Humanitarian Assistance: Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons

The assessment of refugees’ related-issues must consider the organizational context and jurisdictional logic of humanitarian intervention. The actions and history of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) perfectly illustrate the complexities involved in the management of refugees and internally displaced persons. UNHCR was created after the WWII to provide assistance to civilians affected by the warfare in Europe. The interstate conflict indirectly displaced a great number of people who needed immediate access to shelter, food, and medical supplies. Today UNHCR no longer operates in European belligerent states but in nations that have been under systematic political turmoil and economic difficulty. The term “internally displaced persons” is emblematic about the new direction that this UN agency has geared towards over the past decades. As important as going over the historical context of UNHCR, it is also crucial to understand the legal process within the broad system of the United Nations. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is another organization created in the wake of the WWII and its mandate has been to settle legal disputes and provide advisory opinions to states. ICJ’s activities, however, have been consistently hindered by the executive structure of the Security Council, which gives its permanent members the ability to veto the Court’s rulings. Therefore, the current scope of UNHCR -- as well as of other international refugee organizations -- has been predominantly concentrated on impoverished nations. This has happened not only because these states face a growing number of socioeconomic challenges but also because the heads of these countries lack political influence and diplomatic leverage to exchange favors and to find negotiable solutions to internal plights. The risk of having refugee agencies concentrating their efforts and resources exclusively in fragile political systems is the legitimization of a global decision-making model that prolongs every form of inequality. Humanitarians concerned about durable solutions should be aware of that and thus allocate their energy and limited resources to tackling deep-rooted causes rather than the spillover effects of asymmetric power distribution.