Security and Human Rights in the Context of Forced Migration

Author(s):  
David Irvine ◽  
Travers Mcleod
Author(s):  
David B. Thronson

Citizenship plays a larger and more critical role in the life of children than it should. Children who lack citizenship are incredibly vulnerable to exploitation. In the migration context, a child’s citizenship can be largely determinative of where and with whom a child lives. Despite a modern children’s rights framework that recognizes the humanity and autonomy of children, citizenship and nationality still form an integral part of a child’s identity and play a critical role in a child’s development. It has a pervasive impact in securing other rights for children and can be a central factor in a child’s cultural and linguistic background, education, economic and environment exposures, and virtually all aspects of a child’s daily life. This chapter examines children’s right to citizenship and explores the ongoing crisis of statelessness that undermines these rights. It reviews the role that citizenship plays in both voluntary and forced migration of children, child-specific protections found in both universal and regional human rights frameworks, and the role of children’s citizenship in promoting family unity.


Author(s):  
Petra Molnar

This chapter focuses on how technologies used in the management of migration—such as automated decision-making in immigration and refugee applications and artificial intelligence (AI) lie detectors—impinge on human rights with little international regulation, arguing that this lack of regulation is deliberate, as states single out the migrant population as a viable testing ground for new technologies. Making migrants more trackable and intelligible justifies the use of more technology and data collection under the guide of national security, or even under tropes of humanitarianism and development. Technology is not inherently democratic, and human rights impacts are particularly important to consider in humanitarian and forced migration contexts. An international human rights law framework is particularly useful for codifying and recognizing potential harms, because technology and its development are inherently global and transnational. Ultimately, more oversight and issue specific accountability mechanisms are needed to safeguard fundamental rights of migrants, such as freedom from discrimination, privacy rights, and procedural justice safeguards, such as the right to a fair decision maker and the rights of appeal.


2021 ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Petra Molnar

AbstractPeople on the move are often left out of conversations around technological development and become guinea pigs for testing new surveillance tools before bringing them to the wider population. These experiments range from big data predictions about population movements in humanitarian crises to automated decision-making in immigration and refugee applications to AI lie detectors at European airports. The Covid-19 pandemic has seen an increase of technological solutions presented as viable ways to stop its spread. Governments’ move toward biosurveillance has increased tracking, automated drones, and other technologies that purport to manage migration. However, refugees and people crossing borders are disproportionately targeted, with far-reaching impacts on various human rights. Drawing on interviews with affected communities in Belgium and Greece in 2020, this chapter explores how technological experiments on refugees are often discriminatory, breach privacy, and endanger lives. Lack of regulation of such technological experimentation and a pre-existing opaque decision-making ecosystem creates a governance gap that leaves room for far-reaching human rights impacts in this time of exception, with private sector interest setting the agenda. Blanket technological solutions do not address the root causes of displacement, forced migration, and economic inequality – all factors exacerbating the vulnerabilities communities on the move face in these pandemic times.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Vunderink

Examines the situation of forced migration in Colombia by identifying how profound inequalities, a lack of governmental authority, and a crisis in national identity have contributed to the emergence of armed irregular groups and the perpetuation of the civil conflict. The Colombian conflict which has last[ed] for more than forty years has perpetuated extreme criminal violence, grave human rights abuses and massive levels of population displacement. Determinants or push factors involved in Colombian internal displacement and asylum seeking are analyzed to draw similarities between these two experiences to further question the distinctions maintained between them in international law.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-112
Author(s):  
Sylvia Yazid ◽  
Iyan Septiyana

ASEAN member countries are migrant-sending and receiving countries. Around 7.3 million ASEAN citizens are migrant workers, more than 740 thousand refugees are from Myanmar, and many ASEAN citizens are victims of human trafficking. Frequently, these migrants get discriminatory treatment, which makes them unable to fulfill their human rights. ASEAN, as a regional organization, is an actor that can implement migration governance in the region. As a governance institution, ASEAN has several migration instruments relating to human trafficking and migrant workers. To implement this regional instrument, ASEAN forms bodies that function to encourage and protect migrant rights. The Rohingya people from Myanmar still experiences forced migration and displacement. However, ASEAN still does not have a comprehensive instrument that can be a source of regional governance toward the issue. This paper will discuss the prospects of ASEAN migration governance in resolving migration issues in the region.


2019 ◽  
pp. 336-362
Author(s):  
J. M. M. van der Vliet-Bakker

In an era of accelerating environmental degradation, a growing number of people will be affected by its effects. Some of those people will be forced to migrate, both internally and cross-border. Under current international law, those people are not recognized as a specific category entitled to protection. Many protection gaps in international law can be identified for these ‘environmentally forced migrants'. Human rights law can fill some of those gaps by offering minimum standards of treatment, procedural protection or complementary protection. This chapter systematically assesses these possibilities.


Author(s):  
Rebecca Yeo

Forced migration and disability often are ignored in the research literature. In spite of the equalities legislation for the rights of disabled people, often the responses to disabled migrants are not helpful. In theory, the UK’s National Health Service is founded on the basic principle of universalism. The theoretical hegemonic commitment to universal human rights has often been most overtly broken in relation to migrant rights. In contrast to official condemnation of racism and disablism, successive governments of different political persuasions have continued to, and indeed competed to, prove their hostility towards migrants, whether they are disabled or not. The British asylum system itself is disabling by design. Some people are disabled on arrival in the UK; others become disabled later on. Disabled asylum seekers often describe the system as psychological torture. Therefore, ongoing mental distress can create difficulties in further adjustment, thus compounding problems. Using case histories, this chapter illustrates some of the difficulties faced by migrants with disabilities. A fundamental systemic change is needed to address the injustice encountered by disabled asylum seekers.


Author(s):  
Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh ◽  
Gil Loescher ◽  
Katy Long ◽  
Nando Sigona ◽  
Jane McAdam

Author(s):  
Gil Loescher

This chapter examines the link between human rights and forced migration. It first considers the human rights problems confronting forced migrants both during their flight and during their time in exile before discussing the differing definitions accorded refugees today as well as the difficulty in coming up with a widely accepted definition. It then explores the roles and functions of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the international refugee regime. It also uses the case study of Myanmar to illustrate many of the human rights features of a protracted refugee and internal displacement crisis. Finally, it describes how the international community might respond to new and emerging challenges in forced migration and world politics, and better adapt to the ongoing tension between the power and interests of states and upholding refugee rights.


TheHandbookconsists of 32 Chapters in seven parts. Part I provides the historical background and sets out some of the contemporary challenges. Part II considers the relevant sources of international law. Part III describes the different legal regimes: land warfare, air warfare, maritime warfare, the law of occupation, the law applicable to peace operations, and the law of neutrality. Part IV introduces key concepts in international humanitarian law: weapons and the notion of superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering, the principle of distinction, proportionality, genocide and crimes against humanity, grave breaches and war crimes, internal armed conflict. Part V looks at key rights: the right to life, the prohibition on torture, the right to fair trial, economic, social and cultural rights, the protection of the environment, the protection of cultural property, and the human rights of the members of the armed forces. Part VI covers key issues such as: the use of force, terrorism, unlawful combatants, the application of human rights in times of armed conflict, forced migration, and issues of gender. Part VII deals with accountability issues including those related to private security companies, the need to focus on armed groups, as well as questions of state responsibility brought before national courts, and finally, the book addresses issues related to transitional justice.


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