The State Department web site below is a permanent electronic archive of information released prior to January 20, 2001.  Please see www.state.gov for material released since President George W. Bush took office on that date.  This site is not updated so external links may no longer function.  Contact us with any questions about finding information. NOTE: External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.

U.S. Delegation to the Meeting of the UNHCR Standing Committee on International Protection Geneva, Switzerland, June 23-25, 1998

Statement released by the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, July 1998

Protection is at the heart of the international community's responsibility toward refugees. It is the core of UNHCR's activities. UNHCR cannot, however, provide protection alone. Governments are responsible for protecting refugees on their territory. UNHCR must not be made a scapegoat when protection fails. On the contrary, we governments must support UNHCR. This support should be both political and financial. The United States is concerned that the funding shortfalls which have been reported to this standing committee are eroding the refugee's fundamental right to protection.

We welcome the note on international protection, with its focus on the relationship between human rights and refugee protection. Safeguarding human rights is necessary to prevent conditions that force people to flee and if they have to flee, the right to seek and enjoy asylum is fundamental. The note constitutes an annual report on the major developments of the past year.

In this regard, we welcome the accession of Turkmenistan to the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees and its Protocol, and we express appreciation to Hungary for its decision to lift the geographic restriction.

The note reviews the developments of the past year in refugee protection that preoccupy our daily work. We welcome in particular the sections on "standards of treatment" which highlight the events in the Great Lakes region of Africa, the right to physical security, and the treatment of refugee women and refugee children. These areas are priority concerns for my government.

The work of the Standing Committee on International Protection and the documents before us reflect the efforts of the past year to address the great and serious challenges to protection. The erosion of the commitment to the respect humanitarian principles and the breaches of refugee protection have distressed us all. We underscore the fundamental importance of the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the expulsion and return of refugees to countries or territories where their lives or freedom would be threatened. During the past year, the United States protested strongly the violations which occurred in the Great Lakes region of Africa, where thousands of persons of concern to UNHCR were expelled and forcibly returned to their country of origin.

In this regard, we welcome the positive report of the Assistant High Commissioner and congratulate UNHCR, the OAU, and the countries of the Great Lakes region for their initiative in putting together the ministerial workshop hosted by Uganda last month. We were pleased to see among the conclusions in particular the reaffirmation of the 1951 convention and the 1969 OAU convention.

One of the most important lessons for UNHCR and for all concerned governments is the necessity to ensure and protect the civilian character of refugee camps. As we meet here today, we are extremely worried by the situation of Sierra Leonean refugees who are encamped a short distance from the border in the town of Vahun in Liberia. The rebels inside Sierra Leone are committing horrible atrocities against innocent civilians. The refugees must be protected by moving them an appropriate distance from the border. We must ensure that international assistance is not misused to support the fighters and that the refugee camps are not used as bases for rebel forces. Julia Taft, our Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, her counterpart from the United Kingdom, and other donor representatives have just returned from a mission to the region. We are working urgently with UNHCR to persuade the refugees to move, to supply an alternative camp, and to provide emergency logistical support for this effort.

In the note on protection presented to the standing committee last year, UNHCR stated that there were three essential elements to ensure the civilian character of refugee camps:

-- locating camps away from borders;
-- disarming armed elements and separating military elements from the general population; and
-- deploying professional military or police units to perform the security function.

The United States strongly endorsed these measures and we do so again today. In that context we are pleased to note the cooperation between UNHCR and the Government of Tanzania to enhance the numbers and capacities of the national police assigned to its refugee camps. We are also appreciative of the initiative of the UN Secretary General to include in his report on Africa the recommendation that new mechanisms be developed to address these security needs. The Secretary General and the High Commissioner may be assured of the strong support of the United States in this endeavor.

The United States shares the deep concern expressed in the note regarding the vulnerability of refugee women and refugee children. We commend UNHCR for the development of protection guidelines and for special initiatives, such as the Bosnian Women's Initiative, the Rwandan Women's Initiative, the joint UNHCR/NGO Initiative know as action for the rights of children, and the Liberian Children's Initiative, which has been developed with UNICEF and NGO implementing partners. The situation of children in Liberia (and in other conflict areas) whether returnees, internally displaced, or ex-child soldiers challenges us to prevent further exploitation of girls and re-recruitment of boys into armed gangs.

The United States has supported these initiatives financially, and, in the case of the Dadaab Camp in Kenya, we have provided earmarked funds in an effort to address the serious and widespread problem of sexual violence. Sexual violence against refugees must be prevented; we must not wait to treat the victims.

It is essential to keep women and children at the center of protection and assistance planning and programming. They are the great majority in almost every refugee population. We have made significant progress together in integrating the special protection and assistance needs of refugee women and refugee children. We would like to see these fundamental values mainstreamed into every policy and program of the organization and carried out in the field by every representative, protection officer, and program officer. We believe that it is important, in order to achieve this goal, to maintain the senior coordinator positions for refugee women and refugee children, and for senior UNHCR management to strongly support their function of providing proactive input and support to the regional and Situational Program Bureaux. In order to guarantee that the progress made to date continues, it is imperative that UNHCR show its resolve to reach those most at risk by giving these positions prominence within the organization.

We welcome the report on the progress made in repatriation programs. The right of citizens to return to their country of origin in safety and dignity is the preferred solution.

We support UNHCR's efforts to rebuild confidence to ensure the sustainability of return. An example of this is the effort that UNHCR has invested in the open cities initiative in Bosnia. We recognize that a sustainable political climate requires multiethnic tolerance and that refugees will not repatriate when their safety cannot be ensured.

The United States is pleased that UNHCR has recognized the importance of resettlement as an instrument of protection and welcomes UNHCR's efforts to work closely with the United States on our resettlement program. Our joint workshops in Africa have been especially productive.

The work done by UNHCR to develop the central theme of the relationship between refugee protection and human rights in the note on international protection is commendable. We agree with UNHCR's characterization of the gaps and challenges that face all concerned parties. We acknowledge the space between theory and practice, the fundamental importance of the political will of states, and the necessity to develop prevention strategies.

We endorse UNHCR's approach of seeking to cooperate with the office of the High Commissioner for human rights and other human rights institutions while maintaining the clear differentiation of mandates. We believe that human rights practices are best done by human rights organizations, and that UNHCR's role should be one of cooperation with such bodies. We concur with the call for more human rights monitoring activity, both to fulfill its own responsibilities and for its positive impact on the sources of persecution.

In concluding, Mr. Chairman, I would like to express my government's appreciation to the High Commissioner and UNHCR staff for their constant attention to the fundamental principles of protection--principles which we must all strive to implement and to safeguard.

[end of document]

Return to PRM Home Page
Return to the DOSFAN Home Page
This is an official U.S. Government source for information on the WWW. Inclusion of non-U.S. Government links does not imply endorsement of contents.