New York: Five "mega-trends" -- population growth, urbanization, climate change, migration and food, water and energy insecurity –- made contemporary forms of displacement increasingly complex, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.
Addressing the Committee as it took up questions relating to refugees, returnees and displaced persons and humanitarian activities, High Commissioner António Guterres said these mega-trends were causing crises to multiply and deepen. Together with the global financial and economic downturn, this meant humanitarian action was taking place in a difficult international environment.
"Attempting to deal with these mega-trends individually would doom the effort to failure. They are a global reality and need a global response", he said. "This has not always been the strongest feature of an international community whose analytical and policy tools are fragmented and dispersed."
He highlighted efforts over the past three years to reform his Office -- UNHCR -- which will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary next year -- noting that it, nevertheless, faced four main challenges. These included shrinking humanitarian space, with humanitarian actions facing unprecedented insecurity in the field; shrinking asylum space marked by greater restriction and fewer rights; increasing difficulty in achieving durable solutions, resulting in more situations of protracted displacement; and rising numbers of urban refugees.
He stressed that, although the UNHCR was not yet the organization it could be, "it was getting there". If the measure for these reforms was delivering enhanced protection, assistance and solutions for those it cared for, many could already be judged as effective. Not only had significant resources been freed up and used to bridge critical gaps in the field, but UNHCR's new approach to assessing beneficiary needs and its ambitious results-based framework -- the Global Needs Assessment (GNA) -- had been rolled out worldwide earlier this year.
To fill gaps in responses to natural disasters at the field level, he had also requested that the UNHCR be allowed to take the lead role at the organization's Executive Committee meeting a month ago. The UNHCR was well placed to provide support to Governments, which had the main role and responsibility in responding to natural disasters, but might lack the expertise to coordinate protection-related activities.
During the ensuing general discussion, delegates underlined the need to address the root causes of displacement, particularly armed conflict and political instability. As part of that effort, durable solutions to protracted refugee situations should also be sought, many said. The representative of Liechtenstein welcomed UNHCR's approach in that regard, stressing that the first step out of a prolonged period of dependency must be a real choice between a safe and dignified return, local reintegration or resettlement.
The United States representative said that finding durable solutions was one of the best investments that could be made in advancing the security and welfare of refugees. Such work was inextricably linked to humanitarian assistance efforts, but should also move beyond care and maintenance towards increasing the self-reliance of all refugees, and especially those in protracted situations.
Citing the burdens caused by the influx of so many refugees, a number of host countries called for more international support, including financial assistance. Yemen's delegate said that, in addition to the thousands of refugees it had received from the Horn of Africa in past years, 46,000 Somalis had entered Yemen since the beginning of 2009 and assistance was needed to blunt the economic burden posed by the absorption of so many refugees. The representative of Kenya stressed that work was also needed to help local communities stop conflicts and environmental degradation.
Several countries highlighted the situation of Afghan refugees, whose country continued to be the leading country of origin of all global refugees. The delegations of Iran and Pakistan -- where the majority of the Afghan refugees currently resided -- stressed that beyond being voluntary, returns needed to be sustainable. Pakistan's delegate suggested a "pull factor" that included the design of viable individual and family return packages could help. The assistance regime, which had been reduced in 2002, should also be strengthened.
The representative of Afghanistan noted his country's "lost citizens" had at last begun to find their way home, with over a quarter of a million of them returning in the past year. But, repatriation alone did not equal success, and coordinated work to ensure that refugees returned safely, voluntarily, gradually and with dignity was needed. He said his Government was working to increase its absorption capacity in order to manage and assist sustainable reintegration, but Afghanistan would have difficulty implementing its strategy for refugees without sustained financial assistance from the international community.
A portion of the debate centred on the process of local integration. Several countries applauded the decision by the United Republic of Tanzania to offer local integration through naturalization to the 1972 caseload of Burundian refugees. Others, citing the potential difficulties in this process, urged more focus on third-party resettlement.
To this end, Iran's delegate cautioned that local integration could spark a crisis for host countries, especially in "mass influx situations", and the international community should refrain from providing unrealistic and irrational remedies. Moreover, the UNHCR should encourage more participation by the international community, including developed countries, in resettlement efforts.
Also speaking were representatives of the United Republic of Tanzania (also on behalf of the Southern African Development Community), Sweden (on behalf of the European Union), Federated States of Micronesia (on behalf of the Pacific small island developing States), Japan, Switzerland, Georgia, Norway, Egypt, Colombia, Sudan, Algeria, Russian Federation, Zambia, Ethiopia, Canada, Morocco, Ukraine, Thailand, Montenegro, Bangladesh, India, Serbia, Republic of Korea, Malta, Mauritania, South Africa, Nigeria, Kuwait, Jamaica, Liberia and Azerbaijan.
The representatives of Sri Lanka and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea spoke in exercise of the right of reply.
Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the International Organization for Migration also participated in the debate.
The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. Thursday, 5 November, to hear the introduction of several draft resolutions and take action on others.
Background
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met this morning to take up the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and to consider questions relating to refugees, returnees and displaced persons and humanitarian questions.
