Forced Migration andRefugee Studies

Report of Activities2005-2006

The American University in Cairo

The American University in Cairo, founded nearly a century ago, is the region’spremier university — an essential contributor to the social, political and cultural lifeof the Arab world. It serves as a crossroads for the world’s cultures: a vibrant forum

for reasoned argument, spirited debate and global understanding between the Middle Eastand the West. It is a vital bridge between cultures, linking Egypt and the region to theworld through scholarly research, study-abroad programs and partnerships with academicand research institutions.

AUC is an independent, non-profit, apolitical, non-sectarian and equal-opportunityinstitution. An English language university, it is accredited in the United States by theMiddle States Association of Colleges and Schools. In addition, AUC has reached toplevels in international education through higher levels of accreditation of its separateprograms, including business, computer science and engineering.

Through its unique career advising and placement services, AUC ensures its graduateshave the opportunity to secure jobs in Egypt and abroad. With small classes, career trainingand a broad array of extracurricular activities, students acquire the practical skills they needto succeed in the real world. Located in Tahrir Square, the university boasts one of thelargest English language libraries in Egypt, well-equipped laboratories and atechnologically advanced learning environment. In 2008, AUC will move to a new 260-acre state-of-the-art campus in New Cairo, designed to the highest international standards.

Working to attract top performing students throughout Egypt and the rest of the world,AUC offers more than $14 million in financial aid and scholarships each year. Its diversestudent body hails from more than 100 countries.

Currently, The Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program (FMRS) is situated on thefifth floor of the Falaki Building, one of the several buildings owned by the university indowntown Cairo.

The Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program

The Forced Migration and Refugee Studies program (FMRS) is a program ofeducation, research and outreach that seeks to improve the understanding, policiesand practices of those who are concerned or work directly with refugees and other

forced migrants. While maintaining a global and comparative perspective, FMRS focuseson the particular issues and circumstances of displacement in Africa, the Middle East andthe Mediterranean basin from multiple viewpoints, including those of host societies, policymakers, states, humanitarian organizations, and in particular, of the forced migrantsthemselves.

FMRS offers a multi-disciplinary graduate diploma designed to support research andservice activities that are mutually re-enforcing, grounded in the needs of stakeholders.The diploma program reflects the social, psychosocial, economic, cultural and politicalaspects of forced migration and its importance to academics, practitioners and the generalpublic.

The following pages summarize recent developments and activities undertaken by FMRSduring the scholastic year 2005-2006.

Contents

6Message from the President

7Message from the Provost

8Message from the Acting Director

10Program DeveloPments 2005-2006

FMRS Faculty and StaffFunding

The LibraryThe Self-assessment Study

Special Events

18Diploma Program

Developments in the Diploma ProgramFMRS Fellows

Student and Alumni News

28ResearchResearch program

FMRS visiting research fellows and scholarsFMRS working papers

38Outreach

Special Educational ProgramsWednesday Seminars

Conferences and WorkshopsCommunity Outreach Activities

Student Outreach Activities

63Networking and Collaboration

Local networksRegional and international networks

68Faculty, Staff and Affiliates

Faculty, Staff, and Affiliates ActivitiesPublications by FMRS Faculty and Affiliates

FMRS Staff and Faculty

FMRS Affiliated Faculty and Researchers

Message From the President

As the tragic crisis in Darfur continues and new populations of refugees from Iraqseek refuge in Egypt, forced migration remains a deeplysignificant and relevant subject both locally and globally. The

study of forced migration continues to be a vital and needed area ofresearch, as it holds the potential for creating better systems, bothpolitical and humanitarian, to predict and respond to crisis in a worldnot yet free from the tragedies of war and genocide.

Forced migration and refugee studies continues to be a vibrant andpioneering program, teaming academic research with communityengagement to increase the understanding of refugee movements and the needs ofdisplaced populations in Cairo and throughout the world. With multiple focal pointsincluding human rights, refugee law, psychology, migration and sociology, the FMRSprogram’s multidisciplinary approach encourages collaboration and the creation of crucialpartnerships to enhance student skills and prepare them to be informed decision makersand agents of change.

The American University in Cairo welcomes Philippe Fargues, the new director ofFMRS, and eagerly anticipates his vision for expanding the scope of the program, creatinga truly special center for research on migration and refugees in the region. FMRS isuniquely positioned to promote the scholarship of researchers in sub-Saharan Africa andthe Middle East, as well as to provide the professionally-oriented graduate educationneeded by refugee agencies, development organizations and non-governmentalorganizations active in this field. The number of individuals seeking asylum in Egyptcontinues to grow, and it is AUC’s responsibility and privilege to continue to engage withthese pressing issues through the FMRS program and its activities.

The FMRS program promotes quality scholarship, community engagement andmultidisciplinary academic study that represent the trademark values of education at AUC.We are proud to support the advance of this dynamic and important program.

David Arnold

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Message from the Provost

There are a number of outstanding features of the Forced Migration and RefugeeStudies Program (FMRS) at AUC that are worthy of praise.First is the successful and innovative Graduate Diploma in

Forced Migration and Refugee Studies. This program serves studentswho are here simply to do the diploma as well as graduate studentsin other programs, especially law, political science andsociology/anthropology. Graduates of this program typically go onto work as professionals in fields related to refugees or migration.

FMRS is also actively engaged in a wide array of outreach activities and provides serviceson a variety of levels. It has developed innovative approaches and positioned itselfstrategically to best meet the needs of the community. FMRS also produces workingpapers and research reports that add to the important body of literature on refugees; it isinvolved in and guides student activities on campus and beyond. What is most deservingof acclamation is the program’s ability to create and maintain strong links with individualsand institutions working in the fields of human rights, humanitarian assistance and policyin forced migration situations. The benefits of these networks have been twofold: first,they have enabled FMRS to learn from and share experiences with other institutions, andsecond, they have enabled it to be in the forefront, allowing the program to serve as acatalyst for change. In a short time, FMRS has achieved a great deal.

I would like to thank Ray Jureidini for serving as acting director for the past eightmonths and welcome Philippe Fargues as the new director. We look forward to continuedsuccess under his leadership

Tim Sullivan

Message from the Acting Director

It has been a pleasure filling in as acting director of FMRS since June when FatehAzzam left the program to take up the position as regional director of the UNHCHRin Beirut. Fateh left the FMRS program with a more solid and

‘sustainable’ institutional base within the university, which augerswell for the future. Having moved from reliance upon externalfunding, the director’s position is now a dedicated FMRS facultyposition within AUC and the assistant to the director has beenallocated a university staff budget line. In addition, thesociology/anthropology unit has a structural commitment to providetwo of our core courses. Added to the solidity of the program is theFMRS section of the library that Emily Eidenier has expertlycatalogued and made accessible. We now have a steady program of updating acquisitionsas new books and articles in the field are published.

The program has maintained a solid interest from so-called ‘international’ students fromcountries around the world. For example, in Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 we have had torestrict registration in our core courses and some electives to FMRS graduate diplomastudents to the disappointment of students in other disciplines wanting to take FMRScourses as electives. As many FMRS students are concurrently enrolled in master’sprograms, particularly in international human rights law, the long-standing desire toprovide an FMRS master’s degree is developing into a central goal along with studentdemand.

The three-month Sudanese refugee demonstration in Mohandiseen that ended in abrutal and mortal conclusion in December 2005 was monitored and studied closely byFMRS faculty and students, culminating in a comprehensive report by Fateh Azzam andpublished by FMRS that will serve as a model document for future local refugee researchin the program. Such activities stand us in good stead, but research has not been anoutstanding feature of the program, partly because we have not had full-time facultyexclusively dedicated to FMRS and partly because we have not had the facility for master’sand PhD degrees. However, while research output has not been as substantial as manywould have liked, we can anticipate an ambitious future research emphasis under the newdirectorship of Philippe Fargues, and we eagerly await that development.

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The many activities, including our outreach programs detailed in this annual report,attest to not only a growing interest in FMRS in Cairo, but also to the calibre of studentsundertaking the graduate diploma, many of whom are concurrently taking the master’sprogram in international human rights law. The program’s collaboration with otherdisciplines within AUC will need to be strengthened and broadened to accommodatefuture potentialities. As this report highlights, national and international collaboration areongoing and should also be enhanced by hosting in Cairo the International Association forthe Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) in January 2008.

Ray Jureidin

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Program Developments 2005-2006

Faculty and staff

After three years of highly appreciated dedication as a director of the program,FMRS staff, researchers, students and friends sadly bid farewell to Fateh Azzam.Azzam left for the position of Arab Regional Representative of the United

Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, based in Beirut, Lebanon.

During his post as FMRS Director, Azzam played a vital role in institutionalizing theFMRS program within AUC as well as in initiating new research ideas and outreachactivities. In addition to his role as a director, Azzam taught the FMRS core course,International Refugee Law, as well as the FMRS elective course, Palestinian Refugee Issues.

FMRS wishes him the best of luck and thanks him for his outstanding contribution.

In 2005, FMRS welcomed Ray Jureidini as a new faculty member who was appointedas an associate professor of sociology. The appointment of Jureidini strengthens theposition of FMRS in the sociology unit as he was recruited on the ground that one-thirdof his time would be devoted to teaching FMRS courses. As such, his appointment reflectsthe commitment of the unit to teach at least two courses for the FMRS program, and sincefall 2005, Jureidini has been teaching FMRS core courses: Introduction to ForcedMigration and Issues in Forced Migration.

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Fateh Azzam’s farwell party

Jureidini took over the position of FMRS acting director in June 2006 pending therecruitment of a new director after the departure of Fateh Azzam. Jureidini is also theprincipal investigator of the research titled A Social Profile and Analysis of MigrantDomestic Employees in Cairo, part of an FMRS collaboration with Sussex University onGlobalization, Migration, and Poverty. (See more under Research)

Jureidini is a sociologist trained in Australia and specialized in industrialand economic sociology. During the past six years, he has beenresearching in the field of migration, specifically on female migrantdomestic workers in Lebanon and the Middle East. In addition, he hasbeen teaching courses on migration and the sociology of law and humanrights covering forced migration and refugees, racism and xenophobia inthe Arab world, and human trafficking involving domestic and sexualexploitation. His previous post was associate professor of sociology atthe American University of Beirut.

The 2005-2006 scholastic year also witnessed the departure of anotherFMRS staff member, Etab Adel Saad. Saad served as FMRS accountantfor over three years, during which she demonstrated great loyalty anddedication to FMRS. We wish Saad good luck in her studies toward anMBA degree at the University of Royal Road in Victoria, Canada.Lamyaa Hussein Mady took over the position of FMRS accountant asof April 2006. Mady has a BSc in commerce from Cairo University.

Last year also saw the departure of two dedicated FMRS researchers.Katarzyna Grabska and Daniele Calvani left FMRS as of April and May 2006 to pursuePhDs. Grabska, who worked as FMRS researcher and projects coordinator for over threeyears, moved to Brighton to pursue a PhD in gender and forced migration at the Instituteof Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Calvani, who managed the Cairo

Lamyaa Hussein Mady,FMRS new accountant

Ray Jureidini, FMRSacting director

Celebrating Calvani receival of AUC's service award

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Community Interpreter’s Project (CCIP) from 2002 to May 2006, moved to theNetherlands to begin work on a PhD. In June 2006, Calvani received the Service andInnovation Award for his outstanding services to AUC in his work with the CCIP.

As of April 2006, our distinguished visiting professor, Barbara Harrell-Bond took overthe coordination of the second phase of our collaborative project with Sussex Universityon Globalization, Migration, and Poverty. (See more under Research) Harrell-Bond is assistedby Sara Sadek, who has been assisting Katarzyna Grabska, the previous coordinator of theproject, since October 2004.

FundingIn August 2006, FMRS got approval for a one-year no-cost extension to the Ford

Foundation grant that covers most of FMRS administrative expenses. The Ford grant wasreceived in December 1, 2004 and was supposed to end November 2006. HoweverFMRS was able to do significant savings in expenditure that led to an excess of funds overprevious plans. The grant is extended to November 30, 2007.

FMRS specialized short courses and training are covered by a separate grant receivedfrom the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) that supports the FMRS educational rolebeyond the university gates. The grant covers specialized short courses and training thataddress the needs of the NGO and IGO community in Egypt, the region andinternationally. This grant covered the ten short courses offered by FMRS from January2005 through June 30, 2006.

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Harrell-Bond giving a talk at one of FMRS short courses

The first phase of the FMRS collaborative research project with Sussex University endedon March 30, 2006. Additional funding was granted by the DFID (Department forInternational Development, UK) for the second phase that started in April 2006 and willend in April 2008. (See detailed information under Research)

The LibrarySince April 2005, Emily Eidenier, FMRS library specialist, has been working hard tocatalogue the FMRS Grey Files Collection. As of December 2006, the entire collection ofover 1,500 documents has been catalogued. The great work achieved by Eidenier wouldnot have been possible without the support and assistance provided by the team at theAUC Main Library. FMRS would like to thank in particular Jayme Spencer (publicservices), Farid Marei (cataloguing) and Cheryl Rueby (cataloguing) for the assistance theyprovided through the whole scholastic year. Additionally, FMRS would like to thankEidenier’s graduate student assistants, Assad Khalil, George Fahmy, Hussam El Naim andThemba Lewis. (See under Diploma program)

The following is a brief synopsis of the development in FMRS library acquisitions andcataloguing:

New AcquisitionsIn 2005-2006 the FMRS holdings at the AUC library increased through book orders,donations and additions to the grey files. The majority of new donations to the grey fileswere given by the Cairo Ford Foundation library. Other materials were generously donatedby Professor Barbara Harrell-Bond and the Refugee Studies Centre Library, University ofOxford. The collection currently contains documents with publication dates ranging from1948-2006, including documents in Arabic, French, German, English and Italian.

Special ProjectsOther initiatives for 2005-2006 include the compilation of a bibliography and criticalreview of scholarly works related to refugees in Cairo undertaken as a supplement to theFMO research guide by Themba Lewis and Emily Eidenier. Additionally, Eidenierworked with Steve Urgola in the AUC Rare Books and Special Collections Library toproperly preserve unique and valuable holdings in the FMRS Grey Files includinginformation about refugee camps and camp management in the Jesuit Refugee Servicesprogram in Kenya during the 1970s, an evaluation of refugee-assisting organizations inTanzania’s Kigoma and Kibondo refugee camps, and primary source material covering the

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protest of Sudanese refugees in Mustafa Mahmoud park from September to December2005. (See under Research)

Student and Faculty SupportEmily Eidenier has provided continuous support to FMRS faculty and studentsthroughout the scholastic year. She visits FMRS classes at the start of the semester toexplain the Grey Files collection and give a general introduction to using the AUC libraryfor research in refugee studies. Throughout the semester Emily met with students, facultyand researchers and helped them use the Grey Files collection, online databases and thelibrary catalogue to research their topics.

