Introduction

Following the demise of the Washington Consensus, which was insisting on the need of freeing markets in order to achieve sustainable growth, politics and the state have came back at the center of the debates about development. In the new mind-frame Good Governance has become the core of the strategies aiming at sustainable development, while the State has been identified as the key player in order to achieve the long term aim of eradicating poverty.

As the debate in the development field

By the JHA Editors and Noamschimmel

Published April 4th, 2010

Keywords: asylum, genocide, human rights, justice, refugees, restorative, Rwanda

"If I were not stopped short by poverty, I would travel far from here, to a country where I would go to school all week long, and play soccer on a nice grassy field, and where no one would want to mistrust me and kill me, ever again."

- Cassius Niyonsaba, Genocide survivor, Rwanda. Extract from 'Life Laid Bare' by Jean Hatzfeld.

This article is the product of my personal reflection and research after working in a malnutrition crisis in Ethiopia in 2008. I came back to the university directly from the field to start to analyse my impressions. The first explanation to be considered is that of overpopulation. According to the World Food Program (WFP) and The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) the population growth was 2.77% per year and the estimated population in Ethiopia was 79.24 million in mid-year 2008 (FAO/WFP 2008:10). This estimation showed

Introduction

Civilians during times of war bear the consequences of deteriorating security and lack of safety, and ultimately fall victim of the circumstances. The 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq has resulted in the deaths of many Iraqi civilians.  Exact numbers however, are not known. As is common during times of war, there is the absence of a centralized death registration system in Iraq. Direct methods of counting, whereby official death records of morgues, hospitals, and death certificates

As a result of a humanitarian disaster, about 30-50% affected people develop signs of either moderate or severe psychological distress. This group would benefit from a range of social and basic psychological interventions that are considered helpful to reduce distress (World Health Organization, 2005a). According to the same source, in emergencies the population rates of mild and moderate mental disorders (mood and anxiety disorders) are expected to increase by about 5-10% and the rate of severe mental disorders may be expected to go up by 1-2% This

'.. There are 854 million undernourished people worldwide: 820 million in the developing countries, 25 million in the transition countries and 9 million in the industrialized countries. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 13 percent of the population but 25 percent of the undernourished people in the developing world. It is the developing region with the highest proportion - one-third - of people suffering from chronic hunger. Hunger in sub-Saharan Africa is as persistent as it is widespread: between 1990-92 and 2001-03, the number of undernourished