Poverty and Violent Conflict - Violent Conflict And Human Development
| TABLE 9. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Countries experiencing internal conflicts over natural resources, 1949–2006 | ||
| Country | Duration of Conflict | Resources |
| SOURCE: "Table 5.2. Natural Resources Have Helped Fuel Conflicts in Many Countries," in Human Development Report 2005, United Nations Development Programme, 2005, http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/pdf/HDR05_complete.pdf (accessed April 10, 2006). Data adapted from Bannon and Collier 2003. | ||
| Afghanistan | 1978–2001 | Gems, opium |
| Angola | 1975–2002 | Oil, diamonds |
| Angola, Cabinda | 1975– | Oil |
| Cambodia | 1978–97 | Timber, gems |
| Colombia | 1984– | Oil, gold, coca |
| Congo | 1997 | Oil |
| Congo, Dem. Rep. of the | 1996–97, 1998–2002 | Copper, coltan, diamonds, gold, cobalt |
| Indonesia, Aceh | 1975– | Natural gas |
| Indonesia, West Papua | 1969– | Copper, gold |
| Liberia | 1989–96 | Timber, diamonds, iron, palm oil, cocoa, coffee, marijuana, rubber, gold |
| Morocco | 1975– | Phosphates, oil |
| Myanmar | 1949– | Timber, tin, gems, opium |
| Papua New Guinea | 1988–98 | Copper, gold |
| Peru | 1980–95 | Coca |
| Sierra Leone | 1991–2000 | Diamonds |
| Sudan | 1983–2005 | Oil |
Achievement of the UN's Millennium Development Goals is also off track for the most part in countries that have experienced violent conflict. High child mortality, low primary school enrollment, and low overall life expectancy are common. As shown in Figure 9.2, only three out of the twelve countries that have a child mortality rate higher than 20% have not experienced armed conflict since 1999. Economic growth also slows considerably during a conflict. According to figures from the World Bank cited in the Human Development Report 2005, civil wars typically last seven years, and each year economic growth drops by an average of 2.2%. Refugees fleeing to neighboring countries, and the possibility of those countries being drawn into the fighting, can strain the entire region in which a conflict takes place.
The unbalanced gender ratio that usually results from violent conflict also affects a region's human development. With large numbers of men killed in fighting, women are left to support and protect their families by themselves. This leaves them vulnerable to attack and
FIGURE 9.2 Experience of armed conflict in countries with high rates of child mortality, 1999–2005
In addition, violent conflict increases the risk of a food crisis—especially in rural areas—because livestock, crops, and arable land might be destroyed. However, it is not just the physical destruction of farms during war that leaves societies vulnerable to hunger. The displacement of farmers as refugees causes just as much harm to agricultural production. According to Human Development Report 2005, for example, Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war from 1991 to 2000 left about 500,000 farm families displaced from their homes, causing rice production to drop to just 20% of its prewar level.
The health of a population engaged in conflict or warfare decreases dramatically. The UNDP report explains that more people die because of the consequences of war than because of the immediate violence. Infectious diseases spread rapidly among refugees and quickly spill over from refugee camps into the populations surrounding them. In a survey conducted in Africa during the 1990s mortality rates among refugees were found to be eighty times higher than those of nonrefugees (http://www.sas.upenn.edu/∼dludden/RefugeePublicHealth.pdf). Medical facilities often serve as targets for opposition fighters because of the supplies they contain and because their destruction further weakens the population. With hospitals and health centers destroyed, citizens have no source of medical care, sometimes permanently.
Land Mines
One of the most brutal tools of conflict affecting human health and security is the presence of land mines, which can damage and terrorize a population physically and psychologically for decades. Land mines are explosive devices that are usually buried underground or laid just above ground and triggered by vehicles or footsteps. Antitank land mines are, as their name suggests, designed to blow up tanks and large vehicles. Antipersonnel land mines (APLs) are designed so that they are triggered by even the lightest of footsteps. APLs are by far the more devastating kind of land mine for two reasons: first, they are indiscriminate in blowing up both soldiers and civilians; second, they exist in regions indefinitely after a war or conflict ends. APLs are also designed to look like small, colorful toys, candy, stones, or even butterflies, making them extremely dangerous to children (United Nations Children's Fund in State of the World's Children 1996: Children in War (1996, http://www.unicef.org/sowc96/contents.htm?468,235).