The report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (document A/64/12) provides an account of the work carried out by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) between January 2008 and mid-2009, in response to the needs of over 34 million people of concern. It looks at major developments and challenges with respect to protection, assistance and finding durable solutions for refugees, internally displaced persons, stateless persons and others of concern; progress made three years into the reform process; renewed efforts to tackle protracted refugee situations; and an overview of UNHCR's global priorities. Partnerships and coordination of action with other concerned entities, both within and outside of the United Nations system, are also reviewed.
The report states that, of the 34.4 million people of concern to the UNHCR, some 10.5 million were refugees at the end of 2008. The number of identified stateless people stood at almost 6.6 million; however, the actual number of stateless people worldwide is estimated to be closer to 12 million. The number of people displaced in their own country as a result of conflict remained high, at an estimated 26 million, with 14.4 million of them benefiting from UNHCR protection and assistance activities. The report notes that the latter constituted an increase of more than 600,000 compared to the 13.7 million of the previous year, and was the highest figure ever recorded by the UNHCR.
According to the report, developing countries were hosting 8.4 million refugees, or 80 per cent of the global refugee population, by the end of 2008. Despite the repatriation of a quarter of a million people to Afghanistan, Pakistan again topped the list, hosting nearly 1.8 million, mostly Afghan refugees. Afghanistan continued to be the leading country of origin of refugees, followed by Iraq. Together, Afghan and Iraqi refugees accounted for almost half of the refugee population under UNHCR's responsibility.
Returning home became a reality for more than 1.3 million internally displaced persons during 2008, including some 700,000 going back to their places of origin within Uganda and 350,000 going back to their areas of origin inside Kenya. More than 600,000 refugees were also able to return to their homes. At least 839,000 individual applications for asylum or refugee status were submitted to Governments or UNHCR offices in 154 countries in 2008. This constitutes a 28 per cent increase compared to the previous year (635,800) and the second consecutive annual rise.
The report states that the UNHCR reform process, which started in 2006, had made the Office a leaner and more efficient organization. Staff costs had been reduced to just under 34 per cent of total expenditure. A number of human resources management reform initiatives have been undertaken to address career management, assignments and promotion and staff well-being and relations. Other reforms included a transition to a results-based framework, the launch of a global needs assessment, a revised budget structure and the development of a global management accountability framework. To empower and capacitate the field, the UNHCR began to pursue a more robust model of decentralization and regionalization in Europe and the Americas.
The report further notes that the current working environment for humanitarian staff dealing with forcibly displaced people was highly complex, requiring a decisive, coherent and dedicated response, in partnership with all relevant parties, notably States. The structural and management reform process launched in 2006 had now reached the consolidation phase, with an organization-wide commitment to results-oriented performance. Going forward, the Office would continue to review its working methods and adjust them as necessary to maximize delivery for its beneficiaries.
The report of the Executive Committee of the Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (document A/64/12/Add.1) summarizes that body's sixtieth plenary session, which was held in Geneva, from 28 September to 2 October 2009. It includes decisions of the Executive Committee, but notes that consensus on the text of a draft conclusion on protracted refugee situations could not be reached in time for its adoption and inclusion. However, negotiations on that text were being pursued with the objective of reaching consensus on an agreed text by the end of the current year, for their adoption at the Executive Committee at an extraordinary meeting to be convened in December 2009. The report also includes a Chairman's summary of the general debate as Annex II.
The Committee also had before it the Secretary-General's report on assistance to refugees, returnees and displaced persons in Africa (document A/64/330), which covers the period from 1 January 2008 to 15 June 2009 and updates the information contained in the report submitted by the Secretary-General to the sixty-third session of the Assembly (document A/63/321).
The report recommends that, in line with international and regional instruments, States should respect the principle of the non-refoulement of refugees and ensure the proper reception and timely registration of refugees. Given that two out of three refugees depend on international aid, host countries must be encouraged, and supported in their efforts, to create environments that enable refugees to become self-reliant. This may include the withdrawal of reservations on refugee rights set out in the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol.
According to the report, African States have led the world in developing a binding regional convention for the protection of internally displaced people, and United Nations organizations must continue to support these efforts. Moreover, the lack of recovery programmes when humanitarian assistance is being phased out puts the sustainability of durable solutions at risk. Humanitarian and development organizations and institutions need to better synchronize their activities to avoid a transition gap. Likewise, donor States should consider investing more in early recovery efforts.
The report says that African States that have not yet done so should consider acceding to the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. They should also be encouraged to work with the UNHCR and other organizations, as appropriate, to identify stateless populations on their territory and to review domestic legislation, with a view to eliminating gaps that can give rise to or perpetuate statelessness.
State and non-State parties to conflict, as well as international and regional mediators, should work towards addressing the root causes of all forms of displacement in Africa in a resolute manner, with greater attention to the links between the prevention of displacement, durable solutions and sustainable peace processes. Refugees and internally displaced persons should be integrated in post-conflict transition schemes, development plans and poverty reduction strategies.
State and non-State parties to conflict should facilitate access by humanitarian organizations to affected civilian populations and ensure the security of humanitarian workers, so that protection and assistance can be provided safely, even during ongoing hostilities. Humanitarian organizations should tailor their security arrangements to address the different patterns of violence affecting staff, facilities and assets. African States are also encouraged to ratify and enforce the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel.
* The full report is available via the link in the first paragraph (above).
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