UNHCR
in the 21st Century's 1st Decade
February 2014
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I spent much of
February 2014 struggling over an article
about UNHCR protection initiatives in
the early 21st century. Whatever happens
to the article, this is a summary of
what I found.
The 21st century began with a decade of
intense international protection
initiatives led by the UNHCR. The end of
the 20th century had been dominated by
High Commissioner Ogata’s interventions
in tense refugee producing conflict
situations in Bosnia and finally 1999
Kosovo. Non-governmental and academic
actors had taken some protection
initiatives of their own. Among academic
suggestions came James Hathaway’s
international academic study which
called for re conceiving refugee law,
burden sharing and principled sharing of
asylum in 1997 and 1999. The then
Lawyer’s Committee for Refugees in the
US did an international study on the so
called exclusion provisions of the 1951
Convention relating to the status of
refugees – the principle treaty
governing refugee protection. UNHCR
seemed to have been left in the
sidelines of protection thinking. That
changed. The High Commissioner faced
challenges from displaced people, from
work in conflict zones to the
questioning of the 1951 Refugee
Convention.
In 2000 UNHCR began a major
transformation by its first big
initiative of the new century – Global
Consultations on refugee protection. The
consultations centred around the 1951
Refugee Convention. Four seminars
around papers by experts were held in
different refugee study and human rights
centres. They covered aspects of the
application of the 1951 Convention –
such as supervision of its application
and when a refugee could arguably be
safe by moving to a different part of a
large home country – “internal flight
alternative.” Significant new thinking
was brought to bear on the non-refoulement
article 33 of the Convention which
was said to have become customary
international law – lifting it beyond
the particular treaty.
With the 50th anniversary of the 1951
Convention at the end of 2001, the
transformation continued. A noble
declaration supporting the 1951 Refugee
Convention was made by assembled
government Ministers and an Agenda for
Protection was appended. The Agenda
included a Program of Action with Goals
and Objectives for UNHCR and States. The
Agenda grew out of the Global
Consulations to which were added other
issues thrashed out with the Standing
Committee of the Executive Committee of
governments appointed by the UN to
advise the UNHCR. The Agenda is a huge
list of “to do”s some of which, like the
goal of universal accession to the 1951
Convention – are wishful thinking. But
within this goal the aim of improving
consistency of application of the
Convention was and remains a work area.
The aim to improve supervision of the
1951 Convention remains incomplete but
the Agenda provided a tool - “forums” on
protection issues. This tool turned out
to be the basis for the Convention Plus
and other initiatives. Other goals, like
renewed efforts to find solutions for
long lasting refugee situations still
warrant periodic revisiting. The goal of
dealing with refugees in mixed migration
flows was timely. Yet others like
improved sharing of burdens and
responsibilities remain elusive. The
Agenda was blessed by the UN in 2002.
The Agenda arrived at the beginning of
an era of war on terrorism with military
interventions into Afghanistan and then
Iraq. Given that backdrop, it is
remarkable that UNHCR and governments
were able to accomplish anything at all.
But they accomplished some things and
succeeded in making UNHCR the focal
point for international protection
initiatives.
In 2001 Ruud Lubbers became High
Commissioner and by 2002 had launched
initiatives know as Convention Plus. The
Convention Plus aimed to produce generic
multilateral agreements by holding
“forums” in each of three areas: 1)
Using resettlement as a tool of
protection, a durable solution and
burden-sharing, led by facilitating
state Canada; 2) More targeting of
development assistance to support
durable solutions for refugees, whether
in countries of asylum or upon return
home, led by facilitating states Denmark
and Japan; 3) Clarifying the
responsibilities of States when refugees
and asylum seekers move irregularly from
an initial country of refuge to another
country, led by facilitating states
Switzerland and South Africa. The
initiative had the effect of focusing
energy and special funding onto two of
the goals and aims of the Agenda for
Protection which fell outside the 1951
Convention itself, one on improving
burden sharing and the other on mixed
movements of refugees and migrants.
Lubbers resigned early 2005. The
initiative was declared ended at the end
of 2005 with serious UNHCR budget
difficulties and after the appointment
of António Guterres in June.
An agreement had been reached on
resettlement for protection. It allowed
UNHCR to identify refugees in need of
resettlement more precisely. It enabled
some increase in countries offering
resettlement places. But overall,
resettlement remains dominated by the
traditional few countries and UNHCR has
annually almost twice as many refugees
in need of resettlement as places
offered by countries to take them. There
were no other generic agreements, but
there had been some progress which was
reported by the co-chairs and there had
been some useful field initiatives. All
this fed back into UNHCR.
In 2006 UNHCR produced a tool for
protecting refugees in mixed migration
flows “A 10-point Plan of Action”,
consistent with one for the goals of the
Agenda for Protection. In 2007, a
discussion of this Plan of Action was
the first of what became a series of
Dialogues on Refugee Protection Issues –
the forum concept of the Agenda for
Protection.The
Dialogues took on a life of their own
and covered a range of topics related to
the Agenda for Protection from 2007 to
2013. With the exception of the
conference on displacement and the
environment in 2011, the meetings aimed
at no formal agreement. However, the
discussion enabled further initiatives
and funding – for example drawing on the
10-Point Plan of Action or undertaking a
3-year special initiative to try to
resolve protracted refugee situations.
The Agenda dominated the work of UNHCR
and States until 2010. That year the
Dialogue on Protection Issues examined
Protection Gaps and Responses. From this
flowed additional efforts to fill some
gaps and to try for greater
predictability in burden and asylum
sharing. For the 60th anniversary of the
1951 Convention in 2011, Ministers
signed pledges of specific undertakings.
Much was accomplished under the Agenda –
efforts to improve consistency in
application of the 1951 Convention;
complementary protection; security;
interception at sea. UNHCR advised the
European Union during the development of
its directives on asylum and advised
governments on proposed legislation like
Canada in 2012. UNHCR provided advice
for cases before human rights courts or
similar bodies. Many of the Agenda’s
objectives resulted in “Guidelines” or
“Handbooks” or formal “Conclusion”
statements by the UNHCR and the EXCOM of
governments providing principles for
on-going use.
Hopefully, the Agenda for Protection
will not be forgotten. Governments may
have tired of it. Despite some
improvements and successes at the end of
a remarkable decade of UNHCR
international protection initiatives,
parts of the Agenda for Protection
remains a forthright list of what still
needs to be finished.
However, UNHCR's biggest accomplishment
was to develop a process which allowed
UNHCR and the Standing Committee of
EXCOM to mount and manage a strong
international protection agenda. It drew
on consultations, it drew on open
forums, and the detailed actions were
agreed upon by UNHCR and the Standing
Committee of the EXCOM.
