Population and Human Relations

Population and Human Relations
▪ 1996

Introduction

DEMOGRAPHY
      At midyear 1995, world population stood at 5,702,000,000, according to estimates prepared by the Population Reference Bureau. The 1995 figure was about 700 million higher than in 1987, when world population first reached 5 billion. The 1995 figure represented an increase of about 88 million over the previous year. The annual rate of population increase declined to about 1.54% in 1995 from 1.6% in 1994, a result of birthrate declines in both developing and industrialized nations. If the 1995 growth rate continued, the world's population would double in the next 45 years. In 1995, 139 million babies were born, 125 million (90%) in developing countries. Each day, world population increased by 242,000, the result of 382,000 births and 140,000 deaths. More than 85% of the population growth in industrialized countries occurred in the United States. New data from censuses in 26 countries and territories were reported to the United Nations in 1995.

      Worldwide, contraceptive use for all methods stood at 58% of married couples in 1995. Fully 49% of couples reported using a "modern" method such as clinically supplied contraceptives or sterilization. In less developed countries (LDCs) 55% were practicing some form of family planning and 49% were using a modern one. The percentage of couples who used contraceptives in LDCs was significantly low, however, except in China, where a vigorous family-planning program had raised contraceptive usage to high levels. When China was excluded, only 33% of couples in LDCs were using a modern method. Sub-Saharan Africa reported the lowest level of usage, 11%, while Latin America had the highest figure among LDCs, 51%.

      In 1995, 32% of the world's population was below the age of 15 in 1995, but the figure was 38% in LDCs outside China. In more developed countries (MDCs), 20% were below age 15, and the figures dropped as low as 16% for Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. (The younger age distribution of LDCs in 1995 was expected to result in a large number of youths entering the childbearing ages in the near future, which should offer considerable potential for population growth.) Only 5% of the population in LDCs was over the age of 65, compared with 13% in MDCs. Sweden, with 18%, remained the country with the highest percentage above age 65.

       World's 25 Most Populous Urban AreasNearly half—43%—of world population in 1995 lived in urban areas. (For World's 25 Most Populous Urban Areas, see Table (World's 25 Most Populous Urban Areas).) In LDCs 35% of the population was classified as urban, compared with 74% in MDCs. Among the world's least urbanized countries was Burundi, with only 6% urban population in 1995.

      On average, life expectancy at birth was 64 years for males and 68 for females. In MDCs the same figures were 70 and 78 and in LDCs 62 and 65, respectively. In 1995 males could expect to live one year less than in 1994; this statistic was due primarily to rapidly declining health conditions in the republics of the former Soviet Union. The 1995 world infant mortality rate stood at 62 infant deaths per 1,000 live births—10 in MDCs and 67 in LDCs.

Less Developed Countries.
      The share of world population growth occurring in LDCs increased to 98% in 1995. Of the 88 million people added annually, about 86.5 million were in the world's poorer nations. At the 1995 pace of childbearing, women in LDCs were averaging about 3.5 children each during their lifetime, slightly more than double that of MDCs. In LDCs, excluding the large statistical effect of China's 1.2 billion population, women averaged four children each. This was far from the "two-child family" essential to slowing population growth to zero and stabilizing world population size.

      The release of the first national fertility survey of India, the world's second most populous country, made major demographic news. India's total fertility rate (TFR), the average number of children a woman would bear during her lifetime, assuming that the rate of childbearing in a given year remains constant, fell to 3.4 children per woman. The State Statistical Bureau of China, the world's most populous country, reported that the TFR had dropped to 1.86 in the previous year.

      In 1995 life expectancy in Africa was the world's lowest, at 53 years for males and 56 for females. Even so, because that continent reported the world's highest birthrate—a TFR of 5.8 (6.2 in sub-Saharan Africa)—its population growth was the world's fastest, at 2.8% annually. Overall, Africa's population stood at 720 million.

      Latin America's population stood at 481 million in 1995, with an annual growth rate of 1.9%, down from 2% in 1994. The TFR in this region remained a comparatively modest 3.1, ranging from 5.4 in Guatemala to 1.8 in Cuba, the same as it was in 1994. Life expectancy rose to 66 for males and 72 for females.

      Asia's population grew from 3.4 billion in 1994 to 3.5 billion in 1995, although its growth rate of 1.7% was the lowest of the developing regions. China's population reached 1,219,000,000, but the growth rate continued falling, to 1.1%. Population growth rates in the Pacific Rim countries of East Asia fell to historically low levels. This region was close to approaching the low birth and death rates characteristic of industrialized countries.

      Despite the fact that birthrates were declining and growth rates were lower in many developing countries, an important distinction had to be drawn between lower growth rates in 1995 and future prospects. Even at the current lower birthrates, world population would soar to well over 50 billion by the end of the 21st century and increase very rapidly thereafter. Mathematically, this placed great importance on the birthrates in developing countries declining to about two children per woman if world population size was to stabilize.

