The international legal regime governing migration or the movement of persons between and within states needs an overhaul in order to promote human rights and meaningful justice to forced migrants. This was the recurring theme at the 13th International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM). The conference was hosted by the Refugee Law Project of the Faculty of Law at Makerere University and took place at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort in Kampala, Uganda from 3-6 July 2011.

The four day conference attracted over 300 local and international participants; including eminent scholars, practitioners, policy makers, donors, activists, forced migrants and organisational representatives concerned with issues relating to human rights, forced migration, transitional justice and good governance. The theme for this year’s conference was ‘governing migration’, with the objective of exploring key dimensions of the relationship between forms and tools of governance on the one hand and patterns and experiences of forced migration on the other, and their relationship with transitional justice.

According to Dr. Chaloka Beyani, the UN secretary general’s special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDP) and a keynote speaker at the conference, ‘in the era of globalisation, migration has become a global phenomenon spawned by the forces of globalisation’. He added that: ‘Interconnectedness, cohesion, and fragmentation, as virtues and vices resulting from globalisation are both a cause and consequence of forced migration, which means that governing migration may be as difficult as regulating the global forces that sometimes impact adversely on livelihoods, socio-economic and political systems leading to forced migration.’

Beyani said a holistic approach was essential because ‘rural urban migration is excluded for the time being, except in the case of urban IDPs and climate induced displacement, where such movement may be a consequence of migration or displacement as adaptation over time.’

Beyani argued that refugees should be conceived of as international citizens. He cited decisions by the European Commission on Human Rights (ECHR), the African Commission and Court on Human and People’s Rights, and Inter-American human rights systems as evidence of maturity in the migration governance regime being reinforced by human rights principles.

Juxtaposing migration governance and contemporary transitional justice processes, he said both refugees and IDPs were affected by the international criminal law regime governing the crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This was because population transfers and forcible displacement and persecution as a crime against humanity should concern refugees as internationally protected persons under international humanitarian law. He said: ‘Injustices against refugees and IDPs as internationally wronged victims have not been sufficiently explored. Although much of the intervention has been responsive to their plight, retrospective approaches are just as important. It is in this regard that a human rights and transitional justice perspective constitute a significant development.

In his keynote address, Stephen Malinga, Uganda’s minister for relief, disaster preparedness and refugees, called for an immediate end to the policy of encampment of refugees and internally displaced persons. The minister said the ‘confinement of refugees and IDPs in camps cannot be a solution to problems of displacement and forced migration’. He called upon all stakeholders and the humanitarian agencies to look into the issue of encampments. He declared that camps did not work. ‘It has never worked anywhere, and will not work.’

Malinga, citing several examples of the humiliation and atrocities resulting from internment in camps in Nazi Germany and other parts of the world, including northern Uganda, described the conditions within these camps as inhumane. Malinga, who was forced to live as a refugee in the United States for over 20 years, wondered how he would have made it had he been confined in an encampment.

The minister also said refugees and asylum seekers should be allowed to integrate locally. He pointed to several ways in which Uganda had benefited from refugees who have integrated within communities in Masindi and other parts of Uganda. The minister however cautioned asylum seekers and refugees to follow the prescribed procedures laid down by government.

Other speakers, like Brain Kagoro, a panelist discussant, declared that: ‘Justice in Africa is never transitional. But it is Africa undergoing transition since the first day the white man stepped on this continent.’ The 13th IASFM program chair, Moses Chrispus Okello, said that: ‘TJ [transitional justice"> and forced migration is one and the same thing since both concern themselves with causation and cessation of victimhood.’

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* Stephen Oola is a transitional justice and governance analyst and acting head of research and advocacy, Refugee Law Project, Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala.
* This article forms part of the 'IASFM13: Governing migration' special issue, produced in collaboration with the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) and the Refugee Law Project, Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala.
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