3. A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave his or her home and seek refuge elsewhere. he is as a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country Wars, ethnic conflict, and state terrorism cause many people to flee their homes and seek refuge elsewhere. The number of displaced people globally has now reached the level of crisis. the total number of people of concern to the UN high commissioners of refugees (UNHCR) rose to 19.2 million from 17 million the previous year. This figure includes refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, stateless people and a portion of the world’s internally displaced people . Another estimate set the number of internally displaced people in 2004 at 25 million.

4. Most of the refugees are women and children—many of whom are fleeing from conflict zones, where rape and sexual abuse have been used as a tool of war by soldiers. In many instances agencies of the United Nations or some governments have set up camps to house the refugees fleeing across their borders. Frequently, life in the camps is not much better than the conditions the refugees fled from.

5. Hundreds of Somali women were raped in these camps between April 1992 and November 1993, mostly by bandits, but some were raped by Kenyan soldiers and police Moreover, these camps often become bases for opposition guerrilla fighters. The aid that flows from other governments and international humanitarian organizations is sometimes skimmed by militants based in the camps. During the 1978—1991 conflict in Cambodia, the United States and other nations funded refugee camps in Thailand that became bases for three Cambodian guerrilla forces fighting the Vietnamese-backed government. One of these was the notorious Khmer Rouge.

6. Pointing to these kinds of abuses, some analysts argue that refugee aid can have the effect of prolonging conflicts and civilian suffering, and they criticize powerful countries for using aid as a substitute for political initiatives that would resolve root causes of emergency migrations including war, ethnic conflict, famine, economic imbalance, and environmental damage. Another dimension of the refugee crisis is the growing difficulty for individuals to migrate to other countries. Many countries in the West, including the United States, have tightened their immigration laws, severely limiting the numbers of refugees and asylum seekers who are allowed to settle in their borders permanently. Other countries with meager means are already facing problems in addressing the needs of their increasing and impoverished populations and are poorly equipped to accommodate the refugee demands.

7. In addition to the question of whether people can emigrate is the treatment of people when they arrive from other countries. Many refugees are detained while their cases are processed. In the United States, for example, refugees and asylum seekers are not legally entitled to due process and other protections set out for citizens. Some detainees linger in jails (called detention facilities) for more than a year before their cases are heard. In Britain, refugee organizations estimate that less than one-third of asylum seekers whose applications are denied leave the country or are deported, and in the 1990s, approximately 50,000 people were living in Britain without civil status and with no social or political rights.

8. In 1945, the UN Charter laid out principles of refugee humanitarian aid. In 1951, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees was established. One of the principal tenets of UN policy is that countries should avoid forcibly returning individuals to countries where their lives or freedom are threatened.

9. Although countries have tried to avoid this, in many instances it occurs. In the European Union, asylum seekers are often returned to “safe third countries,” if they have arrived in Europe by stopping in another country first. Many potential U.S. asylum seekers have been returned under the same policy. There are often no safeguards that the “safe third country” will not return them to their country of origin. Although half of all asylum claims were granted in Europe in 1984, less than one in ten was granted in 1998 (“Britain’s Asylum Shambles,” 1998:20). This leaves many refugees with no choice but to go home where they fear persecution.

10. Economic hardship and unemployment in developing countries lead many to seek their fortunes in wealthier states. Due to the tight labor and migration rules of industrial countries, however, they are usually denied entry, and they resort to alternative means. These “economic refugees” have also been increasing in numbers, and while some manage to cross borders illegally, and start working as illegal immigrants, others try to secure entry by seeking asylum and consequently complicate and exacerbate the problems faced by refugee agencies and organizations.

11. Globalization is a politically loaded term; it stirs emotions and divides people into camps of pro- and anti-globalization. The ambiguity of the term constitutes part of the problem, but the essence of the conflict is about the impact of globalization. Does it mean progress? If so, who are the beneficiaries and who pays for it? The United Nations defines globalization as shrinking space, shrinking time, and disappearing of borders.

12. Defined as a process rather than an event, globalization is not new. It has been going on since ancient times, though technological developments, especially in transportation and communication, and sociopolitical changes have speeded up the process at certain junctures. As improvements in navigation technology and the advancement of capitalism served as the technological and social catalysts that accelerated globalization in the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, respectively, rapid progress in communication and information technologies, as well as the collapse of the Soviet system and the end of the Cold War, has expedited the globalization process during the last two decades. Thus, in addressing the changes during these more recent periods, we can talk about a recent phase of globalization rather than a new phenomenon.

13. The impact of globalization has been mixed. Increased exchange of goods and services improved people’s access to a wide range of goods and raised the income levels of many. Focusing on the increased income in some countries, certain observers have championed “globalization,” which they largely associated with the liberalization of trade. However, the benefits have not been shared equally.

14. The UN Development Programme’s Human Development Index, which tracks human welfare measures, including income, education, and various factors affecting life expectancy show that overall quality of life rose 44 percent from 1980 to 1995. However, this great gain occurred largely in fifteen countries, mostly Asian, that have greatly improved the standard of living for their people.

