BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee

3.1 National, Regional and International Humanitarian Assistance
Assistance
Victims of armed conflict, including civilians whose territory is occupied, refugees and internally displaced persons,
have the right to humanitarian assistance. Humanitarian assistance refers to the impartial and non-discriminatory
provision of aid “to prevent and alleviate human suffering, and to protect life and health and to ensure respect for
the human being.” 1 It may encompass “any material indispensable to the survival of victims, such as foodstuffs,
water, medication, medical supplies and equipment, minimum shelter, clothing, ... medical services, tracing services,
religious and spiritual assistance.” 2
National authorities are primarily responsible for assisting refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) within
their borders. States that are signatories to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees are obliged to
provide refugees “lawfully staying in their territory the same treatment with respect to public relief and assistance as
is accorded to their nationals.” 3 Discussions during the drafting process of the 1951 Convention confirm that this
provision “must be given a broad interpretation” and that it is “subject to immediate and unqualified realization,
with no possibility of invoking differentiating treatment.” 4 The 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
reiterate the same general principle with respect to the provision of relief and assistance for IDPs. 5 Most states in the
Middle East where the majority of Palestinian refugees reside are not signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention,
nor have they incorporated the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement within their national policies. 6
Regionally, the 1965 Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians 7 (Casablanca Protocol), adopted by the League of
Arab States (LAS), and the 1969 Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention Governing Specific Aspects of
Refugee Problems in Africa, 8 applicable to African-Arab states, do not include explicit provisions for public relief
and assistance on a par with host-state nationals. Not all member states of the Arab League are signatories to the
Casablanca Protocol. 9 Few Palestinian refugees reside in OAU Convention signatory states.
International assistance is required when states are unable or unwilling to provide assistance to refugees and IDPs
within their borders. The primary body mandated to provide international assistance to refugees is the Office of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). But in order to address the case of Palestinian refugees, after
a number of disaster relief programmes came to an end in 1949, the United Nations created a special agency to
provide international assistance to all persons displaced during the 1948 war, the UN Relief and Work Agency in
the Near East (UNRWA). The Agency officially took over humanitarian relief operations in May 1950, and has since
provided assistance to Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank (Jordanian-controlled territory until 1967),
the occupied Gaza Strip (Egyptian-controlled territory until 1967), Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The Agency also
provides humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees from the 1967 war, as well as those displaced as a result of
subsequent hostilities. There is no international agency with a specific mandate to provide assistance to internally
displaced Palestinians in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). The UNHCR has continued to play
a minor role in the provision of assistance to Palestinian refugees who are outside UNRWA’s area of operations.
The United Nations has upheld the right to assistance of Palestinian refugees since 1948, and, in 2006, affirmed that
because the rights of the refugees “[...] as provided for in paragraph 11 of General Assembly resolution 194 (III), ha[ve]
not yet been effected, that, therefore, the situation of the Palestine refugees continues to be a matter of grave concern
and that the Palestine refugees continue to require assistance to meet basic health, education and living needs.” 10
3.1.1. Arab Host States
Arab host states made significant contributions towards assistance programmes for Palestinian refugees during the
early years of displacement after the 1948 war. The US Department of State, for example, noted that during the
last nine months of 1948, Arab states had borne “the great brunt of relief expenditures” and that the sum of their
contributions (US $11 million) “in light of the very slender budgets, [was] relatively enormous.” 11
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