EVERYBODY'S CHALLENGE - Jesuit Refugee Service | USA

political context was important because it led to so many abuses of refugees'
human dignity. The anguish of seeing these and the realisation that they
were bound to political interests led to frequent discussion about the proper
ways of handling them... both the cost of taking a stand and the need for
information became apparent. So JRS moved to gather and disseminate
information about the abused rights of refugees. The movement towards a
stronger stand on human rights was accompanied by the desire to seek more
information and disseminate it, as well as by the impetus to develop an
ethical voice to contribute to the largely pragmatic discussions which were
conducted about the future of the refugees. In the apparent moral vacuum,
within which the future of refugees was being discussed, the intellectual
traditions out of which JRS came promised to make an argued ethical
vision possible and invaluable. This aspect of JRS work has grown since
1991. It has been reflected in the advocacy undertaken by JRS representatives
in Geneva at the United Nations, in Brussels at the European
Union, and in Washington. National offices frequently act in
coalition with other organisations to influence refugee policy in their
own country. In the international office in Rome, the appointments of
an information and a policy officer ensure better coordination.
A collaboration between JRS and Human Rights Watch helps to
link JRS field experience with effective lobbying. Tutorships have
been established at the Refugee Studies Program at Oxford University
and the Institute of Human Rights at the University of Deusto in
Bilbao, in order to further JRS' research on refugee problems. JRS
also makes significant contributions to the international campaign
against recruitment of children as soldiers and the campaign to ban
landmines. By accompanying victims in the Thai camps and in Cambodia
JRS personnel gained first hand experience of the evil of mines,
and JRS made an explicit commitment to the coalition working
against landmines in 1994. But its voice was predominantly that of
the victims. Accordingly, when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded
to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines in 1997, it was
received by Tun Channareth, a JRS worker crippled by a mine who
had lobbied hard at home and abroad for an end to mines.
JRS has explored ways of working in a globalised world where
needs are not defined by the boundaries between provinces and
nations. There are still many refugees today. JRS continues to walk
with them and seeks co-workers and helpers also willing to be companions
to the refugees.
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