The quantum leap in satellite communications in the past decade has influenced the work of UNHCR in several major ways. It has changed not only the way we communicate with our field offices and track refugee movements, but also the way we communicate with the outside world.
The rapid development of satellite technology in the 1990s has had a huge impact on the operational efficiency and safety of UNHCR staff working in remote and often dangerous locations. It has also helped UNHCR draw an unprecedented amount of attention to the cause of refugees whose plight has been reported in “real time” and brought live into the living rooms of millions around the globe.
Today, a UNHCR field worker armed with tiny battery-powered satellite phone or satellite Thuraya mobile phone can easily call for help from the most remote corner of the earth. Messages, which took a long time to transmit a mere 12 years ago, can now be passed on in just seconds. This, needless to say, can save lives of both our staff and the people we are trying to help.
The past decade has seen a series of dramatic high-profile humanitarian crises from Northern Iraq to Bosnia to Rwanda to Kosovo to Afghanistan. These crises were accompanied by a veritable explosion in satellite and broadcasting technology. What this means in practice is that humanitarian crises, even in such remote and volatile areas as eastern Congo, are instantly brought live to viewers around the world. For example, daily television reports from wartime Bosnia captivated the world’s imagination and presumably led to more generous financial and political support for the people uprooted by war and violence in the Balkans.
In 1994, 1.3 million Rwandan Hutus fled to what then was eastern Zaire fleeing the advance of Rwandan Tutsi rebels. The chaotic exodus led to an outbreak of cholera which killed tens of thousands of people in just a couple of weeks creating a humanitarian disaster of Biblical proportions. Hundreds of journalists equipped with state of the art satellite communications descended on the small and sleepy town of Goma which struggled to accommodate the refugees. For the first time in Africa’s history the plight of its people was reported live by western TV networks, causing outrage and stirring compassion around the world.
Clearly, the global reach of space-based satellite communications has affected the way the world sees the people that UNHCR serves.
Prof. Drs.
Ruud
Lubbers
High Commissioner for Refugees
United Nations
http://www.unhcr.ch
Professional Category:
Humanitarian
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