Volume 1, Issue 2 / January 2009
“When others control the voice [of refugees], is it any wonder that the appeal is almost always for more aid and not for more rights?”
-Merrill Smith, of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants/ “Speaking Out on Warehousing: 3 Questions for Merrill Smith”
“One way to begin to address the evils of [refugee] camps is to create feedback mechanisms…If a free press spreads among the hundreds of camps in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and appears on the World Wide Web, indeed a feedback mechanism will have been established.”
-Dr. Barbara Harrell-Bond, refugee rights advocate and founder of the Oxford Refugee Studies Centre / “Speaking for Refugees or Refugees Speaking for Themselves”
“Refugees are human beings. Human rights are the things that belong to us and no one can take them away.”
-A refugee incentive worker on wage inequalities / “Are Refugees Entitled to Equal Pay for Equal Work?”
“[Refugees] have a right to information and transparency from UNHCR and partner staff… A rights-based approach requires organizations to support people to demand what they are entitled to.”
-UNHCR, in A Community-Based Approach in UNHCR Operations / “KANERE Celebrates One Year of UNHCR’s Rights- and Community-Based Approach”