News: New Flagship Publication from UNHCR

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1951 Convention, UNHCR has just released a digital version of People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge. Print versions are available via Oxford University Press. Here is part of the description: 

"People Forced to Flee draws on the lessons of history to probe how we can improve responses to forced displacement. Tracing the roots of asylum from early history to contemporary times, the book shows how the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees turned the centuries-old ideals of safety and solutions for refugees into global practice. It highlights the major achievements in protecting people forced to flee since then, while exploring serious setbacks along the way. Published at a time when over 84 million people in the world are forcibly displaced, it examines international responses to forced displacement within borders as well as beyond them, and the principles of protection that apply to both: reviewing where they have been used with consistency and success, and where they have not. At times, the strength and resolve of the international community seems strong, yet solutions and meaningful solidarity are often elusive. ..."

The volume is being described as taking "up the mantle of a series of UNHCR publications, stretching back to 1993, that were previously entitled The State of the World’s Refugees." (The series can be accessed here.) It does not appear to have been re-titled "The State of the World's Forcibly Displaced."

More information about the book along with links to an extensive collection of reference papers can be accessed on this microsite.