Relationship with the Main LibraryEidenier continues to serve an hour each day at the main library reference desk and hasbeen active in e-mailing information regarding research in refugee studies to the referenceteam. In addition, she gave some training to library educational staff on the use of the GreyFiles. A more comprehensive training session is scheduled for next semester.

Community OutreachEidenier has volunteered time to assist the FMRS-affiliated Cairo CommunityInterpreter’s Project (CCIP) staff in developing their library research skills. Moreover,duplicate materials from the FMRS collection were donated to the library of Africa andMiddle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA) in Garden City, Cairo, during the summerof 2006. Other duplicate magazines were contributed to the refugee English and Arabicclasses operated by Student Action for Refugees (STAR) at AUC. (See more underOutreach)

Self-assessment StudyThe Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program, like other programs and departmentsat AUC, has undergone a process of self-assessment. The rationale behind the self-assessment is to provide a structural way to improve the achievements of the departments,units, centers and programs at AUC. The self-assessment is a required process by theCommission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges andSchools for AUC to gain further professional accreditation. AUC has already beenaccredited in the United States since 1998 by the same commission. The self-assessmentstudy is needed for another 10-year reaccreditation review process.

The process of self-study and assessment of the status of the FMRS program began in themiddle of Spring 2006 and it was undertaken by a committee which has been meeting on

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a weekly basis to plan the components of the self-study and review progress to date. Thecommittee included:

Fateh Azzam, FMRS directorRay Jureidini, sociology department and FMRS facultyMahmoud Farag, engineering, former vice provost for graduate studiesMaysa Ayoub, assistant to FMRS directorMai Emad, FMRS secretary

During the semester, the committee accomplished a number of activities. They includeda revision of the FMRS mission statement, clarification of the program’s goals andexpected outcomes, a review of the tools needed and activities to be undertaken in orderto measure the success of these outcomes, and the initiation of some of these activitiesbefore the end of the semester. However, it became evident that given the breadth andcomplexity of the FMRS program, the self-study exercise could not be completed by theend of the semester. An extension was requested and it is now expected that this studywould be finalized in the middle of Fall 2006.

In the first months of the self-study process, the committee reviewed and clarified thegoals, objectives and outcomes of the FMRS program. In order to assess FMRSachievement of its stated goals and objectives and the degree to which it has been able toachieve them, a set of measures and tools have been articulated and work already startedon developing some of these measures and activities. In 2004, the FMRS Director and staffcarried out an internal overview study of the history and accomplishments of the programfor the first four years of its work. This has facilitated the present self-study process andprovided information that can be built upon in the final assessment of the status of theprogram.

The tools and measures of FMRS program progress are as follows:

a- FMRS and university records offer the best resources for numbers and data on enrollment,recruitment and other student-related information crucial to the self-study process.

b- FMRS records are also an important source of information on research projectsundertaken by faculty and staff, publications, affiliations, regional and internationalcollaborations, outreach activities, and other programs and activities.

c-A focus group discussion has already taken place on May 27, 2006. Nine current and formerFMRS students participated, and the discussion was moderated by Sawsan Mardini ofthe graduate students office, with no FMRS faculty or staff present. The conclusions of

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this focus group discussion will be incorporated into the overall self-study.d- An exit survey of current FMRS students was prepared and distributed. This survey will

help gather information on students’ assessment of the current program and, accordingto students’ own assessment, how well the program has met its stated recruitment goals.

e-Using the exit survey as a base, more questions will be added to make an alumni survey,which should help assess how well the program has prepared former students for thecareers of their choice.

f- Another aid in this process is an employers’ questionnaire, which is currently underpreparation and should help gather information on employers’ perception of theeffectiveness of the FMRS program for graduated students currently in their employ.

g-For an assessment of the quality of FMRS program content, course syllabi and researchquality, an independent review by consultants and colleagues in the field outside of AUCwould be called upon.

h- FMRS short courses are regularly evaluated by participants at the end of each course.These evaluations will be combed through, summarized and analyzed to provide abroad assessment of the quality of instruction and usefulness of information impartedduring those courses.

Special Events In our last annual report we announced that Barbara Harrell-Bond, AUC distinguishedadjunct professor and advisor to FMRS, received the title of Officer of Order of the BritishEmpire (OBE). During this scholastic year, the British ambassador in Cairo held areception on the occasion of the investiture of Harrell-Bond as an officer. The receptionwas held at the British Embassy in Cairo on April 30, 2006 and was well attended by AUCfaculty and students, representatives from most of the embassies in Cairo, representativesfrom refugee-assisting NGOs and human rights NGOs a as well as members of the refugeecommunities in Cairo.

During the event, a documentary on the Sudanese demonstration was screened. Thedocumentary, produced by an Egyptian student, highlighted the perception of both theEgyptians and Sudanese of the protest as well as the reasons behind it.

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Harrell-Bond receiving the OBE award from the British ambassador in Cairo

Diploma Program

The FMRS Graduate Diploma has become one of the most attractive graduateprograms at AUC, attracting Egyptian as well as international students. The FMRSdiploma has always attracted students from Africa, Western Europe and North

America, and recently there is a growing demand from students in Asia and EasternEurope, including individuals from India, Pakistan, Turkey, Romania, Czechoslovakia,Poland and Azerbaijan. In the 2005-2006 scholastic year we received 21 new students, outof which eight are from North America, seven from Egypt, one from Sudan, one fromGermany and four from Eastern Europe. The popularity of our diploma program is clearfrom the following quotations by FMRS students:

“While the coursework and instruction in the FMRS program has exceeded expectation,it was my involvement working and volunteering in the refugee communities of Cairothat has added the most to my experiences in this program. Through STAR (StudentAction for Refugees), I was involved in many different outreach activities such asteaching English classes for refugees at AUC, volunteering with children at local refugeeschools, and hosting internationally celebrated events such as World Refugee Day andGlobal Day for Darfur. All of these experiences, both in and outside the classroom, haveshaped me into the human rights advocate that I am today, and will not be forgottenwhen I graduate from the FMRS program in the near future.”

Jennifer Renquist, Fall 2006

“The FMRS program is among the best graduate programs at AUC. It has the mostcreative and welcoming environment. Additionally, the student body is relatively small,which allows for a lot of positive collaboration in and outside of the classroom. Thereadings are relevant, interesting and cover a wide range of topics.”

Emily Eidenier, Fall 2005

“Taking the FMRS courses has broadened my horizons and helped me dealconfidentely and objectively with refugees. I feel I am more informed than my colleagueswho have no such background.”

Iman Ahmed, 2002

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Developing the FMRS Diploma into a Master’s Program Since last year, FMRS has been working hard towards institutionalizing the programwithin AUC. The position of FMRS director has been recognized by AUC as a dedicatedfaculty position for FMRS. Moreover, the position of assistant to director of the FMRSprogram was shifted to a university budget commitment. Last but not least, as of academicyear 2005-2006, the sociology unit of the university hired Ray Jureidini as a new facultymember to teach two FMRS core courses as well as some of our elective courses. (Seedetails under Faculty and Staff) These achievements will ensure the steady management ofthe program, in line with our efforts to institutionalize FMRS within AUC. Along withthe addition of three more courses to the list of FMRS electives, these positivedevelopments constitute the building blocks of the transition of FMRS from a diplomaprogram into an MA program.

Currently, FMRS finds itself in a good position for this transition, requiring only onemore faculty line to ensure the feasibility of an MA program. Until such aim ismaterialized, FMRS is offering the following two options to its graduate students todevelop their FMRS diploma into an MA:

At AUCThe FMRS diploma can be pursued in conjunction with an MA in international humanrights law, professional development, sociology/anthropology or Middle East studies asmany FMRS courses are cross listed with these programs. Careful attention should begiven, however, to which courses are cross listed as this changes on an annual basis.Linking the FMRS graduate diploma to an MA degree program at AUC has proven to bea very popular strategy for many of our students. Among our 21 new students this year,nine have taken the diploma concurrently with an MA degree.

At the University of East LondonAs part of our ongoing collaboration with the Refugee Studies Program at the Universityof East London, FMRS is pleased to announce that as of February 2006, AUC’s FMRSDiploma credits are fully accepted by the University of East London and applied towardsUEL’s MA in refugee studies. To complete the MA program, FMRS diploma graduateswould be required to:

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- Take a course in research methods at UEL, a 12-week module that culminates in aresearch proposal which becomes the basis for the MA dissertation.

- Write the dissertation under the supervision of UEL, although the research and writingof the dissertation need not take place physically at UEL.

One FMRS alumna, Sherifa Shafie, has undertaken the opportunity with the Universityof East London during this scholastic year and many of our current students are interestedin pursuing it.

FMRS Diploma Courses This year, the FMRS core course Psychosocial Issues in Forced Migration was taught byCourtney Mitchell. Mitchell is a licensed mental health counselor who worked during the2005-2006 scholistic year as a mental health therapist at Africa and Middle East RefugeeAssistance (AMERA) in Cairo, providing psychological assessments for refugees, incoordination with the UN, as well as other forms of mental health support. Prior to herinvolvement with FMRS and AMERA, she worked for the United Nations World FoodProgram as the program manager for Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal and as a head ofsub-office for Burundian/Rwandan/Congolese camps in Northwest Tanzania. Mitchellstarted her career providing individual and group therapy for survivors of various forms ofabuse and trauma in the United States and internationally in Southeast Asia, East Africaand Central America. The feedback on her course was excellent and FMRS wanted herto continue to teach for the program, but she travelled back to the United States to pursueother initiatives. We thank her for her contribution and wish her the best of luck in hernew endeavors.

A number of new courses were offered this year as FMRS electives. Through ourcollaboration with the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology andEgyptology, FMRS developed two news courses that were offered as SOC/ANTH 510Special topics in Sociology/Anthropology. In fall 2005, Ray Jureidini, associate professorof sociology, developed a new course entitled Globalization and Migration whichintroduced a range of issues related to theories of migration emanating from sociology,anthropology and economics, and discussed the basic assumptions and arguments behindthe concept of globalization. Moreover, in spring 2006, Mulki El Sharmani, FMRSresearch affiliate and research assistant professor at the Social Research Center, developeda course entitled Navigating Refugee Life: Women, Families, and Communities. The

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course focused on the role of women as caregivers, bread winners, activists and creators ofidentity discourses. In collaboration with the English and comparative literaturedepartment, we offered the course ECLT 546 Exile in African Literature as an FMRSelective. The course concentrated on modern literature and cinema of the Africancontinent with special emphasis on the theme of displacement, exile and forced migration.Novels, short stories, poems and films by prominent writers and directors from East, West,South and North Africa were contextualized historically and culturally and analyzedaesthetically and ideologically.

FMRS Fellows 2005-2006This year FMRS offered its own FMRS Fellowships for qualified applicants to theGraduate Diploma in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies. The fellowships wereprovided through the Ford Foundation Grant. (See under Funding). Fellowships areawarded for one academic year of full-time study or for part-time study and covers tuitionand related fees and books. In addition, international students are provided withallowances for accommodation and medical care. The fellowship prioritizes students fromEgypt and from parts of the world outside of the United States and Western Europe whomay have other opportunities for funding.

During this scholastic year, FMRS’s Joint Steering Committee received over 30applications for the fellowships, and approved six (four full and two partial) for thefollowing students with a view to supporting those seeking to enhance their work withrefugees and forced migrants:

George Fahmy (Egypt), Fall 2005 Fahmy is a lawyer who graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Alexanderia in2003. His interest in refugee issues developed when he was volunteering with Africa andMiddle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA). He further deepened his interest by attendinga number of our short courses. He was accepted as an FMRS fellow on a partial basiswhere FMRS covers half of his tuition. He is a part-time student and is expected tograduate as Spring 2007. During his study with us, he was offered a job as eligibilityassistant in the Protection Unit at the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees,Cairo Office (UNHCR).

Mai Mahmoud (Egypt), Fall 2005Mahmoud is a protection assistant officer at the United Nation High Commissioner for

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Refugees, Cairo Office (UNHCR). She is an AUC graduate who acquired her MA inprofessional development, political science in 2004. Her MA thesis entitled RefugeeAssistance and the Impediments to Self-Reliance: A Case Study of Refugees in Egyptfocused on development potential for refugees in Cairo. Mahmoud finished the threerequired FMRS courses and graduated in Spring 2006.

Assad Khalid Saleh (Egypt), Fall 2005Saleh works with Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), Egypt. He joinedthe FMRS diploma program in Fall 2005 on a full-time basis and he finished the diplomarequirements and graduated in spring 2006. Saleh was among our four students who wereawarded a conference grant from AUC to present their papers at the 4th Annual ForcedMigration Post-graduate Students Conference at the University of East London. Hepresented a paper entitled Sudanese Demonstration in Cairo: Different Stands andDifferent Opinions. He also presented, along with the three other students, the same paperin one of our Wednesday Weekly Seminars. (See under Outreach). Saleh is planning topursue an MA in international human rights law at AUC.

Sarah Hany Sadek (Egypt), Fall 2005Sadek has been employed as FMRS research assistant in our collaborative research projectwith Sussex University since October 2004. Sadek is also the coordinator of Cairo toCamps, an Arab Youth Solidarity Project with Palestinian Refugees. Sara has a BA inpolitical science from AUC and before joining the FMRS program she worked in thebureau of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Egypt. Sadekreceived a full scholarship and is taking the diploma on a part-time basis. It is expected thatshe will graduate in Fall 2006 and she has interest in pursuing our partnership with theUniversity of East London to receive her MA.

Dan Stonescu (Romania), Spring 2006Stanescu has a BA in international studies from Austin College, USA and an MA inglobalization and development from Warwick University in the UK. He has excellentexperience in research and has already a number of publications. He previously lived inEgypt when he was an intern with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) offices in Cairo.Stonescu received a full scholarship and is taking the diploma on a full-time basis, it isexpected that he will graduate in Fall 2006.

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Konul Zamanova (Azerbaijan), Spring 2006 Zamanova has a BA in translation and linguistics from the University of Azerbaijan in2003. Prior to her coming to Cairo, she worked as a counselor for durable solutions in theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Azerbaijan. She used to conductregistration interviews for refugees and persons of concern to determine their protectionneeds. She was admitted to the FMRS diploma program on a full-time basis in Spring2006 and is expected to graduate in Fall 2006.

FMRS Student Activities in the 2005-2006academic yearThis year, four FMRS students (Martin Rowe, Assad Khalid Salih, Mathew Lewis andStacy Shafer) were awarded a conference grant from the provost’s office to present theirresearch papers at the 4th Annual Forced Migration Post-graduate Student Conference atthe University of East London as part of a panel discussion entitled Sudanese RefugeeProtest in Cairo: Community Dynamics and Broader Implications. Their papers theorizedand analyzed the dynamics of the refugees’ protest action in Mohandeseen from Septemberthrough December 2005, paying particular attention to issues pertaining to gender,leadership, informal information networks, and notions of solidarity and mutual support.(For detailed information on the Sudanese Protest see under Research) Below are the topics oftheir papers.