More Developed Countries.
      In 1995 Europe recorded its first negative rate of natural increase in modern history, -0.1%. This change was largely the result of the steeply declining birthrate in the European republics of the former Soviet Union. Deaths outnumbered births in Russia by more than 700,000. The TFR dropped to between 1.3 and 1.5 in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, and Ukraine. The principal reasons given for the dramatic reduction in childbearing among women surveyed were the confused state of the economy and the uncertain prospects for recovery in the foreseeable future. Prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, birthrates were relatively high. All of these countries now faced the prospect of population decline and accelerated aging. Italy now had the world's lowest TFR, 1.21, reclaiming that distinction from Spain, which had a TFR of 1.24. Life expectancy for females in Japan continued to set records at 83. Males in Iceland enjoyed the longest life expectancy, 76.9 years.

United States.
      The population of the U.S. was 263,057,000 in July 1995, up from 260,651,000 a year earlier. This represented an increase of 2,406,000 Americans, or 0.92%. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported that during the 12 months ended in March 1995, natural increase—which is calculated as births minus deaths—amounted to 1,675,000, the net result of 3,955,000 births and 2,280,000 deaths. During that period the birthrate dropped to 15.1 births per 1,000 population, compared with 15.6 in the 12 months ended in March 1994. Preliminary estimates indicated that the U.S. TFR decreased slightly to 2.05 in 1994, from 2.08 in 1990. The natural increase through March 1995 was 74,000 less than in the 12-month period ended March 1994, a result of the gradual aging of women born during the baby boom and a real decline in the birthrate since the 1990 peak.

       Causes of death in the United States, TableThe age-adjusted death rate for the 12-month period ended in February 1995 declined 3% from the same period ended in February 1994. The age-adjusted rate was 504.7 per 100,000 population. The NCHS reported that in 1992 life expectancy at birth rose to a new high, 75.8 years. Female life expectancy was 79.1, a slight increase over 1991, while that of males rose to 72.3 from 72. Life expectancy for white females stabilized at 79.8, a small increase over the previous year. Black men had a life expectancy of only 65 years in 1992. The 15 major causes of death accounted for 85% of all deaths in the year ended in February 1995, about the same as one year earlier. (See Table (Causes of death in the United States, Table).)

      There were 2,356,000 marriages in the U.S. in the 12-month period ended in March 1995, slightly up from 2,329,000 one year earlier. The marriage rate was 9 marriages per 1,000 population, the same as in the previous 12-month period. The number of divorces decreased by 3,000 to 1,180,000. The U.S. infant mortality fell to a historic low of 7.9 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in the 12-month period ended in March 1995. Legal immigration to the U.S. declined in fiscal year 1994 to 804,416, down from 880,014 in 1993. In 1995 immigration accounted for roughly 33% of U.S. net population growth. (CARL V. HAUB)

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
      Governments throughout the world made renewed efforts in 1995 to reduce the number of arrivals of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. In the U.S. the anti-immigrant backlash that had been reflected in the results of the November 1994 elections continued to be a major political theme. Patrick Buchanan, a candidate for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, made the curbing of immigration part of his message of economic nationalism.

      Opposition to immigration also had been part of the message of California Gov. Pete Wilson, whose state had voted in 1994 to deny illegal aliens access to medical and social services. Wilson's presidential campaign quickly failed because of his inability to raise the funds needed to continue.

      The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) fortified the Mexican border with additional floodlights and steel fences and introduced more sophisticated computer and tracking technology. More than $500 million had been budgeted in 1994 by the Clinton administration to halt illegal crossings of the U.S.-Mexico border. The assessments after one year were mixed, with arrests declining in some areas and rising in others. It became known in 1995 that the U.S. had been granting asylum to Mexicans. This tacit recognition of political repression in Mexico was a further cause of tension between the governments of the two countries. The INS also streamlined procedures to expedite the deportation of unqualified asylum seekers. More than 147,000 asylum applications were filed during the year, the largest numbers coming from Guatemalans and Salvadorans.

      The Republican-controlled Congress in September introduced bills that would crack down on illegal immigration and reduce, for the first time since 1924, the number of foreigners allowed to enter the U.S. The Congress proposed, among other measures, to cut legal immigration by one-third and reduce by one-half the number of people granted political asylum. These proposals came under attack not only from groups that had long supported the rights of immigrants but, more unexpectedly, from businessmen who claimed they needed to bring into the country workers, such as computer programmers, who supplemented the insufficient number of U.S. citizens with these skills.

      The number of asylum applications submitted in Western Europe during 1994 dropped to 320,000 from 550,000 in 1993. The largest reduction was recorded in Germany, where 127,000 applications were received, compared with 323,000 a year earlier. Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland all reported significantly fewer applicants. Only The Netherlands and the United Kingdom experienced significant increases. The reductions resulted primarily from the introduction of more restrictive immigration and asylum regulations that were designed to deny entry to foreign nationals originating or arriving from safe countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In response, trafficking in illegal immigrants increased. Romania and Bulgaria were believed to be the most common entry point for illegals from Africa and Asia, while immigrants from Central Asia generally moved from Moscow through the Baltic states, and into Scandinavia. European police agencies were concerned about the growing involvement of international criminal syndicates in these operations. A report by the U.K. Home Office immigration intelligence service claimed that the British government's "light touch" policy on visitors from other European countries had led to massive welfare fraud costing millions of pounds.

