Abstracts for the Panel Sessions resúmenes de los paneles

The 2007-08 post-election violence in Kenya saw 663,921 persons displaced. The Government undertook some ad hoc measures to assist the displaced which included: Ex-gratia payments to profiled IDPs; repair of houses and infrastructure; restoration of livelihoods; resettlement of IDPs living in self-help groups; distribution of relief food; peace-building and reconciliation.

These interventions were undertaken in the context of a mediated settlement facilitated by the African Union to end the violence. The process also yielded a transitional justice agenda which included: A Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence (CIPEV); the establishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC); and a series of institutional, policy and legal reforms deemed as necessary to prevent the violence from recurring.

An assessment on the progress made in regard to these processes demonstrates a disjointed and discordant approach to addressing the concerns of IDPs from a humanitarian and justice perspective. This paper will utilize the Kenyan experience and propose the IIRA tool as a holistic approach that seeks to contribute to the realisation of redress for the impacts that bear on the dignity, well-being, wealth and habitat of persons, as a result of internal displacement. The redress component seeks to incorporate the concepts of durable solutions, reparations and criminal justice so as to propose redress options that addresses all facets of violations emanating from internal displacement.

3. 
   Laurence Juma: Protection of Rights of Urban Refugees in Kenya: The Likely Impact of the Abebe Dadi Tullu & Others V the Attorney General Decision
   

This paper examines some of the issues that have recently emerged regarding the capacity of domestic legal mechanisms to protect the rights of urban refugees in Kenya. One of those issues, and which informs the greater part of the discussion in this paper, is the profound inconsistency between human rights law and governmental policy on treatment of urban refugees. This issues has surfaced in the recent disputes coming before the courts and in the challenges arising from attempts to align governmental functions with the new constitution. In a broad sense therefore, the analysis in the paper is framed within the context of the new constitutional dispensation and the decision of the High Court in the case of Abebe Dadi Tullu & Others v The Attorney General (High Court of Kenya, Nairobi, Petition No 19 and 115 of 2013). The main argument advanced in the paper is that positive judicial pronouncements on disputes arising from abuse of rights by government are likely to widen the scope for legal protection of urban refugees in Kenya because they expand rights available to refugees and limit governmental action based solely on the policy of encampment. To support my view, I draw on studies conducted in the last two decades that are scathing, and rightly so, on the general dearth of workable governmental policies and programmes for the protection of refugee rights, to identify the perennial gaps. Thereafter, I analyse the existing legal frameworks for protection of rights and juxtapose them against the prevailing governmental approaches to refugee management and protection and its policy imperatives. And using jurisprudence, particularly the Abebe Dai Tullu case, I attempt to justify why the government’s approach that is solely based on the policy of encampment may be at variance with existing rights regime created by the new Constitution. While conscious of the fact that the policy of encampment is buoyed by recent incidences of insecurity in main urban centres, I argue that departing from such an entrenched policy position when faced with threat of insecurity may require radical changes, most certainly from the courts. In the end, the paper suggests that the inconsistency between law and policy makes judicial intervention on urban refugee issues much more critical for the development of law and policy favourable to refugees generally, and to urban refugees in particular, than hitherto advocated.

1. 
   Guliana Redin: Critica a la Política Inmigratoria Brasileña a los haitianos: límites del “Visado Humanitario” y el descompaso en relación a la política de intervención humanitaria encabezada por Brasil en Haití.
   

