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Statebuilding and Humanitarian Intervention: New Dimensions in Refugee Protection

Author(s): GUENET GUEBRE-CHRISTOS


Source: In Defense of the Alien , 2001, Vol. 24 (2001), pp. 33-39
Published by: Center for Migration Studies of New York, Inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23141398

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5

Statebuilding and Humanitarian


Intervention: New Dimensions in
Refugee Protection
GUENET GUEBRE-CHRISTOS
UNHCR

The topic of this panel, "Statebuilding and Humanitarian Intervention:


New Dimensions in Refugee Protection/' is quite a challenging and
thought-provoking one - and one whose many facets cannot be covered in
a brief presentation. So I will focus on a few examples from UNHCR's
work and highlight some current trends and concerns which, although
they may not be entirely new dimensions in refugee protection, are at leas
dimensions of growing concern and importance.
I would like to start by outlining the framework in which UNHCR
works. UNHCR's mandate is to protect refugees, assist them, and find
lasting solutions for them. Working with internally displaced people is
something UNHCR can do only when certain conditions are met, as the

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In Defense of the Alien

High Commissioner recently outlined at the UN Commission on Human


Rights: we must have authorization from the Secretary General, consent of
the country involved, and adequate funding. Under these conditions,
UNHCR can help, together with other UN agencies, in cases where our
expertise is particularly relevant. We have been involved in assisting inter
nally displaced persons based solely on a request from the Secretary Gen
eral, notably in the former Yugoslavia, but these situations involved an
extension of our already existing role working with refugees in the same
place alongside IDPs. Given the limited time here, I will focus on our man
date - protecting refugees.
Our mandate has not changed since we were created fifty years ago.
But the environment in which we must carry out that mandate has
changed and continues to do so. The nature of conflict has changed, with
conflicts occurring most frequently within a state rather than between
states. Humanitarian action has become more complex, with a prolifera
tion of nongovernmental, bilateral and multilateral actors bringing much
needed attention and aid but also challenges for coordination and cooper
ation. Security has become a much more pressing issue, both for the civil
ian victims as well as for our own and our partners' staffs, who far too fre
quently become intentional targets of the warring parties - another
UNHCR staff member was murdered just last week in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, the fifth staff member killed since last September. The
movement of people around the world has become more complex, with
refugees fleeing persecution making up only one part of a complicated
stream of human beings, alongside immigrants and, most worrisome,
criminal elements. And the funding climate has become increasingly diffi
cult, leaving UNHCR with repeated shortfalls, forcing us to cut and cut
again our basic programs, and making it much harder for us to be able to
respond, evolve and adapt to this changing and, in many ways, more chal
lenging environment.
In his statement at the Millennium Summit last year, the Secretary
General declared that gone are the days when it was forbidden for the
international community to interfere in what used to be the exclusive
jurisdiction of states. His remarks, in effect questioning the sacrosanct
principle of sovereignty, may have been disturbing, to say the least, to the
Heads of State gathered for the historic summit. This speech was made
against the tragic background, still fresh in our memories, of crimes
against humanity, crimes of war and genocides, committed even after the
Charter of the United Nations proclaimed, "we the peoples of the United

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In Defense of the Alien

Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of


war." I think he had in mind the inaction of the international community
in countries like Rwanda, where, had the principle of humanitarian inter
vention been implemented, many lives and resources would have been
spared. We have seen in the fairly recent past large-scale interventions in
the name of humanity. But other areas of the world - like in Guinea today
- continue to witness untold human suffering with no such intervention
in sight. Humanitarian workers who deal with this suffering in crisis after
crisis would like to advocate for a more predictable, consistent and
nondiscriminatory application of the principle of humanitarian interven
tion or other means to ensure the security of victims of conflict and the
workers striving to help them. Humanitarian intervention is indeed a new
development in refugee work, but it remains to be seen whether we can
truly call this a new dimension of refugee protection, one we can rely on
and call upon when it is needed.
The other component of this panel discussion is Statebuilding. Partic
ularly since refugees are by their very definition not within their own
State, UNHCR's involvement in Statebuilding is limited at best. But it is
by no means a new dimension to our work.
When people are still living as refugees outside the borders of their
country, UNHCR has for many years made efforts that could be seen as
contributions towards Statebuilding, or at least as a foundation or prepara
tory ground work toward this end. Education programs in camps, and
particularly Education for Peace initiatives, are one example. Adult edu
cation, training and income generating projects are another - developing
the abilities of refugees to return home and rebuild their country in the
hopefully not unforeseeable future. Through scholarship programs for
refugees, UNHCR helped provide higher education for South Africans,
Namibians, Rwandese and Burundese who later, upon return to their
countries, formed the core of the "nation builders" promoting the devel
opment of their homelands. Programs targeting refugee women, from
income-generating activities, to child care arrangements, to women's
groups, also help to empower a particular group of refugees and can have
as an added effect to enact social change and prepare women to play a
larger role in their community, their country, their government and their
future. This involves including women in decisionmaking, from
day-to-day decisions on distribution of humanitarian aid and needs in the
camps all the way up through ensuring women's presence in various com
mittees and involvement in peace negotiations (Burundian women, for

