The State of the World's Refugees 1995: In Search of Solutions Book

Bosnia, Rwanda, Iraq, Somalia, Chechnya. During the past few years, the world has witnessed a succession of massive refugee movements and humanitarian emergencies. The number of people uprooted by war and persecution now stands at some fifty million, and is increasing every day. Relief agencies are struggling to keep pace with the demands of each new exodus, while governments around the world are becoming increasingly reluctant to offer refuge to these victims of violence. What can be done to resolve the global refugee problem? That is the question posed in this important book from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the international organization responsible for the world's displaced people. The book examines the roots of the current crisis, and assesses the continuing relevance of traditional approaches to the problem of human displacement. While the right of asylum must be scrupulously maintained, the book suggests that greater efforts must also be made to tackle refugee problems at their source, by restoring peace and security to countries where large numbers of people have been forced to abandon their homes. Moreover, solutions now have to be found not only to the refugee problem, but also to the problems of internally desplaced people, returnees, war-effected populations, victims of mass expulsions and ethnic cleansing, and rejected asylum-seekers. To achieve these objectives, concerted international action will be required to protect human rights, establish effective peacekeeping operations, and promote sustainable development. As well as providing a detailed analysis of these major policy issues, this comprehensive study provides a set of detailed charts, graphs, and maps, describing the state of the world's refugees. The book also profiles many of UNHCR's major relief and repatriation operations, showing how new appoaches to the problem of human displacement are being put into practice. And, offering additional immediacy and human interest, the report includes a number of eye-witness accounts from different refugee stations, written by journalists or by UNHCR's Public Information officers in the field. A groundbreaking follow-up to the hugely influential The State of the World's Refugees: The Challenge of Protection, this new edition examines the international community's efforts to respond to the plight of the world's displaced people and offers broad strategies that will be a key factor in determining whether the world manages the transition through the present era of turbulence and uncertainty to a new order characterized by greater levels of peace and security.Read More