USA One of the most visible results of armed conflict, as well as human rights abuses and civil unrest, is the generation of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons, whether by the hundreds or hundreds of thousands. There are currently approximately 12 millions refugees around the world, as well as many millions of others who have been forcibly displaced as a result of conflict and other reasons. While being a significant effect of international conflict, and a global humanitarian problem, refugee situations have also been part of the conditions which may lead to international conflict, most notably in the Great Lakes region of Africa where refugee populations took part in various aspects of local and regional conflict before and after the 1994 genocide. Refugee crises have also been at the heart of debate over humanitarian intervention, as the international community struggles to decide how to respond to humanitarian crises all over the world. Most commentators view this definition as too restrictive in that its focus on individualized persecution does not correspond to the realities of today s world.
Many people leave their home and become refugees as a result of generalized violence and war.
The 1984 Cartegena Declaration on Refugees, which related to Latin America, also included persons who have fled their country because their lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order. The Representative has formulated a set of Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement which bring together refugee, humanitarian, and human rights law and lay out what rights IDPs have and what obligations states have toward IDPs, based on international law. As in the case of the OAU and Cartegena documents, this definition recognizes the fact that people become displaced and thus need assistance and protection for a variety of reasons beyond simple persecution. One of the reasons that the issue of IDPs is so controversial and difficult to deal with is the issue of sovereignty. Since IDPs are, by definition, within their country of origin, the international community feels bound by the principle of sovereignty to respect the borders of states and to tread lightly when contemplating humanitarian action, although the balance between sovereignty and humanitarian action appears to shifting, at least somewhat, toward the latter.