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Editor's Note: RI Senior Advocate Marc Hanson is in Cartagena, Colombia, this week for the Summit of the Americas. Click here to read his second entry.

Yesterday was consumed by flights (DC to Houston, Houston to Bogota, Bogota to Cartagena) and long delays at the airports in between. This provided plenty of time to occupy the mind with reading.

In early March, the government of Kuwait was taking some positive steps. All stateless bidoun who had been arrested during and after December 2011/January 2012 gatherings were released on bond, while members of parliament were interrogating the prime minister over long-time ill treatment of the bidoun community. It also seemed that the government would finally provide nationality documents to 34,000 bidoun and begin adjudicating at least 80,000 other applications before the parliament’s Bidoun Committee.

Mark Yarnell, RI's advocate for the Horn of Africa, appeared on Capitol Hill following his recent mission to Kenya and Ethiopia. He told members of Congress that political leverage (not just aid money) is needed to ensure Somali refugees get the help they need.

As Mark told members of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the U.S. House of Representatives, "where we do have control, and where we do have access, it is our responsibility to ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable are being met."

Last week, my colleague Erin Weir and I travelled to Kalehe territory in South Kivu. In the village of Kambali, we spoke to host families and displaced people who fled fighting in January between two armed groups: the Raia Mutomboki and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Stability in Libya depends on the ability of the National Transitional Council (NTC) and its international partners to effectively demobilize thousands of young men and women who participated in the armed revolution.

Disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) processes are one of the earliest and most important steps in any successful transition towards peace. But such processes have to be inclusive, bringing together not only men but also female fighters and women who helped combatants in the field.

A "complex security and humanitarian crisis.” That’s how Congressman Sam Farr (D-CA) described the situation for Latin America's refugees and displaced people at Tuesday’s panel discussion, Refugees, Displacement, and Hemispheric Stability in Latin America, on Capitol Hill.

The first Syrian family we met in northern Lebanon included 18 people spanning three generations. The matriarch was probably no more than 60 years old, and the youngest member was a baby of 42 days.

We sat with the family for more than an hour, asking them about their experiences in Syria and as refugees, and we asked what they needed. The new mother almost immediately said that she needed baby formula. The other women nodded in agreement, adding that they also needed fresh fruit and vegetables, and meat.

Today we're proud to feature a special guest post by Alaa Murabit, founder of the Voice of Libyan Women.

"Only God knows how we are surviving," said 16-year-old Ahmed, as he looked up at me from his creaky hospital bed.

We met Ahmed on the outskirts of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, in a hospital set up to treat wounded Syrian refugees. He is one of the many hundreds of Syrians who fled to Tripoli to escape the ongoing violence across the border.