MaximsNewsNetwork: REFUGEE CRISIS: ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNHCR

MaximsNewsNetwork: 28 September 2009 - UNHCR: UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres says that the combined impact of global economic crisis with population growth, urbanization, global warming and shortages of food and water are causing crises to multiply and deepen.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said that the combined impact of global economic crisis with population growth, urbanization, global warming and shortages of food and water are causing crises to multiply and deepen.

Speaking today in Geneva during the agencys annual executive committee meeting, Guterres
also warned that as global conflicts become more complex, humanitarian assistance to the victims is put at risk.

SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees:
In theatres of conflict today, one may find national and possibly foreign armies, ethnic- or religious-based militias, insurgent groups and bandits. All of these actors have been responsible for serious human rights violations. Providing humanitarian relief in such an environment is both difficult and dangerous.

Guterres said that the world economic downturn combined with five global trends threaten to roll back several decades of advancement in developing countries. Climate change is among them.

SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees:
Global warming threatens to cause massive displacement. The increase in extreme weather events also make natural disasters approximately twice as likely today as they were two decades ago. Most displacement from climate change will be internal and the primary obligation to protection will belong to states.

With the possibility of increased displacement, Guterres urged the international community to stand by its commitment to international Conventions and provide access to asylum procedures to all those in need.

Another of the trends, urbanization figures prominently in the UN refugee agencys current priorities, with a majority of all the people in the world living in cities and that number predicted to reach 70 percent in 2050, UNHCR anticipates that its work will focus more and more in urban contexts.

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• refugee crisis
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• urbanization
• global warming
• food water shortages
• MaximsNews Network
• population growth