United Nations High Commission for Refugees. No discussion of population dynamics is complete without an examination of migration. As Chapter 10 notes, migration takes two forms, refugees and internally displaced people. Refugees are defined as people who flee for safety to another country because of a well-founded fear of persecution. Internally displaced people are involuntarily uprooted from their homes but still live in their own country. In either instance, these people have given up everything - home, belongings, family and country - for an uncertain future in a strange land. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is an organization of the United Nations that leads and coordinates international action for the world-wide protection of refugees and the resolution of refugee problems. This Web site is a wealth of information on refugees and a good place to start examining the issues involved. From the homepage students can explore "The World" by clicking a region on the map to reach country-specific information about refugees. "Statistics" give you current numbers on refugees worldwide as well as by country. Explore the "Witness" link to see an award winning multimedia series of documentaries entitled "Roads to Refuge." Finally, click on "Images" to see what it is like to be a refugee.

UNAIDS. UNAIDS is a United Nations' joint program and leading advocate for worldwide action against HIV/AIDS. Its mission is to strengthen and support an expanded response to the global AIDS epidemic. UNAIDS devises programs that will prevent the spread of HIV, provide care and support for those infected and affected by the disease and alleviate the socioeconomic and human impact of the epidemic. Explore this Web site to read the global HIV/AIDS surveillance by country, listen to find out about the World AIDS Campaign. What affect do you think AIDS will have on population growth rates?

The United Nations and the Status of Women: Setting the Global Gender Agenda. Focus 10.3 in Chapter 10 chronicles a quarter-century of progress on women's rights. As you can see, the United Nations and its programs has been the most important international forum on women's rights. This Web site explains the major UN programs that advance women's rights, such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, UN Actions for Women, Commission on the Status of Women, Women in Development, and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.