      Rapid social and economic change in China, particularly in the coastal provinces Fujian and Guangdong, continued to spur a major exodus of international migrants. The total number of Chinese living illegally in other countries was estimated to have reached at least 500,000. In April 1994 the U.S. State Department estimated that 100,000 illegal Chinese immigrants would enter the U.S. during the year, many of them transported by criminal syndicates and other professional smugglers.

      The movement of Vietnamese boat people to the countries of Southeast Asia came to an effective halt in 1994 as a result of improved economic and political conditions within Vietnam and declining opportunities for resettlement in the West. In 1994, of the roughly 52,000 Vietnamese citizens who legally emigrated by using assistance from an internationally supervised Orderly Departure Program, the vast majority went to the U.S. Some 13,000 Vietnamese boat people returned to their homeland in 1994, about half of them from Hong Kong. More than 40,000, however, remained in camps throughout Southeast Asia at the end of the year.

      South Africa, which completed its transition to majority rule in 1994, was confronted very quickly with a growing influx of immigrants from such less prosperous and stable countries as Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, and Zaire. The number of illegal immigrants in South Africa stood at some two million; many of them were unskilled workers who provided cheap and nonunion labour. This caused growing public concern about the social and economic impact of the new arrivals, which the South African government responded to by deporting over 90,000 foreigners in 1994. (JEFF CRISP)

REFUGEES
      Although the worldwide refugee population had decreased to 14.5 million by early 1995, the total number of persons of concern to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had risen to 27.4 million. That number, however, did not include the 2.8 million Palestinian refugees who fell under the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East or the estimated 26 million other displaced persons. UNHCR continued to implement a core mandate by providing international refugee protection and by seeking permanent solutions to their dislocation, preferably through voluntary repatriation. As a reflection of the increasingly complex displaced-population crisis, UNHCR also expanded its activities to assist 4 million returning refugees, 5.4 million internally displaced persons (those who had a refugee-like status but had not crossed an international border), and 3.5 million others of humanitarian concern.

      The humanitarian crisis, provoked in 1994 by the flight of over two million Rwandans and Burundians in the African Great Lakes region, continued to fester. While disease was kept under control and nutrition remained sufficient, security concerns, environmental degradation, and ethnic imbalances strained the generosity of those African countries that had traditionally welcomed refugees. Zaire, host to the largest number of Rwandan refugees, began forcibly repatriating them. Tanzania, an asylum country for African refugees even before its independence, sealed the border against further arrivals. Meanwhile, an estimated 750,000 refugees, mostly Tutsi who had left in the early 1960s, returned to Rwanda. Many of the former exiles took over houses abandoned by more recent refugees, a move that complicated the return of the new caseload. A meeting of these countries plus Uganda produced in November an agreement to return the refugees to Rwanda. In southern Africa the voluntary repatriation of 1.6 million Mozambicans was successfully completed in June. UNHCR turned its focus to helping their long-term integration into a devastated country. A duplication of the Mozambican repatriation was hoped for in Angola, where a fragile peace prevailed after 20 years of civil war that had spawned 311,000 refugees and 2 million internally displaced persons. In the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia was host nation to some 350,000 Somali, Sudanese, Djiboutian, and Kenyan refugees. Somalia witnessed the return of some 127,000 of its nationals over a 54-month period. UNHCR assisted their reintegration by means of small-scale projects intended to bridge the gap between emergency relief and long-term development. Repatriation to Eritrea faltered in the face of limited donor support. In West Africa the formation of a new government in Monrovia ushered in prospects for an end to five years of fighting and the return of 794,000 Liberian refugees. Violence in neighbouring Sierra Leone resulted in an additional 275,000 Sierra Leonean refugees.

      In former Yugoslavia aggressors and victims changed roles as lightning gains and attritional battles bloated the displaced-person population. By the fall of 1995, fighting had displaced an estimated 500,000 people, adding to the 3.5 million refugees, displaced persons, and others of concern. The peace treaty signed in December raised the possibility that in the short term more people could be displaced to accommodate territorial adjustments. As a token of this, some 750 rebels against the Bosnian government, fearful of their reception, returned from Croatia. In Russia the year opened with a heavy-handed war in the self-declared independent republic of Chechnya. UNHCR assisted the 210,000 persons who had escaped to the neighbouring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, while the International Committee of the Red Cross worked to succour those within Chechnya. The cease-fire agreed to by Armenia and Azerbaijan in May 1994 continued to hold, and some 450,000 of the most needy of those displaced by the dispute in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh were assisted by UNHCR. UNHCR and concerned governments of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) developed a regional approach to the problems affecting refugees, returnees, displaced persons, and migrants in the CIS and relevant neighbouring states. In 1994 Western Europe experienced a 40% decline in asylum applications compared with the previous year. Of the 338,000 persons who applied, 47,000 were granted refugee status and another 58,000 were allowed to stay for humanitarian reasons. By early 1995 some 700,000 persons from former Yugoslavia had been granted temporary protection.

