London-based Zennström Philanthropies has awarded an important grant to the Global Detention Project, an initiative of the Institute’s Programme for the Study of Global Migration. The contribution of CHF 180,000 will support the Project’s capacity building endeavour which aims to train local researchers in select parts of the globe on techniques for generating data on detention situations in their countries.

Michael Flynn, the Project’s lead researcher, said that the capacity building effort will serve interrelated goals. It will enable project researchers and their partners in key countries to develop a common vocabulary on detention and establish an information network. “In addition, because of their proximity to actual events and acute sensitivity to changes in public policy, field researchers can be a rich source of information for our efforts to assess whether states are protecting the rights of immigration detainees”, Mr Flynn said.

Zennström Philanthropies’ grant will also help the Global Detention Project’s efforts to maintain a database of detention sites that includes some 1,200 facilities located in nearly 80 countries. This data is gradually being included on the project’s website and is intended to be an interactive online database. The Project is simultaneously gathering and analysing data that will measure countries’ adherence to legal norms governing migration-related detention. The Global Detention Project and the Programme for the Study of Global Migration are currently seeking funding to support their joint effort to create a state-level dataset and develop a methodology for generating policy-relevant critiques of states’ detention practices.

Zennström Philanthropies concentrates on gathering and providing resources for initiatives in the human rights and climate change fields. More information on Zennström Philanthropies is available here.

The Global Detention Project is an inter-disciplinary research endeavour that investigates the role detention plays in states’ responses to global migration, with a special focus on the policies and physical infrastructures of detention. More information is available here.

The Programme for the Study of Global Migration, headed by Professor Jussi Hanhimäki, produces cutting-edge research and supplies expertise on migration related to armed conflicts, generalised violence, persecution, ecological disasters and economic migration. More information can be found here.