February 6, 2003 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Price of Indifference: Refugees and Humanitarian Action in the New Century
by Arthur C. Helton
In the 1990s, violent conflicts around the world created tens of millions of refugees, writes Arthur C. Helton, director of peace and conflict studies and senior fellow for refugee studies and preventive action at the Council on Foreign Relations, in New York. Mr. Helton calls for new strategies designed both to improve humanitarian efforts and to prevent refugee crises from erupting in the first place.
Relief efforts are often carried out simultaneously by government agencies, the United Nations, and various international and local charities, explains Mr. Helton. One organization may take the lead in providing humanitarian relief in a particular region, he writes, but no organization coordinates all relief groups involved in a given area, or worldwide. That can lead to confusion and a duplication of certain services, he says, even as other needs go unmet. He advocates developing one intergovernmental agency that would operate independently of the United Nations, study potential strategies for dealing with refugee crises, and advise the United Nations on appropriate responses as emergencies arise.
Such an agency, suggests Mr. Helton, would result in clearer policies, which would serve to improve the coordination of relief efforts by all parties involved. It should also encourage charities and government agencies to focus more on the causes of refugee crises and not just on responding after the fact. If they are emphasizing only such basic needs as hunger and shelter, he says, aid workers are “condemning to repetition” the types of conflicts that result in the displacement of so many people worldwide.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016; http://www.oup.com; 314 pages; $19.95.
