The American Refugee Committee has played a large role in these successes over its 20-year history. Although Neal Ball founded ARC as a result of his sponsorship of a refugee from Laos resettling in the United States, ARC started out as a primary health care provider to Cambodian refugees in Thailand. Over two decades, ARC has sent over 1,000 volunteers to provide basic health care in programs that have grown to cover Africa and the Balkans, and which have broadened in span of activity from health care to community development and education. Protection The toughest job of all is protecting civilians during conflict, and protecting refugees while they are in asylum in other countries. To improve our record in protection, we need to redouble our efforts to move toward universal respect for the laws of armed conflict, to reducing the causes of wars, and to helping those most in need of our help.
Protection is improved through systems of accountability.
Perpetrators of war crimes must be brought to justice. Refugees need to have the confidence that they, too, will obtain justice if they have protection problems that require a legal remedy. In most cases, the refugee hosting country needs to provide civilian policing of refugee camps, ensure the refugee camps are sited away from borders, and separate refugees from those who do not qualify for protection. In some, the international community needs to commit resources to support a variety of options such as multinational civilian police, training programs for host country police and for refugees themselves, or the employment of UN-authorized multinational forces or peacekeepers. Protection for refugee,s and asylum-seekers in particular, is best supported with good laws in place to provide the space necessary for people fleeing persecution to seek and enjoy asylum.