The continuing presence of land mines after a conflict ends limits development and increases poverty in affected regions. Areas known to contain land mines are unusable for farming, building, living, or commerce of any kind. From 2004 to 2005 at least fifty-eight countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, and Central and South America experienced 15,000 to 20,000 land mine-related deaths or injuries, according to the Landmine Monitor Report 2005 (http://www.icbl.org/lm/2005/). An analysis of land mine casualties in Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Mozambique, Somalia, Thailand and Yemen (Survey Action Center, September 2005) found that reported casualties during the previous twenty-four months were 96% civilian, 88% male, and 24% children under age fifteen. Besides the human casualties, livestock and wild animals are frequently injured or killed by land mines. This not only harms regional environments but it also destroys farming economies. The people in affected regions must live as virtual prisoners in their own lands. Cambodia (898), Afghanistan (878), and Colombia (863) had the highest number of reported land mine casualties in 2004–05.
Refugees
In 1950 the position of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was created, and the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees was adopted. The two main tenets of the convention are that refugees are not to be returned to an area where they face persecution and that refugees are not to face discrimination in the country that accepts them. However, according to the UNHCR in State of the World's Refugees: Human Displacement in the New Millennium (2006, http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/template?page=publ&src=static/sowr2006/toceng.htm), people seeking asylum as refugees are increasingly becoming the targets of xenophobia and accusations of terrorist activity, even though there were fewer refugees in 2006 than at any time since 1980.
In "Refugees by Numbers" (2005; http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/basics/opendoc.htm?tbl=BASICS&id=3b028097c#Refugees), the UNHCR reports that as of January 2005 they were assisting more than nine million refugees in the world: 3.4 million were in Asia, three million in Africa, two million in Europe, 562,000 in North America, 76,000 in Oceania, and 36,000 in Latin America and the Caribbean. More than 800,000 of these refugees were classed as "asylum seekers," that is, they had applied for legal recognition in the country to which they had fled. At the beginning of 2005 another 5.4 million people were considered internally displaced persons (IDPs) within their home nations. These numbers reflect only those who receive aid from the UNHCR. Among those not included in the above figures are the estimated four million displaced Palestinians, who are counted by a related organization, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). An unknown number of refugees and IDPs do not receive aid and therefore cannot be accurately counted.
Some people are forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in other countries because of natural disasters, but most refugees leave because their homelands are torn by violent conflict or because human rights abuses are rampant. In situations of long-term conflict, groups of people may endure recurring periods of short-term displacement, or they may be displaced indefinitely. According to State of the World's Refugees, while conditions for refugees are typically substandard in terms of housing, food, and other necessities, it is those who cannot leave conflict regions because of extreme poverty or ill health who are often the most vulnerable.
State of the World's Refugees notes that of the 7.5 million "persons of concern" in 2003, about 50% were younger than eighteen years old, and 13% were children under age five. According to the UNHCR report:
The large number of young people among displaced populations has important implications for protection. Displaced children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to threats to their safety and wellbeing. These include separation from families, sexual exploitation, HIV/AIDS infection, forced labour or slavery, abuse and violence, forcible recruitment into armed groups, trafficking, lack of access to education and basic assistance, detention and denial of access to asylum or family-reunification procedures. Unaccompanied children are at greatest risk, since they lack the protection, physical care and emotional support provided by the family. Those accompanied by only one parent or carer may also be at higher risk than other children.
Many refugees find themselves relocated—by force or by choice—to countries that are hostile to their presence. Refugee camps are generally dangerous places because of violence both inside and outside of their boundaries. Refugees may be denied basic human rights, including the right to seek legal employment, which exacerbates their impoverished condition. Even when refugees are returned to their homelands, they sometimes encounter an unwelcoming environment: their houses, workplaces, farms, and possessions may have been destroyed, and the regime in control may react violently to their return.
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