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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (2006-2007)
management purposes and to facilitate certification of refugees’ eligibility to receive education, health, and relief and social services. New
information on births, deaths and change in place of residence is recorded only when a refugee requests the updating of a family registration
card issued by the Agency. UNRWA does not carry out a census, house-to-house survey, or any other means to ascertain whether the
place of residence is the actual place of residence; refugees will normally report births, deaths and marriages when they obtain a service
from the Agency.
191 During the initial six years of its operations, while providing relief, primary health care and education services, UNRWA initiated four
types of programmes aimed at reintegrating the refugees into the economic life of the region: (1) “Work Relief”, i.e., small-scale training
and employment creation; (2) “Works Projects”, i.e., medium-sized public sector government-controlled projects such as road-building
and tree-planting, aimed at employment creation; (3) assistance to and subsidization for small numbers of Palestine refugees willing to
resettle in places such as Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, Columbia, Chile, Egypt, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Sierra
Leone, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Venezuela, Germany and Yemen; (4) large-scale regional development projects with regional
governments.
192 Refugees refused to co-operate, wrote letters of protest and organized demonstrations against economic development/reintegration
projects.
193 See UNGA Resolution 614 (VII), 6 November 1952.
194 Proposals for the Continuation of United Nations Assistance to Palestine Refugees, Document Submitted by the Secretary-General. UN
Doc. A/4121, 15 June 1959, para. 17.
195 UNGA Resolution 37/120(A-K), 16 December 1982, Section J, para. 1.
196 See UNGA Resolution 38/83 (I), A/RES/38/83(I), 15 December 1983, UNGA Resolution 48/40(H), A/RES/48/40 (A-J), 10 December 1993.
197 UNSC Resolution 605, 22 December 1987.
198 Peter Hansen, “From Humanitarian Crisis to Human Development – The Evolution of UNRWA’s Mandate to the Palestine Refugees”,
Commissioner-General of UNRWA, address to the American University of Cairo, 21 September 2003.
199 RAO Guidelines, 3rd ed., 15 March 1989, p. 2 cited in Harish Parvathaneni, “UNRWA’s Role in Protecting Palestine Refugees”. Working
Paper No. 9, Bethlehem: BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, December 2004, p. 17.
200 Harish Parvathaneni, “UNRWA’s Role in Protecting Palestine Refugees”. Working Paper No. 9, Bethlehem: BADIL Resource Center for
Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, December 2004, pp. 17, 18.
201 Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, 1 July
2000–30 June 2001, A/56/13, 18 October 2001, para. 150.
202 Operations Support Officer, job description, May 2006. Available at: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/res.nsf/db900SID/OCHA-6NXEJ9?
OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=pse.
203 The limited protection activities of the programme may be imputable to the increasing attacks against UNRWA as a partial organization
allegedly having links with resistant groups or fighters. Hence support officers spend the majority of their time monitoring UNRWA’s
installations to ensure that they are not being used by armed groups.
204 Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, 30 June–1
July 2005. UN GAOR, Sixtieth Session, Supp. No. 13 (A/60/13), 2005, para. 261, p. 62.
205 UN, Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, 1
January–31 December 2005, General Assembly, Sixty-first Session, Suppl. No. 13(A/61/13), New York, 2006, p. vi.
206 Operations of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNGA A/RES/60/102, Sixtieth
Session, 16 January 2006, para. 6.
207 UNGA Resolution 319 (IV), 3 December 1949.
208 “At the field level, the clusters would provide support to the Humanitarian Co-ordinators who are able to call upon cluster leads for
support as required. The cluster lead would not carry out all of the activities itself, but would be responsible for ensuring that these activities
are carried out and would act as the provider of last resort. The cluster lead would take all necessary actions to ensure fulfilment of
commonly accepted standards for timely, adequate and effective humanitarian action that achieves the required impact in relation to the
specific cluster area. [...] The cluster lead would be responsible for: (a) predictable action within the cluster for analysis of needs, addressing
priorities and identifying gaps in the cluster area; (b) securing and following up on commitments from the cluster to contribute to
responding to needs and filling the gaps; and (c) sustaining mechanisms through which the cluster as a whole, and individual participants,
can both assess its performance and deliver effectively”. Discussion and Outcomes of the IASC Meeting in New York on Humanitarian
Reform and Initiatives, Informal Consultative Meeting, 20 September 2005, para. 6.
209 UNHCR, The state of the World’s Refugees, 2006, p. 172.
210 Internal Displacement, Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2006, Norwegian Refugee Council and Internal Displacement
Monitoring Centre, April 2007, p. 19.
211 UNRWA and UNHCR, The United Nations and Palestinian Refugees, January 2007, p. 3.
212 See “Note on the Applicability of Article 1D of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees to Palestinian Refugees.” UNHCR,
October 2002.