Re-Imagining Healing in Time of Crisis: A Closer Look at Patriarchy and Masculinity in Africa

Law and Society Association Annual Meeting

Date: Sunday, 30 May 2021 at 11:12:45 PM (Central Daylight Time)

Venue: Roundtable (Virtual Conference Session)

Chair: J. Jarpa Dawuni

Participants: Venkatanarayanan S., Christ University; Manase Kudzai Chiweshe, University of Zimbabwe; Veronica Fynn Bruey, Seattle University; Charles Amone, Kyambogo University

Description: This roundtable is part of an edited book, Patriarchy, and Gender in Africa, which assesses the state, institution, community, and individual role and impact of male-dominance, masculinity, and discrimination against girls and women across the continent of Africa. Informed by empirical research data, case studies, and personal experiences, the section examines the professional, practical, and theoretical discourses of patriarchy and gender inequality in diverse settings in Africa while acknowledging women’s persistence, resistance, and contribution to growth and development.

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To receive a 30% discount and purchase a copy of the book, visit Rowman and Littlefield.

DEADLY VOYAGES: Migrant Journeys Across the Globe- Book Launch

Date: Wednesday, 12 May 2021, 4.00 PM - 5.00 PM (GMT)

Host: International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus

Venue: Online- via Zoom 

Editors: Veronica Fynn Bruey and Steven Bender

Book Description: Deadly Voyages: Migrant Journeys across the Globe explores the burdens and impact of perilous migration, while considering which laws, policies, practices, and venues might establish empathy and protection for migrants. This interdisciplinary volume envisions and calls for a transformation in migration policy, motivated by the common goal of drastically reducing the peril migrants face when compelled to make their treacherous journeys. All contributors to this volume agree on the inadequacy of current approaches and the dire need for change in global migration law and policy. Therefore, the book seeks to inform, educate, persuade, and facilitate newer or less-heard perspectives, toward wider participation and influence within the forced migration policy debate. Guided by the famous advice of Karl Marx that the point should be changing the world rather than merely analyzing or interpreting it, the contributors suggest practical measures to fix the current gap in responses to migrant peril, along with strategies for diagnosing, countering, and promoting human dignity and social justice, with the aim of preventing future deaths and injuries in migrant journeys across the globe.

RSVP NOW

To receive a 30% discount and purchase a copy, visit Rowman and Littlefield.

DEADLY VOYAGES: Migrant Journeys Across the Globe- Book Launch

 Date
21 April 2021, 4.00pm - 5.30pm 

Institute
Human Rights Consortium 

Venue
Online- via Zoom 

Description

Deadly Voyages: Migrant Journeys Across the Globe 
Editors: Veronica Fynn Bruey and Steven W. Bender

It explores the burdens and impact of perilous migration, while considering which laws, policies, practices, and venues might establish empathy and protection for migrants. This interdisciplinary volume envisions and calls for a transformation in migration policy, motivated by the common goal of drastically reducing the peril migrants face when compelled to make their treacherous journeys. All contributors to this volume agree on the inadequacy of current approaches and the dire need for change in global migration law and policy. Therefore, the book seeks to inform, educate, persuade, and facilitate newer or less-heard perspectives, toward wider participation and influence within the forced migration policy debate. Guided by the famous advice of Karl Marx that the point should be changing the world rather than merely analysing or interpreting it, the contributors suggest practical measures to fix the current gap in responses to migrant peril, along with strategies for diagnosing, countering, and promoting human dignity and social justice, with the aim of preventing future deaths and injuries in migrant journeys across the globe.

All welcome
This event is free to attend, but booking is required. It will be held online with details about how to join the virtual event being circulated via email to registered attendees 24 hours in advance.

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Call for Papers: January 2021 (Volume 11, Issue 1)

Journal of Internal Displacement

CALL FOR PAPERS

‘A Crisis within a Crisis: Global Pandemics and Displacement’

January 2021 (Volume 11, Issue 1)

Submission Deadline: 1 September 2020

The Coronavirus, known as COVID-19, has shaken the world to its core. It is beyond doubt that the current pandemic will have a fundamental and long-lasting impact on how we work, learn and live. The implications of global pandemics for human movement are indeed readily apparent. With billions of people in lockdown, the majority of the world’s population are now personally and collectively experiencing what it means to have restrictions imposed on their movement rights. But for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and others, this is not the first time they find their freedom of movement controlled by extraneous factors that lie outside of their control. Forced migrants are accustomed to such restrictions, and many are adept at finding ways and means by which to continue their lives in times of crisis. Nonetheless, little to no attention is being given to either the impact of COVID-19 on displaced persons or the insights they themselves might bring to benefit others for whom restrictions on their movement rights are a short-term novelty. Instead, the pandemic has increased the risks of violence, racism and other forms of discrimination against persons displaced internally and internationally, rendering them ever more vulnerable to the worst forms of abuse and exploitation.  