      The Afghan refugees who streamed out of their country after the 1979 invasion by Soviet forces were the largest refugee caseload of concern to UNHCR. About 2.7 million persons fled to Iran and Pakistan. As Afghanistan remained divided into regions of relative peace and ongoing combat, UNHCR attempted to encourage repatriation and mitigate further outflows by intensifying its activities in safer areas within the country. A major impediment to return and rehabilitation—as was the case also in Angola, Cambodia, and Mozambique—was the presence of indiscriminately sown land mines. Although most of the 500,000 internally displaced Tajiks and 60,000 Tajik refugees had returned to their places of origin within Tajikistan or in Afghanistan, some 34,000 Tajiks remained displaced. In a departure, UNHCR supported the Tajikistan authorities in protecting returnees and attempted to resolve conflicts. The 15,000 Turkish Kurd refugees in Iraq endured further displacement and uncertainty when their camps were targeted during a Turkish operation against suspected Kurd militants. More than 600,000 Iraqi refugees, mostly Kurds and Arab Shi'ites, combined with 1.6 million Afghan refugees to make Iran the top country of asylum. In Yemen, Somali refugees, many of whom had previously found themselves on the front line between warring sides of Yemeni, fell prey to a campaign of forced repatriation. Two years after the signing of a declaration of principles between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, Palestinian refugees were forcibly pushed out of Libya and put under increasing pressure to leave Lebanon as well.

      In Asia more than 200,000 Burmese Muslim refugees had repatriated from Bangladesh since September 1992, and 50,000 remained in camps in Bangladesh. The repatriation of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from southern India ebbed and flowed in tandem with developments in Sri Lanka. More than 10,000 Sri Lankans returned in the first half of 1995, but 54,000 remained in camps in India. Some 85,000 Bhutanese refugees remained in camps in Nepal as efforts to resolve their plight proved fruitless. Plans to settle Indo-Chinese asylum seekers met a temporary roadblock when 41,000 Vietnamese nonrefugees refused to repatriate in the hope that proposed legislation would allow them to resettle in the United States. Nearly a million Vietnamese had fled after the fall of the Saigon government in 1975, and the vast majority had resettled in other countries. Under the Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indo-Chinese Refugees (CPA), those who had left for reasons other than a well-founded fear of persecution were designated for repatriation. Of the more than 73,000 persons who had returned to Vietnam since the implementation of the CPA in 1989, UNHCR found no significant cases of persecution.

      The plight of Cubans and Haitians who had taken to the high seas and then been apprehended and sequestered at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was resolved. Following a political breakthrough in Haiti and the reinstatement of Pres. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haitians were repatriated, involuntarily in many cases. Most of the 21,000 Cubans at Guantánamo were allowed to enter the U.S., but any Cubans picked up at sea would be returned to Cuba after Pres. Bill Clinton revoked a long-standing U.S. policy of granting asylum to all Cubans. The repatriation of the more than 40,000 Guatemalan refugees in Mexico proceeded cautiously; the deliberate killing of returnees by paramilitary groups, notably in the fall, amplified the wariness of potential returnees. The United States issued guidelines to help immigration officers grant asylum to women who were threatened with sexual violence, which was used as political persecution in their homeland. The new guidelines did not change the criteria needed for refugee status but rather educated asylum officers about gender-based discrimination and provided them with procedures and methods for evaluating refugee standards for individual claims.

      (UNHCR)

      This updates the article population.

RACE AND ETHNIC RELATIONS
      Worldwide, the catalog of race and ethnic problems continued to be long and grim in 1995.

Europe.
      Russia's Human Rights Commission reported that 24,000 civilians had been killed in Grozny after 40,000 Russian troops entered the republic of Chechnya in December 1994 to quell a rebellion by Chechen separatists.

      Croatian and Bosnian Muslim forces routed Bosnian Serbs to retake much of the territory lost in the bloody three-year civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. While retaliatory "ethnic cleansing" continued, the U.S. brokered a cease-fire between all parties—Croats, Serbs, and Muslims—and helped negotiate a peace agreement in November. Thousands of ethnic Georgians were expelled from the autonomous republic of Abkhazia by February 1995. The war in the Azerbaijani enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, where Armenians formed the bulk of the population, had so far claimed 20,000 lives and left 600,000 people homeless.

