Advocate or Expert: In Search of an Alternative to "We versus They" Mentality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.22072Keywords:
refugees, human rights, advocacy, Doctors of the WorldAbstract
In this article, the author interrogates the "we-versus-they mentality" which divides refugee advocates from hosting governments and their representatives. The author demonstrates how this bifurcation operates in the context of the NGO Doctors of the World. Physicians and mental health professionals provide volunteer services, assessing and documenting evidence of torture and maltreatment. The author argues that there is a misconception amongst government representatives that the documentation is not objective, and that the NGO advocates on behalf of its clients irrespective of whether the applicant is a genuine torture survivor. This misperception assumes that experts cannot also be advocates, and denies what is in fact a shared goal between refugee advocates and government representatives, that is, that those who have a well-founded fear of persecution receive adequate protection. Only recognizing this shared goal will break down the "we-versus-they" mentality.Metrics
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Copyright (c) 2001 Maki Katoh
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Refuge authors retain the copyright over their work, and license it to the general public under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows for non-commercial use, reproduction and adaption of the material in any medium or format, with proper attribution. For general information on Creative Commons licences, visit the Creative Commons site. For the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, review the human readable summary.