Too often invisible, too often forgotten and too often overlooked, refugees with disabilities are among the most isolated, socially excluded and marginalized of all displaced populations. As this pioneering research by the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children reveals, those with disabilities are more limited by our actions than by their own physical and mental abilities. The way we design and construct camps can impede their access to vital services; the way we distribute food without taking their specific needs

Alert 2008, Report on conflicts, human rights and peacebuilding is a study carried out annually by the School for a Culture of Peace at the Universitat Aut=F2noma de Barcelona, providing an overview of the world situation at the end of the year in terms of conflict and peacebuilding. Despite the high number of armed conflicts and social and political situations of tension as well as the increase of hostilities in many contexts, the year 2007 ends up with several contexts that can be highlighted as opportunities for peace in the near future. They comprise

The Annual Report 2007 details UNICEF's work on behalf of children and their families in 155 countries and territories. The report outlines the challenges and accomplishments of UNICEF and its vast network of partners in their quest to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals. Highlights include the historic drop in deaths of children under five, dipping below 10 million in 2006, successful 'Go to School' campaigns in countries emerging from crises, innovative programmes to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and on-the-ground responses to natural and human-made cataclysms.

This report is the first in The Responsibility to Protect Occasional Paper Series. It summarizes the discussion from the recent policy roundtable held in Stellenbosch, South Africa organized in cooperation with the University of Cape Town's Centre for Conflict Resolution and the Office of the UN Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide.

Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Rwanda, the Philippines, Chechnya, Somalia, Northern Ireland, Spain. Armed groups are active in numerous civil conflicts. Considered "terrorists" by some, and "liberation fighters" by others, there can be no doubt that such groups have been responsible for serious abuses of human rights.

These abuses primarily affect civilians who are caught in the conflict, but they raise many concerns for organisations that work for peace, protect human rights, or provide humanitarian relief.

El Informe Anual 2007 del Observatorio para la Protección de los Defensores de Derechos Humanos presenta un análisis, país por país, del contexto político que prevaleció en 2007, así como de los principales tipos de represión en contra de los defensores de derechos humanos, ilustrados por casos individuales o colectivos de represión.

The overarching theme of this issue is "capacity building and training." Capacity building is a "buzz word," in particular in the context of international cooperation - but what does it actually mean? It encompasses human resource and organizational development and is about the elaboration of management structures, processes and procedures. It is the process through which individuals, organisations and societies obtain, strengthen and maintain the capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives
over time.

In this Newsletter, we will also show

The beneficiary community is MAA's number one programming priority. We appreciate the importance of playing a facilitator role through supportive means while ensuring communities take program ownership. Through empowerment and mobilisation, a welfare mindset or paradigm is transformed towards being or becoming contributors and leaders for one's own community development. Local community needs, including the local way of life, knowledge and skills are considered through active dialogue and involvement throughout any project cycle. Any new community identity, system

The issue of climate change is not new, but its take-up as a key development concern and its integration into pro-poor planning is a fairly recent departure. Even more recent is the integration of a gender-sensitive perspective in climate change research and responses. For this reason, there is little existing research considering the linkages between climate change and gender. Similarly, while there is a wealth of literature on gender and the environment, gender and energy, gender and water, gender and conflict and gender and disasters, there are few explicit