Humanitarian Protection Research Articles

A Theoretical Analysis on the 2016 Presidential Results: It’s Impact on Immigrant Perceptions of Law Enforcement Across Generations

The rise of Trump ignited smoldering xenophobia throughout the U.S. As a result of Trump’s election, punitive and restrictive immigration policies were passed and have not been lifted. Consequently, punitive enforcement of immigrant populations has increased nationwide specifically in Texas. For instance, a significant increase in deportation, arrest, and detainment of immigrants, the reduction of humanitarian protection, random punitive immigration enforcement, and fewer opportunities for legal immigration have occurred since Trump’s presidency. Although research has observed that first-generation immigrants are more trustful and have more positive perceptions of police when compared to later generations, previous research has observed various factors influence immigrant perceptions of police. Investigation into immigrant perceptions of police during Trump’s first year in office, combined with the analysis of unexplored constructs (e.g., “the talk”) would improve our understanding of factors influencing perceptions across generations. The current study will investigate: (1) Does immigrant generation status influence fear of police during Trump’s first year in office; (2) Is the fear of police mediated through receiving “the talk”? Mediation analysis will be conducted to investigate the research questions.

Morbidity among resettled refugees at arrival in Ontario, Canada (1994–2017): a controlled interrupted time series study examining the effect of the Immigration Refugee Protection Act, 2002

BackgroundImmigration inadmissibility on medical grounds is common among high-income countries. In Canada, the Immigrant and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) became law in 2002. With humanitarian protection as a priority, IRPA...

An ideology of deserving: A historical analysis of the United States' immigration policies governing forced migration and social welfare

AbstractLegislation governs both the admittance and treatment of forced migrants in the United States. Increasingly, many forced migrants are offered few welfare benefits, temporary protection, and no pathway to permanent residency. This paper explores forced migrants' legal categories and access to social welfare, focusing on five humanitarian protection statuses: Temporary Protected Status, Humanitarian Parole, Asylum Seeker, Refugee, and Asylee. Based on the concepts of welfare nationalism and the Protestant Work Ethic, our historical analysis examines the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 to see how this landmark legislation shaped access to welfare for noncitizens. We then focus on the emergence of humanitarian statuses since the 1950s and the legislation that constructed them. We conclude that immigration legislation governing forced migrants underlies an ideology of deserving, where some are treated as more meritorious than others. Thus, we call for welfare scholars to elevate immigration status as a key category in their research.

Refugee Protection as a Public Good: What Benefits Do States Derive?

While a growing number of refugees is in need of humanitarian protection, most states are reluctant to admit them. For more than two decades, scholars have thought to understand this intricate challenge of international governance through the prism of collective action theory and the concept of refugee protection as an international public good. However, the specific benefits that states gain from refugee protection and that are assumed to constitute the public good remain surprisingly vague and under-specified. In this Reflection, we make three contributions to address this issue. First, we take stock of the literature and assess the evolution of the collective action theory in asylum governance. Second, we identify and conceptualize legitimacy, security, reputation, and development as four types of benefits that states derive from refugee protection. Third, we discuss the limitations of the dominant rational-choice approach and contend that the nature of refugee protection in the international realm is the product of international and domestic politics based on the contestation of interests and norms. These insights result in a series of recommendations for future research of refugee protection as a collective action problem.

African customs and traditions and the indigenization of international humanitarian law in armed conflict

Abstract Many ancient African societies had advanced and sophisticated humanitarian protection mechanisms and war codes to regulate the conduct of armed hostilities. A careful examination of both historical and contemporary African customs and traditions provides unique avenues through which to interpret and apply international humanitarian protection in armed conflict. As a sub-branch of international law, international humanitarian law (IHL) seeks to limit the excesses of warfare and regulate the conduct of armed hostilities. However, international conventions such as those of IHL remain severely constrained if they are not framed and reconciled with indigenous understandings and meanings of humanitarian protection. In non-international armed conflicts specifically, this enduring challenge demands that IHL conventions and other international conventions be framed and understood within indigenous frameworks that support local ownership of this internationalized body of law. Encouraging dialogue between international norms and indigenous practices can enhance the relevance, authority and legitimacy of IHL in Africa.

