Problems of Protection: The UNHCR, Refugees, and Human Rights [Paperback]

Niklaus Steiner (Editor), Mark Gibney (Editor), Gil Loescher (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0415945747 | ISBN-13: 978-0415945745 | Edition: 1

Of all the humanitarian impulses in world politics today, one of the most widely recognized is the need to protect refugees. However, as The Problems of Protection explores, what on the surface appears to be a simple proposition can quickly become complex and controversial. This complexity results in troubling variation in how we respond to our obligation to protect refugees - while NATO launches a major military intervention on behalf of Albanians in Kosovo amidst worldwide media attention, the international community's response to Sierra Leonean refugees is slow, inefficient and inadequate. Who qualifies as a refugee in need of protection? Should refugees be returned as soon as possible, or integrated into safer host countries? The contributors to this volume address the often lacking political will among powerful countries and donors, shifting attitudes among affected countries, and the difficulty of rebuilding societies in a world in which the number of refugees will almost certainly continue to increase.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A timely and comprehensive tour d'horizon of refugee policy and international organizations charged with refugee protection. The expert contributors combine theoretical perspicuity with detailed case studies on a wide range of important topics that will surely be of interest to scholars, policy-makers and NGOs.
–T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Professor of Law, Georgetown University

A decade or more of politics and 'pragmatism' has severely undermined the legal and ethical foundations of refugee protection. In this stimulating volume, contributors with broad-ranging knowledge, experience and expertise, show how to re-align the priorities, and how to rebuild a credible protection and solutions regime, face to face with the new challenges and even in the aftermath of terror.
–Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, Senior Research Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford

About the Author

Niklaus Steiner is Associate Director of the University Center for International Studies at University of North Carolina. Gil Loesher was professor of International Relations at Notre Dame and he is now at the Center for International Studies at Oxford University. He serves on the Editorial board of the Journal of Refugee Studies and the UNHCR's State of the World's Refugees. Mark Gibney is Belk Distinguished Professor of Humanities at University of North Carolina.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (May 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415945747
• ISBN-13: 978-0415945745
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,110,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Niklaus Steiner is the Director of the Center for Global Initiatives at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. A native of Switzerland who moved to the U.S. in his youth, Steiner has had the good fortune of moving between cultures all his life, and this experience shapes his academic focus. Steiner earned a B.A. with Highest Honors in International Studies at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in Political Science at Northwestern University. His research and teaching interests include migration, refugees, nationalism, and citizenship, and his publications include Arguing About Asylum: The Complexity of Refugee Debates in Europe (St. Martin's, 2000); The Problems of Protection: UNHCR, Refugees, and Human Rights eds. Niklaus Steiner, Mark Gibney and Gil Loescher (Routledge 2003); Regionalism in the Age of Globalism, eds. Lothar Hoennighausen, Marc Frey, James Peacock, and Niklaus Steiner (Wisconsin, 2005); and The Age of Apology: The West Confronts its Past eds. Mark Gibney, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Jean-Marc Coicaud and Niklaus Steiner (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). His most recent book International Migration and Citizenship Today (Routledge, 2009) is a thought-provoking examination of the ability of international migrants to move and the ability of states to control this movement.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars too biased for comfort, February 4, 2011

By 

J. Geske (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Problems of Protection: The UNHCR, Refugees, and Human Rights (Paperback)

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been around for over 60 years, and its missions and instruments have changed dramatically in that time period. Maintaining the perilous balance between refugee protection and the interest of states is a difficult role to play, and is often political. Though it was conceived as a non-political arm of the Secretary General, Problems of Protection: The UNHCR, Refugees, and Human Rights points out that the mere existence of refugees is the result of political upheaval and asks a refugee organization would be hard-pressed to be apolitical while dealing with governments. Through the various chapters put forward by this book's contributors, the average reader learns a lot of new information about the UNHCR and its role in international politics and the assistance it has provided in various humanitarian crises. For instance, 94% of funding comes from only a few industrialized countries - illustrating that the UNHCR could be perceived as the international arm of a group of nations with their own norms and solutions being imposed on refugee situations. With that in mind, almost 80% of the funding provided to the UNHCR is earmarked for particular operations or places, thus reducing the flexibility and independence of the organization carrying out the help. At the same time, the international clout of the UNHCR is increasing on some fronts and decreasing on some fronts: as more Latin American nations sought legitimacy in the international system, they conformed to the rules set forth by the UNHCR as a standard bearer of legitimization; however, the 1980s brought the demise of the UNHCR as the nidus of international law experts, especially as other nations started their own immigration and refugee programs.

That aside, while reading the book, the obvious confirmation bias within the authors' research design is troubling to me. There is a liberal viewpoint - both from the political and international relations theory viewpoints - that pervade the work, from start to finish. The authors readily acknowledge the public criticism of the UNHCR as ineffective, bureaucratic, and overly politicized, and thus attempt to preempt such points throughout the chapters. However, it is unconvincing, and the political bias prevalent here prevents true critical analysis I would expect and demand when reading about a sensitive and political topic such as refugees. For instance, in the very first chapter, Gil Loescher writes, "...it seems clear that the autonomy and authority of UNHCR has grown over the years and the Office has become a purposive actor in its own right with independent interests and capabilities." (p6) Now, never mind that this comes directly after the paragraph in which he talks about how the contributing nations earmark 80% of the funding (what independence?), but how does one prove his statement? It comes off as a fait accompli of "Well, of course, the UNHCR is independent!" without putting forward real facts of how many lives it potential saved and in what conflicts/situations it showed the most leadership. Instead, paragraphs later, Loescher, after describing how the United States withheld funding from the UNHCR, proves UNHCR's independence and organizational fortitude by writing that "a grant from the Ford Foundation enabled UNHCR to take the lead role in responding to a refugee crisis in West Berlin in early 1953." (p8) End of paragraph. Again, where is the evidence for such a conclusion? What refugee processing centers did it open? What authorities - German or otherwise - asked for UNHCR assistance, and why did they believe UNHCR had the tools an experience necessary even though it was only 2 years old at the time? What was the take-away from UNHCR's experiences of being the lead of a European refugee crisis? These questions were woefully ignored and all that remains are superficial generalizations.

While all of Problems of Protection is not as haphazard, the strain of pro-UN and pro-UNHCR bias weaves through the whole book without dutifully looking into contrary evidence. Other authors present criticism or evidence of negative results by the UNHCR, but dismiss it just as easily as Loescher does regarding the High Commission's independence. I am not saying that such conclusions are false, just that they, as with the book as a whole, are not proven. At the end of the day, this work provides an inside look at the UNHCR and its involvements - superficial or otherwise - in humanitarian crises near and far, ending with refugee protection in Europe and Africa after 9/11. A reader will either let this book confirm his or her viewpoint as it relates to the effective and important role of the United Nations in world affairs, or reject this book as biased and poorly sourced in the face of mounting criticism of the UNHCR.

*4/10*