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(c) Peter Bouckaert/Human
Rights Watch
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50 Years On
What Future for Refugee Protection? 
On the eve of its fiftieth anniversary, UNHCR faces enormous challenges in its task of providing international protection and assistance to refugees worldwide and in helping countries seek durable solutions to their plight. Globally, there is less tolerance and more hostility towards refugees than there was fifty years ago and countries in the developed and developing world alike are closing their doors to refugees.
UNHCR: the Challenges Ahead On the eve of its fiftieth anniversary, UNHCR faces enormous challenges in its task of providing international protection and assistance to refugees worldwide and in helping countries seek durable solutions to their plight. Globally, there is less tolerance and more hostility towards refugees than there was fifty years ago and countries in the developed and developing world alike are closing their doors to refugees. In January 2001, former Dutch prime minister, Ruud Lubbers, will take over the post as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, replacing Sadako Ogata who has held the post for the past ten years. As Lubbers prepares to take up his new position, and as UNHCR both reflects on fifty years of service to refugees worldwide and looks to the future, Human Rights Watch has identified some of the major challenges facing the organization in the years ahead. These include, the growing threat to the right to seek and enjoy asylum; the funding crisis facing UNHCR and the disparity in the international response to refugee problems; responding to the problem of internal displacement; meeting the specific needs of particular groups such as refugee women, refugee children, urban refugees, and stateless persons; and ensuring the safety of UNHCR and other humanitarian worker.
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