Today we publish the second in a series of reports from Peace Direct’s Local Peacebuilding Experts. This edition discusses the problems that refugees and internally displaced persons face in five different regions around the world.
In the Western Balkans, Mirjana Kosić says, the Serbian government's insistence that Serbia is only a transit country is counterproductive. Similarly, in Ukraine, Olga Dolinina says that the national authorities should start long-term planning, based on the assumption that some of those who have fled the conflict in the East will not want to go back.
In Tunisia, Nissaf Slama asks why, despite a revolution and the overthrow of a government in 2011, thousands continue to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe. And in Beirut, Sawssan Abou-Zahr describes the situation for the one million Syrians living in Lebanon, a country of only four million people itself.
Finally, Lina María Jaramillo discusses the way that the millions of IDPs in Colombia – the largest such population in the world – have organised to ensure that their voice is heard as the country aims to enter a new, more peaceful era.
Click on the image above to download the report - and check back soon for the next edition.
