Preventive Action for Refugee Producing Situations

24 Chapter 1
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. 10 The refugee mechanisms consist
of the UN, the intergovernmental system (covering specific or geographic
regions), and nongovernmental organizations. These agencies work
together with varying degrees of cooperation. The various United Nations
bodies - except for the principal organs, 11 the specialized agencies and
other autonomous organizations within the system, 12 and other United
Nations organs, 13 have a nonpolitical mandate to perform their work.
Many nongovernmental agencies, however, in addition to their
humanitarian aims, are also guided by political, religious, ethnic, cultural
or other ideals, which causes governments at times to be suspicious of
their efforts. The nongovernmental agencies involved in assisting persons
in need of protection in their home countries have developed considerable
professional expertise, expanding the range and scope of their activities as
the need for their help has grown. They must be credited with significant
achievements in easing the plight of the distressed and persecuted at home
and abroad, and in bearing a substantial share of the burden in grassroots
efforts by nationals to improve their own living conditions. Moreover,
these nongovernmental entities act as watchdogs over governments'
performance in the sphere of human rights. Many of them represent the
only voice of the oppressed that might carry sufficiently to influence
public opinion and policymakers, both in the home countries and abroad.
Dramatic conditions threaten the lives and safety of millions of people in
their home country. Therefore a consensus has developed among some
governments, such as Canada, Australia, and the Federal Republic of
Germany, and many organizations that merely helping the refugees is not
enough. When refugee problems were considered a transient
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10 Zia Rizvi, "The Problem of Refugees and the International Response," discussion
paper, presented to a Conference on Human Rights and the Protection of
Refugees under International Law, Montreal, 29 Nov.-2.Dec. 1987. (Montreal:
Canadian Human Rights Foundation and Institute for Research on Public Policy,
in press). See chart in the Appendix.
11 General Assembly, Security Council, Secretariat, Economic and Social Council,
International Court of Justice, and Trusteeship. See Werner J. Field and Robert
S. Jordan, with Leon Hurwitz, International Organizations: A Comparative
Approach (New York: Praeger, 1983), p. 56.
12 IAEA, Gatt, ILO, FAO, UNESCO, WHO, IDA, IBRD, IFC, IMF, ICAO, UPU,
ITU, WMO, IMCO, and WIPO. See Field and Jordan, p. 56.
13 UNRWA, UNCTAD, UNICEF, UNHCR, Joint UN/FAO World Food Program,
UNITAR, UNDP, UNIDO, UNEP, UNU, United Nations Special Fund, and
World Food Council, Field and Jordan, p, 56.
Introduction 25
phenomenon, they could be dealt with as they arose, in an ad hoc manner.
But with the increasing occurrence of large-scale transnational and
transcontinental population movements, it is no longer realistic to regard
them as temporary byproducts of social and political changes. In accepting
that refugee-producing problems are chronic, governments and
organizations have recognized the need for more advanced planning in order
to predict developing crises and act to forestall or prevent the immediate
conditions that produce refugees. The growing consensus for doing
something beyond the traditional remedial measures has sparked efforts to
develop new approaches. Since the late 1960s, various actions have been
taken for more effective promotion and protection of human rights, such as
setting up working groups and Special Representatives for specific human
rights violations. 14
The inadequacy of the existing legal framework has also triggered
initiatives to explore more effective ways of dealing with these situations.
In 1981 the U.N. Commission appointed a Special Rapporteur to investigate
the connection between human rights abuses and mass population
exoduses. 15 The completed study proposed a number of concrete measures,
including updating refugee, nationality, and labor law in the context of the
New International Humanitarian Order (NIHO), 16 introducing an early
warning system, and appointing a Special Representative for Humanitarian
Questions. The recommendations of the Rapporteur's Study still remain
valid and continue to influence policy planning in interested circles. During
the same period, following a proposal by the Federal Republic of Germany,
the United Nations General Assembly established the Group of
Governmental Experts to study all aspects of the refugee problem. In April
1986, at the end of its study, the group submitted its recommendations,
which included the following:
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14 See Sarah Meselson & Laurie Wiseberg "United Nations bodies with Responsibility
in me Field of Human Rights," in Human Rights Internet Reporter, 12, No. 3 (July
1988), Reproduced in the Appendix, p. 234.
15 Sadruddin Aga Khan, Question of the Violation of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms in Any Part of the World, with Particular Reference to Colonial and
Other Dependent Countries and Territories: Study on Human Rights and Massive
Exoduses, UN Doc.6 E/CN.4/1503, Economic and Social Council, 31 December
1981.
16 Proposed by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Hassan Ibn Talal of the Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan, on Monday, 28 September 1981 in his speech to the UN
General Assembly, Official Records of the Thirty-Sixth Session, 15th Plenary
Meeting, UN Doc. A/36/PV.15, p. 294.