      In France radical Algerian Islamists were suspected of a 1994 airline hijacking and repeated bombings of civilian targets, primarily in Paris. Neo-Nazi extremists were suspects in the February bomb explosion that killed four Gypsies in Austria and in the firebombing of Turkish mosques, travel agencies, and German cultural centres in Cologne, Gelsenkirchen, and Erlenbach. During the week in early May when the 50th anniversary of V-E (Victory in Europe) Day was commemorated, a fire was set in a synagogue in Lübeck, tombstones of Nazi victims were toppled in Berlin, and that city's New Synagogue was rededicated.

      In Spain, Basque terrorists kidnapped a Madrid businessman. The government opened an inquiry into the deaths in 1993 of Basque guerrillas, apparently at the hands of death squads employed by the Ministry of Interior. Britain engaged in peace talks held in Washington, D.C., with Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, over the fate of Northern Ireland. A vote of the Slovak parliament curbing the use of the Hungarian language angered citizens of Hungarian descent and led Prime Minister Gyula Horn of Hungary to protest. He claimed that this action violated the European Convention on Human Rights and could jeopardize the entry of each country into the European Union.

North America.
      In the U.S. in October, some 835,000 blacks peacefully participated in the "Million Man March" in Washington, D.C., to demonstrate solidarity among black males and to bring about a spiritual renewal that would instill a sense of personal responsibility for improving the condition of African-Americans. The event was organized by Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, and directed by Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the former executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP, under the chairmanship of Myrlie Evers-Williams (see BIOGRAPHIES (Evers-Williams, Myrlie )), did not endorse the march. The march and the not-guilty verdict in the trial of former football star O.J. Simpson, a black, accused of murdering his estranged wife and one of her friends, both white, elicited vastly different reactions among blacks and whites and placed race relations, the plight of black youth, and the condition of black urban neighbourhoods at the centre of a national policy debate. Kweisi Mfume of Maryland resigned his congressional seat to take over as president and chief executive officer of the NAACP. Mfume vowed to revitalize the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, which had been troubled by scandal and controversy for over two years.

      The results of several studies conducted by the New York Times over two decades suggested that although blacks were victims in one-half of all murders committed each year, 85% of those executed had killed a white, while 11% had murdered a black. The results indicated that the death penalty was imposed more often when the victim was white, whether the killer was black or white.

      In Canada, Quebec's governing party, the Parti Québécois, held an October referendum on sovereignty. After the measure was narrowly defeated, Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau dealt a blow to the separatist movement's pledge to ethnic pluralism and diversity by remarking in a concession speech that the defeat was caused by "money and the ethnic vote."

      In Mexico's Chiapas state, representatives of the federal government and Zapatista guerrillas held peace talks in January, April, and October to end an almost two-year insurgency over demands for better living conditions for Mayan Indian peasants, the poorest in Mexico.

South America.
      Macushi Indians in Roraima state, Brazil, demanded that the government fulfill a promise to set aside 10,460 sq km (6,500 sq mi) of ancestral land as an official reserve, a move vigorously opposed by local settlers. In a nearby area, civil rights advocates filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, claiming that Yanomamö Indians had been the victims of genocidal killings when gold miners had camped on their land two years earlier.

Asia.
      A force of 35,000 Turkish troops crossed the border into Iraq in March to crush Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas who were assisting Turkish Kurds in their long-simmering rebellion.

      The Israeli government and the Palestinians completed negotiations for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from about 30% of the territory of the occupied West Bank, giving the Palestinians control of the seven largest towns there. In Israel bombings continued by such extremist groups as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Muslim guerrillas of the Hezbollah launched attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and on Israeli civilians in northern Israel. Negotiations with Syria over the disposition of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights remained deadlocked, but in December U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher indicated that talks might soon resume.

      India remained troubled by religious and ethnic conflict. Hindu extremists advocated suppression of the country's Muslims, Sikhs sought a separate state in Punjab, and Muslim rebels in Jammu and Kashmir opposed India's rule over the country's only state with a Muslim majority. In Pakistan, Sunni Muslim gunmen fired into Shi'ite mosques in Karachi in February, killing 20 worshipers. By October more than 2,500 persons had been killed in sectarian clashes in Karachi alone. The Mohajir Qaumi Movement stepped up efforts to gain greater autonomy in Karachi for Muslims who fled India in 1947. Tamil separatist rebels broke a three-month cease-fire with Sri Lankan government troops in April, ending negotiations over possible concessions toward Tamil autonomy in the northern part of the country. Attacks on military bases and bombings in villages over several months resulted in hundreds of Tamil and Sinhalese deaths. (See Secularism in South Asia (Spotlight: Secularism in South Asia ).)

      In January troops of Myanmar's (Burma's) military junta captured the headquarters and last stronghold of the Karen National Union on the Thai-Burmese border. The ethnic-based movement had been fighting for independence from Myanmar since 1948. Several months later Burmese troops, joined by dissident Karens, attacked Karen refugee camps in Thailand.

