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The European Migration Crisis |
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| Uploaded on Tuesday 20 October, 2015 to the world order |
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| Exodus to Europe: Practices post 1951 Refugee Convention & 1967 Protocol |
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Those of us born privileged enough to live in a liberal-democracy where we can enjoy basic human rights, not knowing other paradigms, nor evil dictatorships wherein oppression, rather than liberty, and anarchy, rather than the rule of law, are part of everyday life can count ourselves a fortunate minority. We tend to take these freedoms, which we cherish, for granted. The inconvenient truth is that the world order is dysfunctional, with there being fewer democracies than is ideal. At the United Nations, out of a total 193 member states, just 87 are true democracies. The rest of the 106 states either fall short of the mark, or are dictatorships altogether. 57 states are Islamic, of which 22 are part of the Arab League. Democracies tally just 45% of the United Nations.
There have barely been any refugees from Europe since the ethnic conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia drew to a close, other than Ukrainians who have fled to neighbouring Poland in the wake of the crisis with Russia. There are, however, a lot of refugees migrating to Europe, from failing states in Africa, the Middle East and the Far East. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, championed by Eleanor Roosevelt, is the expression of a global endeavour setting out basic standards for how to treat fellow human beings. The 1951 Refugee Convention is the treaty from which democracies draw their guidelines as regards asylum seekers. |
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