The Turbulent Decade: Confronting The Refugee Crises Of The 1990s

by Sadako Ogata, Kofi Annan (Foreword)

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan notes that Ogata served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees during one of its most challenging periods, 1990-2000. Ogata sheds lights on humanitarian-political crises and partnerships for relief efforts involving Iraqi Kurdish, Ethiopian/Somalian, Albanian, and Afghan refugees. Her memoir includes maps, data on major areas of concern, photos, speeches, and notes on the Ogata Initiative for linking humanitarian and development activities through April 2005. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History

402 pages, Hardcover

First published February 17, 2005

Reviews

[Galina Kalvatchev · Rating 4 out of 5]

The topics of refugee protection, relief assistance and repatriation operations are of interest to me and so I loved this book.

During her term as UN high commissioner for refugees between 1991 and 2000, Sadako Ogata worked with refugees and IDPs in Iraq, The Balkans, The Great Lakes region and Afghanistan. I like her solutions because to me they are unique and long-term.

It is a dramatic, profoundly sad description of the suffering of DPs and at the same time a source of knowledge and hope.

Sadako Ogata not only worked on helping DPs stay safe (as much as that was possible) during the major conflicts described in the book but also assisted in the their return home and implemented shelter programs, as well as social projects that aimed to help refugees settle down again and re-build their lives.

There is little or no future for a DPs who return home to non-existent social and judicial systems.
Sadago Ogata's aim was re-build those as much as possible so that there is a secure environment and possibilities of employment.

An issue that is addressed in the book that I like is the recognition that IDPs need just as much attention and help as the refugees who fled their countries.

[Casper Denck · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cross-posted at http://nicodemist.wordpress.com/2010/...

From 1990 through to 2000 Sadako Ogata was the head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Before that Ogata held a professorship in International Politics in Japan. The reason I mention the latter point is, to be honest, coming into the subject with a significant academic pedigree I was hoping for a more substantial analysis of the UNHCR as the UNHCR substantially changed during Ogata's term.

It would have been helpful for a more nuanced history of the organisation. Formed in 1950 the UNHCR is, with the exception of Palestinian refugees (which comes under the remit of the UNRWA), responsible for managing the internation cooperation on UN member states and plays a key role in monitoring refugee movements and providing initial humanitarian relief. The UNHCR, together with the 1951 Refugee Convention itself, began life dealing overwhelmingly with European refugees, most notably the Jewish displaced after WWII. Thereafter the Cold War ensured that refugees were predominately European and (in the case of the US), South American. However, in the 1990s there were a number of change. The end of the Cold War put an end to the often overtly political recognition of refugees from the eastern bloc. Consequently the UNHCR focused its attention on the developing world to a far greater extent on the developing world (I hate that term).

In this book Ogata basically offers an extended survey of the UNHCR operations within the key refugee causing crises of the 1990s, namely the first Gulf War, Afghanistan, the Balkan Crisis and the Great Lakes region. As a memoir this is at times an interesting account but I must say as a professor of international politics i was really hoping for a lot more from Ogata. For example, much is made of the reasons why in the First Gulf war the UNHCR made the very significant move from managing refugee flows (which, by definition, requires the extra-territoriality of the refugee) to creating camps of Internally Displaced Persons. Not only is this an elaboration of UNHCR's traditional mandate but it represented a positive collaboration of UNHCR operations with alien (that is non-iraqi) military forces - this is a theme that Ogata reiterates as a key part of her approach in various fields of operation; yet there is very little critical comment on this highly significant trend.

This could have been an excellent book; her position, together with expertise at a time of immense change for in humanitarian operations over the decade in question should have made this a significant text - as it is, however, it's more suitable as a coffee table book for the more discerning reader. One to avoid.

[Dhakal,buddha]

The book is an action of humanitarianism by the UNHCR and its leading personality like Sadako Ogata. I remember a time when Madam Ogata visited a camp in Nepal assuring the refugees of their possibility of repatriation. She has all her personal and official efforts to protect refugees and displaced persons and that wholly reflected in the book.