ブックタイトル佐藤栄作論文集９～１６

概要

佐藤栄作論文集９～１６

by natural calamities or by man-made causes. It is true that the UN has a specialisedoffice ? the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees（UNHCR）? created toprovide protection to refugees and cater for their welfare. Nevertheless, it is becomingclearer that the distinction between refugees and internally displaced persons onlyserves to exclude the latter from assistance which they are obviously in great need of.In the same way, distinguishing between refugees ? i.e. victims of political and otherforms of persecution ? and victims of natural calamities（such as drought and famine）only serves to accentuate the suffering of the latter.The aim of the UN should be to provide, without discrimination, for the needsof all disadvantaged members of the human race. This would, in turn, create thenecessity for the UNHCR to have direct access to the central pool of UN resources.This will make it less dependent on individual UN member governments who areoften tempted to make their political whims bear on the operations of the UNHCR.Apart from the forced migrants, there are the minority groups who are facingpersecution in many parts of the world today.‘Ethnic cleansing’, racial animosity,and religious intolerance are re-emerging as the new‘ideologies’. The right toself-determination must, therefore, be understood to refer both to territorialself-determination as well as entailing the intrinsic rights of individuals and/orcommunities. The United Nations is probably the right body to protect the rights ofminority groups, particularly in situations where the state machinery has become partand parcel of system abusing the rights.The United Nations must also renew efforts to tackle forces which createeconomic inequality; forces which are widening the gap between the rich North andthe poor South. The corelation between poverty and political instability must be takenseriously. Otherwise, the erstwhile attempts at democratisation in the developing44