Thesis advisor: David Hollenbach / The purpose of this reflection – Dignity across borders: Rethinking the protection of refugees and IDPs from an ethical perspective – has been to challenge contemporary ways of thinking and dealing with issues related to refugees and IDPs. Today, refugees and IDPs are often reduced to their needs. They are often perceived as bodies to shelter, to heal or to clothe; mouths to feed; victims of persecution to protect, etc. In the same perspective, contemporary debates on treatments of refugees and IDPs tend to rotate around the financial costs of processing claims, social security benefits for asylum seekers, and social tensions arising from the presence of large numbers of refugees and IDPs in receiving countries or communities. While acknowledging the importance of all these issues and needs, the stance of this reflection has been to refocus the debate on the concept of human dignity which transcends borders such as nationality, ethnicity, religion, race, etc. From this standpoint, the debate changes and gains more fundamental and moral depths. From the same stance, but grounded in the biblical experience, the Roman Catholic Church‘s social discourse on refugees and IDPs challenges the current international refugee protection regime. Because all are created in the image and likeness of God, all humans share the same dignity. Their dignity and their rights as humans are not related to their citizenship, but to the fact that they have been born into the human family. This is the foundation of Christian universalism that challenges the current refugee protection regime that is based on the membership of states. Yet, Christian universalism includes also a realism that respects the state sovereignty within its borders. Conversely, the main claim of Catholic social teachings on refugee issues is that the refugee issues should not be perceived only from the standpoint of the state, such as national security concern and borders control. Above all, refugees should be perceived as human beings, as dignities across borders. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis (J.S.M.)--Stanford University, 2009. / Submitted to the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies at the Stanford Law School, Stanford University. "April 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-128). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.S.W.)--University of Texas at Arlington, 2009.

Scholars of peacebuilding have identified a link between peacebuilding and internal displacement, but internally displaced persons are yet to be regarded as impactful peacebuilders. This thesis explores the role of internally displaced persons in peacebuilding processes, particularly the bottom-up strategies IDPs employ in conflict settings that contribute to the achievement of a peaceful society and in the long run to sustainable peace. This research looks at the documented IDP everyday peacebuilding activities identified in Georgia and Azerbaijan, and thereafter a structured focused comparison of the two selected cases is undertaken. The theoretical underpinning of this study identifies internally displaced persons as part of the ‘local agency’ with the potential to positively contribute to peacebuilding. The empirical findings suggest that indeed IDPs in Azerbaijan and Georgia spearhead peacebuilding at the local level aside from being victims of conflict. However, the empirical assessment also highlights that the influence IDPs have on peacebuilding is limited by the challenges they face in displacement.

Armed hostilities and conflicts have not only killed hundreds of thousands, but have alsodisplaced millions of families and communities around the world, forcing them to move out oftheir homes and seek shelter somewhere else. Some have crossed borders and sought refuge inother countries (refugees). Internally displaced peoples (IDPs) are those victims of conflict whohave remained within their own countries, suffering from constant displacements and numerousviolations to their human rights. However, they are not mere helpless victims of conflict anddisplacement, but instead some of them are also heralded as heroes because of their activeparticipation in and contributions to the peace process. Already viewed both as victims andheroes, this qualitative desk study looks at a third perspective to the IDP community: can theyalso be seen as potential spoilers to peace processes? An analytical framework outlining some conditions to spoiling activities and behaviour has beendeveloped in this study as a basis to facilitate research into this topic. The framework is thenapplied to a case study, chosen because of its community’s heterogeneity: the IDPs of Mindanao,also known as the Bakwit. Through consulting previous research and current relevant newsreports on the Bakwit, their opinions and attitudes toward the conflict, their proposed solutions toending the conflict, as well as, their role in the peace process in Mindanao are discussed in thisstudy. With the application of the analytical framework on the case of the IDPs in Mindanao, thisresearch has found out that because of their direct involvement in conflict, limited politicalparticipation, and limited socioeconomic inclusion, the Bakwit has the potential to spoilingactivities and behaviour. Their exposure to majority of the conditions and characteristics thattrigger spoiling behaviour could hinder them in participating in the peace building process. Thus,the analytical framework has also been used to conclude what governments and the internationalcustodians can do to prevent IDPs from engaging in spoiling activities and to ensure that conflictresolution, negotiations, and peace building activities are more sustainable.

