States of fragility (Forced Migration Review 43)

Sexual and gender-based violence prevention campaigns that incorporate culturally sensitive understanding will stand a better chance of breaking down barriers to accessing services.

The Haiti experience challenged the international humanitarian community to take advantage of the possibilities of increasingly available and common communications technologies and networks, and to ensure access to the infrastructure enabling it to do so.

Bedouin women are able to mitigate some of the consequences of that displacement through the opportunities and influence they have gained as Nabati poets.

At all phases of the displacement cycle, flight, displacement and return, older people are exposed to specific challenges and risks which are not sufficiently taken into account.

Over the past decade, UK courts and administrative tribunals have become increasingly comfortable relying on international human rights treaties in cases where non-citizens claim asylum or other means of protection from persecution.

Trails of Tears have arisen to draw attention and give legitimacy to multiple movements for fairness and justice, hoping to create a community of support strong enough to rectify a past injustice or prevent a future one.

Refugees' involvement in artistic activity: music, theatre, poetry, painting, often plays a powerful positive role in their ability to survive physically and even emotionally and spiritually.

Lebanon has absorbed the enormous Syrian influx but at a high cost to both refugees and Lebanese populations. Current humanitarian programmes can no longer cope and new approaches are needed.

The development approach to displacement brings advantages not only in addressing the needs of refugees, IDPs and host communities but also in helping societies tackle the underlying aspects of fragility that may have caused the displacement.

Psychiatrists working to assess psychological distress and mental health in fragile states, or with refugees from fragile states, need to adopt flexible approaches.

The post-Saddam Iraqi state enjoys only limited support from the population, excludes significant sections of its people from power, suppresses the opposition and does not protect citizens from arbitrary arrests, and corruption is rampant.

The humanitarian, developmental and political consequences of decades of mass forced migration are part of the legacy that the current political leaders of Iraq need to address.

Displacement and distress migration within and outside North Korea may be an indicator of state fragility but a reduction in numbers should not necessarily be read as a sign of improving conditions there.

Forced migration creates special challenges to collecting data and monitoring responses in fragile states where infrastructure and systems are weak or non-existent.

El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are largely ignored by refugee agencies who underestimate transnational criminal organisation' abuses and powers of control, while overestimating national governments' ability and willingness to protect their citizens.

In order to improve security for both Colombian forced migrants and Ecuadorians, an approach that takes advantage of governance networks can allow residents to negotiate access to resources and rights that they otherwise would not be able to enjoy.

Private entrepreneurship and the disapora play important roles in supporting displaced people in fragile ungoverned situations. They are also valuable in helping those situations emerge from fragility.

Yemen is one of the world's most fragile states. Less well understood is how this context affects the vulnerability of refugees, IDPs and migrants themselves and what can be done to strengthen protection for them.

Often a combination of factors pushes people to leave their country, and the voluntary character of their departure remains debatable, challenging humanitarians both to meet needs and to adapt to changing categories of forced displacement.

Those who left Haiti in the chaotic aftermath of the 2010 earthquake did not generally find the same posture of solidarity and humanitarianism overseas that was apparent in the significant international assistance that followed the disaster.

The fragile nature of the state had turned emigration into a major feature of Haitian life even before the earthquake displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

To date, displaced persons in fragile and conflict-affected states have had little success in claiming their rights for housing, land and property violations. Creative legal thinking and strategic litigation has the potential to change this.

The cessation of refugee status results from a judgment that a sufficient change has occurred in the refugees' country of origin that they no longer require international protection.

While the international donor community has been trying to engage with DRC by partnering with the government to implement the New Deal for Aid Effectiveness for Fragile States, communities in DRC.

The provision of some basic assistance in places to which people flee makes this process slightly easier but in the absence of state-led protection, multiple displacement has become a defining feature of the Kivu conflict.

Governance and the rule of law should be vital considerations in attempts to deal with forced migration in fragile states such as DRC.

Current practice in African states highlights both the potential and the limitations of the 1969 African Refugee Convention in providing protection to persons displaced from fragile states.

Burundi's peace villages, which are intended both as models for reintegration and as centres of economic development, have encountered a number of problems which are related to the country's continued fragility as a state.

Interventions aiming to assist IDPs and refugees returning home in fragile states would do well to take note of the local political and economic contexts in the aftermath of war, because these deeply affect the reintegration of war-affected populations.

A better understanding of state fragility, combined with improvements in policy and funding for displaced populations, is necessary to prevent the proliferation of further regional conflicts.

Donors have allocated increasing resources in fragile states to the reform and/or rebuilding of the architecture of the state, such as justice systems, the police and army, and the management of ministries in efforts to support stability.

State fragility demands the protection of people fleeing the omissions of states, whether due to states' unwillingness or to their inability to provide for their citizens' fundamental rights.

From the editors.