15. On the other hand, income gaps have been increasing both within and among countries. Human Development Report 2000 indicates that “the distance between the incomes of the richest and poorest country was about 3 to 1 in 1820, 35 to 1 in 1950, 44 to 1 in 1973 and 72 to 1 in 1992” and “gaps between rich and poor are widening in many countries,” both industrial and developing. The gap between the rich and poor is striking: the world’s richest 500 individuals have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 416 million. Beyond these extremes the 2.5 billion people living on less than $2 a day—40 percent of the world’s population—account for 5 percent of global income.

16. Moreover, aid from the developed world has shown a steady decline, despite the fact that the economies of donor countries grew after 1992. An upward trend has been noted since 1997, but still only 25 percent of the gross national income of the richest countries is spent on development assistance. On the other hand, the net capital transfer through loans, exports, and other means marked a net benefit for the industrial world. The wide economic disparities between the industrial and developing countries was largely a result of the debt crisis that reached its peak in the 1980s but continues to be a problem in many developing countries. Capital shortage is endemic in the developing world and forces many countries to seek loans for investments to stimulate their economies. They typically turn to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

17. Consequently, economies that were once self-sufficient in feeding their populations start importing food items; unemployment and poverty increase; and the recipient country unable to improve its economic output and wealth, seeks new loans to pay off the old debts. Pointing out that the IMF and the World Bank “often contributed in the past to the social crisis of developing countries by supporting policies that condemned millions of human beings to a life of misery and grave violations of human rights,” it was stated that these financial agencies “continue to propose development strategies that take no account of human rights as proclaimed by the United Nations and the treaties ratified by states on the subject."

18. Moreover, the neo-liberal policies, now implemented practically everywhere, reinforce the market-led globalization and erode the state capacity and will with regard to promoting public good, regulating private economic activities, providing services (e.g., education, health care), and investing toward improving the quality of life and human development. The ultimate impact of globalization seems to be increased unemployment, poverty, widened gaps in income and wealth, declines in labor rights and unionization rates, increases in child labor, and growth in global criminal acts such as trafficking in humans, drugs, weapons, and money.

19. Competing for investments, governments try to make their countries more attractive to investors by cutting down the “cost of labor.” Reducing the cost of labor means lowering wages, benefits, and a whole range of labor standards. Willing to sacrifice labor rights, governments discourage or even actively prevent unionization. Declining wages force poor families to take their children out of school and put them to work; it is estimated that 250 million children, at ages ranging from four to fifteen, are working, and many of them in dangerous and unhealthy conditions . Unemployment or inadequate wages also make many people victims of international mafias engaged in human and drug trafficking. Trafficked people are then forced into working at sweatshops or in the sex industry. Two of the effects of the resultant grinding poverty are increased malnutrition and poorer health care. In some countries, medicines are no longer subsidized and poor families must make difficult choices in their already stretched budgets. Most of the more than one billion people who live in poverty in the developing world receive no effective biomedical care at all.

20. Polio vaccines are unknown to many people, measles and malaria kill millions each year, childbirth involves mortal risk, and tuberculosis is as lethal as AIDS. To help reverse these trends, various governmental and nongovernmental agencies have developed health and welfare programs. The Carter Center has worked on many health issues— ameliorating the guinea worm and river blindness and helping to increase the world immunization rate from 20 percent to 80 percent . Oxfam has numerous poverty reduction programs. UNICEF sponsors programs to improve the health, education, and well-being of children. According to UNICEF, most of the development goals that would allow improvements in social and economic rights are not out of reach.

21. Unfortunately, there have been no concrete steps to meet these objectives. Many analysts contend that a new world economic order is necessary to eliminate, or at least reduce, the extreme poverty in the world. Regardless of human rights issues, it is in the best long-term political and security interests of the developed countries to have a developing world that is economically secure. The misery of poverty can often lead to political instability a greater refugee population, and increasing disease. After the September 11, 2001, attacks, economic factors that feed international terrorism have started to receive some attention as well.

22. At the UN’s Millennium Summit meeting held in September 2000, a global development agenda with time-bound and measurable goals was set. What came to be known as the Millennium Development Goals (MSGs) includes eight goals with eighteen specific targets and forty-eight indicators by which to measure progress. All 191 members of the UN pledged to meet the MDGs by the year 2015.

23. The eight broad goals include (1) reducing the number of people suffering from extreme poverty (living on less than one dollar a day) and hunger by half; (2) achieving universal primary education; (3) empowering women and promoting equality between men and women by eliminating gender disparity in education; (4) reducing child mortality rates by two-thirds; (5) reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters; (6) stopping the spread of diseases and reversing their increasing trend, particularly HIV/AIDS and malaria;

24. (7) ensuring environmental stability by reversing the loss of environmental resources, reducing the population that has no access to safe drinking water by half, and improving the sanitation and other conditions for slum dwellers; and (8) creating global partnership for development by focusing on the developing countries’ need for aid, trade, debt relief, medicine, and technological advancements.

25. The meeting, which was held in September 2005 and attended by the top leaders of 191 countries, failed to produce a consensus and a concerted effort, largely because of the several objections raised by the United States. On the positive side, most of the developed countries agreed to cancel the outstanding debt of the poorest countries and pledged to increase their development assistance levels.

26. Moreover, the language of the outcome document is strong on human rights. It reaffirms the member states’ commitment to human rights; addresses many issues as directly related to human rights; repeatedly mentions human rights, development, peace, security, and democracy as mutually reinforcing goals; and reiterates the universality, interrelatedness, and interdependence of human rights.

27. End of the seventh lecture Thank you