This thesis seeks to better conceptualise how and why there is an absence of international protection for ???environmental refugees???, and to place these findings in the critical geopolitics literature. A poststructuralist framework, drawing on Foucault???s ideas of discourse, subjectivity, power and governance, was deemed most appropriate for this thesis, and provided a means of differentiation from previous literature on ???environmental refugees???. This thesis develops a genealogy of the subject category of ???environmental refugees??? since the 1970s, to better understand how the United Nations, Inter-Governmental Organisations (IGOs), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the media have constructed environmental issues and refugees in texts. Fieldwork undertaken in 2004 enabled me to conduct 45 semistructured interviews with United Nations diplomats and representatives from IGOs and NGOs. Critical scrutiny of these interview texts revealed the constructions of ???environmental refugees??? as various subject identities, particularly in relation to climate change. Pacific ambassadors to the United Nations were also interviewed in 2004 to explore how they negotiated discourses on climate change and ???environmental refugees???, and attempted to articulate their concerns at the United Nations. This thesis contends that an absence of policy at the United Nations to protect ???environmental refugees??? has been produced by a combination of discursive and institutional politics. Unequal power structures at the United Nations have limited the capacity of small island states to lobby and articulate concerns, while subject categories of ???environmental refugees??? have been constructed in ways that alter the terms of debate, evade legal response, or deflect blame away from the perpetrators of environmental damage. Reasons for this policy absence have been the shifting attitudes towards environmental issues and the role of multilateral political institutions. The overall contribution of this thesis is to critical geopolitics, through its examination of the role of multilateralism, representations of environmental issues causing population displacement, and how and why policy absences are created within multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.

This thesis seeks to better conceptualise how and why there is an absence of international protection for ???environmental refugees???, and to place these findings in the critical geopolitics literature. A poststructuralist framework, drawing on Foucault???s ideas of discourse, subjectivity, power and governance, was deemed most appropriate for this thesis, and provided a means of differentiation from previous literature on ???environmental refugees???. This thesis develops a genealogy of the subject category of ???environmental refugees??? since the 1970s, to better understand how the United Nations, Inter-Governmental Organisations (IGOs), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the media have constructed environmental issues and refugees in texts. Fieldwork undertaken in 2004 enabled me to conduct 45 semistructured interviews with United Nations diplomats and representatives from IGOs and NGOs. Critical scrutiny of these interview texts revealed the constructions of ???environmental refugees??? as various subject identities, particularly in relation to climate change. Pacific ambassadors to the United Nations were also interviewed in 2004 to explore how they negotiated discourses on climate change and ???environmental refugees???, and attempted to articulate their concerns at the United Nations. This thesis contends that an absence of policy at the United Nations to protect ???environmental refugees??? has been produced by a combination of discursive and institutional politics. Unequal power structures at the United Nations have limited the capacity of small island states to lobby and articulate concerns, while subject categories of ???environmental refugees??? have been constructed in ways that alter the terms of debate, evade legal response, or deflect blame away from the perpetrators of environmental damage. Reasons for this policy absence have been the shifting attitudes towards environmental issues and the role of multilateral political institutions. The overall contribution of this thesis is to critical geopolitics, through its examination of the role of multilateralism, representations of environmental issues causing population displacement, and how and why policy absences are created within multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.