- Rowe, Martin, “Performance and Representation: Masculinity and Leadership at theCairo Refugee Demonstration”

- Lewis, Mattew, “Nothing Left to Lose? An Examination of the Dynamics and RecentHistory of Refugee Resistance and Protest”

- Salih, Assad Khalid “Sudanese Demonstration in Cairo: Different Stands and DifferentOpinions”

- Schafer, Stacy, “Solace and Security at the Cairo Refugee Demonstration”

In addition, FMRS Alumna Emily Eidenier presented a paper in the same conferenceentitled Providing Health Care Information to Refugees in Cairo: Questions of Access andIntegration. The paper was presented as part of a panel discussion on accessing health care.

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FMRS was proud of its students’ work and invited them to present the same papers tothe AUC community in one of our Wednesday Seminars. (See under Outreach). Theirpapers can be downloaded from our Web site at www.aucegypt.edu/fmrs.

The provost’s office also approved a research grant by another FMRS student,Shannon McDonald, who proposed investigative research on the psychologicalinterventions used in education for resettled refugee children in the United States. Sheconducted her research entitled Investigating Psychosocial and Educational Factors andtheir Impact on the Transitional Experience of Refugee children in St. Paul, Minnesotaduring the summer of 2006. Prior to her travel, she undertook a comprehensiveliterature review at the AUC library to enable her to conduct the semi-structuredinterviews with professionals working with the resettled refugee children. Upon arrivalto Cairo, she provided FMRS and the provost’s office with a full report of her study.

Last but not least, our alumnus James Pearce continues to work as a teaching assistant forFMRS, providing invaluable support to Ray Jureidini in teaching the two core courses ofthe FMRS diploma: Introduction to Forced Migration and Issues in Forced Migration. Healso worked during this academic year as a legal advisor at Africa and Middle East RefugeeAssistance (AMERA). He is currently completing his thesis for an MA in internationalhuman rights law and is expecting to graduate in February 2007.

In addition to their interest in developing their academic and intellectual skills andpursuing various research initiatives, our students are also very active in outreach with therefugee communities in Cairo by providing various services. Two of the most activestudent organizations at AUC were initiated and managed by FMRS students: STAR andCairo to Camps. (See under Outreach for detailed information)

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From left to right: Stacy Schafer, Martin Rowe, Assad Salih, Mattew Lewis and Emily Eidenier presenting at a weeklyWednesday Seminar

FMRS Diploma Graduates Fall 2005 andSpring 2006:The following is a group of students who finished the requirements of the Graduate Diplomain Forced Migration and Refugee Studies and graduated in academic year 2005-2006:

Gjelstenli, Kim Runar (Norway) Hafez, Hend Abdallah (Egypt)Lindsey, Felicia Janella (USA) Mazza, Viviana (Italy)Nischan, Judith Daniela (Germany) Ahmed, Mai Mahmoud (Egypt)Eidenier, Emily Katherine (USA) Farrag, Hebah Hussein (Egypt)Khan, Naaz Haleema (USA) Lewis, Matthew Addison (USA)Rowe, Martin Timothy (USA) Salih, Assad Khalid (Sudan)Schafer, Stacy Blake (USA) Sears, Jeanelle Susanne (USA)

FMRS congratulates all of them and wishes them success and personal satisfaction intheir future careers. Viviana Mazza is now sub-editor at the foreign affairs desk of Corrieredella Sera, one of the largest daily newspapers in Italy. Mathew Lewis traveled to Englandto pursue an MA in refugee studies from Oxford University. Assad Khalid continues towork for Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA) and has started his MA ininternational human rights law at AUC. Felecia Lindsey is interning with the ResettlementDepartment at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Cairo Office(UNHCR). Mai Mahmoud continues to work as a protection assistant officer at UNHCRCairo. And Emily Eidenier continues to provide her invaluable support as FMRS libraryspecialist at the AUC Main Library.

Alumni NewsFMRS alumni did not lose touch with FMRS. They always inform us of their academicand professional development. Here is the news of some of our exceptional alumni whoare still in contact with us:

Annie Dumont (2005)Annie was hired as a research assistant for the UN Representative to the Secretary Generalfor the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons and is planning to attend HowardUniversity to obtain an LLM in international law.

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Sulemana Bangna Abdul-Karim (2005)After completing the FMRS graduate diploma, Sulemana pursued his MA in politicalscience, professional development at AUC. His thesis examined the privatesector participation in the provision of primary education in Ghana. He graduated inDecember 2005 and is planning to reproduce the thesis report for distribution toconcerned stakeholders like the government of Ghana, and key stakeholders in educationsuch as UNESCO, USAID/Ghana, and some national and international NGOs. This year,Sulemana has been accepted at Sussex University in Brighton, England to pursue his PhDin education.

Cyrena Khoury (2005)After completing her FMRS graduate diploma and her MA in sociology at AUC, Cyrenaleft to Syria where she finished an intensive Arabic language master’s program at theUniversity of Damascus. During her study in Damascus, she also volunteered part-timewith UNHCR.

Derek Maxfield (2005)Maxfield received his MA in political science from AUC with a focus on refugee issueswhere his thesis studied the difficulties of local integration of refugees in Egypt. During hisstudy at AUC, he also interned at the UNHCR office in Cairo.Upon completing his graduate studies, he went back to Washington, D.C. where hecurrently works as a case manager in an agency called the Center for Multicultural HumanServices that receives and offers help to refugees resettled in the United States. He is mostlyresponsible for helping Sudanese refugees because of the ability to speak Arabic he gainedwhile in Egypt. Currently he is also running a program at the agency which is funded bynumerous foundations including the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the UNDP. Theprogram is called “self-sufficiency” and he supervises nine staff, including case managers,an attorney and therapists. He values the experience he acquired at FMRS and AUC:

“I have a unique perspective because 90 percent of the refugees here come throughUNHCR and are those same refugees that I used to see living in kilo 4 1/2 andstanding outside the UNHCR office all day. I value the experiences I gained in Egyptand I am looking for a reason to come back to expand the services for refugees under theFMRS program I have a family now, and I want to bring them to Egypt for a few yearsto live the unique experience I lived.”

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George Zumba (2005)After completing his FMRS graduate diploma, he worked with refugeesin Tanzania, and from there he left to study for a European master’s degree in internationalhumanitarian action at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

Mohamed Berray (2005)Berray completed his MA in political science with a specialization in professionaldevelopment. He recently conducted field research in Sierra Leone and did an assessmentof the challenges to aid coordination and aid effectiveness in the reconstruction of post-conflict societies, taking Sierra Leone as a case study.

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Research

Research Projects This year witnessed the sad event of the forced removal of Sudanese protestors from a parknear the offices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees on December 30,2006 and which resulted in the death of 29 refugees and asylum seekers. FMRS respondedto the tragedy by undertaking an investigative Research to shed light on the eventssurrounding it.

There was little information in the public domain on what happened that evening orwhat led up to it. Many questions surrounding the issue were unanswered. Who wasprotesting in the first place, and why? Why did they reject several offers by UNHCR?Could UNHCR and the government of Egypt have offered the protesters more? Why wassuch excessive force used in the removal, and how did so many people die? Why wereautopsy reports not released? Why did it take so long before bodies of victims werereleased to their relatives for burial, and why were none allowed to be transferred to Sudanfor burial? Why was there so little information and care in the immediate aftermath, whendazed asylum seekers and refugees were left wandering the streets of Cairo? Who isresponsible and who should be held accountable for which aspect of the events? Could thistragedy have been avoided and, most important, could it happen again? The research thatresulted in an 80 page report entitled A Tragedy of Failures and False Expectations attemptedto answer these and other questions. This report was the result of more than two monthsintensive work by an FMRS team of more than 10 researchers who gathered eye-witnesstestimonies, and met with officials from UNHCR, the Egyptian Ministry of ForeignAffairs, as well as non-governmental organizations in Egypt. The report is available on theFMRS Web site at www.aucegypt.edu/fmrs/reports.

The above mentioned report was not the only attempt by FMRS to respond to theprotest that started on September 29, 2005 and lasted for three months. FMRS students,

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Pictures of the forced removal of the Sudanese protestors

researchers and faculty made previous attempts to understand the reasons behind theprotest and to meet and negotiate with the sit-in leadership to prevent negativeconsequences. Unfortunately, those and other attempts failed to result in a satisfactory endto the protest. The efforts made by FMRS students and researchers were recorded in anumber of academic papers and news articles. Four FMRS students: Martin Rowe, AssadKhalid Salih, Mathew Lewis and Stacy Shafer produced papers that were presented at the4th Annual Forced Migration Post-graduate Student Conference at the University of EastLondon as well as at FMRS Weekly Seminars series. (See details under Diploma Program)

In addition to the above mentioned investigative research, FMRS was also activelyengaged in the following research projects during the 2005-2006 scholastic year.

1. FMRS/Sussex Collaborative Research Project

FMRS entered into its second phase of participation in The Development ResearchCentre on Migration, Globalization and Poverty (DRC) with four other academic andresearch centers in Africa, Asia, Europe and the UK (see www.migrationdrc.org). The projectis coordinated by the University of Sussex and supported by a grant from the UKDepartment for International Development (DFID).

During the first phase of the DRC project that started in 2003 and ended in March 2006,FMRS and its research partners focused on how forced migration policies and programscategorize refugees and forced migrants in problematic ways. The research also investigatedthe relevance of rights-based approaches for forced migration policies and practices. Thefirst two and a half years of DRC-FMRS collaboration consisted mainly of mapping outrelevant problems, writing a country paper on issues of migration and forced migration,carrying out research projects investigating policies affecting refugees (Egypt and Lebanon)and Internally Displaced Persons (Sudan) (See FMRS Report of Activities 2004-2005), andorganizing a workshop for DRC researchers working on issues of forced migration. Theworkshop took place at the American University in Cairo on October 19-20, 2005 andwas attended by researchers working on DRC funded research projects in Egypt, Lebanonand Sudan, as well as academic experts from the Institute of Development Studies at theUniversity of Sussex and AUC. On the first day of the workshop, researchers presentedshort summaries of their projects and in-depth discussions took place with regard to mainfindings and the format of research reports. The second day was devoted to the discussionof follow-up activities, including local and international dissemination of findings. Thetwo researchers working on Lebanon (Samira Trad and Jaber Suleiman) presented the

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findings of their research at one of FMRS Weekly Wednesday Seminars. The seminar wasorganized as a panel discussion on the policies affecting refugees in Lebanon.

The second phase of the collaboration that started in April 2006 attempts to build on theresearch undertaken in the first phase in order to consolidate the findings and seek relevantpolicy outcomes (including a more participatory approach to policy formulation, creatingaccess to rights and services for refugees and IDPs equal to those of nationals, especially inthe area of health, education, work and protection). In this phase, there will be more activeparticipation in the debate on the issues of rights-based programming for refugees andforced migrants as well as an attempt to reach out to policy-makers regionally to addresssome of the existing shortcomings of the current policies on forced migrants.

Barbara Harrell-Bond is the coordinator of the second phase of FMRS/Sussexcollaboration replacing Kasia Grabska who was the coordinator during the first phase. (Seemore under Faculty and Staff). Harrell-Bond is assisted by Sara Sadek who has been workingwith Grabska through the duration of FMRS/Sussex DRC Phase I.

The following is a brief synopsis of the activities undertaken so far in phase II of thecollaboration as well as the planned activities.

Dissemination of research undertaken under phase I:

a- The write-shop: The Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalization andPoverty (DRC) in collaboration with FMRS hosted a four-day workshop April 3-6,2006 at Stella Di Mare Hotel in Ain Sukna, Suez Governorate. The meeting wasattended by researchers working on DRC funded research projects in Egypt, Lebanon,Ghana, Malaysia, India and Sudan, as well as externally invited experts and academicsfrom other institutions. The purpose of the workshop was to prepare for an editedcollection on forced migration and rights building on the finalized research reportsconducted in DRC phase I. The first two days of the workshop were devoted to thepresentation of draft chapters for the edited volume and the third day was devoted toindividual discussusions of chapters between authors and editors which were pulledtogether on the final day where emerging themes for the overall project wereidentified. To view the full report on the workshop, please visit our Web site atwww.aucegypt.edu/fmrs/research.

b- Partnership meeting: A partnership meeting for DRC partners was held in Cairo in

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April 2006 as well as the meeting of the Centre of Advisory and Review Committee(CARG).

The partnership meeting was held at AUC and was organized by Kasia Grabska and SaraSadek. Fateh Azzam, Barbara Harell-Bond and Maysa Ayoub from FMRS attended themeeting. During the meeting, reports of activities by the different members werepresented as well as future plans of action. Throughout the day, the participants weredivided into groups discussing particular issues like child migration, gender, health andeducation, social protection and other issues.

The meeting of the Centre of Advisory and Review Committee (CARG) was held atFlamanco Hotel in Zamalek. Fateh Azzam represented FMRS in the meeting.

Capacity building and research

a- Research fellowships at FMRS: Two research fellowships per year (each in the durationof four months) will be offered to young academics or those interested in gettinginvolved in forced migration research, preferably coming either from Egypt or from theMiddle East. The fellowship would enhance the research capacity of young Egyptianor Middle Eastern academics in general and in the area of forced migration, rights anddevelopment in specific. Supervision of research fellows will be drawn from a wider

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Working groups during the DRC partnership meeting in Cairo, April 2006

AUC faculty, those academics interested in issues of forced migration, migration,development and globalization, including professors from political science,anthropology/sociology and human rights law.

b- DRC internship scheme: FMRS will participate in the DRC internship scheme byhaving interns from both the North and the South spend between 3 and 6 months atFMRS working on issues relating to the DRC collaboration, including: conductingtheir own research, participating in other research projects, assisting with organizationof DRC related events, assisting in the administration of the FRMS program. FMRSwill provide 1 intern per semester.

Training course on forced migration, rights and development

FMRS will conduct a ten-day advanced course in January 2007 entitled Refugee andMigrants: Rights-based Approach to Development. The course will be designed forpractitioners from government, inter-governmental, non-governmental agencies, donorsand community representatives in the Middle East and Africa with institutionalresponsibilities in the field of refugees and migration. The participants will explore thepractical implications and challenges of applying the much-touted human rights approachto policy making in real situations. The course will be both theoretical and practical,drawing on the wealth of lessons arising from trial and error, to determine the best-possibledevelopment outcomes for hosts, refugees and migrants.

Conference on resolving the problems of forced uprooting: regional approach

FMRS is planning to organize a conference in June 2007 to promote new approaches topolicy making in the region relating to forced uprooting. These policies will aim atimproving the livelihoods of forced migrants and creating ways of solving some of theproblems of forced migration in a comprehensive way. Policy makers, NGOs,international organizations and governments from the region will be invited to participatein the conference.

