Preventive Action for Refugee Producing Situations

CHAPTER 1
Introduction
1.1. Political Context
Developments in the eighties provided new possibilities for Prevention in
the nineties. Since the Final Act of Helsinki of 1975, economic and
ecological interests, as well as human rights and refugee questions have
moved to the top of the international agenda. As is well-known, most of
the refugees producing situations are man-made: wars, ethnic conflicts,
massive human rights abuses, civil strife. Governments have long
recognized that their policies are a major cause of forced movement
across international borders. The Group of Governmental Experts to
Avert New Flows of Refugees stated this explicitly in its final report in
1986:
Causes of new and massive flows of refugees throughout the world resulting in
great human suffering (include) policies and practices of oppressive and racist
regimes, as well as aggression, colonialism, apartheid, alien domination,
foreign intervention and occupation. ... 1
In the early eighties, of the total of 108 countries generally regarded as
"Third World," 51 states were ruled either directly or indirectly by
military powers. Since 1950, there have been 105 armed conflicts
worldwide, including many civil wars. 2 In 1978 alone, 36 conflicts
occurred that involved the death of more than one thousand persons
each. 3 In minority conflicts, innocent bystanders suffer more and more
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1 UN doc. A/41/324,13 May 1986, p.5. The report was adopted by consensus of the
UN General Assembly by A/Res/41/70,11 December 1986.
2 Charles Humana, World Human Rights Guide, (New York: The Economist, 1986),
p.l.
3 See James Sutterlin, "Strengthening the Role of International Organizations in
Dealing with Regional Conflicts," Draft Paper (New York, 1988), p. 2. Sutterlin
states that fewer than ten percent of these conflicts were between national armies.
The majority of them resulted from ethnic or religious tensions, or from domestic
political strife, which often has social or economic origins.