Africa.
      Virtually all African countries south of the Sahara exhibited ethnopolitical divisions. Rwanda struggled in the aftermath of the deaths of an estimated 500,000 persons, mostly Tutsi, at the hands of Hutu soldiers and militia. The Tutsi-dominated government engaged in vigilante justice and attempts at legal retribution. In neighbouring Burundi, where a long-standing Tutsi government ruled over an ethnic population comprising 15% Tutsi and 85% Hutu, clashes between Hutu and Tutsi occurred regularly.

      Clan rivalry and violence continued sporadically in Somalia. Northern clans cooperated to administer a self-styled "Republic of Somaliland"; no central government had returned to southern Somalia. The execution of prominent writer Ken Saro-Wiwa (see OBITUARIES (Saro-Wiwa, Kenule Beeson )) in November brought charges by Human Rights Watch of genocide against the Ogoni people by the military government of Nigeria.

      A cease-fire was negotiated between the Sudanese government, now dominated by Islamic fundamentalists, and southern rebels (Christian and animists) who had been fighting for independence or autonomy since 1983. In Mali, Tuareg rebels, who also operated in neighbouring Niger, attacked settlements and government outposts near Timbuktu and other towns on the edge of the Sahara desert. Liberia's six-year civil war between factions originating in ethnoregional groups that spanned the country's borders came to a negotiated end.

      Racial division narrowed in South Africa, five years after the official end of apartheid, with racial integration the rule in all public institutions. Majority black rule seemed to have brought a decline in political and racial violence, although KwaZulu/Natal province remained the primary scene of political killings and unrest within the Zulu population. Threats from the "white right" and calls for a separate volkstaat (Afrikaner enclave) were diluted considerably by mainstream politics, which promoted cross-racial alliances. The National Party made gains among Coloureds in Western Cape province, and the African National Congress attracted many white liberals.

      Islamic militants assaulted government officials and foreigners in Egypt and Algeria. While visiting Addis Ababa, Eth., in June, Egyptian Pres. Hosni Mubarak survived an assassination attempt, which he blamed on Sudanese Islamic fundamentalists. The government of Algeria continued a counterterrorist campaign against several militant Islamic groups after hard-line police and army officials rejected a peace plan put together by the opposition leadership. In the mountainous Kabylie region, armed Berber groups fought militant Islamists. (See The Berbers of North Africa (Spotlight: The Berbers of North Africa ).) (HARVEY GLICKMAN)

SOCIAL PROTECTION
      Efforts were made throughout most parts of the world in 1995 to ease the strain brought about by widespread unemployment and to restructure and reform benefit programs. Social security benefits and programs in Western Europe were used to promote the introduction of new and flexible forms of employment. Countries in Central and Eastern Europe followed the lead of their Western neighbours, but they were primarily concerned with ensuring that large segments of the population did not fall below a minimum standard of living. In industrialized Asia and the Pacific, efforts were made to combat discrimination in the distribution of social security benefits. Major reforms were proposed but not implemented in emerging and less developed countries. In North America the U.S. and Canada initiated a massive restructuring of social policy, as did Mexico, where a 52-year-old social security system was on the brink of collapse.

North America.
      The first U.S. Republican-controlled Congress in 40 years moved to cut back and dismantle welfare, health care, and other social policies launched during Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and expanded under Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society.

      The Republicans wanted to reduce federal spending and administrative involvement by turning more control over to states and ending entitlements, which guaranteed benefits to every eligible individual. Opponents called the changes "social regression" and charged that critical assistance would end for large numbers of children and other needy and disadvantaged persons. At the end of the year, portions of the government were shut down in the impasse between the two sides.

      Congress began its revision of social programs by overhauling the $23 billion, 60-year-old welfare program that had supported 4.7 million families and more than 9 million children with cash benefits, child care, child protection, school meals, and nutritional aid. The House of Representatives passed a welfare-reform measure in March, and the Senate followed in September. The two versions agreed on the general thrust of reform but differed in some important aspects, with the House clamping down harder than the Senate. Both bills called for replacing the existing entitlement program with lump-sum block grants to the states, which would run their own programs and take responsibility for determining eligibility and the establishment of job training and child-care assistance.

      Certain limitations were set, requiring most recipients to work within two years of receiving benefits and limiting them to a lifetime maximum of five years on welfare rolls. The bills denied noncitizens access to a variety of services. The House version barred states from using federal funding to provide cash assistance to unwed teenage mothers or children born to welfare recipients. The Senate proposal made those restrictions optional. The House measure did not include provisions to expand education, job training, and federally subsidized jobs, which were part of the Senate bill.

      The changes would reduce federal welfare spending over seven years by an estimated $66 billion (Senate) to $90 billion (House). Critics estimated that the cuts would end benefits for more than 100,000 children. President Clinton, who had called for "an end to welfare as we know it" during his 1992 election campaign, vetoed the Republican bill in December. His counterproposal promised additional education, job training, and child-care assistance to help cushion the transition.