Struggles over the borders of international protection: A socio-legal analysis of climate-induced migration in Italy

The paper explores the multifaceted nature of borders, drawing on Sandro Mezzadra and Brett Neilson’s (2013) concept of a border as both a demarcation line between States and an instrument for governing global space. Borders, including legal ones, are simultaneously sites of control and resistance, as articulated by Bell Hooks (1991). The paper delves into border struggles within the international protection system, especially concerning environmentally driven migration. Climate change disrupts established migration control policies and protection frameworks, challenging legal spaces to reconcile human rights protection with migration control. By analysing documents related to residence permits issued for environmentally induced migration, this study aims to uncover the nuances of these border struggles through semantic analysis. In addition, this research situates itself within Sousa Santos’ theoretical framework, “human rights theories” (2015). It examines how Italian jurisprudence responds to climate-induced migration, particularly focussing on the interpretation of humanitarian protection for those displaced by environmental factors. Despite judicial recognition of climate migration, legislative changes in 2018 eliminated humanitarian permits, limiting avenues for protection. The study advocates for reimagining legal frameworks to address emerging challenges, highlighting the pivotal role of human rights in shaping migration governance and advocating for a comprehensive approach that prioritises social justice.

Ten Likely Changes to Immigration Policy Under Trump 2.0

Executive Summary During his first administration, former President Trump adopted aggressive anti-immigrant policies, which included family separation, a ban on individuals from Muslim-majority countries, stringent border policies like the Remain in Mexico and Title 42, and attempted terminations of programs such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several national groups. Attorneys and representatives for immigrants had some success in pushing back against the administration’s most extreme measures through litigation and advocacy. Should they return to the White House, Trump and his supporters have promised to enact an even more draconian anti-immigrant agenda, including a commitment to conducting the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, ending birthright citizenship (which is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment), and revoking humanitarian protections for those already in the United States. Many of these efforts, of course, will be challenged in court. This article summarizes 10 likely immigration initiatives under a second Trump administration. It seeks to educate members of the public who value the crucial role and myriad contributions of immigrants and refugees — past and present — in the United States. It will also outline how advocates can fight to protect their clients from these measures.

ICRC’s Intervention on AI Based Weapon under International Humanitarian Law: A Critical Analysis

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has exerted pressure on nations to enact new international legislation that would limit the use of certain autonomous weapons, including those under third-party control, and forbid the deployment of others. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a neutral, independent organization that offers victims of armed conflict and other perilous situations humanitarian protection and support. In addition to responding to emergencies, it promotes compliance with international humanitarian law and its assimilation into national laws. In modern times, the military is making significant investments in artificial intelligence, and there are already instances of AI being used in conflict. A number of sectors that create serious humanitarian concerns include those that the ICRC has identified as areas in which artificial intelligence is being developed for use in combat by armed actors. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been pressuring governments to pass new international laws that would prohibit the deployment of some autonomous weapons and restrict the use of others, including those that are controlled by third parties.

Climate-health risk (In)visibility in the context of everyday humanitarian practice

Nongovernmental migrant shelters in Mexico play a key role in documenting the factors that shape forced migration from Central America. Existing intake protocols in shelters are largely oriented to humanitarian legal frameworks that determine eligibility for international protection based on interpersonal violence and political persecution. This qualitative study calls attention to how existing humanitarian logics may obscure climate- and health-related disruptions as drivers of forced migration from Central America in the context of everyday humanitarian practice. In May 2022 we compared migrant's responses (n = 40) to a standardized intake protocol at a nongovernmental humanitarian migrant shelter in Mexico with responses to semi-structured interviews that focused on migrants' perceptions of climate change and health as drivers of forced displacement. We found that slow- and rapid-onset climatic disruptions; illness and disease; and various forms of violence and repression are often interrelated drivers of forced displacement. Comparing intake protocols and in-depth interview responses, we found that climate- and health-related drivers of forced displacement are rarely documented. These findings speak to the importance of critically examining everyday humanitarian practices in the context of ongoing advocacy that calls for climate-related disruptions to be integrated into existing humanitarian protection frameworks.

