The work of my office started almost 50 years ago, in December 1950, when the General Assembly of the United Nations voted a resolution to set up the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. It was then a very small organisation. 48 years later, the organisation has grown enormously. Today the Office cares not only for 12.5 million refugees but also for more than 10 million people of different categories - displaced within their own country, returnees, and others.

Today, UNHCR is one of the most important humanitarian organisations in the world. Just to give you some examples, approximately 20 to 30 % of the population of Afghanistan - 3 million people - live in exile in neighbouring countries. Although the war in former Yugoslavia ended in 1995, about 30% of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to live away from their homes. During a period of four years, at the end of a bloody civil war, over half a million people were massacred in a genocide in Rwanda, and over 2 million people fled the country, one quarter of the entire current population has recently returned from exile.

In addition to legal work on individual cases, the Office now deals with massive flows of displaced people. Sometimes huge logistical means must be mobilised to bring assistance to refugees or returnees - many of you will remember the airlift which kept the city of Sarajevo alive for three years during the war in Bosnia; or another airlift, which brought emergency assistance to a cholera-stricken population of one million Rwandans in the Zairean city of Goma.

The size and scope of the UNHCR's activity have therefore increased substantially since 1950. But its core mandate - to ensure the protection of people who flee because they are threatened by persecution, discrimination or violence - has not changed. Our concern for them translates into concrete action, such as ensuring they are granted safe asylum, are not returned involuntarily to their country, and - whenever necessary - are provided with basic material assistance. 'Protection' is not just a legal concept; it can also be physical protection, ensuring that people are not harassed, tortured, imprisoned or even killed.

During the Cold War, refugees crossed borders that were as much ideological as they were political. The end of the Cold War suddenly made it possible for long term refugee situations to be "defrosted". Since the early Nineties therefore, although we continued to focus on protecting people who flee, and on meeting their basic material needs, we have increasingly attempted to seek and pursue solutions to refugee situations.

UNHCR has learned one important lesson: refugees usually want to return home. Some - especially the younger ones - certainly wish to start a new life in a country with better opportunities: in this, are they different from other young people all over the world? The great majority, however, wish to go back.

Last year, for example, while visiting Ukraine, I was told of a group of Tatar women who had been expelled from their area of origin and deported to other regions under the Stalinist regime when they were young girls. 40 years elapsed, but these women were determined to return home. I met some of them in the Crimea region. They had recently returned, with our help. I was profoundly struck by their strong determination to start a new life in their original homes - in an area even poorer than the one they had been deported to. Belonging in one place is a feeling which has deep roots in people's hearts and minds. Voluntary repatriation is therefore our preferred solution to the problem of human displacement.

When repatriation may expose refugees to persecution or death, however, different solutions must be pursued. The most common are the integration of refugees in their host country, or resettlement to another one. Economic problems and ethnic conflicts have made local integration a more difficult option. On the other hand, Western countries admit a certain number of refugees every year. This 'quota' is relatively small - hence the limited potential for resettlement, which we try to reserve for very vulnerable refugees, for example unaccompanied minors, single mothers and their children, and rape victims.

Let me now share with you some reflections about the nature of our work, and about the problems confronting us.

Humanitarian work has its origin in a simple, but powerful idea - saving the lives of innocent civilians. Conflicts were as deadly and destructive as they are now, but their patterns were simpler.

Today, both war and peace have changed. Internal conflicts have multiplied. Distinctions between fighters and victims have become difficult to make. Entire ethnic groups are targeted and - as in the former Yugoslavia - 'cleansed'. To starve people has become a tool of war. And humanitarian workers are often perceived as taking sides.

The most blatant example of this situation occurred in the eastern region of what was then Zaire, and is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. There, over one million Rwandans took refuge in July 1994. Among them were refugees fleeing the civil war - innocent women and children - but also the perpetrators of one of the most terrible acts of this century, the genocide of hundreds and thousands of fellow Rwandans. UNHCR and other agencies were put in an impossible situation: either help the refugees, and by so doing, inevitably assist the criminals; or withdraw support and let the innocent die. We appealed in vain for military support to separate the two groups. And finally, we decided we had no right to abandon the refugees, and stayed on to provide protection and assistance.

In the former Yugoslavia too, we had to face terrible dilemmas. If we rescued people threatened by ethnic cleansing by moving them to safer areas, we were called accomplices to this criminal practice; if we did not, we were called accomplices to murder.

I do not have quick prescriptions on how to tackle the kind of dilemmas I have exemplified. The main reason for this is that solutions to humanitarian problems such as forced displacement or famine are never exclusively humanitarian. Other actors must be involved. Governments must assume their responsibilities. Yourselves, as active members of society, have some responsibilities. In this respect, I would like to indicate two directions.

First, we must look for ways to re-establish a consensus on the value and necessity of 'safety for those who are persecuted, or threatened by violence. In order to achieve this, a sense of international responsibility for those in need of rescue must be restored.

Second, as I have already said, it is essential to understand that without political and diplomatic support, it will be impossible for humanitarian agencies alone to resolve the problems they face today.

My two points are meant to indicate which possible directions to take if we want to go beyond the dilemmas often blocking humanitarian work. All, obviously, depend on the willingness of governments to take political initiatives and to allocate resources. The current environment in developed countries is not favourable. Public funds are decreasing. Unemployment continues to be high in most countries. Immigration - often mixed and confused with refugee news - is seen as a threat. An inward looking trend prevails, and is often made worse by unscrupulous politicians.

I have appealed to governments, and I will continue to do so, on behalf of those who flee violence and persecution. But this is not enough. A constructive approach to refugee problems - internally and internationally - is also the responsibility of civil society. All of you - all of us - have the moral duty to fight against the exclusion and marginalisation of the weakest members of society. To resist the easy appeal of xenophobia. To depoliticise refugee issues and promote a message of acceptance and tolerance. Problems of displacement in far away regions have a very wide impact on peace and stability everywhere.

Let me conclude by saying that UNHCR's work is not only about 'issues' - it is especially about 'people'. My colleagues in many countries worldwide work closely with refugees and returnee people. Refugee protection often means sharing with people in danger the same threats and the same risks they face. This is why any support we receive has an immediate impact on the welfare, safety and dignity of men, women and children who are forcibly displaced. It means giving back to people who cannot choose any more, the ability to make choices about their lives and destinies. In order to achieve this, we need help. From states. From civil societies. From you.

These are edited extracts from a speech made by Mrs Sadako Ogata in Tokyo. Mrs Ogata is a graduate of the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo and an Emeritus Member of AMASC. She has had a long and distinguished career in international relations and has been United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 1991. She has also received many international awards and is the author of numerous publications on diplomatic history and international relations.