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01 May 2005

World
Opportunities and challenges for delivering on the responsibility to protect the African Union's emerging peace and security regime

Report
— Institute for Security Studies
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The transition from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to the African Union (AU) ushered in far-reaching changes to the pan-African peace and security agenda, particularly with respect to the parameters of sovereignty and intervention for human protection purposes. The principles underpinning the AU's emerging peace and security regime resonate with elements of the prevention-reaction-rebuilding continuum articulated in The Responsibility to Protect framework.

The AU's emerging security architecture places the continental organisation within a robust security system consisting
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01 May 2005

World
Foreign Territory: The internationalisation of EU asylum policy

Report
— Oxfam
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The countries of the European Union (EU) host only a small and declining fraction of the world's 13 million refugees, but there are few more politicised issues than asylum in Europe. European policy makers have already introduced measures to limit and deter asylum seekers, but now asylum policy is being moved overseas. In the past two years alone, EU member states and institutions have presented an array of initiatives with one common theme: instead of receiving asylum seekers on EU territory, they propose to deal with them abroad. All these proposals
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01 May 2005

World
A proactive look at the world conference on disaster reduction

Report
— Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
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The World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR), held in Kobe, Japan, from 18-22 January, 2005 showcased some of the best developments in disaster reduction, but inevitably many good initiatives require sustained commitments and efforts to make it from the neighborhoods and villages all over the world into the official agency and intergovernmental processes. This report seeks to analyze the underlying causes of continued disaster vulnerability, to showcase best practice from the field and to highlight some of the key issues emerging from the WCDR Conference at Kobe.
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01 May 2005

World
Armed and aimless: Armed groups, guns, and human security in the ECOWAS region

Report
— Small Arms Survey
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The 410-page book provides detailed information on more than 35 armed groups that have destabilized the 15 ECOWAS member states since 1998, and explores important related themes through 6 field-based case study chapters, including:

- Armed Groups and Conflict in Rivers and Plateau States, Nigeria
- Insurgency, Disarmament, and Insecurity in Northern Mali, 1990-2004
- The Anatomy of Ghana's Secret Arms Industry
- Disarming Liberia: Progress and Pitfalls
- The Militarization and Demilitarization of Refugee Camps in Guinea
- Children Associated with Fighting
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01 May 2005

World
Why Fighting Crime Can Assist Development in Africa: Rule of Law and Protection of the Most Vulnerable

Report
— Institute for Security Studies
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This report assembles the available research on the extent of crime in Africa and assesses the ways that this crime interferes with the process of development. It is intended to stimulate debate and is a summary of a larger report in progress that considers these issues in greater detail. It represents an attempt to bring a new angle to a longstanding problem, and only briefly touches on present and possible interventions.

It does not profess to be the final word on the topic; indeed, one key issue highlighted is the limited amount
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01 May 2005

World
Warriors without Rights? Combatants, Unprivileged Belligerents, and the Struggle over Legitimacy

Report
— Harvard University
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Combatancy has throughout the history of organized warfare been an exclusionary concept. Distinguishing between combatants and civilians has long represented an important aspect of warfare and has been recognized as the indispensable means by which humanitarian principles are injected into the rules governing conduct in war. Yet the protection of participants in warfare under international humanitarian law remains characterized by a certain level of uncertainty as regards the codified provisions for combatants and civilians. Who qualifies as
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01 May 2005

World
Checklist-Based Guide to Identifying Critical Environmental Considerations in Emergency Shelter Site Selection, Construction, Management and Decommissioning

Report
— Benfield Hazard Research Centre
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The Checklist-Based Guide to Identifying Critical Environmental Considerations in Emergency Shelter Site Selection, Construction, Management and Decommissioning provides an easy-to-use tool to assess whether environmental issues have been appropriately addressed in emergency shelter efforts. In most cases, unaddressed issues can be resolved by changing plans or implementing specific shelter site up-grades. The Checklist can also be used to review emergency shelter sites plans. The Checklist is based Sphere standards and designed to be used in humanitarian
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01 May 2005

World
Amnesty International Report 2005

Report
— Amnesty
This Amnesty International Report, which covers 149 countries, highlights the failure of national governments and international organizations to deal with human rights violations, and calls for greater international accountability.

The report also acknowledges the opportunities for positive change that emerged in 2004, often spearheaded by human rights activists and civil society groups. Calls to reform the UN human rights machinery grew in strength, and there were vibrant campaigns to make corporations more accountable, strengthen international justice, control the arms trade
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01 May 2005

World
Forced Migration Review No. 23 - Europe: fortress or refuge

Report
— Forced Migration Review, University of Oxford
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Issue 23 focuses on asylum in Europe but also contains a substantial number of non-theme articles. You will notice some changes to the layout as we have decided to draw attention to some key developments of interest to the humanitarian community before the feature theme section. Articles highlighted in this issue include re?ections on slow progress in providing protection and assistance in Darfur, the process of selecting the new head of UNHCR and an interview with Walter Kälin, the UN Secretary-General's IDP representative.

Contents
- Interview: Walter Kälin, Representative
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01 May 2005

World
Real Aid: An Agenda for Making Aid Work

Report
— ActionAid
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In this report which calls for sweeping reform of the international aid system, ActionAid says that the G7 countries exaggerate the real value of their aid by including extravagant spending on such items as technical assistance and administration, and by double-counting debt relief.

