The State of the World's Refugees 2000 Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action

Throughout history, war, communal violence and persecution have uprootedpeople. The last fifty years have been no exception. With over a millionpeople recently forced from their homes in places like Kosovo, East Timor andChechnya, it is clear that the problem of forced human displacement will remaina major concern of the international community in the next millennium.The year 2000 edition of The State of the World's Refugees analyses theinternational community's efforts to protect and assist refugees in the fiftyyears since the creation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissionerfor Refugees (UNHCR). It provides an incisive and comprehensive account of theway in which approaches to the problem of forced human displacement have changedduring that time.The book begins by examining the origins of international refugee law and theestablishment of international organisations devoted to the protection ofrefugees. It then traces the major refugee crises of the past fifty years.Beginning with the flight of refugees from Hungary in 1956, it addresses therefugee crises associated with decolonization in Africa, the Bangladesh war ofindependence, the exodus from Indochina in the 1970s and the Cold War crises ofthe 1980s in Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and Central America. Looking atthe challenges of the 1990s, it examines the break up of the Soviet Union, theKurdish exodus from northern Iraq following the Gulf war, the increasinglyrestrictive asylum policies Europe and North America, and the recent crises inthe Balkans, the Great Lakes region of Africa and the Caucasus. The book endsby looking at the future of refugee protection. It assesses the challenges offorging an international consensus on how to deal with the problem of forcedhuman displacement in the twenty-first century.As well as analysing policy issues related to refugees, returnees, asylumseekers, internally displaced persons and stateless populations, the bookprovides a wealth of statistical tables, graphs and maps.