Research on the situation of migrant domestic workers in Cairo

FMRS will conduct a 16-month research project on migrant domestic workers as part ofthe collaboration with Sussex University in DRC Phase II. The research project titled: ASocial Profile and Analysis of Migrant Domestic Employees in Cairo will be undertaken

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by Ray Jureidini, associate professor of sociology. The project will conduct a statisticallysignificant study of Migrant Domestic Workers (MDWs) that includes Filipina, Ethiopian,Eritrean and other African domestic workers in Cairo. Taking a human rights approach,the project will draw largely on a study completed by Jureidini in Beirut that surveyed SriLankan, Filipina and Ethiopian female domestic workers. Results of the study shouldprovide evidence for the development of policies that address issues regarding humanrights abuses and the living conditions of various types of migrant domestic work.

2. Youth Violence among Southern Sudanese in Cairo Various sources indicate an increase in the presence and activity of ‘gangs’ of Sudaneseyouth in some parts of Cairo. Gang-like expressions of youth culture - particularlyexhibiting violent patterns of behavior - are unknown in Cairo. However, gangs providecrucial elements of psychosocial well-being such as a sense of belonging, acceptance andperceived security. As such, there are reasons to expect that these groups will expand if leftunattended. Accordingly, FMRS decided to undertake an action research to study thecharacteristics and significance of Sudanese refugee gang formation in Cairo and activelyseek feasible solutions in the process. The research started as a three-month feasibility study,but has been extended for four months. The research is headed by Jacob Rothing who isassisted by Abdullah Shamseldin and Akram Osman Abdo. During the initial three monthshe was also assisted by FMRS alumni Stacey Shafer, Martin Rowe and Themba Lewis.

3. The Son of a Snake is a snake: Refugees and Asylum Seekers from MixedEritrean-Ethiopian Families in Cairo This is a six-month field work research conducted by Louis Thomas in Cairo on theexperiences of refugee generations of mixed Eritrean and Ethiopian marriages. The studyillustrated the exclusion, isolation and vulnerability that these communities experience.The political tension between the two countries since 1993 as well as the current situationof neither peace nor war in both countries had an impact on the lives of Eritrean andEthiopians of mixed marriages. The findings of the study were presented by Thomas inone of the FMRS seminar series. The study is available on our Web site under ‘Reports’and is currently awaiting publication.

4. African Transit Migration Through Libya into Europe: The Refugee DimensionThis one-year study conducted by FMRS researcher Sara Hamood was published inJanuary 2006 and translated into the Arabic language. The report was sent to variousinstitutions in Egypt and abroad. In Egypt, the Arabic version of the report was sent togovernmental bodies like the Egyptian Ministry of Manpower and the Egyptian Ministry

of Foreign Affairs and to non-governmental institutions like the Egyptian Organization forHuman Rights, Hisham Mubarak Centre for Law, and the Cairo Institute for HumanRights. The report was also sent to various international organizations based outside Cairolike Amnesty International, European University Institute, Italian Council for Refugees,Medici Senza Frontiere, the UNHCR offices in Geneva, Tunis, Italy as well as Cairo, theHuman Rights Solidarity, and the Libyan League for Human Rights in Switzerland. InLibya, the report was sent to the Libyan authorities, Gaddafi International Foundation forCharity Association (GIFCA), the Libyan Red Crescent, and the World Islamic CallSociety Libya as well as others. Finally the report was sent to different universities inEurope and Africa like the Università degli Studi di Palermo, the University of EastLondon in Europe and the University of Khartoum in Africa.

The researcher, Sara Hamood, gave a talk on the findings of the report at the RefugeeStudies Centre at the University of Oxford during her visit to England in February 2006.She also gave an FMRS Wednesday seminar on the issue in November 2005. Last but notleast, she presented the findings at the meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Human RightNetwork’s Working Group on Migration that was sponsored by UNHCR and the EU inCasablanca, Morocco on March 10-11 and at the University of East London in May 2006.

5 .Citizenship Audit in AFRICA The findings of this research that was conducted by FMRS in collaboration with the OpenSociety Institute Justice Initiative on the Citizenship and Discrimination in Africa werepresented in FMRS seminar series and the report itself is currently under review forpublication as an FMRS research report.

6. Palestinian Refugee Livelihood and Survival in Lebanon The research conducted by AUC graduate student Hoda Baraka (political science,professional development MA) in the context of the annual Cairo to Camps project iscurrently under review for publication.

FMRS Visiting Research Fellows and ScholarsDuring this academic year, FMRS hosted the following visiting research fellows whocarried out independent research projects in Cairo.

Abbas Shiblack, research fellow through the School of Humanities and Social Science Shiblak is a Palestinian currently based in England. He led a major research project on theissue of statelessness in the Arab region, which was completed last year. The project was

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carried out jointly by the Palestinian Diaspora and Refugee Centre (Shaml) and a numberof institutions in seven countries covered by the project, as well as in exiled communitiesoutside the region, mainly in Europe. The area covered was the Arab East, including theLevant (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel /Palestine and Iraq), as well as Egypt and Kuwait,where the incidence of statelessness is critical and widespread. Reports emanating from thestudy and recommendations were sent to all stakeholders in order to share the findingswith policy makers, legislators, academics, and human rights and advocacy groups with aview to raising the profile of this issue. However, no academic study of the findings hasbeen published. In order to do so, Shiblak joined FMRS in 2005-2006 as a research fellowthrough the school of Humanities and Social Science to work on preparing a manuscriptin English based on the material and data that has been collected.

Amira Ahmed, research fellow through the School of Humanities and Social Science Ahmed acquired her MA in anthropology from AUC in 2003 and since then had workedclosely with FMRS, where she was involved in a number research activities. She used towork as assistant to director in the Office of African Studies before she left to England topurse her PhD. Ahmed’s PhD dissertation, “Aliens and Locals: Maids in ContemporaryEgypt,” studies and compares the experience of two groups of women migrant domesticworkers: Egyptian rural-urban women as internal migrants versus Sudanese refugeewomen as international migrants. Ahmed came back to AUC during this scholastic year asan FMRS research fellow to complete the fieldwork towards her PhD.

Leigh Ellison Sylvan, FMRS research assistantLeigh Sylvan holds a BA in history from the University of Rice, Houston, Texas. Shecame to Egypt in November 2005 and became affiliated with FMRS as a research assistantto Barbara Harrell-Bond on the pre-feasibility study for the formulation of the EgyptianRefugee Multicultural Council. (See more under Outreach) During her stay in Egypt sheparticipated in the investigative research conducted by FMRS on the forced removal ofSudanese protestors from a park near the offices of the United Nations High Commissionfor Refugees. (See above under Research). She also did her own research during thedemonstration and wrote an article entitled “Refugee Protest in the Global South: RecentDevelopment.” The article was published in the World Refugee Survey of the U.SCommittee for refugees and migrants.

Louis Thomas, FMRS researcherLouis Thomas holds an MA in modern history from the University of Oxford. Under thesupervision of Harrell-Bond, Louis Thomas spent six months in Cairo examining the

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situation of Eritrean and Ethiopian Muslim refugees assessing through interviews theirneeds, difficulties and insecurities. She presented the findings of her research at the FMRSseminar series. Moreover, the report that came out of her research will be published soonby FMRS as FMRS Working Paper No. 7. Currently, she is working towards her PhDthesis on mixed Eritrean-Ethiopian families.

Maissa Youssef, research fellow through the School of Humanities and Social Science Youssef is a Killam Scholar and a Fellow of the Social Sciences and Humanities ResearchCouncil of Canada as well as a PhD candidate in the Department of English and FilmStudies at the University of Alberta, Canada. While formally in the English department,Youssef’s research has followed a fundamentally interdisciplinary trajectory, challengingcommonly accepted assumptions and notions. Her MA research on contemporary socialand political thought focused on the political legitimacy of collective violence and hercurrent research towards her PhD focuses on statelessness and the political possibilities andlimitations for those outside the sphere of politics. Youssef gave a talk in FMRS seminarseries and was an active member of the research team who worked on the report of theevents surrounding the forced removal of the Sudanese protestors.

Saija Niemi, research fellow through the School of Humanities and Social Science Niemi is a PhD candidate in human geography at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Herresearch focuses on how the southern Sudanese transnational forced migration movementsbetween diverse cultural environments are linked with shaping of identities of variousstatus groups within the southern Sudanese diaspora at different levels. For the PhDresearch, Niemi has carried out fieldwork in Finland, Egypt, Sudan and Uganda. Niemihas previously worked in the International Organization for Migration in the regionaloffices in Cairo and Helsinki as well as in the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. She hasworked, studied and visited various countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Oceania, theMiddle East and Europe.

FMRS Working Papers and Reports The Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Working Paper Series is a forum for sharinginformation and research on refugee and forced migration issues in Egypt, the Middle Eastand Africa at large. FMRS Working Papers and research reports are available in hard copiesas well as in electronic version from the FMRS Web site atwww.aucegypt.edu/fmrs/reports.This year, FMRS published the following three research reports:

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African Transit Migration Through Libya into Europe: The Refugee Dimension; by Sara Hammoud(January 2006). The report examines the current situation of asylum seekers and refugeescaught amidst the large flow of migrants passing through Libya, staying there or beingsmuggled to Europe. First-hand interviews shed light on the difficult and perilous journeysmigrants and asylum seekers undertake across desert and sea. The study also sought toaddress the policies of Libya as a transit country and those of Italy and the European Unionthat address, or fail to address, the real protection needs of migrants and refugees. Legal andpolicy recommendations were made with a view to alleviating the problem in the mediumto long-term. The report has also been translated and published in Arabic.

Expectations and Experiences of Resettlement; by Hilary Ingraham, Martha Fanjoy, CyrenaKhoury and Amir M. Osman (June 2006). The report analyzes the expectations of refugeestowards resettlement to the West versus the reality they encounter when resettled. Thestudy was based on interviews with Sudanese refugees resettled in Australia, Canada andthe USA, and with Sudanese refugees in Egypt expecting resettlement in those countries.

A Tragedy of Failures and False Expectations: Report on the Events Surrounding the Three-month Sit-in and Forced Removal of Sudanese Refugees in Cairo, September–December2005; by Fateh Azzam and FMRS researcher (June 2006). The report is the result of aninvestigative research that shed light on the events surrounding the forced removal ofSudanese protesters from a park near the offices of the United Nations High Commissionfor Refugees on December 30, 2006 and which resulted in the death of 29 refugees andasylum seekers.

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Outreach

In an attempt to raise the awareness of the general public to the situation and problemsof refugees in Egypt and aiming for greater integration between refugees andEgyptians, FMRS is engaged in a number of outreach activities targeting people

beyond the university gate. The main components of FMRS’s outreach activities are thefollowing:

Special Educational ProgramIn addition to the FMRS Graduate Diploma, the FMRS program provides othereducational opportunities for special audiences who need not be admitted to the universityas AUC students to be eligible for such programs. Our two main special educationalprograms are the FMRS specialized short courses and the courses provided by the CairoCommunity Interpreter’s Project. Below is detailed information of the two projects.

Short Courses

FMRS has been offering specialized short courses since the initiation of the program in theyear 2000 and since then a total of 26 short courses were offered. Our short courses arefunded by a grant from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) that has been entirelycovering such courses since January 2005. Prior to that funding was made available by theFord Foundation grant. (See more under Funding)

FMRS short courses provide specialized education in particular topics within the field ofrefugees and forced migration. Each course is an intensive five-day course tailored towardspractitioners in the field. Participants include staff members of the Office of the HighCommissioner for Refugees, the International Office of Migration, Caritas, churches,human rights lawyers and NGOs. The participants are not only from Egypt and thesurrounding regions but also from Europe, the United States and Asia. Recently ourcourses are attracting AUC students, either in their undergraduate or graduate studies, inthe fields of political science, anthropology, sociology and human rights, and many ofthem decided to pursue the FMRS graduate diploma as a result of their positiveexperiences in short courses. Refugees in Cairo also attended our courses and added theirunique perspective. Their participation is facilitated by tuition waivers provided by FMRS.

Some of our short courses are either provided annually or repeated according to demand.

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Two of our regular courses that are repeated each year are The International Refugee andHuman Right Law and Meeting the Psychosocial Needs of Refugees. Most of our coursesare delivered through a combination of lectures and interactive small group exerciseswhere participants learn how to relate theory to practice.

During the2005-2006 scholastic year, FMRS successfully undertook five short coursesattended by 223 participants. The following is a detailed description of the five coursesorganized during the year.

Cultures of Exile: This new course was instructed January 16-21, 2006 by Anita Fabos, seniorlecturer, School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies, University of East London.

The course, attended by 39 participants, explored the concept and context of exile in thecontemporary world from the perspective of those who experience it. It drew on socialscience analyses of exile, home, belonging, diaspora and transnationalism. Special emphasiswas given to narratives exploring these concepts created by the exiles themselves.

The evaluation sheets indicated the participants’ appreciation of the use of differentmethods in communicating the course’s message as well as the opportunity given by thecourse to interchange ideas and experiences.

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Group picture of the participants in “Cultures of Exile” course

Refugee Camps and ‘Warehousing’: This course was first conducted in January 2005 and itattracted a large number of participants that we could not fit due to space limitation.Therefore, we decided to re-address the issue again in January 2006.

The course was instructed this year also by Eftihia Voutira, associate professor, Departmentof Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece. Thecourse took place January 22-26, 2006 andwas attended by 47 participants.

This course addressed the logic of keepingdisplaced populations in camps and of“encampment” in general. Using bothhistorical and contemporary case studies,the course identified the main features ofcamps as spaces characterized by thedynamics of power and control as well asspecific types of social organization andsocial relations. It addressed the rhetoric ofcamps as “safe areas,” as “warehouses,” asseats of political activism, as targets formilitary attack, and forced recruitment, aswell as a paradigmatic area of humanrights violations.

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Eftihia Voutira lecturing in the Refugee Camps andWarehousing course

Anita Fabos with participants in the Cultures of Exile course Antia Fabos with Gafar Salim and one of the participants inthe Cultures of Exile course

The outcome of the course was very positive as indicated in the followings quotations:

“The material of such important course should be expanded. Many people around theworld do not know how valuable the course is. The five days I spent in the course werevery important for me; I learned what I did not know before.”

“The valuable thing about this course is that it widened my knowledge about therelationships between camps, refugees, host countries, UNHCR, and NGOs.”

Responding to Refugee Women at Risk – from the Camp to the United Nations: This new coursewas instructed June 18-22, 2006 by Eileen Pittway and Linda Bartolomei, University ofNSW, Australia. The course was attended by 54 participants coming from differentnationalities. The course explored the concept of risk in relation to refugee women, andanalyzed the reasons for the apparent failure of the system established to protect them. Itexplored a range of strategies which can be used to address this critical issue, includingcommunity development techniques within a human rights framework, national andinternational advocacy, and using the United Nations systems to address and identifypotential solutions.

