate, there should be systems in place to bring women peacekeepers and translators to talk with Congolese women about their concerns and to implement protection activities. Forces loyal to Tutsi warlord Laurent Nkunda have used rape as a weapon of war in North Kivu, yet in areas where his troops are deployed, very little is done to protect women who walk to the market, to church, or to get firewood. MONUC should work with Congolese women and gender experts to develop protection strategies such as firewood patrols and deploy in areas of known abuse such as market routes and military checkpoints.
Unaccompanied women and children, the elderly, orphans, and people with disabilities are especially vulnerable. In a site where thousands of displaced had recently arrived, people reported that those with disabilities and some of the elderly had not been seen since the violence started. Women reported that they must sometimes walk for an entire day to find firewood, clearly a risk in such a highly militarized area. A community leader stated that she could think of six children in the camp from different families who were separated from their parents. The government of the DRC has the primary responsibility to protect its civilians, and international agencies have the responsibility to do so when the government cannot, yet there are very few programs to support those who are especially vulnerable to abuse.
Civilians in eastern DRC are suffering from widespread human rights violations especially at the hands of Nkunda and his troops, as well as from the Congolese armed forces and the FDLR (a rebel force which includes individuals responsible for the Rwandan genocide). Nkunda's troops are ostensibly in North Kivu to conduct operations against the FDLR. However, the troops, especially the Bravo Brigade deployed in Rutshuru Territory, mostly attack and abuse civilians, saying that the civilians are FDLR supporters. The FDLR then conducts reprisals against the people. A person who had fled these abuses explained: "Since Bravo arrived, we've never had any peace. . . . The FDLR used to come to our homes from time to time to ask for things. But, once Bravo came, then the FDLR started becoming worse. The FDLR says that the population elected the government and those responsible for sending Nkunda's troops here."
The story of one displaced man illustrates the threats to civilians. Facing danger in his village, he had hidden in the forest during the night for the previous six months, but then even the forest was no longer safe. "They followed us in the forest and killed one man from my village. Another, a woman, was hurt and is in the hospital. All of our goods were stolen. The animals were stolen. So, we came here [to the site for displaced people] with nothing."
He lamented the fact that they are caught between Nkunda's forces and the FDLR. First, "The military killed many people. After killing people, they throw the bodies down the latrine." As for the FDLR, "They come and force open the door. They ask for three kinds of money: Congolese francs, Ugandan shillings, and U.S. dollars. You show what you have; they tell you it's too little and they beat you." In his case, the soldiers took his belongings, then made him transport them for about 10 kilometers. "If you're lucky, they'll say, 'Leave these things and go home.' In other cases, they'll kill you," he said. Now, he does not know where to go and how to provide for his children.
The main request of the people in areas controlled by the most abusive force, the Bravo Brigade, is to have these troops transferred elsewhere. Nkunda's forces, the majority of which are Tutsi, must be fully integrated into the national army and moved from the majority-Hutu areas in North Kivu. To further defuse the situation, the Government of the DRC must mitigate inter-ethnic tension and deter violence by deploying more government civil servants to North Kivu, supporting local conflict resolution efforts, providing social services, and investigating and prosecuting all perpetrators of violence.
In the near term, however, the only force capable of stopping attacks on civilians and protecting them from abuse is MONUC. While supporting the government, it must take immediate steps to secure the main roads in Rutshuru and Masisi, and protect women during their daily movements. Recommendations to safeguard the people of North Kivu are plentiful; the time has come for MONUC and the rest of the international community to act.
REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL RECOMMENDS:
MONUC:
Humanitarian agencies:
The Government of the DRC:
Advocates Sayre Nyce and Rick Neal visited North Kivu in June 2007.
Download a .pdf of this policy recommendation.
Read more about Refugees International's recent mission to the Congo.
July 18, 2007
Contacts: Rick Neal and Sayre Nyce
ri@refugeeesinternational.org or 202-828-0110
Democratic Republic of the Congo:
NGOs Ignoring Crisis in North Kivu
Download a pdf of our policy recommendation.
More than 160,000 Congolese have abandoned their homes since January 2007, when Tutsi warlord Laurent Nkunda, fresh from a peace deal brokered by his patron, Rwanda, began deploying troops across the eastern province of North Kivu. Quick action has brought immediate relief for some, but few humanitarian organizations, despite the availability of funding, have stepped forward to help as the crisis deepens and needs grow more acute.
The surge in displacement in North Kivu has been a predictable, if disturbing, aberration from the general progress made in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) towards peace and recovery from war. The United Nations estimates that, cumulatively, 163,000 have fled since January, including thousands in the past week alone, and that another 170,000 could be displaced by the end of the year. The most affected areas are the territories of Rutshuru and Masisi in the southern part of the province, surrounding the city of Goma.
For some time, the population has lived with extortion and human rights abuses from two sides: the Congolese national army (the FARDC) and the remnants of the Hutu regime that orchestrated the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 (the FDLR). Laurent Nkunda and his troops make up a third force, which is now the most serious threat to civilians. Nkunda, supported by Tutsi-dominated Rwanda, is a renegade from the Congolese army and has long resisted efforts to integrate his Tutsi fighters with the FARDC and see them dispersed across the country.