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In Defense of the Alien

example, have been observers in the Arusha negotiations). These actions


are all ways that refugee protection and assistance can contribute to state
building and sowing the seeds for the rebuilding of the refugees' countries
while refugees are still in exile.
Another aspect of state-building during the asylum phase of a refugee
situation is directly linked to refugee protection, but again is not a new
dimension of our work. UNHCR plays an active role in the drafting of
refugee and asylum legislation in refugee-receiving countries to ensure
that laws meet international standards and to encourage accession to the
1951Convention and 1967 Protocol, which currently have 140 signatories
- the most recent being Trinidad and Tobago. This is an aspect of UNHCR
Washington's work in the Caribbean, where we have helped countries to
establish asylum processes and pass domestic legislation to deal with asy
lum seekers. UNHCR's work in the newly independent states of the for
mer Soviet Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Conference process is perhaps one of the furthest-reaching examples of
UNHCR's efforts to establish rule of law and to encourage the spread of
international standards of refugee protection, preventing statelessness in
new and developing states. The High Commissioner, Ruud Lubbers, has
emphasized these efforts in his first few months.
One dimension that is perhaps not entirely new, but is at least a
dimension of growing concern, is the complexity of population move
ments today, part of the changing environment that I mentioned earlier.
Globalization in our world has made the movement of people and infor
mation much easier - asylum and migration come together in a large,
complex stream of people on the move, while at the same time asylum
seekers are often forced to resort to unscrupulous profit seekers who will
traffic them to safety for a fee. The confusion in the public mind among
refugees, economic migrants and sometimes even criminal traffickers,
leads to fear, intolerance and unwelcoming attitudes, and often then to
restrictive asylum legislation and policies. Mr. Lubbers has called for "fair
asylum systems [as] an essential component of any strategy to combat
migrant trafficking and smuggling. The choice is between a world of law
and the laws of the jungle. UNHCR can help governments to build and
strengthen their governance capacity in refugee matters." UNHCR has
launched Global Consultations on International Protection to promote the
full and effective implementation of the Refugee Convention, which
serves as a basic consensus on the most fundamental refugee principles.
The Consultations aim to clarify the application of these basic principles

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In Defense of the Alien

in the current environment, develop greater global consistency in inter


pretation, and seek practical new approaches to address gaps in the cur
rent system.
I have outlined some of our efforts in an asylum environment to lay
the groundwork for state rebuilding and to build the capacity of refugee
receiving states to deal with asylum seekers in a fair and humane manner.
I would like to turn now to repatriation operations where protecting
refugees often means ensuring that traditional state structures are rebuilt
and that refugees themselves are an important part of the reconstruction
of their countries and their governments. This involvement begins even
before any refugees have crossed the border back to their homeland. It
means ensuring that repatriation movements are timed to allow refugee
participation in elections. Even before that stage, it means making sure
refugee concerns are included in peace negotiations and the right to
return, access to land and property, and security of returnees figure in
peace accords.
So often today, refugees are returning to countries which are still par
tially in conflict or where there may be "peace" of a kind, but true peace
and reconciliation among the various parties or ethnic groups may be
years, if not generations, away. In such an environment, the structure of
repatriation operations and reintegration assistance can play a key role in
ensuring the protection of refugees and in beginning the healing process
in a shattered society. Mozambique is one of the shining examples of a suc
cessful, integrated and sustainable repatriation-cum-statebuilding effort
carried out by the international community at large, where UNHCR also
played a crucial role. The other example I would like to cite is Rwanda, as
this is where my own most recent experience with UNHCR lies. The scope
of reintegration and recovery activities needed to ensure the protection
and well-being of Rwandan returnees reached from the normal shelter
and aid requirements to training for the judiciary, monitoring prison pop
ulations, negotiating access to land for old- and new-caseload returnees,
capacity-building of local organizations, and environmental activities.
Rwanda has also been the site of one of the relatively new women's ini
tiatives (Bosnia and Kosovo are two other examples) that focus on
women's rights and empowering women to be proactive in their country's
development. The Women's Initiatives are also a means to bring former
adversaries together to work on a common aim and begin to build under
standing and the bridges essential to coexistence. These and other "confi

