Islam, human rights and displacement

Forced Migration Review

Saharan refugee children, Algeria, 1998.

Growing up in the desert offers few distractions for children. This Koran teacher keeps a group of youngsters busy during school holidays.

Photo credit: UNHCR/A. Hollman

December 10th 2008 marked the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UDHR and subsequent instruments of international human rights law and international humanitarian law play a vital role in providing protection for refugees and IDPs, yet there is dispute over their compatability with Islamic principles and sharia.

This resource summary complements Forced Migration Review special issue, January 2009: Islam, human rights and displacement which reviews concepts and instruments of international human rights in the Islamic world.

Provided below are links to related key resources, websites and documents exploring contemporary debate on these issues, as well as links to wider issues concerned with human rights and displacement.

FMO Resources

• Forced Migration Review: Islam, human rights and displacement, Special Issue (January 2009)
• FMO Resource Summary: Human Rights
• FMO Resource Summary: Legal instruments

Documents

Selected full-text documents (for more, search in the Digital Library)

• Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Political Islam and Human Rights Project : the right to equality before the law, Memo, Old Jordans Conference Centre, Beaconsfield, October 14-16 1997.
• Cairo Declaration (Islamic Declaration of Human Rights)
• Islam and Democracy, Conference reports, David Smock, Tufts University (2002)
• Islamic perspectives on peace and violence, David Smock, Tufts University 2002
• Somali Women’s leadership forum for peace and development, Conference Reports, Adam Lula (compiler), Salah Ebyan (editor), 1999
• Afghanistan: women and reconstruction, International Crisis Group, 2003
• Towards calmer waters : a report on relations between Turkey and the European Union, Advisory Council on International Affairs, 1999
• Forced Migration Review supplement: Islam, human rights and displacement, 2008

Web Resources

Selected web-based information resources (for more, search the FMO website)

• The Human Rights Index for the Arab Countries
• The University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
• The Islam and Human Rights Fellowship Program at Emory University (USA)
• The UN website’s human rights page
• Muslim World Journal of Human Rights (The Berkely Electronic Press)
• RSA / Oxford Amnesty Lectures: Religion and Human Rights - Islam and Human Rights with Tariq Ramadan,

Relevant Organizations

Contact details for relevant organizations (for more, search in the Organizations Directory)

• Human Rights Watch
• Programme on Governance in the Arab Region
• The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
• The Islamic Human Rights Commission
• The Institute for Human Rights (Beirut Bar Association)
• The Cairo institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
• United Nations High Commissionner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• United Nations Children Fund
• Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC)