The Issue
This region is characterized by the legacies of unresolved conflicts. The emergency environment therefore changes every day, posing new challenges to the whole humanitarian community, including UNICEF. In many countries the end of communism lifted the lid off tensions that had simmered for decades, if not centuries. Age-old hatreds erupted and war broke out in around one third of the countries in the 1990s. While the number of actual conflicts has dwindled since the upheavals of the 1990s, our region proves that the absence of war does not necessarily mean peace. An estimated two million people in the region are living as refugees or internally displaced people. Many of their children are growing up as stateless, unregistered non-citizens. We also face the ever-present spectres of HIV, poverty and exploitation, which feed into, and are in turn fed by, any crisis. Recurrent natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides and floods, plague the region which is also affected by the rigours of severe winters. Very often, the areas badly hit by natural disasters are also those with the deepest poverty and the greatest political tensions. Internally Displaced People (IDPs): Of the 10 countries worldwide with the largest populations of IDPs, half are in the CEE/CIS region:Refugees:
Natural Disasters: Many mountainous countries of the region are prone to earthquakes and landslides, while low-lying areas are badly hit by flooding. Recent years have seen:
Other Disasters:
The Aral Sea: Straddling the borders of
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