The participants welcomed the topic of this new course as it was the first time to betackled by FMRS. This is indicated in the followings quotations from the evaluation sheets:

“The gender aspect of refugee issues isan important area when consideringthat most refugees are women andgirls. It was good to look at refugeeswith a gender perspective rather thanthe general humanitarian approachwhich is usually gender blind.”

“I believe that over the last five days Ibecame more sensitive, knowledgeableand appreciative of the risks faced bywomen in conflict situations and Ibecame more motivated to serve thesewomen through advocacy.”

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Participants of the course “Responding to Refugee Women atRisk, June, 2006”

Meeting the Psychosocial Needs of Refugees: As mentioned above, this is one of our regularcourses, offered every summer. It was offered this year for the fourth time June 26 to July1, 2006. This summer, it was attended by 31 participants and was instructed by CourtneyMitchell, mental health therapist at Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA)in Cairo and lecturer at the American University in Cairo (AUC).

The purpose of the course is to help psychosocial workers enhance their knowledge ofrefugee needs and increase their ability to meet them appropriately. Topics includedcultural concepts of mental health and well being, basic interviewing and supportivecounseling skills, working with translators, conceptualizing and treating refugee trauma,understanding and meeting children’s needs, and managing stress and preventing burnoutamong humanitarian workers. Participants were assigned to psychosocial teams to analyzeand solve practical and ethical dilemmas that arise in this line of work. They were alsoencouraged to attend field trips to areas in Cairo to get practical exposure to differentcultural concepts of mental health and different healing strategies.

The outcome of the course was very positive. The participants greatly appreciated thecourse’s material and the instructor’s knowledge of the field as indicated in the followingquotations:

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Participants of the course meeting the Psychosocial Needs of Refugees, subdivided into psychosocial teams

“It is a great course. The instructor is knowledgeable, competent, dynamic and extremelydedicated.”

“It is an absolutely enriching, enlightening, and an eye opening experience that helped me a lot. I will definitely recommend it to co-students.”

“The great thing about this course is that it combined theory and experiences from thefield. It really inspired me as it was not a rigid course but rather flexible, open coursewhere there aren’t always solutions for everything and which gives the real picture of thiskind of work.”

International Refugee and Human Rights Law: This course is also one of our regular courses,it was offered this summer for the sixth time since the start of the FMRS program. Thecourse was offered July 2-8, 2006. There is a growing demand on this course as thenumber of applicants increase every year as indicated by our statistics. This year wereceived over 100 applications out of which we chose 52 participants as per the request ofthe instructor. The participants were selected according to their professional experiencesand/or academic qualifications as well the level of their English language. Priority wasgiven to those who applied before the deadline. The course was instructed this year for thefourth time by Sharryn Aiken, professor of law at Queen’s University, Canada

The course introduced the participants to refugee and international human rights law,and covered the primary elements of the 1951 Geneva Convention as well as its interactionwith the 1969 OAU Convention. Particular attention was paid to some of the morecontroversial aspects of the refugee definition, including the internal flight alternative, or“relocation principle,” as well as the application of the exclusion clauses with regard to warcrimes and crimes against humanity. Participants were taught how to do country-of-originresearch, and to develop legal arguments on behalf of asylum seekers on first instance andappeals cases. Case studies were discussed in small groups and interviewing, research andadvocacy skills were practiced.

The evaluation sheets of the three courses have indicated the participants’ overallappreciation of the courses offered by FMRS as indicated in the following quotation:

“I hope that FMRS will continue to provide these courses to as many as people aspossible. [It is] so inspiring and you give us motivation to work and make a difference.”

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The Cairo Community Interpreters Project (CCIP):Since 2002, the Cairo Community Interpreters Project (CCIP) has been working toimprove language and cultural services for refugees in Cairo through the promotion ofrefugee interpreter training and capacity building. It developed and consolidated a coursewhose training modules focus on principles of consecutive interpreting, basics of linguisticsand sociolinguistics, and professional ethics. Since its inception, many refugees in Cairohave joined the Refugee Community Interpreter Trainings offered by CCIP. Thefollowing is a brief synopsis of the development in the CCIP project during the scholasticyear 2005-2006

CCIP Staff

In 2006, the former CCIP project director, Daniele Calvani, received the 2005-2006AUC Award for Outstanding Service and Innovation in recognition of his dedication tothe refugee community through his work with CCIP. Daniele left his position at CCIP inthe summer of 2006. He has since gone on to the International Criminal Court in TheHague, conducting seminars for the interpreter hiring and field training divisions, focusingon interpretation in field missions. He developed International Criminal Court (ICC)interpreter training manuals based on CCIP cumulative experience at AUC, and thesemanuals are still currently used by the ICC’s field interpreter divisions.

In the summer of 2006, Alice Johnson joined CCIP to replace Daniele Calvani as projectdirector. Alice is a long-time community interpreter trainer with refugee and immigrantrights organizations in the United States. In addition to her work with CCIP, Alice is aCASA fellow for advanced Arabic studies in AUC’s Arabic Language Institute.

CCIP Activities in 2005-2006As a refugee capacity-building project of FMRS, the Cairo Community InterpreterProject’s mission is to support refugees and displaced persons by strengthening refugees’linguistic access to aid, services, rights protection, educational and economic opportunities,and community involvement. CCIP accomplishes this goal through the followingactivities:

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a- Interpreter Training and Education for refugee interpreters serving their communitiesb- Linguistic Resource Development in refugee languages for interpreter supportc- Participatory Research between scholars and refugee communities on language issuesd- Community Outreach to build awareness and understanding of refugee language issues

The following is detailed description of the development in these activities during thescholastic year 2005-2006:

1. Refugee Community Interpreter TrainingsIn 2005-2006, CCIP conducted two series of its Refugee Community InterpreterTraining, training more than 80 refugee interpreters in the languages of Arabic, Amharic,Fur, Oromo, Somali and Tigrinya. Additionally, CCIP held train-the-trainer sessions forthe new language trainers of Oromo.

CCIP is especially proud of the accomplishments of the refugee interpreter graduates ofCCIP courses. Many have gone on to be employed by area refugee aid agencies, and takenleadership roles in their new jobs. In the Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance(AMERA) Cairo offices, staff interpreters who are CCIP graduates have developed full-day trainings for the incoming AMERA interns. Their training covers topics such asinterpretation protocol, roles, ethics and techniques for working with an interpreter inservice provision. CCIP supports its course graduates in their training roles, providingwritten materials and any other assistance that they may require. Moreover, some CCIPgraduates became language trainers. During this year CCIP has hired four new languagetrainers, all of whom are graduates from the CCIP community interpreter trainings. Thenew trainers will be specialized in Fur and Somali language and culture interpretation.

2. Linguistic Resource DevelopmentThe compilation of culture-specific glossaries of East African languages has been pivotal inthe activity of CCIP during last year and this year, the CCIP glossary project has continuedto expand its terminology base. During this year, CCIP’s resource and publicationscoordinator, Amany Ahmed, went through special training to develop the softwareplatform on which to publish the glossaries online.

3. Participatory ResearchThroughout 2005 and 2006, various FMRS students supported their research by accessingCCIP activities, including Konul Zamanova, who researched interpreters’ handling ofcultural clashes, and James Pearce, who researched interpretation in refugee mental healthsettings. Moreover, in 2005, Emily Eidenier, FMRS graduate and library specialist

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conducted training with CCIP staff on research tools and methods, in order to support in-house research efforts.

4. Community Outreach CCIP is committed to FMRS community outreach activities. This year CCIP staffparticipated in the annual World Refugee Day, tabling an information booth on languageand interpretation issues for public awareness. Additionally, CCIP staff supported WorldRefugee Day and the Global Day for Darfur by providing written translation support forthe program and assisting the coordinators of both events by providing oral interpretationduring the performances. (See more under Outreach) In CCIP’s liaison work with local aidagencies, CCIP’s training and education coordinator, Mariam Hashim, participated in themonthly interpreter meetings held at AMERA, in which she presented continuingeducation topics.

In addition to the above-mentioned activities, CCIP was busy this year in providingconsultation, planning for fundraising and thinking strategically how to expand its services.

Regional Consulting and ConferencesDuring 2005 and 2006, CCIP staff provided consultation for the Washington, D.C.-basedorganization, Universal Human Rights Network, as they prepared interpretation trainingfor a number of humanitarian and human rights monitoring missions to be carried out inDarfur and southern Sudan. Additionally, a CCIP proposal to present a paper at theCritical Link 5 Community Interpretation Conference, to be held in Sydney, Australia inApril of 2007 was accepted. The paper focuses on interpretation training for interpretersworking in active conflict zones, based on our experience supporting the UniversalHuman Rights Network missions to Sudan. Also in 2006, CCIP provided advisorysupport to the Refugee Law Project in Kampala, Uganda, as the center plans futureinterpreter training for their legal aid projects. It is hoped that CCIP may provideadditional training support for both the Refugee Law Project in Uganda, as well as theRefugee Consortium of Kenya, in the course of the coming year.

Strategic PlanningAs CCIP enters its fourth year of activities, its staff has begun a strategic planning processto document and evaluate its achievements and best practices to date, as well as to guideprogram growth for the coming three years. The strategic planning process has revealed aneed to update and expand current interpreter training curriculum. As a result of thestrategic planning, CCIP will expand its training modules in two new areas: Pre-

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interpretation advanced language development, and community interpretation in refugeehealthcare settings. Additionally, our glossary project will expand to reflect newterminology required to support these new training modules. We will also be conductingcommunity outreach and liaison activities with area agencies that rely on interpreters inthe provision of healthcare services to the refugee community, and actively seek researchcollaborations with scholars focusing on healthcare issues in the refugee community.

Active FundraisingAs CCIP develops and expands, its staff is continually engaged in securing fiscal supportfor program activities. Staff continues to collaborate with FMRS administration and theOffice of Sponsored Programs at AUC in seeking out funding partnerships to supportCCIP’s refugee interpreter capacity building programs and activities.

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Wednesday SeminarsFMRS Wednesdays Weekly Seminars series is a vital element of FMRS outreach activities.It is intended to create a platform for raising awareness about refugees and forced migrationissues among a wider audience. Each week a different topic related to refugees issues ispresented by an expert in the field to the general public allowing for open discussion anddebate. It also provides a space for FMRS researchers to present the findings of theirresearch and receive feedback and ideas.

The FMRS Wednesday Seminar Series hosted this year a number of visiting lecturersfrom institutions and Organizations worldwide attracting considerable interest fromstudents, refugees and the general public.

FMRS continued this year the tradition of posting the summaries of our seminars onthe FMRS Web site, and as last year FMRS was approached by many journalists whopublished such summaries in English and Arabic newspapers.

The first month of the fall semester seminar series was devoted to the speakers at theInternational Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance Course (IDHA) that took place inCairo September 4-29, 2005 in which both Fateh Azzam and Barbara Harrell-Bondparticipated as guest speakers. (See more under Faculty Activities). IDHA is an initiative of theBoard of the Centre for International Health and Co-operation (CIHC), a non-profitorganization based in New York. It is now a joint effort programme of the CIHC withthe Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, Fordham University, theInterdisciplinary Program in Humanitarian Action of the University of Geneva, and theRoyal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

The following topics were presented by four of the instructors of the IDHA course duringSeptember 2005 at FMRS seminar series:

- Reflections of a Commissioner General Peter Hansen, Former Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief andWorks Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

- Psychosocial Health for Refugees and Internally Displaced People Manuel Carballo, Director of the International Center for Migration and Health at theUniversity of Geneva

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- Internally Displaced Population in Northern IraqValleria Fabbrino, Academic Director of the International Diploma in HumanitarianAssistance

- Protection as an aspect of Humanitarian Assistanc. Tore Svenning, Senior Officer in the External Relations Department at the Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent

The following is a list of FMRS Wednesday Seminars during the rest of the 2005-2006scholastic year

- Deciding Who Eats: The Politics of Food Aid in Refugee Camps Courtney Mitchell, MA, LMHC (Licensed Mental Health Counselor), PsychologicalCounselor, AMERA, Cairo

- A Panel Discussion on the Policies affecting Refugee in Lebanon Samira Tarab, Frontiers Center and Jaber Suleiman, co-founder of Aidoun (returnees), aPalestinian NGO

- Sudanese Refugees Sit-In at Mostafa Mahmoud MosequeRepresentatives from ‘Egypt Refugee’s Voice’ Group (the organizers of the Sit-indemonstration)

- Witness ShatilaMembers of Cairo to Camps group, an Arab Youth Solidarity project

- Interrelations between internal and international Migration in EgyptAyman Zohry, FMRS Associate Researcher

- The Psychological Consequences and benefits of trauma for Africans Refugees residing in Sweden Jennifer Steel, Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh

- Discourse Analysis and the Politics of Humanitarianism Maissa Youssef, FMRS Research Affiliate

- African Transit Migration through Libya into Europe: The Refugee Dimension Sara Hamood, FMRS Research Affiliate

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- Housing and Land Rights for Refugees and Migrants Joseph Schechla, Coordinator/Middle East and North Africa - Habitat InternationalCoalition, Housing and Land Rights Network

- A Tragedy of Failures and False Expectations: Report on the Events Surrounding the Three-month Sit-in and Forced Removal of Sudanese Refugees in Cairo, September–December 2005

Fateh Azzam and FMRS researchers

- A Panel Discussion on the Complexities of Providing Assistance in an Urban Setting Liza Hazelton from Musa’adeen (NGO), Tarek Badawi, Program Director of Africanand Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), Father Claudio Lurati, the coordinatorof Refugee and immigrant activities of the Catholic Church in Egypt, David Moganada,Assistant Coordinator of Refugee Egypt (NGO)

- Israel’s Disengagement: Implications for Palestinian Statehood and the Status of PalestinianRefugees Rula Khalafawi, head of the Cairo Office of the United Nations Relief and WorksAgency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

- Palestinian Refugee Communities in Europe: Challenges of Integration and Identity Abbas Shiblak, FMRS/HUSS Visiting Fellow

- Aliens and Locals: Maids in Contemporary EgyptAmira Ahmed, PhD Candidate at the University of East London and FMRS affiliate

- Collaboration between different UN Agencies in facing Humanitarian Crisis Mahar Nasser, Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Cairo

- Refugees in History: the disturbing questionPhilip Marfleet, Co-Director of the Refugee Studies Center at the University of EastLondon

- Rights in ExileBarbara Harrell-Bond, FMRS Distinguished Visiting Professor

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- Special Issues and Problems of African RefugeesRawia Tawfik, The South African Institute of International Affairs, Cairo University

- A Panel Discussion on the Sudanese Refugee Protest in Cairo: Community dynamics and broaderimplicationsFMRS Students: Assad Salih, Martin Rowe, Themba Lewis, Stacy Schafer

- Statelessness and the Legal, Social, Psychological Implications of Exclusion in Exile: The case ofEritrean and Ethiopian Refugees in CairoLouise Thomas, FMRS Researcher

- A Panel Discussion on Citizenship and Discrimination in Africa Amal Abdel Hadi, Gender and Nationality Law Expert, Abdalla Khalil, Legal Expertand Tarek Badawi, Program Director, Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance(AMERA)

- Refugee Online: The Use of the Internet as a source of Information and Community-Building withrefugees in CairoWeb team of STAR, (Student Action for Refugees)

51From right to left: Liz Hazelton, Tarek Badawi, Fateh Azzam, Father Claudio and David Moganada at the FMRS seminar onthe complexities of providing refugee assistance in an urban setting

Philippe Marfleet, co-director of the RefugeeCenter at UEL, giving a talk at an FMRSseminar

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Conference and Workshops

Workshops and conferences are an important venue for bringing togetheracademics, field experts, inter-governmental, governmental, and civil societyactors to explore particular aspects of forced migration studies. This year

FMRS collaborated with the Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalizationand Poverty (DRC) to hold a four-day workshop which took place April 3-6, 2006 atStella Di Mare Hotel in Ain Sukna, Suez Governorate to prepare for an edited collectionon forced migration and rights building on the finalized research reports conducted inDRC phase I. (See above under Research) In addition to the FMRS/DRC workshop, FMRScollaborated with the Open Society Justice Initiative (an international legal program of theOpen Society Institute (OSI)) in organizing the OSI Supported Human Rights Fellow Retreatthat took place in Cairo January 26-29, 2006. Moreover, during the reporting period,FMRS in coordination with the African and Middle East Refugees Assistance (AMERA)conducted a series of workshops for Arabic-Speaking Egyptian Journalists. Below isdetailed information on the two events.

