safe haven
A zone of territory within a sovereign state demarcated by the United Nations (or other international organization) as a refuge to which a persecuted ethnic minority can choose to retire. While within such a zone the ethnic minority is afforded military protection by the body that established the zone. The international community set up safe havens in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia in response to acts of systematic persecution carried out by the government of the sovereign state concerned against part of its own population. See also humanitarian intervention. |