      Even before Congress acted, some states obtained or requested waivers to revamp their welfare programs. Wisconsin, Michigan, New Jersey, and Massachusetts were among those experimenting with policies that required beneficiaries to work and limited the time they could remain on welfare. Several states reported reductions in welfare rolls and spending, but some observers questioned the extent and lasting effects of the gains.

      In terms of the number of people affected and potential savings, the most significant social program targeted for reform by the Congress was Medicare, the federal health-insurance program, begun in 1965, that covered 37.2 million elderly and disabled. Soaring costs prompted trustees of the fund to forecast that Medicare would be insolvent by the year 2002 if nothing was done. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that without significant changes, the cost of Medicare would rise to $455 billion, or 18.6% of the federal budget, in 2005 from $178 billion, or 11.7%, in 1995. Citing these concerns, the House of Representatives approved a plan that would reduce projected Medicare spending by $270 billion over the next seven years. Democrats, while acknowledging the need to slow Medicare costs, contended that the Republicans wanted to gut the program in order to fund a tax cut for the wealthy. They offered their own plan for a $90 billion, seven-year cut.

      Most of the savings in the Republican plan would be realized from smaller increases in payments to doctors, hospitals, and other health-care providers and from limiting malpractice awards and cracking down on fraud and abuse. Premiums would be raised for most beneficiaries, with larger increases for the wealthiest. Seniors would be encouraged to move into private health maintenance organizations and other managed-care plans, but they could choose to keep their existing fee-for-service Medicare coverage.

      Medicaid—a medical assistance program jointly financed by state and federal governments for qualified low-income individuals—was also targeted for reform. Under a new proposal, the main responsibility for running Medicaid would be shifted to the states, which would receive lump-sum payments from Congress and the responsibility to decide, within flexible guidelines, whom to cover and at what level.

      Proponents of the overhaul said it would save the federal government $182 billion over seven years. Foes denounced it as an assault on children and the elderly and noted that 39.7 million Americans did not have health insurance.

      Republicans pushed for cutbacks, stricter regulations, greater state responsibility, and changes in such other programs as food stamps, subsidized housing, legal aid, job training, and supplemental security income for the aged, blind, and disabled. They also sought to tighten eligibility standards and to reduce the cost of the earned income tax credit, which provided $25 billion in direct tax refunds to about 20 million low-income working families.

      The only changes scheduled in social security for 1996 were the annual adjustments in benefits and taxes. However, major revisions were proposed, including a rise in the retirement age and a reduction in the annual cost-of-living adjustment in benefits, in anticipation of an influx into the system of retired baby boomers. The automatic annual increase would boost benefits by 2.6% in 1996, raising the average monthly payment for a retired worker from $702 to $720 and from $1,184 to $1,215 for couples. The social security tax rate would remain at 12.4%, but it would be levied on the first $62,700 of workers' salaries, up from $61,200 in 1995. An additional 2.9% Medicare tax (one-half of which was paid by employers and the other half paid by employees) would continue to apply to all wages.

      Social program retrenchments in Canada were significant, though not as broad as in the U.S. Canada had been considered socially more responsive than the U.S., with a comprehensive national health plan and generous welfare benefits. The federal government announced in February that payments transferred to the provinces for health, welfare, and postsecondary education, which amounted to nearly $30 billion in 1995, would be cut by $2.5 billion in 1996-97 and $4.5 billion in 1997-98. Starting in 1996, federal funds that had been allocated for those three areas would be lumped together in a new Canada Social Transfer Fund. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's goal was to cut health spending by about $10 billion each year, and he was expected to push for budget cuts in pensions, child care, services for the homeless, legal aid, and help for the disabled. The Ottawa government also announced plans to review old-age security and the Canada Pension Plan and said it would consider new approaches to government-run job-training programs and the unemployment insurance system.

      Some provinces, in an effort to balance budgets and cut taxes, acted to slash health and welfare benefits by imposing workfare, closing and merging hospitals, and cutting back on universal coverage that paid for doctor and hospital visits. In October the welfare rates in Ontario were reduced by 21.6%. British Columbia became the first province to impose, as of December 1, a residency requirement for those seeking welfare. These actions came at a time when the National Council of Welfare (NCW) reported that poverty rates in Canada had grown dramatically. The number of those living in poverty, as defined by the NCW, rose to 4.8 million in 1993 from 4.3 million in 1992, bringing the poverty rate to 17.4%. Children were hardest hit, with 20.8% of those under age 18 living in poverty, compared with 20.5% of people 65 and older.

      In the U.S. the Census Bureau reported that the number of people living in poverty dropped by 1.2 million in 1994, to 38.1 million, the first year-to-year decline since 1989. The proportion of those below the poverty line, defined as $15,141 for a family of four, fell from 15.1% in 1993 to 14.5% in 1994.