Especialmente después del terremoto en Haití en enero de 2010, la inmigración de haitianos a Brasil ha intensificado significativamente. Aunque el Brasil encabece la intervención humanitaria en Haití (Resolución n. 1542/2004 del Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas) por diez años, reforzado en 2010 por los efectos del terremoto en el empeoramiento de la situación humanitaria en el país, la respuesta brasileña al tema de la inmigración haitiana se ha hecho caso omiso de estos factores que repercuten claramente en el Instituto del Refugio. El Brasil restringió la aplicación de la Ley 9474/97 (Ley del Refugio en Brasil) y, teniendo en cuenta la condición de vulnerabilidad de los haitianos, crió por la Resolución 97/2012 del Consejo Nacional de Inmigración el llamado "visado humanitario" para estos inmigrantes, les dejando en un limbo de protección y de interferencia del Estado: se reconoce que los haitianos están en una situación vulnerable, pero no les reconoce la condición de refugiado y, por tanto, no se extiende a todos ellos los derechos del instituto de protección humanitaria. Por tanto, este artículo tiene como objetivo examinar los límites de la política brasileña en materia de protección de inmigrantes haitianos, para identificar los efectos de la intervención humanitaria en el Instituto de refugio, así como la demostración de la falta de adecuación de la política exterior brasileña con los compromisos derivados de la protección internacional persona humana, que incluye el compromiso de asilo político y refugio.

2. 
   Juan Villalobos: Limitaciones del régimen Internacional de Refugio. El caso de la población haitiana en República Dominicana.
   

La presente ponencia tiene como finalidad presentar el trabajo final para la obtención del título de “Máster en Relaciones Internacionales con mención en Derechos Humanos y Seguridad otorgado por FLACSO Ecuador, el cual buscó determinar que el funcionamiento del régimen Internacional de Refugio no depende de los acuerdos formales del mismo, sino que depende de otro tipo de factores o lo que podremos llamar acuerdos no formales. En el caso del régimen internacional de refugio en República Dominicana en relación a la población haitiana su funcionamiento estará marcado por un exacerbado nacionalismo y por la política de seguridad nacional, lo cual limita la posibilidad de esta población de obtener protección internacional.

3. 
   Marilia Leal y Andrea Pacheco: La actuación del sistema ONU en la protección de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales de los haitianos en Brasil.
   

El objetivo de este estudio resulta la investigación de la actuación del sistema ONU en la protección de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales de los haitianos en Brasil, con la finalidad de esclarecer la posición que los migrantes forzados - específicamente los desplazados ambientales - ocupan en el escenario internacional, fijándose en el hecho de la inexistencia de una protección específica para este tipo de migrante. Se trazará un panorama de las condiciones de vida enfrentadas por los haitianos en los campamentos localizados en la ciudad de Brasiléia, en el estado brasileños de Acre, y si ese tipo de asistencia que el Sistema ONU está disponiendo a eses desplazados, resulta suficiente para la protección de sus derechos económicos, sociales y culturales, teniendo en consideración las normas de derecho internacional humanitario. Como embasamiento teórico y metodológico, la investigación será de cuño teórico, en un abordaje cualitativo, a partir de las formulaciones doctrinarias de Castles (2005) y Zetter (2008 y 2010). A partir de este análisis, se observa que tal protección se presenta insuficiente. Ese proceso de efectuación de los derechos humanos por parte del Sistema de las Naciones Unidas, posibilita que los actores internacionales se sensibilicen con la problemática de las poblaciones ambientalmente forzadas a desplazarse, una vez que estas no pueden ser categorizadas como refugiados, y por tanto, no disponen de una protección legal específica.

4. 
   Luís Augusto Bittencourt Minchola: Refugee Protection in Cartagena’s Declaration: an analysis from haitian’s case in Brazil.
   

The recognition of the necessity of juridical protection for migrants who are required to leave their homeland has formed a part of discussions on migration in recent decades. In this direction, environmental disasters may force large flows of people out of their original regions. Consequently, a special treatment for those involved is required. This is the case of Haitian migrants who arrived in Brazil after the devastation of their country due to a large earthquake in 2010. Hoping to rebuild their lives, Haitians asked for refuge in the Brazilian State. However, it was not granted considering the argument that they would not fit in the requirements for categorization of a refugee, regarding an old concept of a refugee. Therefore, a merely humanitarian visa could be granted.