OSI-Supported Human Rights Fellows Retreat In January 2006 FMRS collaborated with the Open Society Justice Initiative (aninternational legal program of the Open Society Institute (OSI)) in organizing the OSISupported Human Rights Fellow Retreat that took place in Cairo January 26-29, 2006 inRamses Hilton Hotel.

The OSI-supported Human Rights Law Fellows Retreat organized by the OPSJI andFMRS/AUC brought 143 leading human rights scholars and activists from 38 countriesto Cairo. The Open Society Justice Initiative supports a variety of fellowship programs toencourage the professional development of young lawyers and enhance the capacity ofleading human rights NGOs. Beginning in 1996, the Justice Initiative established afellowship program at the American University, Washington College of Law. Younglawyers from central and eastern Europe were nominated by regional human rights NGOsfor a two-year fellowship program. The first year was spent in the United States attendinghuman rights courses and participating in internships with NGOs. In the second, fellowsreturned to their home countries, where the fellowship covered the costs of a year’s full-time work with their nominating NGO. Although no longer operating at the AmericanUniversity, the fellowship programs now involve a similar combination of study, work

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experience and NGO capacity building with Columbia University, Central EuropeanUniversity and the University of Sao Paulo.

The Cairo retreat is part of a broad based fellowship program which includes the JusticeInitiative Fellows Program at Central European University, Justice Initiative Interns,Fellows Program for Angola and Mozambique, the Public Interest Law Fellows Program,the Practicing Human Rights Fellows program and the Justice Initiative Resident Fellows.

The Cairo meeting was the second gathering of fellows from all programs. In 2003, theJustice Initiative convened an OSI-Supported Human Rights Fellows Retreat in Istanbul.The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss, both formally and informally, thepractice and theory of human rights; to hear first-hand accounts of the experiences andstruggles of NGO activists from around the world; to learn practical skills in organization,negotiation and communication; and to recognize, take stock of, and deepen their de factoparticipation in a growing global network of human rights activists.

At the Cairo meeting, subjects included democracy and human rights development inMiddle East, extended discussions on freedom of information, protecting the rights of thedisabled as well as economic, social and cultural rights; panels on police accountability,gender discrimination, women’s rights, protection of the rights of juveniles, as well asreports on the substantial progress made since the last retreat in the areas of access to justiceand clinical legal education. Additionally, skills training sessions were organized on sevensubjects related both to advocacy and NGO organization: program evaluation, strategicplanning fundraising, communications, career development, personal leadership as well asteam and employee management.

A full report on the subjects discussed during the Cairo OSI/FMRS conference will bemade available soon by the Open Society Justice Initiative.

The Open Society Institute covered all travel and living costs of the participants duringthe Retreat. The preparation for the conference was carried, however, through FMRS.FMRS was responsible for selecting local keynote speakers and contacting them as well astaking care of all the logistic in terms of issuing visa letters to the participants to facilitate theirarrival, working with the local conference organizer to make sure that the event is carriedout smoothly, and issuing invitation letters to local partners. Moreover, FMRS identified anumber of note-takers who were mostly FMRS students and AMERA interns. Their workis much appreciated as their note-taking will help in the production of the conference

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report which the OSI is planning to produce. Below are the names of the note-takers.

Wesal Afifi (FMRS Alumna) Shadrik King (AMERA) Viviana Mazza (FMRS Alumna) Sarah Stanton (AMERA) Leila Bedir (Journalist) Hishem Safi El Din (Journalist)Clark Gard (FMRS Alumni and IHRL Student) Anne Maria (AMERA)

Last but not least, both Fateh Azzam and Ray Jureidini were keynote speakers in theplenary sessions.

Journalist Workshops

As part of an ongoing FMRS effort to promote awareness of refugee issues in Egypt andto promote the involvement of Egyptian Journalists and human rights lawyers to advocatefor refugee rights, FMRS organized in coordination with the African and Middle EastRefugee Assistance (AMERA) a series of four workshops for Arabic-speaking journalistsheld entirely in Arabic. Specialists on refugee law, social issues and refugees in the mediapresented on topics of “Racism in Egypt,” “Refugees in the Media” and “Who is aRefugee?” among others. An Arabic-language resource book was compiled anddistributed to the 21 participants who represented nine press offices in Egypt. In the lasttwo months following the workshops and the continual linking with the press, fourpositive articles were published in local papers concerning refugees since May 2006, andthe AMERA office has been contacted by five different press agencies requestinginterviews and information. This is an enormous increase of interest by the media ascompared with last year. As a result FMRS/AMERA decided to continue this initiativeby conducting monthly workshops for Egyptian Journalists.

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Community Outreach Activities

The community outreach activities undertaken by our students are unique features ofour program, reflecting the FMRS program’s encouragement of students to engagein extra-curricular activities. Two of the most active student-run organization in

AUC were established by FMRS students: Students Action for Refugees (STAR) andCairo to Camps.

Although both work under the auspices of the FMRS and the guidance of the FMRSdirector as their academic advisor, they have a great degree of autonomy that allows themto engage creatively in initiating new ideas and programs.

Below is detailed description of the activities of both Cairo to Camps and STAR duringthe scholastic year 2005-2006

Cairo to CampsThe philosophy of Cairo to Camps, an Arab Youth Solidarity Project with PalestinianRefugees, is based on the belief in the power of art in self-expression, and the role ofworkshops that goes beyond “having fun with the children.” The main component ofCairo to Camps activities is their August annual trip to refugee camps in Lebanon wherethey work with Palestinian refugee children conducting workshops in literature, music,art, theater, and filmmaking.

This year, on July 12, 2006 a Lebanese-Israeli conflict started in which Israel formed anaval as well as air blockade over Lebanese territories. While the war ended on August 14,2006 when the United Nations brokered ceasefire went into effect, the blockade has beenlifted competetely on September 8, 2006. Accordingly, members of Cairo to Camps werenot able to do their annual visits to the Palestinian camps in Lebanon to conduct artworkshops that was scheduled in August 2006. However, they continued their on campusawareness and training activities in Egypt. Below is a detailed description of the activitiesundertaken by the Cairo to Camps group during the 2005-2006 scholastic year.

Awareness Activities An important component of Cairo to Camps activities is their awareness campaign to raisethe awareness of the plight of Palestinian refugees. Their campaign targets both their newmembers as well as the whole AUC community. To this end, they screened four movies

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at AUC during the reporting period under the title “Falestinyate.” The movies wereParadise Now, Private, West Beirut, and Arna’s Children. The four movies were very wellattended. Moreover, the old members conducted awareness sessions for new Cairo toCamps members on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Palestinian refugees and theirstatus in the Middle East with special focus on Lebanon, the Lebanese civil war, thedifferent Palestinian factions and their formation, and development as well as the debateon Palestinian domestic politics with a special highlight on the nature of latestdevelopment in the situation internationally, regionally and domestically.

Training ActivitiesThe primary goal of the Cairo to Camps training activities is to ensure that the membersof the group, who themselves will conduct art workshops with refugee children and youthduring the month-long visit to the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, have enoughtechnical and professional skills to relay to the workshop participants. This year, anart/theater training took place in Fayoum in the form of a three-day workshops for Cairoto camps members in a students’ hostel. The purpose of this workshop was to help the newmembers familiarize themselves with the mission and goals of the project. It was also a wayto expose them to theater and arts trainings by professional trainers. Exercises in theaterarts and literature that were implemented in the previous Cairo to Camps rounds also tookplace in Fayoum. Finally, the three days workshop was a venue in which the members gotto know each other more. In addition to the trainings in Fayoum, Ahmed Kamal, a theatertrainer and an actor, conducted a workshop for a month with Cairo to Camps memberswhich took place once a week for two hours and introduced the members to differenttechniques that were meant to be applied in the workshops.

In addition to their training and awareness activities, Cairo to Camps members gave atalk in one of the FMRS seminar series for the fourth year in a row presenting theirprevious year experience with Palestinian children in Shatilla refugee camp in Beirutduring the summer of August 2005. The seminar which took place in November 2005started with music performed by Egyptian oud player Mustafa Said, a volunteer with Cairoto Camps. It was followed by testimonies from seven members. Their testimonies includedtheir feedback on the trainings they received before their travel as well as their personalperspectives of the workshops and the project. The testimonies revealed the importance ofthe experience to the members themselves where they all argued that they learned a lotfrom the experience and it made them appreciate the value of art and creativity inchildren’s sense of self-worth and sense of confidence. The testimonies were followed bya forty-minute documentary entitled “Witness Shatila” produced by Nagi Ismail, one of

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Cairo to Camps members, and a student in the high institute of cinema who chose toexpress their experience through the production of the documentary. The documentaryincluded several interviews reflecting the conditions of refugees in Lebanon. The seminarended with a Q and A session in which the audience posed some questions regarding theproject and discussed with the volunteers the meaning of Arab solidarity and how it canbe distinguished from ‘services’ that objectifies refugees.

Student Action for Refugees (STAR)Student Action for Refugees (STAR) was established in 2001 to raise awareness aboutrefugee issues and offer students the opportunity to work with refugees in practical waysthrough volunteering and education. Following the model of the international STARnetwork, AUC students are working to establish their own network of students andrefugees here in Cairo. STAR has been active this year as usual in providing a variety ofactivities for raising awareness about refugee issues at AUC and beyond, and providingservices for the refugee community.

In Spring 2006, Jennifer Renquist replaced James Pearce as the STAR president.Pearce has been an active STAR member since he joined AUC and has managed STARfor over a year; he initiated brilliant ideas and projects that helped in shaping what STARis today. We thank him for his outstanding services and energetic spirit and wish him thebest of luck in his future plans. Thankfully, STAR has been placed in equally good handsby having Jennifer Renquist as its new president. Renquist is an FMRS/IHRL studentwho has been heavily involved with STAR and the refugee communities ever since shejoined AUC in the Spring of 2004. She has excellent communication, personnel, andmanagerial skills that enabled her to build strong relationships with AUC offices involvedin the implementation of the various STAR activities.

STAR continued its work this academic year with and for refugee populations in Cairoby organizing a variety of volunteer opportunities and educational programs. One of themost significant programs that STAR was able to implement on AUC campus was theirEnglish and Arabic language courses. The STAR English program provides free classes tohundreds of refugees in the Cairo community, which is made possible largely throughSTAR volunteer teachers and the gracious allowance of AUC to host the classes on itscampus. In fact, the demand on STAR English courses has become so tremendous thatSTAR is now facing the problem of not having enough space to accommodate the hugenumber of refugees, a problem that needs to be given more attention in the future. In

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addition to the English and Arabic classes, STAR also offered classes in the Swahililanguage as well as traditional ethnic cooking classes taught by refugees to the AUCcommunity. Moreover, through the efforts of STAR, the handicraft project was able toexpand this year, organized with the help of Fatma Suleiman, an Eritrean refugee in Cairo.Fatma worked with a number of refugee women’s groups to develop their skills with artsand crafts, which they then are able to sell on the AUC campus and surrounding areas.This effort is in accordance with the STAR mission that aims at building the skills ofrefugees, providing them with income opportunities and teaching other refugees the skillsthey have acquired.

In addition to its educational activities, STAR was also involved in organizing certainawareness–raising activities. In 2006, STAR conducted a series of film screenings, showingimportant films which demonstrated the plight of refugees and the consequences of war indifferent parts of the world. For instance, STAR screened the movie “We Are AllNeighbors” that describes the social disintegration in a Bosnian/Croatian village duringwar-time. “Children of Shatila” that describes the horrors, heartaches and broken hopeswithin the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon was also screened by STAR during thefilm series. The importance of such movies is that it focuses on the similarities between the

STAR with members of refugee communities during a day-trip for refugees

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experiences of refugees in different parts of the world and provides students with a uniquevisual perspective of their plight. In addition “Well-Founded Fear” and “Chasing Freedom”that focus on the problems of conducting refugee status determination were also screened.

STAR also organized some recreational activities for refugee youth and adults. Forinstance, STAR hosted a mini Africa’s Football Cup this year which included teams fromBurundi, Egypt, Liberia and Sudan. Moreover, many STAR members also activelyvolunteered in the community, teaching arts and crafts to young children at a local refugeeschool and providing tutoring to refugee school children at St. Andrews. Last but by notleast, STAR hosted again this summer the World Refugee Day on AUC campus incollaboration with other local refugee organizations and NGOs.

World Refugee Day

Student Action for Refugees (STAR), in conjunction with members of Cairo’s refugeecommunities hosted for the fifth year in a row the World Refugee Day on June 17, 2006,at AUC.

The World Refugee Day provides refugees in Cairo a chance to celebrate their culturesby displaying and enjoying their own cultural food, and handicrafts, as well as performingsongs and dances from their tribes. Another importance for the World Refugee Day is thatit creates an opportunity for AUC students, especially Egyptians, to learn about refugees’cultures and interact with them. Although, the attendance rate of Egyptians is relativelylow, it can be argued that there is some progress as the event, compared to previous yearsis attended by more AUC students and faculty, Egyptian journalists as well asrepresentatives of national and international non-governmental organizations. Working onraising the awareness of Egyptians towards the situation of refugees in Cairo and facilitatingmore interaction between the two communities is becoming one of the most importanttargets on STAR’s agenda.

