Introduction

50 Years On: What Future for Refugee Protection?

How countries treat those who have been forced to flee persecution and human rights abuse elsewhere is a litmus test of their commitment to defending human rights and upholding humanitarian values. Yet, fifty years after its inception, the states that first established a formal refugee protection system are abandoning this principle, and the future of the international refugee regime is under serious threat.

Forcible Displacement: A Global Crisis

Fifty years ago, in the aftermath of the second world war, the international community established an agency to protect and assist the world's refugees. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), marks its fiftieth anniversary on December 14. Although UNHCR was first established with a limited three year mandate, the forced movement of people has become increasingly more complex over the past fifty years. Today, no continent, and barely any country, in the world is untouched by the global refugee crisis. At the beginning of 2000 an estimated 14 million people were living as refugees, uprooted from their homes and forced to cross an international border. Nearly six million people were refugees in the Middle East, the vast majority of them Palestinian refugees - the world's largest and oldest refugee population; and there were more than three million refugees in Africa - every country on that continent has been affected by refugee movements.

Huge though they are, the global refugee numbers hide an even greater displacement crisis: that of the internally displaced, those people who are forced to flee their homes, often for the very same reasons as refugees - war, civil conflict, political strife, and gross human rights abuse - but who remain within their own country, do not cross an international border, and hence are not eligible for protection under the same international system as refugees. There are an estimated 30 million internally displaced persons in the world - the number may be even higher. The largest internally displaced population is in Sudan - where four million people have been uprooted by the civil war that has gripped the country for the past 20 years; an estimated 2.5 million people have been displaced by the civil conflict raging in Angola; 1.6 million people are displaced by conflict and human rights abuse in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); and 1.5 million people have been uprooted by the violence in Colombia.


The Global Refugee Crisis: Facts
(American Refugee Committee)

More than 35 million people across the world remained uprooted in 2001 due to war or civil conflict. According to the World Refugee Survey 2001, compiled by the United States Committee for Refugees, 14.5 million refugees and asylum seekers are living across borders, while at least 20 million persons are displaced within their own countries.
A refugee is an uprooted person who fears persecution in his or her home country and is thus unable or unwilling to return. An asylum seeker is awaiting refugee status determination. These two categories are distinguished from internally displaced persons (IDPs), who have not actually crossed an international boundary. IDPs face many of the same hardships as refugees, but are not protected under international refugee law since they remain under the control of their own government. An exact estimate of the number of IDPs remains impossible, since many are cut off from outside monitoring and assistance. However, we can say for certain that IDPs outnumber refugees.

Since the Cold War, the number and intensity of conflicts has increased worldwide, with most occurring within nations rather than between nations. People whose basic needs for social and economic security remain unmet often turn to violence out of fear or desperation. The ugly result is chaos and civilian casualties as greater numbers of people lose loved ones, homes, livelihoods, dignity and peace of mind.

According to the World Refugee Survey 2001:

The number of refugees worldwide increased by 600,000 from 1998 to 1999, the first significant jump in seven years. The number of IDPs climbed by four million -- a 25 percent increase.

Fewer than 29 million people were uprooted at the beginning of the 1990s -- compared with 35 million at the end of the century.

Populations are uprooted from about 60 countries around the world. Three of the countries alone -- Sudan, Afghanistan, and Angola -- have produced over one-fourth of the world's displaced populations. One of every nine of the world's uprooted people comes from Sudan.

In 2000, the United States ranked ninth in the world in donations to international refugee aid agencies. The United States contributed only $1.40 per capita in 2000, while Norway was the highest with $12.55.
Civilians are increasingly the victims in any armed conflict. Children are particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses and can no longer remain innocent bystanders to armed conflicts. They become the subjects of genocide, forced military recruitment, gender-related violence and large-scale torture and exploitation.