The first wave of displacement occurred in January 2007 when Nkunda deployed troops rapidly into Rutshuru and Masisi. The arrival of Tutsi soldiers allied with Rwanda terrified the local Hutu population, and tens of thousands left their homes and fields for the safety of areas held by the FARDC. Nkunda's troops used the announcement of a formal FARDC offensive against the FDLR in April 2007 as an excuse to target civilians, accusing them of collaborating with the FDLR, and provoking a second wave of displacement. A third wave is now underway as the FDLR retaliates, accusing civilians in turn of collaborating with Nkunda.
One particularly hard-hit area lies to the north of Goma between Kiwanja and Nyamilima, near the border with Uganda. Abandoned villages line the road while the people hide in the forest, surviving as best they can. Tens of thousands have made their way to Nyongera, Kinyandoni, and Ngwenda, just north of Kiwanja, where they have found shelter with host families or in camps. Faced with the influx, residents have opened their doors, sharing their limited resources, which are already under strain due to drought. As one woman, who gave over part of her house to a family of six, explained, no one from the government or the humanitarian community has asked her what she needs or offered to help.
In some areas, many of the displaced, if not their hosts, do receive initial assistance. The World Food Programme (WFP) in North Kivu has dramatically improved its operations over the past year, and it strives to provide a full ration of food (2,100 calories per day) each month for 11,550 households in Rutshuru Territory. Many displaced also receive basic household items like plastic tarps, buckets, and blankets through the Rapid Response Mechanism, established in 2006 by UNICEF and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to ensure immediate assessment of needs and delivery of aid to newly displaced people in eastern DRC. Solidarités, the implementing agency for the Mechanism in North Kivu, also repairs water systems and installs temporary latrines for the displaced.
Beyond these immediate efforts, however, little help is available. Solidarités, as part of its duties, notifies other agencies of unmet needs, but there is no follow-up. Doctors Without Borders no longer provides free primary care for the displaced in North Kivu, a shift humanitarian actors were at a loss to explain. Those in need of healthcare sell their food rations to pay for care or forgo treatment altogether; in addition, the humanitarian community lost a credible source of data needed to assess the severity of the crisis and plan an effective response. UNICEF has been able to organize an innovative project with the local health department to provide free care, but only in six health centers in Rutshuru. Public health activities are also limited. The displaced do not have mosquito nets to protect themselves against malaria and HIV prevention is ignored, to the extent that some displaced said that they had heard of condoms on the radio but had never seen one.
One of the most serious gaps is in site management, which usually refers to planning and operating large, formal refugee camps. In this context, such camps are unnecessary; needs could be well met in the current arrangement of small, informal sites and host families. Currently, however, the displaced and their leaders are left to fend for themselves in setting up shelters and negotiating with local authorities for help. Registration is chaotic and numbers are inflated in the hope of procuring more assistance, which has the opposite effect as donors mistrust the process. Sites are not protected, with armed soldiers from nearby military camps wandering around at will. There is no screening process for new arrivals, leaving those who might need immediate assistance such as malnourished children, the elderly, pregnant women, and the sick to wait, sometimes for months, for the next distribution of food. Even help to reunite children separated from their families, a common aspect of humanitarian assistance in the DRC, is not assured.
In Masisi Territory, to the west of Rutshuru, even basic assistance is largely unavailable. Solidarités has just begun to visit concentrations of displaced people, but Caritas, WFP's implementing partner, does not have the means to distribute food there, and there is no medical agency to care for the displaced. In Buhabo, near the territorial capital of Masisi Center, the local chief has managed to find housing for the increasing number of displaced people fleeing Nkunda's forces, but his requests for help from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have gone unanswered. Even easily accessible areas, such as Minova, on the shores of Lake Kivu, do not get assistance because agencies working in the area do not have the capacity to respond.
Humanitarian response overall in the Kivus has improved this past year, especially with the advent of the Rapid Response Mechanism. However, the current crisis in North Kivu shows its limitations. When Solidarités had trouble meeting its obligations under the Mechanism because of the unexpectedly large movement of displaced people, UNICEF offered it increased funding to meet their needs. Solidarités refused, citing institutional inability to manage a larger project. UNICEF was then unable to find additional partners who could mobilize quickly to fill the gap. Likewise, Caritas has been denied support from the Pooled Fund, a donor mechanism controlled by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Kinshasa, to improve its capacity to distribute food for WFP. WFP has not been able to find another partner, with the displaced suffering the consequences. OCHA and sectoral lead agencies are simply unable to catalyze an appropriate response to the crisis; coordination of assistance has improved but advocacy is ineffective.
In fact, there are a number of humanitarian agencies, such as CARE International, Action Against Hunger, and Catholic Relief Services, that work in other parts of the Congo - and even other parts of North Kivu - but have not bothered to respond to the needs of the newly displaced. Such an emergency response, following the start of a shift to longer-term development, does not fit with their strategy or does not appear warranted. Needs are always high in the DRC and logistics are difficult. Finding staff is a challenge, and the humanitarian crisis in the DRC has dragged on for years. These explanations, however, are untenable under the circumstances; even insecurity, which is worrisome, has not prevented the United Nations and NGOs such as Solidarités from operating. In the face of ongoing attacks and displacement, the rest of the humanitarian community must shake off its complacency and start meeting its obligations.
REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL RECOMMENDS:
Advocates Rick Neal and Sayre Nyce visited North Kivu in June 2007.
Download a pdf of our policy recommendation.
Read more about Refugees International's recent mission to the DRC.
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