As every year, the celebration of the World Refugee Day this year was a success, over2000 people, including many children, attended the event. The attendees and participantscame from different refugee communities in Cairo (Sudan, Ethiopia, Palestine, Burundi,Somalia and elsewhere) as well as Egyptians and AUC faculty and staff. This full day eventbegan in the early afternoon with children’s activities and arts and crafts tables, which waspossible with the help of volunteers from the British Council’s “Dreams and Teams.”Throughout the day, attendees were able to enjoy ethnic foods from a variety of different

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refugee groups in Cairo as well as purchase the arts and crafts displayed by refugeewomen’s handicraft groups from the area. Moreover, there was an English essay writingcompetition between refugees in the community and AUC security members. The twowinners of the competition had their essays published and distributed during the event. Inaddition, during the evening performances, the two winners were publicly acknowledgedand awarded with generous prizes from the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy andCivic Engagement. (See more under Networking and Collaboration). The evening ended inmusical and dance festivities given by 20 performing groups from all over the Africancontinent, including songs by children from a local refugee school, a lively Palestinian danceroutine, and an energetic music and dance performance from Sittuna, a Sudanese entertainer.

FMRS supported the event but it would not have been able to do it without thegenerous financial support of many other sponsors including AUC and the Office ofStudent Development, the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and CivicEngagement, and a generous gift from an anonymous international donor. In addition,World Refugee Day 2006 would not have been possible without the countless hours ofwork and planning put towards the event by STAR student volunteers and refugees, aswell as the kind assistance provided by the AUC security team.

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Jennifer Renquist, STAR’s president, with refugeechildren

Member of a refugee community giving a music performance duringWorld Refugee Day

Gafar Salim welcoming participants ofWorld Refugee Day

Members of a refugee community sharing their dance performance during World Refugee Day

STAR member helping a refugee child with art

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Other Community Outreach Activities In addition to STAR and Cairo to Camps outreach activities, the following two activitieswere undertaken during the year for the purpose of outreaching the refugee communitiesand facilitating the interactions between Egyptians and refugees.

The Egyptian Refugee Multicultural CouncilThis year Barbara Harrell-Bond was involved in the establishment of the EgyptianRefugee Multicultural Council: ‘Tadamon’ through funding from the Dutch Council forRefugees. The purpose of the Egyptian Refugee Council is to promote greatercoordination between Refugee-assisting NGOs and Egyptian NGOs and to facilitatebetter communication between the Egyptian host community and the refugee populationin Cairo. The council is an outreach programme of the Townhouse Gallery. MohammedYousry is the full-time coordinator working under a steering committee composed ofrepresentatives of a group of Egyptian and refugee assisting NGOs.

Salon Afrique This year FMRS co-sponsored with the performing and visual arts department an eventfeaturing a series of collective theater performances entitled Salon Afrique. The event tookplace in December 2005 and featured a play that was written and acted by St. Andrew’sRefugee Drama club entitled Recipe for Civil War, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s JuliusCaesar. The play was followed by African poetry reading. “The passage” by the famousNigerian poet Christopher Okigbo as well as other poems were read by African fellows atAUC. Also in May 2006, St. Andrew Refugee Drama club wrote and performed a play atAUC entitled “27 Dead” which was about the protest of the Sudanese near the UNHCRoffices in Mohandiseen and the subsequent attack that resulted in the killing of 27Sudanese refugees.

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Networking and Collaboration

Throughout the years, FMRS has established a strong presence both within AUC andbeyond by forging important links with a variety of academic and research centersand international and non-governmental organizations working in the field, with

whom we continuously share experiences and knowledge.

Local NetworksWithin AUC Within AUC, FMRS is in continuous collaboration with the sociology, anthropology,psychology and Egyptology department (SAPE), the political science department, and thelaw department as well as with the following multi-disciplinary programs at the School ofHumanities and Social Science: - Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies, directed by Martina Rieker - Social Research Center, directed by Hoda Rashad- Middle East studies program, directed by Joel Beinin - The John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, directed by

Barbara Ibrahim

Martina Rieker, assistant professor and director of Cynthia Nelson Institute for Genderand Women’s Studies, and Hania Sholkamy, assistant research professor at the SocialResearch Center, are both members of our Joint Steering Committee, the governing bodyof FMRS, and their contribution to the committee is greatly appreciated.

In terms of this year collaboration, AUC’s Social Research Center has inquired aboutthe possibility of FMRS involvement in a five-year program of activities under the title ofPathways to Women’s Empowerment to include the particular issues of women migrants andrefugees in their program. The initiative is under study but no decision has been taken yet.On the other hand, the Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women’s Studiessuccessfully developed this year an MA program where students will start enrolling in it asof Spring 2007. Fateh Azzam, FMRS director has been involved, as a member of thecommittee that was established for the purpose of developing the MA, in the preparationfor the gender institute’s MA program. Moreover, Rieker is working closely with us indeveloping courses that can be cross-listed between the two programs.

Likewise, we are in constant collaboration with the John D. Gerhart Center for

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Philanthropy and Civic Engagement. The goals of the Gerhart center are theconsolidation of university activities that encourage engaged citizenship and service andthe promotion of philanthropic giving in the Arab region. Our collaboration with theGerhart center is for the purpose of strengthening civic engagement and services to includealso the different refugee communities in Cairo. Towards this end, Fateh Azzam wasinvited more than once during this year to participate in the Gerhart ‘On CampusConversation.’ Moreover, the Gerhart center provided generous financial support fororganizing the World Refugee Day of 2006. (See above under Students Outreach Activities)

Beyond AUCBeyond the AUC, FMRS has established links and regular communication with avariety of institutions and organizations in Cairo that are concerned with refugee issues:

The Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA)FMRS collaborates regularly with AMERA, a UK-registered charity operating in Egypt.AMERA’s activities in Egypt started in 2000 as a Refugee Legal Aid Project within FMRS.It moved in 2001 under the umbrella of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights(EOHR) and finally became an independent entity as a branch office of AMERA UK in2003. Both Fateh Azzam and Barbara Harrell-Bond are members of the AMERA Egypt’sAdvisory Board. (For more detailed information: visit our Web site www.aucegypt/fmrs andAMERA’s Web site www.amera-uk.org.)

As part of our collaboration with AMERA, FMRS provides university affiliation forAMERA’s lawyers and volunteers to help them in their relevant research.

AMERA Volunteers 2005-2006

Adiam Yaynishet, Eritrea Aisha Topsakal, Canada Andrea Jaramillo, Spain

Angela Bertini, Brazil Anna Alexis Larsson, USA Angela Schuldt, Germany

Andrew Legg, England Angeline Wallis Atef El Marakby, Egypt

Birgitte Horn Barbara Harvey, Canada Bobi Janelle Morris, USA

Caitlin Williams Charlotte Manson, Sweden Courtney Mitchell, USA

Deborah Thackray, UK Dina Attia El-Shalle, Egypt Daria M. Fisher, USA

Din Mohamed Din Elif Ozerman Emmanuelle M. Diehl, USA

Frances Miriam Kreimer, USA George Hoar, UK George Milad, Egypt

Gloria Lo, USA Grace Catherine Pelly, England Grace WU, Canada

Jennifer Renquist, USA James I. Pearce, USA Jessica Adley, Canada

John Alex Njuba, Uganda Kini Samson, Sudan Leanne Mckay, New Zealand

Laura Stone, Canada Melissa McAdam, Australia Michael Timmins, New Zealand

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Mohamed El-Messiry, Egypt Marion A Vannier, USA Mahmoud Ahmed Ali, Egypt

Mohamed Younis, USA Mohamed Soliman Ahmed, Egypt Mireia Cano, UK

Musafiri Sebbi, Rwanda Natalie I. Forcier, USA Natalia Asensio, Spain

Parastou Hassouri, USA Peter Shams, Canada Rebecca Mikhail, Australia

Sara Emam, Egypt Said Laaziz, Canada Samah Mah. Kenawy, Egypt

Sarah L. Stanton, Canda Sabrina Rouigui, France Shadrick King, USA

Samii Plamer-Latif, UK Shazia Razzaque, Canada Soheir El-Banna, Egypt

Simon James Charters, UK Scott Loong, Canada Susan Meffert, USA

Tanja Granzow, Germany Theres Kohler, Switzerland Traci L. Massey, USA

Tonyah S. Goldberg, USA Trisha Stratford, USA

Moreover, this year FMRS collaborated with AMERA in the provision of a series ofworkshops for Egyptian journalists as part of an ongoing FMRS effort to promoteawareness of refugee issues in Egypt and to promote the involvement of EgyptianJournalists and human rights lawyers to advocate for refugee rights. (See more underConferences and Workshops)

Cairo Regional Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

FMRS’ cooperation with the Cairo regional office of UNHCR is ongoing. During the2005-2006 academic year, two of UNHCR staff were enrolled in our diploma program.(See under Diploma) UNHCR staff regularly attended our weekly seminars and FMRSparticipated regularly in the bi-monthly inter-agency meetings organized by UNHCR,with a number of parties, including embassies, NGOs and faith-based groups that provideservices for refugees.

Egyptian Universities

FMRS attempts to cooperate with Egyptian universities continued this year. Fateh Azzamattended an all day workshop on Human Rights Education in Egyptian Universities onMarch 25, 2006. The workshop was organized by the Arab University Human RightsNetwork, a member of the international SUR - Southern University Human RightsNetwork. AUC has been participating in this network for the past two years.Representatives of Cairo University, Ain Shams University, Helwan University andZagazig University met at AUC and each presented outlines of the approaches and focusof teaching of human rights and problems encountered in their respective environments.

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Azzam presented a summary of FMRS’ approach to refugee studies, which combinesteaching, research, practical experience and community services as a comprehensive andintegrated approach necessary to develop the proper understanding of the issues.

Last but not least, FMRS enjoys a strong network with local refugee groups and varioushuman rights organizations. For example Fateh Azzam participated on May 6, 2006 in astrategic planning session for the work of the Africa Hope Learning Center, a church-based school for refugee children in Maadi, Cairo.

Regional and International NetworksThroughout the years, FMRS established close links with institutions concerned withforced migration issues in Africa, the wider Middle East and internationally.

This year, FMRS joined the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network’s WorkingGroup on Migration, a program launched in late 2005 to conduct work and advocacy onbehalf of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the Mediterranean region. The projectaims at strengthening regional networking between human rights organizations, refugeecouncils, migrant and refugee organizations and academics for the purpose of:- Promoting public civil society debate and awareness about rights-based approaches to

migration management- Developing capacity of civil society to deal with the protection of forced migrants

and asylum seekers on a national and regional level- Undertaking research to enhance knowledge and propose policies to enhance the

protection of migrants, forced migrants and asylum seekers, nationally and regionally

FMRS director Fateh Azzam attended a meeting of the Working Group in Casablanca,Morocco, March 10-11, 2006, to discuss two preliminary research projects on migrantsand asylum seekers from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. FMRS researcher Sara Hamoodwas also invited to present the findings of her research, African Transit Migration ThroughLibya to Europe: The Human Cost.

FMRS collaboration in The Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalizationand Poverty (DRC) with Sussex University and three other academic institutionscontinued this year with the beginning of phase two of the collaboration where BarbaraHarrell-Bond is the coordinator of the second phase. (See more under Research)

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Our negotiation with the Refugee Studies Program at the University of East Londonmaterialized this year into active cooperation. As of February 2006, FMRS Diplomacredits became fully accepted by the University of East London and applied towards UEL’sMA in refugee studies. (See more under the Diploma Program) More negotiation forfurther collaboration in terms of research and teaching is still taking place.

Collaboration with other universities also took place this year. For example,AUC/FMRS has been included in a proposal by Michael Barnett of the University ofMinnesota for a collaborative project on Religion, Humanitarianism and World Order.Additionally, the presence of FMRS at the 10th International Conference on the Study ofForced Migration (IASFM) at York University in Canada opened up a lot of possibilitiesfor further collaboration with the Refugee Studies Center at York University. (See moreunder Faculty Activities)

FMRS’s formal and informal links with several Africa-based institutions concerned withissues of forced migration continued this year. These include the Refugee Law Project atthe Faculty of Law of Makerere University in Kampala; the Kenyan Refugee Consortium;University of Ghana and Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg (South Africa). TheUniversity of Witwatersrand’s forced Migration Studies Program initiated an AfricanForced Migration Research and Training Network where FMRS is seeking membership.

Last but not least, FMRS continues as the Middle East partner of Oxford University’sForced Migration Online (FMO) portal project, launched in November 2002(www.forcedmigration.org), which offers up-to-the-minute information and resources forpractitioners, researchers and students in the field.

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Faculty, Staff and Affiliates ActivitiesFMRS faculty is involved in a variety of activities in addition to teaching, includingresearch and activism in refugee studies and other fields and disciplines.

AMIRA AHMED, PhD candidate at the University of East London and FMRS affiliatedresearcher, presented a number of papers on the topic of her research during this academicyear. On December 2, 2005 she presented a paper entitled “Women on the Move: TheExperiences of Sudanese Refugee Women in Egypt” at the Center for African Studies,Ohio State University (OSU), USA. In March 2006, she presented at the FMRS WeeklyWednesday Seminar a paper titled “Aliens and Locals: Maids in Contemporary Egypt.”During the same month, she gave a talk on the occasion of the International Women Dayorganized at AUC. Also in March, she attended a workshop “Darfur Crisis and the ArabMedia” that was organized by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHR) inBeirut, Lebanon where she presented a paper entitled “Background on the OngoingConflict on Darfur.” The same presentation was also delivered within the summer schoolsponsored by CIHR entitled “Human Rights Education for University Students in theArab Region”, in Cairo, Egypt in August 2006. In April 2006, she traveled to Norwaywhere she presented the paper “Transit Migration and Survival: Refugee Women asDomestic Workers in Cairo” at the Sudanese Studies Conference, Bergen. Ahmed wasalso invited by Harrell-Bond to address FMRS Diploma students on the topic of “Genderand Forced Migration” in April 2006. And in July, 2006, she addressed the members ofMa’an Organization, a Sudanese NGO based in Cairo, on the relevance of gendertheorizing to the work of NGOs where she presented her paper What is Gender: theRelevance of Gender Mainstreaming to NGOs.

