Why the UNHCR Needs to Bring a Policy Change to Help Displaced Afghans

Why the UNHCR Needs to Bring a Policy Change to Help Displaced Afghans

by Jess GallagherNo Comments
By Guest Writer Mohammad Zayaan On September 15, 2021, after a hostile takeover, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, leading to one of the worst humanitarian crises the world has witnessed. Thousands of Afghans were displaced from the country and forced to move to different parts of the world to avoid persecution. As a result, some countries developed specific policies, after this unprecedented increase in the refugee influx, some guaranteeing safe haven while others are refusing to accept them.  This article discusses a specific policy change that the UNHCR could bring to help people from Afghanistan who had migrated before September and whose application for refugee status had been rejected by the UNHCR. Apart from a country’s own refugee policy, the UNHCR has a separate mechanism called Refugee Status Determination (RSD) to identify and recognize refugees. This mechanism is based on the Refugee Convention, 1951, the Protocol Related To The Status Of Refugees(1967), and the principle of non-refoulement. It is also used...
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A Refugee Crisis, Poetry, and a Camera: “Paris Stalingrad” Film Screening

A Refugee Crisis, Poetry, and a Camera: “Paris Stalingrad” Film Screening

by Rowena KosherNo Comments
By Rowena Kosher, co-editor of RightsViews Recently, ISHR hosted a virtual film screening of Paris Stalingrad, followed by a discussion with the film’s director, Hind Meddeb. Human Rights professor Lara Nettlefield moderated the conversation. Hind Meddeb is a French filmmaker whose work interrogates human rights issues of our time, and this film is no exception. Co-directed by filmmaker Thim Naccache, Paris Stalingrad is an intimate documentary portrait of the life of refugees living on the streets of the Stalingrad district of Paris. Many of these refugees come to France from Sudan, Ethiopia, Erythrea, Somalia, and Afghanistan to escape persecution and violence in their home countries. Yet, with everything from police violence to immigration bureaucracy to racism alike, Paris turns these refugees away, forcing them onto the streets. Meddeb approaches her documentary from the lens of community, depicting the everyday life of a refugee living on the Paris streets. In particular, the film follows a young man, Souleymane Mohammed, as he navigates the...
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