Humanitarian protection activities and the safety of strangers in the DRC, Syria and South Sudan

AbstractMany contemporary humanitarian organisations derive their legitimacy from their claims to protect civilians. Yet, what these organisations do in its name includes a diverse and contested range of activities that are often far from what global publics and affected populations understand as constituting protection. As others have argued, this detracts from honest discussions about when and how humanitarians are well placed to keep civilians safe from violence and threats. To begin to address this gap, we review what three well‐known humanitarian organisations publicly say they have done to protect strangers across three violent protracted crises. We capture how they portray their activities, the logics they attribute to them and what is left unsaid. Our findings suggest that humanitarians must, once again, collaborate over a shared protection framework that better signals what others can expect from them. We also identify an emerging convergence around the notion that peer‐to‐peer denunciations, conflict resolution, supporting self‐protection and community protection strategies and improving state‐society relations can be important forms of protection activity. There is, therefore, a need for a public stocktake over what can, cannot, should and should not be done to protect civilians in such contexts.

Encounters with kindness: everyday and extraordinary kind interventions in the lives of forced migrant survivors of SGBV

ABSTRACT While much attention is given to understanding the nature of the sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) encountered by forced migrants, far less focus is placed on the actions and experiences that enable them to cope with violence. In this paper, we adopt a novel perspective examining forced migrants’ accounts of kind encounters with strangers who are not obligated to offer assistance. We draw on 166 semi-structured interviews with forced migrant SGBV survivors to examine the nature of kind encounters, the contexts in which they occur, and their reported outcomes. Our analysis reveals that kind encounters manifest across forced migration journeys and range from the extraordinary to the everyday. Kind encounters offer vital help and support and can connect people across cleavages while fostering resistance against degrading heteropatriarchal and bordering practices. The significance that respondents attach to such encounters underscores gaps in humanitarian protection and the normalization of cruelty towards forced migrants. We argue that kind encounters are inherently micropolitical, influencing social relations, and confronting gendered and racialized hierarchies. By uncovering the importance of kind encounters, we present a fresh perspective on the experiences of SGBV in forced migration with much potential in the study of migration.

The UK's ‘Safe and Legal’ Humanitarian Routes: from Colonial Ties to Privatising Protection

AbstractIn this article, the UK's ‘safe and legal (humanitarian) routes’ are evaluated by examining how they are positioned in the post‐Brexit migration regime, and how these domestic provisions compare to those underwritten by international protections. The Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas)—HK BN(O)s—and Ukraine visa schemes are an area of focus which, combined, account for the vast majority of those arriving in the UK for the purposes of humanitarian protections since Brexit. Despite being formally presented under the same banner, the schemes have significant differences in terms of eligibility criteria, costs, rights and entitlements. Moreover, on closer inspection, while they share an overarching policy vision informed by foreign policy priorities, these new provisions are underpinned by different genealogies and policy logics. While the HK BN(O) scheme is rooted in the tradition of ancestry visas and colonial entanglements and requires that potential beneficiaries pay for protections, the Ukrainian schemes are more closely aligned with recent refugee resettlement schemes and share with them the push towards greater involvement of private and community stakeholders in humanitarian protection.

A global protection gap: Migrant insecurity in Mexico

AbstractOver the last decade, Mexico has gone from being a major source of immigrants to an important transit and destination country for asylum seekers and migrants from Central and South America. When President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in December 2018, he pledged to implement a migration policy that prioritized humanitarian protection and honored Mexico's international and national human rights commitments. To what extent have these goals been achieved? In this article, I rely on a variety of sources to document the widening gap between Mexico's legal and stated commitments to the protection of migrants' rights and their implementation. I argue that there are both external and domestic constraints that hinder the implementation of human rights commitments and contribute to the migrant protection gap in Mexico. First, Mexican migration and humanitarian goals are inevitably shaped by the pervasive asymmetry characterizing relations with the United States. Second, capacity problems and domestic political tensions have undermined the Mexican government's ability to protect the safety of migrants. Meanwhile, the Mexican case is useful to highlight the sometimes neglected but important role of transnational nongovernmental and international organizations in filling the protection gap by providing support to host country governments and offering complementary protection to migrants.