Western Europe.
      In this region, where 10% of the economically active population suffered from unemployment, a number of governments promoted alternative jobs that made working life more flexible and provided a possible way of preventing additional job losses and of reducing unemployment. Social security benefits were used by employers to entice employees to accept part-time work, reduced weekly or annual work hours, night or weekend work, fixed-term employment, and participation in job-sharing and extended-leave programs. Denmark's special-leave program—launched to encourage employees to take time off work and thereby allow temporary employment for some of the unemployed—proved so popular that it had to be curtailed by 10%. Under the old plan, employees were paid 80% of the maximum unemployment benefit when they took time off for job training, sabbaticals, or parental leave.

      Belgium introduced a program that entitled employees to take up to two months off work to care for an elderly parent or someone with an incurable disease. During this time social security coverage continued without interruption and the employee was granted a pay allowance.

      As alternative working practices spread, a number of countries recognized a need to avoid discrimination. In the United Kingdom both full- and part-time workers would receive the same benefits in cases of layoffs and wrongful dismissal. In The Netherlands one of the largest funds announced that it would grant pensions to part-time workers and, in compliance with a ruling by the European Court of Justice, would credit service back to 1976. The European Commission drafted a directive to eliminate sex discrimination affecting occupational pension benefits.

      Most social security payments in Western Europe were made on an individual basis, rather than as a joint benefit payment to couples. Switzerland abolished a joint benefit for couples and introduced provisions for early retirement. It also raised the retirement age for women from 62 to 63, effective in 2001, and to 64 in 2005. The retirement age for men remained unchanged at 65.

      In an effort to reduce the absentee rate due to sickness, the Dutch government considered privatizing sick leave by obligating employers to cover the costs on the basis of civil law. During the summer Italy passed a long-awaited pension reform that was similar to the Swedish plan, which linked retirement benefits to life expectancy and gave incentives to those who purchased private coverage.

      In France, however, attempts by the government to change the social security system led to a series of strikes that forced a renegotiation of the plan.

Central and Eastern Europe.
      Countries in Central and Eastern Europe faced difficulties in implementing their social security systems owing to persistently high levels of inflation and unemployment. Governments made efforts, however, to maintain minimum standards of living and to continue the payment of benefits.

      In Russia minimum wages and pensions were more than doubled, while Lithuania launched a program granting special income support to families in need. After the approval in May of an austerity package in Hungary, the government planned to reduce allowances for child care, maternity, and families as of July 1, 1995. The Constitutional Court decided against these cuts, ruling that those concerned would not have enough time to prepare for the changes and that the protection of families, mothers, and children was guaranteed under the constitution. The Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia was preparing a new law that would introduce a supplementary earnings-related pension. Attempts were made in Bulgaria to combat long-term unemployment with the introduction of a national part-time employment program that would encourage employers to hire the unemployed on a short-term, part-time basis. Romania sought to reduce its unemployment problem by offering early retirement.

Industrialized Asia and the Pacific.
      In Japan there was continued concern about the effects of an aging population on economic and social systems. A group of experts commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Welfare proposed long-term-care insurance that would cover persons aged 65 and older and would be funded by additional contributions to social security. The ministry projected that within five years the aging population and growing medical costs would require an increase of up to 25% in contributions made to social security health insurance.

      Hong Kong launched an improved social security package that included increases in existing benefits and the introduction of new ones, notably a special supplement to single-parent families. In Taiwan new national health insurance legislation came into force, covering employed persons and their dependents; the latter did not qualify for benefits under previous regulations.

      Australia continued to pay social security benefits on an individual basis rather than making combined payments to couples or families. A parenting allowance was introduced for spouses of welfare recipients or low-wage earners whose main responsibility was caring for dependent children under age 16. It was paid to the primary caregiver for a dependent child but was subject to an income threshold. In New Zealand pension plans were required to obtain independent legal counsel to comply with the 1993 Human Rights Act.

Emerging and Less Developed Countries.
      Though no major social security reforms were reported, debate centred on the elements of reform that should be addressed prior to a comprehensive overhaul of the system. In Brazil the Commission on Constitution and Justice removed a major obstacle to reform by ruling that the revision of the "long-service pension" was permitted under the constitution. The pension, which could be paid to an employee of any age after 30 years of service, was one of the main financial drains on the country's social security system. In June Uruguay's president drafted a social security reform plan that included a mixed system of pay-as-you-go and capitalization. Pension reform stemming from changes made since 1993 to both the health and workers' compensation plans was under discussion in Nicaragua.

      Problems of inadequate coverage and financial imbalances continued to plague many emerging and less developed countries. Nevertheless, Bahrain and Iran offered coverage to the self-employed, and the Philippines adopted legislation that extended health coverage to all citizens. In China individual cities and provinces introduced social security reforms and experimented with plans for retirement, health, work injury, and unemployment. The Caribbean nations of Dominica, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines increased the levels of benefits paid to the insured and introduced additional benefits. Malawi announced that it would establish a workers' compensation fund followed by a comprehensive social security plan.

      (CHRISTIANE KUPTSCH; DAVID M. MAZIE)

      See also Insurance (Business and Industry Review ); Education ; Health and Disease .

      This updates the article social service.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

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