Briefing Paper 8. Rights-based Policies and Forced Migrants.
Abstract
This briefing aims to show why it is important for forced migration policy and practice to shift the balance from settlement-based 'relief' and welfare oriented (or needs-based) efforts towards more rights-based 'development'. This entails treating individuals as responsible actors who have rights and are capable of making decisions about their own lives in the course of forced migration. Unlike needs-based approaches, rights-based approaches carry an element of entitlement. Rights-based approaches also point to a 'duty-bearer' - someone who has a responsibility to ensure that the rights are met. This approach, then, readily serves as a check against the violation of basic rights of both refugees, who cross international borders, and of those internally displaced due to conflict, civil war or development projects (referred to as oustees), who remain in their country of origin.
Citation
Sussex, UK, DRC on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty, 4 pp.
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