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The
environment where humanitarian action takes place
is evolving rapidly and continually poses new
challenges to the humanitarian community. There is
increasing human vulnerability in crisis
situations – both in natural
The last
decade has seen a marked increase in the
occurrence of natural disasters worlwide along
with exposure to greater levels of loss of life,
property, and material damage. The lives of
hundreds in the North and South of Thailand are at
risk each time an mudslide, tropical storm or
other natural disaster like the tsunami occurs. Particularly
in neighbouring poorer countries with less
developed infrastructures, high population
densities and inadequate emergency preparedness
this poses a permanent seasonal thread.
In terms
of complex emergencies, the factors contributing
to human insecurity are tied to the changing the
nature of conflicts. Today's armed conflicts are
characterized by active and deliberate targeting
of civilians, including humanitarian workers,
widespread human rights abuses, the use of rape,
and other crimes of sexual violence as brutal
weapons of war, particularly against woman and
children, and the forced displacement of hundreds
of thousands of people. Forced displacement of
large segments of populations is used increasingly
by parties to conflict in furtherance of military
objectives, including ethnic cleansing. Globally,
there are twice as many conflict-induced
internally displaced persons (IDPs) as refugees
(13 million in Africa alone), while 90% of all
refugees stay in their regions of origin, like e.g.
Kar people in Burma. This has recently led to a
new intolerance of refugee flows in some southern
countries and bodes ill for protection e.g. in
Dafur, Africa.
The
International
Parliament will do its part in aide wherever
possible
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