The prevention of militarization of future refugee camps in the Great Lakes Region, "Safety First"- the right approach?

Sammanfattning: The militarization of refugee camps is not a new phenomenon, it can be traced back over half a decade to the independence movement of former colonies. However, it's first during recent years that the UNHCR and host states have tried to act on the problem as to retain the civilian and humanitarian status of the camps. Unfortunately has their measures proven to be inadequate and the militarization of the camps has continued unabated which has left a need for new approaches to be tested. In this thesis I will do just that and test Karen Jacobsen's ?safety first approach? against empirical data from two countries in the Great Lakes, Rwandan and Uganda, to see whether the approach suggested may constitute a viable option for the prevention of militarization of future refugee camps in that region. After testing the theory against the empirical contexts of my two cases I reached the conclusion that in its current composition the theory does not constitute a viable option for this particular region.