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Mediawatch

AlertNet scours the world's media for provocative articles on humanitarian themes. Below are our choice pickings, updated daily.

Climate Displacement: The Muddle on Terminology
16 Nov 2009 20:44:00 GMT
Author: Joel Charny

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.

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MEDIAWATCH: Analysts say Russia is losing control of N.Caucasus after suicide bomb in Ingushetia
19 Aug 2009 17:01:00 GMT
Author: James Kilner

A suicide bomb that killed 25 people outside a police station in the south Russian region of Ingushetia on Monday was the deadliest attack in the North Caucasus in about four years.

The Kremlin had claimed this year thatrebels - a mixture ofIslamist extremists, separatists and the disgruntled-had been defeated. But this summer bomb attacks, gun fights and kidnappings in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia have risen.

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New Head of U.S. Refugee Bureau Will Face Immediate Challenges
03 Jun 2009 15:29:00 GMT
Author: Joel Charny

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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Outreach
26 Mar 2009 14:41:00 GMT
Author: Grant Assenheimer

There is always a flurry of activity when the outreach team is preparing to head out. Someone is busy collecting vaccines from the refrigerator and putting them into a small cold box loaded with ice packs. Someone else is packing folding camp beds, mosquito nets and cooking pots into the car as the driver does his daily checks and fires up his Land cruiser. Another member is busy signing out the satellite phone and getting MSF vests for the team. Last minute instructions are quickly passed to those staying in the base and off they go.

Our Setup

Outreach is a major component of our project here in Shamwana, as MSF supports a network of five rural health centers where the Ministry of Health (MoH) is providing basic health care to the population. While these clinics are operated and staffed by the Ministry of Health, MSF provides support in the form of free medicine and technical support. MSF also provides a prime or monthly bonus to all MoH staff to ensure that all of these health providers receive a fair wage.

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Dadaab: Ground truth from N Zero
09 Mar 2009 20:26:00 GMT
Author: Joel Charny

We were just stepping out of our vehicle in the far reaches of Hagadera, one of three camps that make up the sprawling Dadaab camp for Somali refugees in northeastern Kenya, when it became obvious that we had stumbled upon a pocket of misery. A man waved his arms, and starting shouting, No water! No water!

As we walked into the area, a group quickly gathered and started the rapid fire explanation of their plight, with passionate interruptions and people struggling to be heard, testing the patience and talent of our guide, himself a refugee who arrived in Dadaab in 1992. As visitors from the outside world, in our case from Washington, D.C. and Refugees International, we had to hear their story.

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