BARBARA HARRELL-BOND, FMRS distinguished adjunct professor, continues asexecutive director for overseas operations, AMERA, UK and as the chair of the AMERAEgypt Advisory Committee. This year, she was invited to give an opening speech onSeptember 4, 2005 at the International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance Course(IDHA) that took place in Cairo September 4-29, 2005 (Detailed information underWednesday Seminars). She also ran the “Refugee Studies Day” during the IDHA course onSeptember 14, 2005. The “Refugee Studies Day” of the IDHA course provides anoverview of the situation of refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) exemplifiedby some case studies. In September 21, 2005, she traveled to Geneva to attend the annualExCom board meeting. In October 19-20, 2005 she participated in the two days

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workshop organized jointly between the Development Research Center on Migration,Globalization and Poverty (DRC) and FMRS. The workshop was for the purpose ofdiscussing the research findings and ways of disseminating the findings. In November2005, she attended the Harrell-Bond lecture in Human Rights at the Refugee Center inOxford and in January 2006 she gave a talk on Women at Risk in a conference in SidneyAustralia. In January she also conducted a field trip with Ray Jureidini to Uganda wherethey visited camps in Arua District in the northwest of the country and the Refugee LawProject in Kampala. In April 2006, she participated in the partnership meeting of theDevelopment Research Center on Migration, Globalization and Poverty (DRC) held atAUC on April 7-9, 2006. During the same month, she traveled to Nairobi, Kenya toattend a conference on Migration and Development.

FATEH AZZAM, FMRS director, traveled to Beirut on September 22-24, 2005 for thelast preparatory meeting of the Arab Human Rights Fund during which he was electedChairperson of the Board of Directors. Following this meeting the Arab Human RightsFund became formally registered and its first official board meeting was held in February22-25, 2006 which was also attended by Azzam. During the month of September 2005,both Fateh Azzam and Barbara Harrell-Bond participated as guest speakers at theInternational Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance Course (IDHA) that took place inCairo September 4-29, 2005 (See detailed information under Wednesday Seminars). InOctober 26, 2005 Azzam traveled to Washington, D.C. where he participated as amember of the “Human Rights Expert Group” in the preparation of the Human Rightssection of the Global Governance Report. The event was organized by the BrookingsInstitution and the International Commission of Jurists. On November 12-15, 2005 hetraveled to Puerto Rico as the representative of the Arab Human Rights Fund to attend ameeting of the International Initiative to Strengthen Philanthropy, an initiative by theFord Foundation to bring together emerging regional funds for the promotion of regionalsocial justice philanthropy. He flew directly from Puerto Rico to Geneva on November16, 2005 to present his work on The Right to Development and Practical Strategies forthe Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals to the high level task force ofthe United Nations Group on the Right to Development. The study was the result of atwo-month consultancy for the working group. In November 22-24, 2006 he traveled toRamallah to attend a conference organized by Al-Haq, a Palestinian Human RightsOrganization. The conference entitled From Theory to Practice: The implementation ofInternational Humanitarian Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. On March 10-11, Azzam attended a meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network’sWorking Group on Migration, a program launched in late 2005 to conduct work and

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advocacy on behalf of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the Mediterranean region.In the meeting, he discussed two preliminary research projects on migrants and asylumseekers from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

Azzam attended a one day workshop on Human Rights Education in EgyptianUniversities that was held at AUC on March 25, 2006. The workshop was organized bythe Arab University Human Rights Network, a member of the international SouthernUniversity Human Rights Network (SUR) in which AUC has been participating for thepast two years. Representatives of Cairo University, Ain Shams University, HelwanUniversity and Zagazig University were present and each presented outlines of theapproaches and focus of teaching of human rights and problems encountered in theirrespective environments. Azzam presented a summary of the FMRS approach to refugeestudies, which combines teaching, research, practical experience and community servicesas a comprehensive and integrated approach necessary to develop the proper understandingof the issues. In May 6, 2006, Azzam participated in a strategic planning session for thework of the Africa Hope Learning Center, a church-based school for refugee children inMaadi, Cairo.

Azzam last activity before commencing his work at FMRS was attending the 10thConference of the International Association of the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM)from June 18-22, 2006 at York University, Toronto, Canada. During the conference heparticipated in the plenary session entitled North-South Dialogues in Forced Migration.He also participated with Maysa Ayoub, Assistant to Director of FMRS, in the paneldiscussion on the planning and management of short courses on refugee issues and metwith the executive committee regarding the preparation of the upcoming 11th IASFMconference that is going to take place at AUC in January 2008.

KATARZYNA GRABSKA. Until April 2006, Kasia Grabska worked as a DRCresearcher and research coordinator at FMRS. She also was a visiting researcher at theUniversity of Legon, Ghana, July to September 2005. She organized the October 2005and April 2006 DRC workshops that were held at AUC. (See more under Research). At theApril write-up workshop, she presented the paper Who asked them [refugees] anyway?Rights, Policies and the Wellbeing of Refugees in Egypt. She presented the same paper inthe 10th IASFM conference held at York University, Toronto, Canada in June 2006during which she organized two panels on DRC research on rights and forced migrationpolicies. During the IASFM conference, Grabska was also chosen to co-chair the programcommittee for the upcoming IASFM conference that is going to take place in Cairo inJanuary 2008. Since October 2005, Kasia is pursuing a PhD in gender and forcedmigration at the Institute of Development Studies University of Sussex, UK. In April

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2006, she presented her research outline seminar and her research proposal entitledGendered return home: change and continuity in Southern Sudanese gender relations. Asof August 2006, she is carrying out extensive fieldwork for her PhD in refugee camp inKakuma, Northern Kenya and in Unity State, South Sudan. In November 2006, sheparticipated in the 107th American Anthropologist Association Conference, San Jose,USA where she chaired a panel and presented her paper on rights of refugees and thepolicies towards them in Egypt.

MAISSA YOUSSEF, FMRS researcher, presented a paper entitled MerelyHuman at Large: Giorgio Agamben and Accounting for Differentially at the 2006Association of Cultural Studies Crossroads Conference at Istanbul, Bilgi University,Turkey in July22, 2006. In June 7-8, 2006, she participated in a roundtable discussionentitled “Gender, Conflict and the Academy” as part of the “Gender and EmpireConference” held at the American University in Cairo on June 7-8, 2006 and organizedby the Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies. Last but not least, shegave a talk in our weekly Wednesday Seminar on discourse analysis and the politics ofhumanitarianism in fall 2005.

MAYSA AYOUB, FMRS assistant to director and program coordinator, traveled toCanada in June 2006 to attend the 10th conference of the International Association for theStudy of Forced Migration (IASFM) that was hosted by the Centre for Refugee Studies atYork University from June 18-22, 2006. The purpose of the trip was to meet with theIASFM Executive Committee in preparation for the next IASFM conference that will beheld at AUC in January 2008. Along with Fateh Azzam, She met with the executivecommittee on June 19, 2006 where she briefed the members of the preparationundertaken so far for the conference. Logistics and funding issues were also discussedextensively in the meeting. On June 21, 2006 she attended the Annual General Meeting(AGM) where a PowerPoint presentation on AUC and Cairo was delivered to membersof the AGM. On the same day she participated in a panel discussion on the planning andmanagement of short courses on refugee issues. The session included Loren Landau fromthe University of Witswatersrand, Paul Ryder from the Refugee Center at Oxford, BruceCollet from the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, and Fateh Azzam. Theplanning, funding, managing and marketing of the short courses were discussed in thesession to exchange ideas on how such courses are conducted in the four universities.

MULKI EL SHARMANI, research assistant professor at the Social Research Center andFMRS research affiliate, taught the FMRS elective course SOC/ANTH 510 Navigating

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Refugee Life: Women, Families, and Communities in Spring 2006. (See more underDiploma). In March 2006, she presented her paper “Development of ParticipatoryResearch Tools to Study Violence against Street Children in Cairo,” at the follow-upconference on the UN Study of Violence against Children, Cairo.

RAY JUREIDINI, associate professor of sociology and acting director of FMRS sinceJune 2006, is a regular and active member of the FMRS Joint Steering Committee as wellas the Self-Assessment Study Committee. (See more under Program Development) In January2006, he traveled with Barbara Harrell-Bond to the refugee camps in Northern Uganda.The purpose of his travel was to enhance his information to formulate future researchinterests on refugees and develop new ideas to upgrade his teaching curriculum. Duringthe scholastic year 2005-2006, Jureidini presented a number of papers in various occasionswithin and outside AUC. On November 9, 2005, he presented a paper entitled “MigrantDomestic Workers in Lebanon: The link between vicarious migration and the desire forviability” to the school of Humanities and Social Science (HUSS) Roundtable’s “LaboringPractices, Consumption Desires.” On November 28-30, 2006, he traveled to Beirut,Lebanon to attend a workshop on the situation of women migrant domestic workers inLebanon. The workshop was organized by the International Labour Organization and hepresented a paper entitled Profile of Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon: preliminarysurvey results. On January 26, 2006, he was a key note speaker at the Human RightsFellow Retreat organized jointly by FMRS and the Open Society Justice Institute wherehe presented a paper entitled Human rights Violations against Migrant Domestic Workers(See more under Conferences). Moreover, on May 23, 2006 he presented a paper entitledSome Images of the Sexuality of Domestic Maids Living in Arab Households at theAnthropology/Sociology Seminar. In terms of research, his proposal for funding a researchon domestic migrant workers in Cairo was accepted by Sussex University as part of ouron going collaboration on Migration, Globalization, and Poverty. (See more under Research)Furthermore, 25 interviews were completed this year as part of his ongoing oral historydocumentation research with the Arab Family Working Group on employment andexperiences of domestic employees in Lebanese households from the perspective ofLebanese middle class individuals. Finally, data analysis of his research A social Profile ofMigrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon was completed in April 2006. The analysiscovered data collected from 610 interviews with Sri Lankan, Filipina and Ethiopianmigrant domestic workers. The first presentation of selected findings from the completedata set was presented to a legislative reform steering committee at the Lebanese Ministryof Labour in Beirut, June 4, 2006.

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SARA HAMOOD, FMRS researcher and Ford Foundation consultant, attended theEuro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network on Migration held in Casablanca, Moroccoon March 2006 where she presented the findings of her research on African Migrationthrough Libya into Europe. The findings were presented also during the informallunchtime seminar series at the Refugee Studies Center at the University of Oxford, UKin February 2006 and at the FMRS Weekly Wednesday seminars in November 2005.

STANCIL CAMPBELL, chair of the performing and visual arts department at AUC andan FMRS alumnus (2003), attended the 12th Annual Conference of the Pedagogy forTheater of the Oppressed held at the University of Carolina in May 2006. He incollaboration with scholars from the University of Windsor in Canada providedpresentations comparing the experiences of refugees in their first country of asylum andcountry of resettlement. Campbell’s part of the presentation focused on the experiencesand problems of refugees in Cairo as their first country of asylum drawing on the work heconducted at AUC with members of the refugee community. Given the myriad ofproblems, the presentation turned to the hopes and dreams that most refugees have whenthinking of their possible resettlement in another country such as Canada or the USA.

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Publications by FMRS Facultyand Affiliates

Al-Sharmani, M. ”Living Transnationally: Diasporic Somali Women in Cairo,” Journal ofInternational Migration, 44, 1, pp.1-23, 2006

Assal, M. “Whose Rights Count? National and International Responses to the Rights ofIDPs in Sudan,” DRC research report, accessible at: www.migrationdrc.org orwww.aucegypt.edu/fmrs, 2006

Grabska, K. “A system of diffuse responsibility, with blame shared by all,” Op-ed,RSDWatch Website, www.rsdwatch.org, 2006

Grabska, K. “Marginalization in the Urban Spaces of the Global South: Urban Refugeesin Cairo,” Special Issue: Urban Refugees, Journal of Refugee Studies, 2006.

Grabska, K. “Who asked them (refugees) anyway? Rights, Policies and Refugees inEgypt,” DRC research report, accessible www.migrationdrc.org orwww.aucegypt.edu/fmrs

Jureidini, R. “Preface” in Touzenis, K. Unaccompanied Minors: Rights and Protection,Rome, XL-Edizioni Publishing, 2006

Jureidini, R. “Sexuality and the Servant: An exploration of Arab images of the sexualityof domestic maids in the household,” in S. Khalaf and J. Gagnon eds., Sexuality in theArab World. Saqi Press, London, 2006

Jureidini, R. “Migrant Workers and Xenophobia in the Middle East” in Y. Bangura andR. Stayenhagen eds., Racism and Public Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp.48-71,2005

Suleiman, J. “Marginalized Community: The Case of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon,”accessible www.migrationdrc.org or www.aucegypt.edu/fmrs, 2006

Sylvan, L. “Refugee Protest in the Global South: Recent Developments,” World RefugeeSurvey, the U.S Committee for Refugees and Migrants, 2006

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FMRS Faculty and STAFF

Philippe Fargues

FMRS Director since February 2007

Ray Jureidini

FMRS Associate Director, Associate Professor of Sociology Acting Director of FMRS from June 2006 to February 2007.

Fateh Azzam

FMRS Director from September 2003 to June 2006

Barbara Harrell-Bond

Distinguished Adjunct Professor, FMRS Advisor

Maysa Ayoub

Projects Coordinator, Assistant to Director

Lamyaa Mady

Administrative Assistant, Accountant

Mai Emad

Program Secretary

Gafar Mahmoud Salim

Office Assistant

Alice Johnson

Cairo Community Interpreters Project Manager

Emily Eidenier

FMRS Library Specialist

Sara Sadek

Research Assistant – FMRS/Sussex DRC Project

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FMRS Affiliated Faculty and Researchers

Courtney Mitchell

FMRS Affiliated ResearcherMA, LMHC (Licensed Mental Health Counselor)

Daniele Calvani

FMRS Affilated ResearcherMA Middle Eastern and Spanish Literature, University of St Andrews, Scotland

Elizabeth Marie Coker

Assistant Professor of Psychology Phd Medical Anthropology

Ferial Ghazoul

Professor of English and Comparative LiteraturePhD, Columbia University

Hania Sholkamy

Research Assistant Professor, Social Research Center DPhil, University of London

Helen Rizzo

Assistant Professor of SociologyPhD, Ohio State University

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Katarzyna Grabska

FMRS Project Coordinator and Researcher from July 2003 to April 2006MA, Johns Hopkins University

Matthew Whoolery

Assistant Professor of PsychologyPhD, Brigham Young University

Michael Kagan

FMRS Adjunct Professor JD, University of Michigan Law School

Mulki El Sharmani

Senior Researcher, Social Research Center PhD, Johns Hopkins University

Sara Hamood

FMRS Affiliated ResearcherMA Arabic with Modern Middle Eastern Studies, Oxford University

Susan Musarrat Akram

FMRS and Law Distinguished Visiting ProfessorAssociate Professor, Boston University School of LawJD, Georgetown University Law Center

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Forced Migration and Refugee StudiesThe American University in Cairo

P.O. Box 251111511 Cairo, Egypt

Tel 20.2.797.6629, 797.6921, 797.6626Fax 20.2.795.6681

For more information about the program, e-mail fmrs@aucegypt.eduPlease visit our Web site at www.aucegypt.edu/fmrs

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Notes

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Notes