A CONCEPÇÃO CONTEMPORÂNEA DOS DIREITOS HUMANOS

This work aims to present and discuss the contemporary conception of human rights theory. Based on the defense of the dignity of the human person, human rights are the result of conquests throughout history, having taken effect in the international order since the end of the Second World War, when the United Nations (UN) promulgated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human Rights, in 1948, when this document became the normative framework for humanitarian protection worldwide. The aforementioned Declaration provides for a set of rights belonging to every human person, regardless of nationality, race, sex, religion or any other characteristic. Among these rights are the right to life, freedom, food, work, among others, which underpin a dignified existence. In contemporary theory, although there are various ways of designating human rights, such as "human rights", "individual rights", "fundamental rights", natural rights ", among others, these expressions have the same meaning. However, the majority doctrine essentially distinguishes two terminologies as to its scope: “human rights”, which are used to define the rights established by international law; and “fundamental rights”, which Brazil, in the text of the 1988 Federal Constitution. In methodological terms, this article is a review study, categorized as research qualitative (as to nature), descriptive (as to objective) and bibliographic (as to object).

Foreign Fighters in the Ukrainian Armed Conflict: An International Humanitarian Law Perspective

This study discusses foreign fighters who take part in the Ukrainian armed conflict. The aim of this study is to know about the history of the armed conflict of Ukraine, study the relevance of International Humanitarian Law to foreign fighters, and study the implementation of Human Rights obtained by foreign fighters based on International Humanitarian Law. The used is juridical-normative legal research or also called document research with secondary data as the main source. Researchers conduct legislative studies to see synchronization between legislation. Data were collected using literature review techniques, such as perusing, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from relevant documents. The results of this study conclude, first, the history of the Ukrainian armed conflict starting from the independence of Ukraine and culminating in the Russian special military operation that occurred on February 24, 2022. Second, the relevance of international humanitarian law to foreign fighters has no specific definition describing foreign fighters and only foreign terrorist fighters. Third, the implementation of human rights against foreign fighters is an inviolable or inalienable human right. However, in its implementation there are still many violations that occur in the armed conflict of Ukraine. Several methods are needed to overcome this problem, namely, the need to increase understanding and awareness regarding IHL and human rights, especially for foreign fighters, to all parties and, make policy recommendations regarding clarity of understanding for foreign fighters, which can then be used as a guide for policymakers and practitioners to increase the certainty of humanitarian protection for foreign fighters.

Reflexive reciprocity under an ethics of care: Reflections from the field for refugee studies

Abstract By bringing reflexivity and reciprocity into conceptual dialogue in a discussion about the ethical framework of care in research, this article discusses how ‘reflexive reciprocity’ can be a research tool in migration studies. Taking reciprocity—the dynamics of giving and receiving—as an aspect contextually bound to the refugee experience, I propose that a relationship of giving and receiving helps undermine the inevitable power asymmetries in knowledge production. Reciprocity becomes all the more essential when researching refugee communities where narratives are prompted in a way that mirrors how refugees are elicited to give information within mechanisms of refugee governance, where they narrate their neediness, perform their vulnerability, and justify their deservingness in return for legal and humanitarian protection in traumatic processes that can be a distortion of the norms of reciprocity. This article invites researchers to address reciprocity in research, premised on the idea that an ethical framework of care should go beyond paying lip service to protect vulnerable and marginalized participants. Reflecting on my case study research with Syrian refugee women in Turkey, Ankara, I argue that reflexive reciprocity is both a tool for more rigorous data collection in a qualitative inquiry and a practical application of an ethical framework of care. In exploring instances where I could link reflexivity to action-oriented reciprocity through ‘everyday acts of caring’, I demonstrate that reflexive reciprocity can somewhat balance out the extractive nature of research and thereby contribute to the ongoing discussion about the ‘reflexive turn’ in migration studies.

Extreme hardship, care ethics, and humanitarian protection: Lessons from Libya and Italy

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on the extreme hardship suffered by migrants crossing through Libya to reach Italy and Europe. The paper documents and defines the notion of extreme hardship and argues in favour of an ethics of care that provides for protection for those migrants who may not be asylum seekers for what concerns their initial motivation for migrating but who need humanitarian protection because of the harm suffered while en route. Starting with a normative exploration of how an ethics of care can and should inform the policy of countries of arrival, this paper analyses the specific case of Italy and the emerging case law and legal practice in relation to the humanitarian stay permits. Based on the analysis of relevant scholarly literature, policy and legal texts and interviews with expert informants (lawyers and judges) and taking stock of an innovative practice that emerged in Italy in the period 2015–2020, the paper also discusses similar provisions in other European countries and argues for the possibility to develop and codify a humanitarian permit, at national or also European level.