For its upcoming January 2021 issue, the Journal of Internal Displacement (JID) is seeking original contributions on the inter-relationship between displacement and global pandemics, not only COVID-19 but also SARS, Ebola, H1N1 and similar. Submissions are welcome from all disciplines and topics on displacement, defined broadly to include IDPs, refugees, trafficked persons, stateless persons, nomads, “boat/cruise ship people”, the homeless, and other migrants. Papers on the following indicative topics are especially encouraged:

·       health factors as a cause of displacement;

·       the social, economic and political impact on displaced persons;

·       pandemic prevention, containment and mitigation in camp settings;

·       consultation with displaced persons, and strategies for information-sharing and awareness-raising;

·       rights, legal protection and advocacy;

·       coping strategies and self-care;

·       how people who are not “home” stay “home” and experience social distancing;

·       displacement of the rich and famous;

·       efforts to promote and sustain community relations; and

·       the role(s) that displaced persons can and do play in bringing pandemics under control.

Submission guidelines:

·       Manuscripts must be submitted via the JID online submission portal, available here, no later than 1 September 2020. Manuscripts must be no more than 7,000 words in length. Further author guidelines are provided here.

·       Please direct all questions to JID Assistant Editor, Dr Ben Hudson, at the following email address: ben.hudson@journalofinternaldisplacement.org.

The Myth of Democracy: A Series on the United States Role in Destabilising African Countries

I am not an anarchist, but I have always known that democracy doesn't work. First of all, democracy is not the only form of government. For some reason, the United States, armed with its so-called exceptionalism concept, have paraded the idea of democracy as the only form of government that can modernise and transform "rogue state" into one that is accountable, less corrupt and governed by the rule of law. Since the Second World War, the US has made it a national priority to ensure that corrupt leaders, especially those in Africa, are either "spanked" for misbehaving and/or "removed from power" if they did not follow the "good governance" and "rule of law" of democratic leadership par American standard. Well, until Donald J. Trump came along, the US was perceived as the epitome of democracy. I doubt whether the perception is the same after "corrupt Trump" entered the White House.

In this series, I discuss the US's participation in the destruction of a number of States across Africa in efforts to transform their leadership from a bad one to a good democratic nation. Over the next months, I will consider the removal of leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Libya, Somalia, Liberia and more. The series will close with highlights of the Trump government's efforts to derail US democracy. What are we waiting for? Let's take off with the assassination of one of Africa's promising leaders, Patrice Lumumba.

The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba
On 17 January 1961, the American and Belgian governments used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to assassinate Patrice Lumumba. The first elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Lumumba led the DRC to independence on 30 June 1961. Although, it exploited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for its natural resources, precisely its use of Uranium for atomic weapons to bomb Japan, the US and Belgian could not stomach the fact that Russian, a communist government, was at the brink of helping Lumumba protect DRC's sovereignty. According to Emmanuel Gerard and Bruce Kuklick, In Death in the Congo: Murdering Patrice Lumumba, "[a] coup in September, secretly aided by the UN, toppled Lumumba’s government. In January 1961, armed men drove Lumumba to a secluded corner of the Katanga bush, stood him up beside a hastily dug grave, and shot him. His rule as Africa’s first democratically elected leader had lasted ten weeks." The body of the young, vibrant, and promising leader of Africa was later dissolved in sulphuric acid (see page 208 of In the Death of Congo for details on the gruesome murder).

Sadly, since the US, Belgian, and the United Nations removed Lumumba almost seven decades ago, the DRC has never been the same again. Beginning with Mobutu Sese Seko, the DRC has struggled for peace and stability free from natural resource exploitation and plundering of the country's wealth. Between 1998 and 2008, an estimated 5.4 million people have died as a direct result of the violence in the DRC.  In 2018 alone, In 2018, the United Nations documented 1,049 cases of conflict related sexual violence against 605 women, 436 girls, 4 men and 4 boys. As at July 2019, 20,044 UN peacekeepers have been deployed in the DRC. In recent times, rebel groups in the Kivu provinces have killed at least 1,900 civilians and abducted more than 3,300 others. Those responsible are yet to be brought to justice.

Call For Chapter Proposals: Book Project on Patriarchy and Gender in Africa

Globally, males disproportionately predominate leadership roles and exert power in diverse forms of social systems and institutions. Patriarchy, the supremacy of fatherhood whereby women and children rely totally on male line, is entrenched in many societies around the world. Differential enjoyment of rights and dignity predetermined for women and men, based on their social, cultural and legal disposition, typify gender inequality. Patriarchy and gender inequality are two important but complex and debatable issues facing the African continent today. Argued to be the main cause of gender inequality, patriarchy plagues Africa in spite of immense progress made in the last two decades to address the prolonged impacts of gender injustice and male dominance. On the occasion of the 15^thanniversary of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, we announce a call for chapter proposals to critically analyze the situation of girls and women in Africa. To assess the state, role and impact of patriarchy and gender inequality on African girls and women, we seek broad themes of Patriarchy and Gender. We welcome papers from all disciplines that address the following, but not limited to: 

