Throughout history, war, communal violence and persecution have uprooted people. The last fifty years have been no exception. With over a million people recently forced from their homes in places like Kosovo, East Timor and Chechnya, it is clear that the problem of forced human displacement will remain a major concern of the international community in the next millennium. The year 2000 edition of The State of the World's Refugees analyses the international community's efforts to protect and assist refugees in the fifty years since the creation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It provides an incisive and comprehensive account of the way in which approaches to the problem of forced human displacement have changed during that time. The book begins by examining the origins of international refugee law and the establishment of international organisations devoted to the protection of refugees. It then traces the major refugee crises of the past fifty years. Beginning with the flight of refugees from Hungary in 1956, it addresses the refugee crises associated with decolonization in Africa, the Bangladesh war of independence, the exodus from Indochina in the 1970s and the Cold War crises of the 1980s in Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and Central America. Looking at the challenges of the 1990s, it examines the break up of the Soviet Union, the Kurdish exodus from northern Iraq following the Gulf war, the increasingly restrictive asylum policies Europe and North America, and the recent crises in the Balkans, the Great Lakes region of Africa and the Caucasus. The book ends by looking at the future of refugee protection. It assesses the challenges of forging an international consensus on how to deal with the problem of forced human displacement in the twenty-first century. As well as analysing policy issues related to refugees, returnees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and stateless populations, the book provides a wealth of statistical tables, graphs and maps.
The year 2000 edition of The State of the World's Refugees analyses the international community's efforts to protect and assist refugees in the last fifty years. It provides a comprehensive account of the way in which approaches to the problem of forced human displacement have changed over time. It contains a wealth of statistical tables, graphs and maps and is invaluable resource for both academic researchers and the general public.
The year 2000 edition of The State of the World's Refugees analyses the international community's efforts to protect and assist refugees in the last fifty years. It provides a comprehensive account of the way in which approaches to the problem of forced human displacement have changed over time. It contains a wealth of statistical tables, graphs and maps and is invaluable resource for both academic researchers and the general public.