This thesis seeks to better conceptualise how and why there is an absence of international protection for ???environmental refugees???, and to place these findings in the critical geopolitics literature. A poststructuralist framework, drawing on Foucault???s ideas of discourse, subjectivity, power and governance, was deemed most appropriate for this thesis, and provided a means of differentiation from previous literature on ???environmental refugees???. This thesis develops a genealogy of the subject category of ???environmental refugees??? since the 1970s, to better understand how the United Nations, Inter-Governmental Organisations (IGOs), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the media have constructed environmental issues and refugees in texts. Fieldwork undertaken in 2004 enabled me to conduct 45 semistructured interviews with United Nations diplomats and representatives from IGOs and NGOs. Critical scrutiny of these interview texts revealed the constructions of ???environmental refugees??? as various subject identities, particularly in relation to climate change. Pacific ambassadors to the United Nations were also interviewed in 2004 to explore how they negotiated discourses on climate change and ???environmental refugees???, and attempted to articulate their concerns at the United Nations. This thesis contends that an absence of policy at the United Nations to protect ???environmental refugees??? has been produced by a combination of discursive and institutional politics. Unequal power structures at the United Nations have limited the capacity of small island states to lobby and articulate concerns, while subject categories of ???environmental refugees??? have been constructed in ways that alter the terms of debate, evade legal response, or deflect blame away from the perpetrators of environmental damage. Reasons for this policy absence have been the shifting attitudes towards environmental issues and the role of multilateral political institutions. The overall contribution of this thesis is to critical geopolitics, through its examination of the role of multilateralism, representations of environmental issues causing population displacement, and how and why policy absences are created within multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.

This thesis seeks to better conceptualise how and why there is an absence of international protection for ???environmental refugees???, and to place these findings in the critical geopolitics literature. A poststructuralist framework, drawing on Foucault???s ideas of discourse, subjectivity, power and governance, was deemed most appropriate for this thesis, and provided a means of differentiation from previous literature on ???environmental refugees???. This thesis develops a genealogy of the subject category of ???environmental refugees??? since the 1970s, to better understand how the United Nations, Inter-Governmental Organisations (IGOs), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the media have constructed environmental issues and refugees in texts. Fieldwork undertaken in 2004 enabled me to conduct 45 semistructured interviews with United Nations diplomats and representatives from IGOs and NGOs. Critical scrutiny of these interview texts revealed the constructions of ???environmental refugees??? as various subject identities, particularly in relation to climate change. Pacific ambassadors to the United Nations were also interviewed in 2004 to explore how they negotiated discourses on climate change and ???environmental refugees???, and attempted to articulate their concerns at the United Nations. This thesis contends that an absence of policy at the United Nations to protect ???environmental refugees??? has been produced by a combination of discursive and institutional politics. Unequal power structures at the United Nations have limited the capacity of small island states to lobby and articulate concerns, while subject categories of ???environmental refugees??? have been constructed in ways that alter the terms of debate, evade legal response, or deflect blame away from the perpetrators of environmental damage. Reasons for this policy absence have been the shifting attitudes towards environmental issues and the role of multilateral political institutions. The overall contribution of this thesis is to critical geopolitics, through its examination of the role of multilateralism, representations of environmental issues causing population displacement, and how and why policy absences are created within multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.

@font-face { font-family: "Cambria Math"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }@font-face { font-family: "MS Mincho"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }p.MsoFootnoteText, li.MsoFootnoteText, div.MsoFootnoteText { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }span.MsoFootnoteReference { vertical-align: super; }span.FootnoteTextChar { }span.citationtext { }.MsoChpDefault { font-size: 10pt; font-family: Cambria; }div.WordSection1 { } Over the past fifty years, civil war has held a relentless grip on Colombia. Aside from the staggering numbers of casualties that have resulted, millions have been internally displaced and unwilling to return home. Many are fleeing from forced military recruitment of youths, sexual violence, kidnapping and murder. After Syria, Colombia has one of the highest populations of Internally Displaced People (IDP): 5,841,040, as of December 2015. It is unknown how many more refugees are not officially registered[1]. The majority of the IDP population migrates from rural villages and towns to large cities, such as Bogotá and Medellín, where there are opportunities for safety, income and improvised shelter.[2] Referencing existing models for Colombian housing and shelter for IDPs and street kids, this research examines the needs of the displaced population and creates a set of criteria for a long-term, integrative housing solution. This thesis focuses on internally displaced youths and women in the Southern-Pacific region of Colombia, as they make up the largest portion of registered IDPs and refugees in Colombia.[3] The goal of the project is to design the user’s progression through a system of increasingly supportive levels: “Entrance to the shelter,” “Full-time residence,” “Reintegration to society.” The site and program encourage commensalism, or relationship where one part benefits from the other without causing harm, with the surrounding community. This thesis also references studies of community-based design, low-cost and sustainable housing, transitional shelters, and homeless communities. [1] "Colombia." UNHCR News. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2016. . [2] Ibid. [3] Ibid.