Driven from Home: Protecting the Rights of Forced Migrants

Throughout human history people have been driven from their homes by wars, unjust treatment, and natural disasters. The reality of forced migration is not new, nor is awareness of the suffering of the displaced. The United National High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that at the end of 2007 there were 67 million persons in the world who had been forcibly displaced from their homes--including 16 million officially defined as refugees fleeing across an international border for fear of being persecuted due to race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion. This anthology proposes a human rights framework to guide political and policy responses to forced migration. Similar in tone and approach to Hollenbach's Refugee Rights, though not focused exclusively on Africa, this volume draws on contributors from several disciplines, including international affairs, law, ethics, economics, and theology, to advocate for better responses to protect the global community's most vulnerable citizens. The book also discusses the values that lead religious communities, include Roman Catholics, to work for the human rights of displaced persons. Contributors include Susan Martin, executive director of Georgetown's Institute for the Study of International Migration; Brian Hehir, SJ, professor of ethics, religion, and society at Harvard; and Thomas Weiss, director, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, CUNY, and several scholars "on the ground" doing refugee and human rights advocacy work.

David Hollenbach, SJ, is director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice and holds the Human Rights and International Justice University Chair at Boston College. He is the editor of Refugee Rights: Ethics, Advocacy, and Africa and author of The Global Face of Public Faith: Politics, Human Rights, and Christian Ethics.