Preventive Action for Refugee Producing Situations

42 Chapter 1
grassroots efforts in the developing world to "empower people to help
themselves," with a people-to-people, bottom-to-top approach. 56
2) During this period, the progress of international human rights law
has contributed to a solid foundation for the protection of human life,
dignity, and integrity. Notwithstanding the slow development of human
rights law from the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights to the
1966 Covenants, with regional instruments dating from the late 1940s
until today, a consolidation in customary international law is now.
providing a stronger basis for international preventive action to address
situations likely to produce refugees.
3) This period is marked by a shift toward multilateralism in which
both superpowers have seen the need to compensate for the high political
cost, in terms of domestic tranquility, of their Vietnam and Afghanistan
adventures. 57
All of these factors hold a promise of success in developing a new,
less obstructive means of addressing conditions that force people to
become refugees.
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56 "Anthony Kozlowski, "The Growing Significance of Voluntary
Agencies in International Development Cooperation," Lecture,
Harvard University, 22 April 1988.
57 Elliot L. Richardson, "Multilateral Cooperation: The Realistic
Alternative," Washington, D.C.: Institute of Peace, 1988, p.3.
Chapter 2
Empirical Examination: Actions with Potentials to Prevent Refugee-
Producing Situations
2.1. Past Initiatives
In the absence of a more systematic approach for responding to situations
that do not fall strictly within its mandate, the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has often been forced to react to
emergencies in an ad hoc manner, obtaining in most cases ex post facto
approval for its action from the General Assembly. The result has been a
gradual expansion of its mandate. According to the 1951 UN Convention,
the UNHCR was to provide assistance and durable solutions to individual
refugees. Over time, UNHCR has extended its work so that in practice it
now frequently assists nationals in their own countries. The three major
precedents in this area have been aid to Sudanese returnees and displaced
persons in 1972, 58 to internally displaced Vietnamese in 1974-75, 59 and to
Central Americans fleeing, among other ills, massive violations of human
rights. 60
In a speech in November 1986 at Oxford, the UN High Commissioner
himself spoke of the need for refugee law to encompass the refugee
problem as a whole. He suggested that today's refugee problem be brought
into the mainstream of international concern so that instead of just falling
back on remedial measures, efforts might also be focused on attenuating the
causes of refugee movements, such as persecution or violence:
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58 UN ECOSOC res. 1655 (LII). 1972.
59 UN GA res. 3455 (XXX), 9 December 1975.
60 The Declaration of Cartagena on Refugees of 22 November 1984, which was
adopted unanimously, elaborated a concept of "refugee" for use in the region of
Central America. It proposed that this concept, in addition to containing the
elements of the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol on the Status of
Refugees, should include "persons who have fled their country because their
lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalized violence, foreign
aggression, internal conflicts, massive violations of human rights or other
circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order." "Asylum and
protection in Latin America: the Cartagena Declaration of 1984," REFUGEES
(October 1987), p. 32.