UNHCR

UNHCR

1. Between a Rock and a Hard Place?

   • Budgetary Constriants
     • 97% based on voluntary contributions
       • makes long term planning difficult
       • 'earmarking' by donors
   • Choice of Commissioner
     • Puppet for Major donors?
   • National soverignty
     • States decide who qualifies unless UNHCR asked to help
     • during conflict?
   • 3 durable solutions of 1951 Convention
     • Resettlement onto a third country
     • Integration into country that they fled to
     • Voluntary repatriation to country of origin

2. CASE STUDIES

   • RWANDA and the GREAT LAKES
     • Invasion in 1994 by RPF leads to mass exodus of Hutus
       • Hutus flees to neighboring countries and set up Camps
         • DRC 1.2m
         • Tanzania 580,000
         • Implications
           • Economic cost - initial response and local economy
           • Social Cost - racial tension; Cholera
           • Political: DRC, Rwanda attack militarized camps
           • Environmental; wood for fire etc
           • Security
             • Interhamwe administered camps
               • Radio Mill Collines continues to broadcast in camps
               • UNHCR funding war?
             • close to borders, provoking Rwandan attacks
             • SGBV in camps
             • HEALTH issues
   • VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE
     • Post 1975
       • After US withdrawal from Vietnam South flee to Hong Kong
         • Thatcher pledged 'PORT OF FIRST ASYLUM'
           • open centres run by UNHCR
           • employment opportunities
           • 91% resettlement rate
           • 1982
             • Camps CLOSE
               • LOCAL XENOPHOBIA
             • 1988 Screening Process
               • illegal until screened
                 • 90% REJECTION
               • 1989 - Comprehensive Plan of Action and Voluntary Repatriation Programme
                 • Financial inducements
                 • mandatory repatriation
                 • apauling camp conditions
                 • 1992 25% budget cuts
                   • 1996 US program of return
                     • 1997 Hong Kong handover
   • YUGOSLAVIA
     • UNHCR as lead agency
       • Area of expertise
       • Bureaucratic presence
       • War situation
       • response to ethnic cleansing
       • Majority of funding goes to UNPROFOR (Military)
     • 1995 - Srebrenica
       • 7000 men and boys killed
         • 30 Dutch Peacekeepers taken hostage
           • 28th Aug - Market bomb kills 37
       • Resolution
         • NATO - 2 week intensive bombing
         • DAYTON
           • All actors agree to let people return safely
           • People able to claim back property
           • Freedom of movement
     • LESSONS LEARNED?
       • UNHCR not used to operating in war
       • Military uncomfortable with humanitarian role
       • division of leadership (UNHCR/UNPROFOR)
       • UNHCR associated with blue helmets
       • UNPROFOR 6 month rotation disrupts continuity
       • UNHCR forced to use 'safe havens' sue to donor interests