active arab voices

FEATURED READINGS

Artwork by painter Naomi Cox

The Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship has compiled a list of scholarly readings on Syrian refugees

Africa's next decolonisation battle
should be about knowledge

The journey towards total decolonisation remains long and treacherous. In the age of information and knowledge, control of the latter is another yardstick for measuring whether one is colonised or decolonised. Sadly, in this regard, the African continent remains colonised. The next battle for Africa's decolonisation should be about the promotion and protection of local knowledge

الحركةُ النسويةُ في مصر حيةٌ لم تَمُت

ما زال طرح قضايا النساء يصطدم بعوائق وحواجز وعقبات وصعوبات في المجتمع المصري. وأقَلُ ما يُقالُ على هذا الصعيد أن تمثيل المرأة في الوظائف العامة والمجالس المنتخبة ليست مسائل سَهلة على الإطلاق. إلا أن أكثر االأمور دقةَ وحساسية في هذا السياق، هي في واقع الأمر تلك التي تتعلقُ بالاعتداءات على النساء والعنف ضدهن والتحرش الجنسي. وتحتاج معالجة تلك القضايا إلى أكثر من مجرد الإرادة السياسية، إنْ وُجدت، وتتطلب تعميقاً لسيادة القانون وإنفاذه، والتخلص مما يشوب المنظومة القانونية من عيوبٍ تجعل من تلك الممارسات ممكنة، والأسوأُ طبعأً أن تستمر من دون عقاب أو مُساءلة

Responding to the Syrian refugee crisis
in Lebanon: lessons learned

The Syrian refugee crisis, starting in 2011, is relatively well documented in practitioner and policy literature – especially in the last year, reflecting the gravity of the situation.

Due to the substantial literature base, this report focuses on lesson learned relating to Lebanon. The Iraqi refugee crisis of the 2000s is also explored as a second key case study. Where relevant, the different roles and capacities of international actors, government authorities, non-governmental organisations and the private sector are detailed. This report examines refugees and does not examine internally displaced people

How to Talk about Gender-Based Violence?

Academics, whether positioned within western institutions or institutions within the Middle East and North Africa, are collectively challenged to avoid dichotomous approaches in terms of the macro and micro power configurations that intersect and are constitutive of each other, but that can never be reduced to one or the other.

Feminist and queer scholars trying to document and analyze gender-based and sexual violence need to avoid the pitfalls of becoming entrapped in their positionality as I discussed previously

Impressions of the second week of the Transregional Academy
"Fragment – Power – Public: Narrative, Authority and Circulation in Archival Work"

In its second week, the Transregional Academy “Fragment – Power – Public: Narrative, Authority and Circulation in Archival Work” continued with interesting presentations, film screenings, a mapathon and more inspiring discussions for example on “The Archives of Decolonization in the Middle East” and “Reading Benjamin’s Thesis on History”, as well as public lectures and panel discussions attracting a wider audience and a workshop on “Family as Historian: Popular Archival Practices and the Documentation of Intimate Struggles”

How the United Nations is quietly being turned into a public-private partnership

A new corporate and government marriage quietly took place last week when the leadership of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the United Nations (UN) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to partner with each other. All this joint work might have some practical good if it were not for three crucial elements: firstly, the agreement circumvents the intergovernmental review process; secondly, the agreement elevates multistakeholderism as the solution to the problems with the current multilateral system; and thirdly the proposed multistakeholder partnerships are not governed by any formal democratic system.

لماذا يعتصم معلمو ومعلمات الأردن؟

يأتي احتجاج نقابة المعلمين للضغط على الحكومة للمطالبة بعلاوة الخمسين بالمئة، التي سُميت علاوة الطبشورة. إذ كانت نقابة المعلّمين قد صرحّت «أن مطلبنا المتعلق بعلاوة الـ50%، هو مطلب حق ومستحق منذ خمس سنوات، وقد تم الاتفاق عليه، والحكومة هي من نكثت اتفاقها»، وذلك بناء على اتفاق غير رسمي توصلت إليه الحكومة مع نقابة المعلمين عام 2014، فكت النقابة على أساسه إضرابًا كانت تخوضه

UNHCR and the Syrian refugee response: negotiating status and registration in Lebanon

This paper argues that Lebanon’s recent policies aiming to decrease the number of Syrians in the country, by reducing access to territory and encouraging return to Syria, have heavily affected UNHCR’s own ability to execute its international protection mandate. The article seeks to explore this issue further by, on the one hand, examining UNHCR’s policies to recognise Syrians in Lebanon as refugees under international law, and, on the other, exploring its practice when it comes to registration of Syrian refugees, and the meaning of these practices for refugee protection in Lebanon

Exploring Refugee Movements
In The Middle East Regional Context:
Responses To The Syrian Crisis
in Lebanon and Turkey

Refugee movements are not a new phenomenon in the Middle East and North Africa. The history of the region has been shaped by waves of displacement and refugee crises, and the most recent, the dramatic case of Syria, is still in process. This article investigates refugee movements in the region and their impact on regional dynamics by focusing on two important case studies: Lebanon and
Turkey.

It explores each country’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis in detail, while addressing the role of relevant stakeholders, such as international organizations, civil society and government, in humanitarian relief efforts as well as in refugee protection and management.

قانون الجنسية: لبنان بين الأكثر تخلّفاً في العالم

يُصنّف لبنان بين أكثر الدول تشدداً في العالم في تطبيق قوانين الجنسية التمييزية ضدّ المرأة. وفي وقت تخطو فيه البلدان العربية والافريقية خطوات كبيرة نحو إصلاح قوانينها، لا يزال بلد الأرز الأكثر تخلّفاً عن التطورات الحاصلة، عالمياً وإقليمياً، على صعيد قوانين الجنسية، ومتردداً حتى في إقرار إجراءات بديهية كالإعفاء من إجازات العمل للأبناء المولودين من أم لبنانية

Municipal Service Delivery, Stability,
Social Cohesion and Legitimacy in Lebanon
An analytical literature review

This analytical literature review explores some of the assumptions behind this international assistance: whether and how the provision of services at the municipal level contributes to social cohesion and/or legitimacy in Lebanon (at both municipal and higher levels of state authority), and the effect of these on social stability. It also examines whether and how those linkages are affected by the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis.

Why we need a Middle Eastern
security architecture: Part III

A Middle Eastern security architecture could be the only option to avoid a major conflict in the region, which has been looming amid renewed tensions in the Gulf. A worrisome, slow-motion war of attrition is already taking place; it is imperative to avoid open escalation.