Russian-Ukrainian Conflict: International Humanitarian Law and Civilian Settlements

The research analyzes the views of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and UN Charter violations in the case of the invasion of civilian settlements in the Russia-Ukraine conflict for justice. The conflict, which took place on February 24, 2022, has raised serious concerns about violations of the UN Charter and IHL and the protection of civilians. This research collected data and information from various primary and secondary sources, including reports of international organizations, legal documents, and journal analysis. A qualitative approach was used to analyze the impact of the invasion of civilian settlements on IHL in the case of the Russia and Ukraine case. The results show that the view of IHL in the context of the invasion of civilian settlements in the Russia-Ukraine case has caused great harm to civilians, ranging from damage to homes, infrastructure, and public facilities, including casualties. It also appears that Russia has ignored the guiding principles of the UN Charter. To overcome this problem, several steps can be taken. First, there is a need to increase understanding and awareness of IHL among all parties involved in the conflict. Second, increase efforts to maintain brotherhood between nations. Third, working together to assist in humanitarian terms in the event of armed conflict, famine, and starvation. The resulting policy implications and recommendations can be used as a guide for policymakers and practitioners to improve the humanitarian protection of civilians in the future.

Fulfilling Right to Education for Rohingya Refugee Children in Indonesia

The results of data collection conducted by the United Nations for Refugee Affairs (UNHCR) revealed that out of a total of 1,001 Rohingya ethnic refugees from Myanmar scattered in several refugee camps in Aceh, Indonesia, there were 374 child refugees, of whom were children without pa the principle of universality of human rights states that all humans have the same rights without discrimination, including the granting of the right to education to children of asylum seekers in transit countries. Furthermore, for Rohingya refugees who are already in Indonesia, they are given humanitarian protection, including fulfilling the right to education for Rohingya refugee children, even though Indonesia is not yet a state party to the 1951 convention on refugee status and the 1967 protocol, and does not yet have a system for determining refugee status. The research results show, the Fulfilling Right to Education for Rohingya Refugee Children in Indonesia, based on Law no. 39 of 1999 concerning Human Rights which has standards from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, while for the protection of refugee children it is confirmed by Law No. 35 of 2014 concerning Child Protection which is the signing and ratification of Covention on the Right of the Child and Presidential Regulation No. 125 of 2016 concerning the Handling of Refugees from Abroad which specifically regulates refugees, ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child into Decisions President Number 26 of 1990, then Indonesia has directly agreed to the entire contents of the convention in all actions against children in Indonesia such as the state's obligation to protect children who are within its jurisdiction. The provisions of Government Regulation no. 78 of 2021 concerning Special Protection for Children, in Article 6. Indonesia Ministry of Education and Culture Circular Letter No. 752553/A.A4/HK/2019 concerning Fulfillment of the Right to Education for Children of Foreign Refugees, has opened the way for school-age children of foreign refugees to pursue formal education in educational institutions. The policy of the Indonesian government to fulfill the right to education for the children of overseas refugees should be appreciated. This is because Indonesia has not ratified the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees.

Normative Overlaps between China and the Liberal International Society: China’s Developmentalist Human Rights

Abstract When different entities (actors) accept a certain norm or a particular agreement about normative principles, they are likely to have an overlapping but not necessarily fully shared understanding of the given norm. This article theorises and assesses the strength of such normative overlaps in international politics. It conceptualises normative overlaps as normative congruences across and within political orders. It follows a norm’s connection to constitutional layers of political orders (congruences within orders) and the way these constitutional layers of political orders, among which the norm is shared, overlap (congruences across orders). To do so, it builds upon and interconnects the literature on norms, especially norm diffusion, and the English School and constructivist literature on the composition of international order. The theoretical framework is utilised to analyse how China fits into the liberal international society, especially when it comes to human rights (HR) and humanitarian protection. The effect of the normative overlaps in this realm is China’s active engagement with the liberal HR regime, however, without deeper convergence or socialisation. The limits of convergence are underpinned by significant differences between the Chinese developmentalist and liberal conceptions of the moral purpose of politics.