1. 
   CHEN Xiaonan Relocation support fund of dam caused resettlement in China.
   

Based on the history of involuntary resettlement for reservoir construction, the macro socio-economics and micro socio-economics background of reservoir resettlement is analyzed, the experience and lessons of reservoir resettlement is summarized. As follow, the present post-resettlement support (PRS) policies described from support beneficiaries, support funds and support ways three aspects, discussed onto flow of support fund and operation mechanism two angles. And then the stakeholders of PRS policies are analyzed, including electricity users, owners and managers of profitable large and medium reservoirs, people directly and indirectly affected by reservoir projects, various resettlement institutions; the governmental intervention methods and implementation of PRS policies are discussed. Finally, an empirical analysis on the satisfaction of 139 households resettlers induced by Xiangjia Dam in Sichuan Province is taken to assess the impact of support fund, and some recommendations are put forward to improve the PRS policies, including establish state resettlement institution, integrate government activities with market rules, encourage public participation, strengthen capacity building of rural organizations, and so on.

2. 
   SHI Guoqing Danjiangkou Resettlement village: A case of study
   

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  How is eligibility for international refugee protection determined for people fleeing armed conflict and other situations of violence?
  
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  How to interpret the well-founded fear concept of the 1951 Refugee Convention in situations of indiscriminate violence?
  
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  What Convention grounds are applicable to people fleeing armed conflict or other situations of violence and how should the ‘nexus’ be construed when people flee the indiscriminate effects of violence?
  
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  What is the effect on the interpretation and application of the 1951 Convention of the Cartagena Declaration definition developed explicitly to cover persons fleeing conflict, massive human rights violations and situations of generalized violence or public disorder, and how should the instruments interact?
  
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  The panel will further explore the origins and relevance of the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees in the protection of persons in need in the Americas, considering current challenges and opportunities, and focused on:
  
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  The Cartagena +30 process road map;
  
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  State practice evolution in light of the Cartagena Declaration’s application along its 30 years of existence; and
  
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  How the Cartagena Declaration remains a relevant protection tool in light of the new situations of violence and conflict described, as per the conclusions reached by the Expert’s Meeting on the Interpretation of the Cartagena Refugee Definition called by UNHCR and held in Montevideo, Uruguay in November 2013.
  

While law can be a tool for responding to violence and exposing abuses of power, law is also utilized to obfuscate and legitimate abuses of political authority. As such, it is puzzling that for many decades, scholarship emanating from the Global North concentrated mainly on the ‘healing’ aspects of legal and semi-legal practices associated with transitional justice measures and movements. Rarely was enough attention paid to the challenges posed by a desire for a new form of justice in terms of questioning the legitimacy of prior political practices by confronting institutional and societal denial of mass violence. In contradistinction, transitional justice debates emanating from the Global South tend to focus on transforming the terms of the debate regarding past abuses of power while also acknowledging that governments often use transitional justice programs and projects as a framework to re-establish their legitimacy. In this latter context, there is a major concern about the cooption of the challenges and demands emanating from re-interpretations of a traumatic past.

The relationship between transitional justice projects and visionary programs for socio-economic restructuring and for reversing structural underdevelopment is yet another one of the headlines that occupies the core agenda of the debates in the Global South. Again, the angle taken by political and academic debates in the South differs significantly from the vantage point entertained in the North pertaining to development. This issue is formulated in a very particular way in the context of Western scholarship and advocacy networks as they engage with the problems, concerns and future trajectories pertaining to societies in the Global South. Often, NGO and INGO funded work emanating from the Global North focuses mainly on the potential impact that transitional justice projects and policies may have on a state's ability to compete for international assistance or to embark on economic reconstruction programs in the aftermath of a crisis. The particular language used in this setting makes a suggested link between development, finance market stability, and justice. Studies that explore how stock markets in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil have responded to efforts to address past human rights abuses over time are key examples of such endeavors.