The report argues that donors are not meeting 'real' aid targets because they are not held accountable for the quality or quantity of their aid. ActionAid recommends a new international aid agreement to ensure a fairer balance of power between donors and recipients
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01 May 2005

World
Report on integrated missions: Practical perspectives and recommendations

Report
— UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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This study, commissioned by the UN Executive Committee on Humanitarian Affairs (ECHA) in October 2004, examines the performance of "integrated missions", an instrument with which the UN seeks to help countries in the transition from war to lasting peace, or to address a similarly complex situation that requires a system-wide UN response, through subsuming actors and approaches within an overall political-strategic crisis management framework.

Chapter 1: Defining Integrated Missions explores the concept of integrated missions by placing it into its historical
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:

To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit http://unocha.org/.

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01 May 2005

World
The impact of guns on women's lives

Report
— Amnesty
Download PDF (1.49 MB)
Countless women and girls have been shot and killed or injured in every region of the world. Millions more live in fear of armed violence against women. Two key factors lie at the heart of these abuses: the proliferation and misuse of small arms and deep-rooted discrimination against women. Armed violence against women is not inevitable. In many countries women have become powerful forces for peace and human rights in their communities. Their actions show how real change can be effected and women's lives made safer.

- Armed violence against women in the home
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01 May 2005

World
Background document: Special event on impact of climate change, pests and diseases on food security and poverty reduction - 31st session of the Committee on World Food Security 23-26 May 2005

Report
— Food and Agriculture Organization
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This report, presented to the Committee on World Food Security, describes how climate change threatens to increase the number of the world's hungry by reducing the area of land available for farming in developing countries, with severest impact on sub-Saharan Africa. The report also notes the impact of climate change on animal diseases and plant pests. Contents include:

1. Introduction
2. Climate change and food security
3. Animal diseases and issues of concern
4. Plant pests and issues of concern
5. Synthesis
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01 May 2005

World
Conflict Sensitive Journalism

Report
— International Media Support
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This publication seeks to contribute to the theoretical refinement and practical realisation of conflict conscious journalism as a tool for usage by media practitioners in conflict-affected areas.

It is based on workshops presented by International Media Support (IMS) and IMPACS for experienced reporters and editors in conflict threatened societies.

It addresses the following issues:

- Understanding conflict

- Journalism and conflict

- Good journalism, around the world

- Conflict sensitive journalism

- Newsroom cultures
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01 May 2005

World
Antenatal Guidelines For Primary Health Care in Crisis Conditions

Report
— ICRC
Download PDF (3 MB)
These guidelines are designed for ICRC and other health professionals - nurses, midwifes, doctors - who either lack experience in antenatal care or are not used to working in countries where medical infrastructure is underdeveloped or non-existent.

Their purpose is to:

- provide staff involved in running antenatal care programmes with a concentrated source of information on the subject, with no claims to exhaustive coverage

- direct readers to other works that deal with antenatal care in greater depth

- ensure that a standard approach is
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01 May 2005

World
War of Words:Conflict and Freedom of Expression in South Asia

Report
— Article 19
Download PDF (1.95 MB)
This study considers the conflicts in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, primarily looking at restrictions, highlighting similarities and differences and drawing some general conclusions about the ways in which authorities and combatants restrict freedom of expression. It also sets out international standards pertaining to freedom of expression and information relevant to conflict situations. The South Asia study has been completed within the context of ongoing discussions taking place at international and regional levels on the role of the media in conflict
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01 May 2005

World
Cycles of Violence - Gender Relations and Armed Conflict

Report
— Agency for Co-operation and Research in Development
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This book describes the ACORD research project "Gender-sensitive programme design and planning in conflict-affected situations" which was conducted in 2000 and 2001. It has been compiled from original contributions from the research team.

The research aimed to explore the relationship between gender and conflict by examining two main research questions: firstly, what is the impact of war on gender relations, and secondly, can gender relations contribute to conflict? A third set of research questions sought
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01 May 2005

World
Strengthening Media and Civil Society Awareness of Conflict: Prevention and Peace-building Cross-Border Issues in West Africa

Report
— UN Office for West Africa
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This document reports on UNOWA's workshop on reporting for peace, which dealt with three topics - cross-border issues, DDR operations, and the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission approach to border dispute - in relation to conflict prevention and peacekeeping.

The report presents the definition of the major challenges of the Media, and of their responsibilities in terms of people's security, conflict prevention and management, and stability of Governments, that was reached at the workshop.
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01 May 2005

World
OCHA's Annual Evaluation Report for 2004

Report
— UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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In 2004, nine studies, reviews and evaluations were managed by OCHA's Evaluation and Studies unit. These included an external review of the 1999 IASC gender policy; a study on security of humanitarian staff; two baseline evaluations as part of the Good Humanitarian Donor Initiative (Burundi, DRC); an inter-agency real-time evaluation of the humanitarian response to the Darfur; a study on integrated missions; and a review of OCHA's advocacy strategy. In addition, a review of humanitarian response capacity and an external evaluation of the ISDR secretariat were launched.
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:

To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit http://unocha.org/.

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01 May 2005

World
CRED Crunch Newsletter - May 2005

Report
— Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
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The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) is proud to present its first CRED CRUNCH newsletter. As part of our objective of providing the international community with more analysis on the worldwide occurrence and impact of disasters, new issues of this newsletter covering various topics will be prepared and distributed at regular intervals. In this first issue, CRED CRUNCH presents analyses on the occurrence and impact of natural disasters in 2004.

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