Preventive Action for Refugee Producing Situations

36 Chapter 1
preventive efforts. Without the United Nations' work in the area of
mediation, conciliation peace-keeping and peace-building, there would
probably have been many more refugees. Then we briefly present an
initial assessment of the Department for Humanitarian Affairs, which the
Secretary-General created in March 1992 into which some of the
activities of the office of ORCI, discussed in Chapter 2, have been
integrated.
Lastly, we report on the progress made in UNHCR in the area of
country of origin information, including early warning and preventive
protection; the latter especially in the context of the humanitarian crisis
in the former Yugoslavia.
The legal justifications for international preventive action that
support the validity of the policy proposals are discussed in Chapter 5.
Individual nations are likely to resist challenges to their sovereign rights,
and so any infringement on national jurisdiction must be grounded as
firmly as possible in practical precedents, legal instruments, and moral
authority. The United Nations has a duty to intervene within a country
by limited, non-military means if the lives and security of a large
number of people are at stake, in order to avert external border crossing.
Though the precedents for such action are at an incipient stage, they will
gain strength through their acceptance, exercise, and a general
recognition of their useful effects. International legal standards of
human rights provide only a general framework for preventive action
within sovereign nations. It is the states' political will and good faith that
permits the implementation.
Despite the weak foundation of preventive action, international
human rights law and the Helsinki process provide new points of
reference. These Human Rights Laws include the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 41
and the Proclamation of Teheran, proclaimed by the International
Conference on Human Rights at Teheran on 13 May 1968, which states
that the existing human rights instruments
have created new standards and obligations to which States should conform [and
it] urges all peoples and governments themselves to the principles enshrined in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to redouble their efforts to
provide for all human beings a life consonant with freedom and dignity and
conducive to physical, mental, social and spiritual welfare (Article 3).
___________________
41 General Assembly res. 2106 A (XX), 21 December 1965.
Introduction 37
If these prescriptions are violated, other instruments and resolutions
should be invoked, such as General Assembly res. 32/130 on Alternative
Approaches and Ways and Means within the United Nations System for
Improving the Effective Enjoyment of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms, could be invoked. 42 The standards defined in the prevailing
instruments have their origin in the International Bill of Rights, which is
composed of (1) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, 43
(2) International Covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 44
(3) International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights, 45 (4) the
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, 46 and (5) the Provisional Rules of Procedure for the
___________________
42 This resolution of 16 December 1977 reiterates giving "priority to the search
for solutions to mass and flagrant violations of human rights of peoples and
persons affected by situations such as those resulting from apartheid, from all
forms of racial discrimination, from colonialism, from foreign domination and
occupation..." (Paragraph l(e)).
43 1. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, adopted and
proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948,
includes the following articles:
Article 13
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the
borders of each State.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to
his country.
Article 14
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from
persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of persecutions genuinely arising
from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles
of the United Nations.
Article 15
(1) Everyone has the right to nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to
change his nationality.
44 Adopted and opened for signature, ratification, and accession by General
Assembly resolution 2200 A (XXI) of 16 December 1966. Entry into force: 3
January 1976, in accordance with article 27.
45 Adopted and opened for signature, ratification, and accession by General
Assembly resolution 2200 (XXI) of 16 December 1966. Entry into force: 23
March 1976, in accordance with article 49.
46 Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General
Assembly resolution 2200 A (XXI) of 16 December 1966. Entry into force: 23