ABSTRACT
The crisis of internal displacement affected 11 of the 45 countries of the council of Europe. The level of internal displacement has fallen gradually since the mid-1990s, when the total number of IDPs in Europe reached a peak of nearly 4 million. The breakup of two multi-ethnic states, the Soviet Union and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in the early 1990s triggered the most serious crisis of internal displacement in Europe since World War II. For instance, UN agencies have launched consolidated inter-agency appeals for south-eastern Europe without interruption since 1994. The regional dimension of internal displacement has been increasingly acknowledged by all relevant actors in Europe, including regional organizations such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the council of Europe. The latest regional initiative has been the stability pact for south-eastern Europe, adopted in June 1999 by 40 countries and international organizations to coordinate their efforts in the Balkans.