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In Defense of the Alien

dence-building measures" are a recognition of the fragility of peace in


some countries of return and the need for creative, innovative approaches
to help societies move forward despite the violence and trauma in the
all-too-near past. In Bosnia, UNHCR bus lines created the potential for
movement across otherwise seemingly impenetrable boundaries. Meeting
places, youth groups, and joint projects all allow a safe space where mem
bers of opposing groups can begin to coexist and work side-by-side.
I know from my two years in Rwanda during this recovery phase that
these activities are forms of refugee protection and that they are crucial to
a lasting settlement. But they are not short-term, easy fixes. They require
time, commitment and, of course, funding. And this is perhaps where the
"new dimension" comes in. The concept of bridging the relief-to-develop
ment gap has been around for some time, and UNHCR has actively
sought to work with development agencies on this. But many of the ideas
have not yet been put into practice, at least not globally. And in the current
funding climate, where UNHCR is being forced to cut dramatically even
basic, standard protection and assistance needs, resources for recovery
and coexistence are becoming harder and harder to obtain and justify. It is
somewhat frightening to note, looking at the map of the world today, that
most of the remaining refugee situations are protracted ones where there
is little hope for voluntary return in the near future and no possibility for
any actual local integration. Yet, in these protracted crises, funding limita
tions mean that UNHCR cannot help refugees prepare themselves to take
part in nation-building. Without education, without training, without
political will on the part of world leaders to change the situation in
refugees' homelands, we leave them no alternatives but to perpetuate the
cycle of violence that drives generation after generation of people into
exile and a life of misery, hopelessness and perpetual dependency.
Looking forward, the High Commissioner has stressed UNHCR's pro
tection mandate and has emphasized the need for respect of the rule of
law and for building capacity in refugee-hosting countries. As I said, our
mandate has not changed, but the environment in which we must carry
out that mandate has evolved - mixed population flows blurring in the
public mind the protection needs of refugees, insecurity for refugees and
also for those trying to help and protect the refugees, a continuing gap
between relief and development work, and funding constraints making
even UNHCR's core roles more difficult to fill. UNHCR must also contin
ue to evolve and find ways to effect our mandate in the changing context.
But to be able to truly call any of these approaches actual new dimensions

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In Defense of the Alien

in refugee protection, and by this I mean lasting developments that we can


rely upon to ensure the safety and well-being of refugees, we need part
ners and support. As the High Commissioner has said, we need States to
become true co-owners of UNHCR. It is pertinent to recall that while
UNHCR is the guardian of refugee protection and assistance, the effective
protection of refugees lies primarily with States.

REFERENCES

Feller, E.
2000 "Revitalizing the Refugee Protection Regime: The Road Ahead as the 1951 Conven
tion turns 50." Statement by Ms. Erika Feller, Director, Department of International
Protection, to the 51st Session of the Executive Committee of the High Commission
er's Programme. October 3. Geneva, Switzerland.

Ogata, S.
2000 "Statement by Mrs. Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
at the Presentation of the Consolidated Appeals for 2001." November 29. Geneva,
Switzerland.

United Nations
2000 "Statement by the Secretary-General to the General Assembly." April 3. New York,
New York.

UNHCR
2001a "Address to the 57th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers. March 21. Geneva,
Switzerland.

2000 "Presentation by Mr. Ruud Lubbers, United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, at the Informal Meeting of the European Union Ministers for Justice and
Ministers for Home Affairs." February 8. Stockholm, Sweden.

2000 The State of the World's Refugees: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action. United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees. Oxford University Press.

2000 Rwanda Recovery: UNHCR's Repatriation and Reintegration Activities in Rwanda from
1994 - 1999. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. September.

Global Appeal 2001: Strategies and Programmes. United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees.

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