The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with over 18,879 staff working in 138 countries as of 2020.
In the aftermath of the Ugandan Civil War, Ugandan militant Joseph Kony formed the Lord's Resistance Army and waged an insurgency against the newly-installed president Yoweri Museveni. The stated goal was to establish a Christian state based on the Ten Commandments. Currently, there is low-level LRA activity in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. Kony proclaims himself the "spokesperson" of God and a spirit medium.
An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.
Forced displacement is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations".
Barlonyo is a village in northern Uganda near Lira town, where a number of internally displaced people (IDPs) from parts of northern Uganda lived, as a result of a 20-year LRA insurgency. It is located in Orit Parish, at the North -eastern end of Ogur sub-county in Lira District. It is a 45-minute drive from Lira town. Ironically it is now a field of graves, making it a tourist attraction site. What catches the eye is the v-shaped, 70 meter long grave on which residents of Barlonyo are often seen seated, eating or washing their clothes - or even drinking potent gin.
Gulu is a city in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is the commercial and administrative centre of Gulu District.
Global Night Commute was a worldwide event organized by the makers of the film Invisible Children through the organization Invisible Children, Inc. It took place on April 29, 2006. Youths from around the world walked to city centers and spent the night in parks to show support for Ugandan children who walk every night into city centers attempting to avoid capture by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
The period from 2000 to 2006 of the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency in northern Uganda begins with the assault of the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) upon LRA strongholds in South Sudan. This in turn led to a series of retaliatory attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army of an intensity not seen to since the mid-1990s. International awareness of the conflict gradually grew and in September 2005, the International Criminal Court issues warrants for the arrest of senior LRA commanders, including Joseph Kony.
uNight: For the Children of Uganda is a non-profit organization founded in 2005 to support and advocate for the two million internally displaced victims of the conflict in Northern Uganda. Operating networks in both the US and UK, uNight works with grassroots, faith-based, student and private organizations to promote an immediate, peaceful end to the region's decades-long civil war.
Schools for Schools is a fundraising program created by the nonprofit organization Invisible Children Inc. The program encourages students and schools in the Western world to compete creatively to raise money that is used to rebuild schools in northern Uganda. Education standards and facilities in the northern part of the country have suffered due to the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency.
Battery Operated Systems for Community Outreach (BOSCO) Uganda is a nonprofit organization under the trusteeship of the Catholic Archdiocese of Gulu with registration number B9410051328-N registered on March 9, 2007. The organization initially started as a collaboration between friends from Gulu, Uganda and the United States of America, who thought of using ICT to help end the isolation of communities in the IDP camps, by setting up ICT centers in the camps and connecting one ICT Centre with another.
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is a Christian extremist organization which operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its stated goal includes the establishment of multi-party democracy in a Uganda bound by the Ten Commandments.
Paper to Pearls is a micro-enterprise initiative of Voices for Global Change, a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Alexandria, Virginia. Paper to Pearls works with women in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in northern Uganda. The women create jewelry by hand-rolling beads from recycled paper, and Paper to Pearls markets and sells the jewelry principally in the United States, but also, via retailers and its website, in countries throughout the world.
Azerbaijan has a large number of internally displaced people and refugees, mostly as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The First Nagorno-Karabakh war led to the displacement of approximately 750,000 Azerbaijanis. This figure includes around 500,000 people from Nagorno-Karabakh and the previously occupied surrounding regions, in addition to 186,000 from Armenia.
Invisible Children, Inc., founded in 2004, is an organization to increase awareness of the activities of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Central Africa, and its leader, Joseph Kony. Specifically, the group seeks to put an end to the practices of the LRA, which include abductions and abuse of children, and forcing them to serve as soldiers. To this end, Invisible Children urges the United States government to take military action in the central region of Africa. Invisible Children also operates as a charitable organization, soliciting donations and selling merchandise to raise money for its cause. The organization promotes its cause by dispensing films on the internet and presenting in high schools and colleges around the United States.
The Kampala Convention is a treaty of the African Union (AU) that addresses internal displacement caused by armed conflict, natural disasters and large-scale development projects in Africa.
Sudanese refugees are persons originating from the country of Sudan, but seeking refuge outside the borders of their native country. In recent history, Sudan has been the stage for prolonged conflicts and civil wars, as well as environmental changes, namely desertification. These forces have resulted not only in violence and famine but also the forced migration of large numbers of the Sudanese population, both inside and outside the country's borders. Given the expansive geographic territory of Sudan, and the regional and ethnic tensions and conflicts, much of the forced migration in Sudan has been internal. Yet, these populations are not immune to similar issues that typically accompany refugeedom, including economic hardship and providing themselves and their families with sustenance and basic needs. With the creation of a South Sudanese state, questions surrounding southern Sudanese IDPs may become questions of South Sudanese refugees.
Africa Humanitarian Action (AHA) is a non-governmental organization that provides relief services to countries in Africa. It was founded by Dr. David Zawde in 1994 in response to the Rwandan genocide.
Kony 2012 is a 2012 American short documentary film produced by Invisible Children, Inc. The film's purpose was to make Ugandan cult leader, war criminal, and ICC fugitive Joseph Kony globally known so as to have him arrested by the end of 2012. The film was released on March 5, 2012, and spread virally, and the campaign was initially supported by various celebrities.
Jason Russell is an American film and theater director, choreographer, and activist who co-founded Invisible Children, Inc. He is the director of Kony 2012, a short documentary film that went viral in the beginning of March 2012. In the first two weeks following its release, the documentary gained more than 83 million views on YouTube and became the subject of media scrutiny and criticism. Its subject is the Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony, his alleged war crimes, and the movement to bring him to the International Criminal Court.