• the roots and foundations of patriarchy and gender in different societies and cultures in Africa;
• the expressions of femininities and masculinities in religion (e.g., African Traditional Religion, Christian, Islam and others);
• power relations among, between and within the sexes;
• traditional and non-traditional roles of gender;
• issues of domestic, family and personal violence;
• various social factors affecting patriarchal and gender institutions;
• issues of gender identities, gender expressions, gender relations, and gender roles;
• inter-connections between patriarchy, gender inequality, and violent extremism in Africa;
• existing gaps and opportunities for policy, law and social reform in gender justice; and
• empirical research and case studies on regional and sub-regional best practices and solutions to addressing patriarchy and gender inequality. 

Other issues related to patriarchy and gender are most welcome with particular regard to an examination of major issues relevant to the above themes for the purpose of contributing to deeper understanding of patriarchy and gender inequality, as well as, developing long-term solutions to the problem at stake.

Guided by the core objectives of the African Studies Research Forum (ASRF), we aim for a comprehensive coverage of the African continent in our search for well-researched papers to generate knowledge on reforming discriminatory laws, benefitting human-centered public policies, promoting best practices, harnessing research rigor, and expanding academic scholarship beyond the African continent. Selected papers will be published under “The ASRF’s Book Series.”

Submission Guidelines

Chapter Proposal: All chapter proposal must contain the following: i) topic (12 words maximum), ii) name, iii) institutional affiliation, iv) a brief description of the chapter (300-500 words maximum), and v) keywords (a maximum of five). 

Submission Deadline: 30 September 2018

First Chapter Draft: 31 December 2018

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Submit chapter proposal to egodi.uchendu@unn.edu.ng and fynnbruv@seattleu.edu

Journal of Internal Displacement-IDMC Special Issue: Call For Papers

CALL FOR PAPERS

‘Getting to 2030: The Future of Internal Displacement and Sustainable Development’

Special Issue January 2019

The internal displacement of millions of people every year is a human tragedy, as well as a political, social and economic challenge for many countries across the globe. It is increasingly recognised that large-scale, protracted internal displacement is often underpinned by problematic development trajectories, and that long-term displacement has a significant, if still unquantified, impact on national and regional economies, stability and security. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development gives express attention to internally displaced persons (IDPs) as a vulnerable group not to be left behind. Moreover, internal displacement cuts across all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), meaning that failing to address the realities of internal displacement risks holding back or even reversing progress on achieving those goals. Yet, while the negative impacts of internal displacement can hamper national progress, the evidence for how this plays out remains fragmented, and systematic studies are scant.

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. A number of initiatives and events are celebrating this important milestone by taking stock of the progress made over the last two decades. While reflection is of course crucial, we must also look to how we take the internal displacement agenda forward, beyond 2018, building on what has been achieved to date. Towards this aim, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) is hosting a conference in Geneva in October 2018, for which it has published a call for abstracts inviting contributions that explore the relationship between internal displacement and sustainable development. For its next issue, the Journal of Internal Displacement (JID) is collaborating with the IDMC to build on the outcomes from the conference, as well as inviting additional contributions that explore how internal displacement concerns fit into national and global sustainable development efforts and the UN prevention agenda. 

Paper themes: 

To address the identified knowledge gaps, lessons on the relationship between internal displacement and the SDGs are sought from a range of disciplines, including, but not limited to, migration and mobility studies, economics, human rights, human geography, health and political sciences, law, and area studies. By inviting contributions from across the globe, and from differing socio-economic and governance contexts, this Special Issue will unpack what it actually means to integrate internal displacement into national and regional development planning today and into the future.

Paper submissions are specifically welcome on the following themes: 

• the impact of internal displacement on long-term educational and employment outcomes; 
• the effect of protracted displacement on economic growth and inequality; 
• the interplay between sudden-onset disasters, slow-onset impacts arising from climate  change, and internal displacement; 

• the nature of access to justice and state accountability barriers faced by IDPs; 
• the challenges of collecting and aggregating data to support planning, as well as the prevention of internal displacement; 

• the existing gaps and opportunities for financing; and 
• case studies of instances where national and local authorities have integrated internal displacement into planning. 

Beyond these themes, papers that present further relevant lessons under the SDGs are welcome, as are papers that explore any other aspects of the relationship between internal displacement, sustainable development and prevention. 

Submission guidelines: 

• Manuscripts must be submitted to internaldisplacement@gmail.com no later than Thursday 8 November 2018. 
• Manuscripts must be a maximum of 30 pages (i.e. approximately 15,000 words including references). Further author guidelines are provided here. 

-->Please direct all questions on the JID Special Issue to Ben Hudson (Assistant Editor) at internaldisplacement@gmail.com. All questions specific to the IDMC conference should be directed to bina.desai@idmc.ch and christelle.cazabat@idmc.ch. For more information, visit: JID.