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

• Published in: Peace Research Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 150 - 153
• Main Author: McLeod, J. David
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Winnipeg The Canadian Journal of Peace Studies 01.11.2001; Menno Simons College
• Subjects: History; Refugees
• ISSN: 0008-4697

Few individuals or institutions are better qualified to recount the history of refugees than the UNHCR. The State of the World's Refugees 2000 presents a very thorough history of refugee movements that gave rise to and moulded the development of the UNHCR. The authors cover post World War II refugee resettlement issues, the founding of the UNHCR, and the adoption of the United Nations Refugee Convention. The book chronicles the expansion of UNHCR concern from Europe to Africa as a consequence of the decolonization process and then the globalization of UNHCR activities in response to political violence in South Asia, Indochina and beyond. Additional chapters review the expansion of UNHCR's role by looking at repatriation exercises undertaken when proxy wars dissipated after the Cold War ended, asylum policy in western industrialized states, the break-up of the Soviet Union, assisting refugees in theatre while open hostilities continue, and refugee movements linked to genocidal atrocities. The authors state that they have not set out to write an official history of the UNHCR, but the book very much reads as one and cynics might charge that this is the reason that the book does not probe deeply enough into difficulties and controversies: many are touched on, but critical examinations are absent. A history of humanitarian efforts to mitigate the plight of refugees in which the UNHCR plays such a predominant role has to say more about the structure of the UNHCR itself. The State of the World's Refugees 2000 is silent about the UNHCR as an organization: its staff, recruitment, and training. This history does not assist the reader in assessing critics' charges that the UNHCR is increasingly functioning out of its depths without the resources or mandate to tackle the problems it confronts, that UNHCR personnel are inadequately knowledgeable about international law or human rights and do not appear to understand the reactions their protective measures will generate.