Ethics and displacement (Forced Migration Review 61)

What moral principles guide our work? This issue debates many of the ethical questions that confront us in programming, research, safeguarding and volunteering, and in our use of data, new technologies, messaging and images. We each live according to our own personal code of ethics but what moral principles guide our work? The 19 feature theme articles in this issue debate many of the ethical questions that confront us in programming, research, safeguarding and volunteering, and in our use of data, new technologies, messaging and images. Prepare to be enlightened, unsettled and challenged. This issue is being published in tribute to Barbara Harrell-Bond, founder of the Refugee Studies Centre and FMR, who died in July 2018. In a special collection of articles in this issue, authors discuss the legacy of Barbara Harrell-Bond – the impact she had and its relevance for our work today. This issue of FMR will be available online and in print in English and Arabic: www.fmreview.org/ethics

Donors’ thirst for data is increasingly undermining security and confidentiality, putting both survivors of violence and staff at risk.

States are keen to explore the use of new technologies in migration management, yet greater oversight and accountability mechanisms are needed in order to safeguard fundamental rights.

The growing use of data gathered from social media in asylum claim assessments raises critical yet underexplored ethical questions.

The IASFM has agreed an international code of ethics to guide research with displaced people. Challenges that arose during its development merit continued discussion.

A number of ethical issues emerge from working with ‘over-researched’ and ‘under-researched’ refugee groups.

Refugees in Nakivale refugee settlement demonstrate research fatigue, yet a return visit by one particular researcher reveals an interesting twist to the tale.

The situation of the Carteret Islanders, often characterised as the first ‘climate change refugees’, has attracted much research interest. What is the impact of such interest? And are standard ethics compliance processes appropriate?

Researching sexual violence against men and boys in humanitarian settings requires navigating multiple ethics- and accountability-related tensions.

Service providers working in settlement contexts could draw more on research principles in order to better enable new arrivals to understand questions of rights and consent.

As humanitarian agencies increasingly follow the example of academia in establishing ethics review committees, one such agency reflects on the benefits and drawbacks.

EU migration policies are undermining basic humanitarian principles and making it more difficult for humanitarian actors to uphold their ethical commitments.

When MSF recently piloted travel medicine services for people travelling along migration routes in Greece, various ethical challenges and moral dilemmas emerged.

The humanitarian community needs to develop a better shared understanding of how to provide principled assistance in areas controlled by proscribed groups.

What ethical dilemmas affect humanitarian agencies’ responses to fraudulent behaviour by persons of concern? And how might refugee community structures be more involved in defining responses?

Volunteers in Greece who are filling gaps in service provision can encounter complex ethical situations for which they may be insufficiently trained and supported.

NGOs, international organisations and donors alike must consider the impact of the images and messaging they use in seeking to raise funds for humanitarian assistance.

The representations of refugees created by advocacy and solidarity groups must be devised in partnership with those whose stories are being told.

Aid organisations have to go further if they are to meet commitments to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, listen to survivors, and remove barriers to reporting.

Robust, comprehensive safeguarding measures, including those used in crisis- and conflict-affected contexts, need to take appropriate account of local contexts in order to adhere to the highest international standards, including in safeguarding children.

During Refugee Week 2018, the Refugee Studies Centre showed a new film entitled A Life Not Ordinary, a documentary about Barbara Harrell-Bond, OBE, Emeritus Professor, founder of the RSC, and our colleague.

Barbara Harrell-Bond’s work had a radical impact on the lives of the uprooted and on people’s attitudes towards them.

Part of Barbara’s legacy is her refugee-centred approach to forced migration and refugee studies.

The importance of rigour and detail in preparing expert witness reports cannot be overstated.

Twenty years after Barbara Harrell-Bond co-founded the Refugee Law Project in Uganda, its current director considers the continuing legacy of the principles that run through her book.

Barbara Harrell-Bond’s approach stemmed from her core belief that we are all adults, all equal, all responsible.

Former AMERA staff and advisers reflect on the impact this NGO had in advancing refugee protection and how it embodied Barbara Harrell-Bond’s philosophy.

What insights can the pre-eminent critic of camp-based aid provision, Barbara Harrell-Bond, offer contemporary practitioners?

The assistance that I, as a refugee, received from Barbara Harrell-Bond shows that her defence of refugees went far beyond the preparation of asylum applications.