General Assembly calls for world-wide aid for refugees in adopting 9 resolutions.

The General Assembly on 4 December adopted nine resolutions relating to refugees, with only two of them - dealing with measures of assistance provided to South African and Namibian refugee women and children, and assistance to displaced persons in Ethiopia - being put to the vote.

In adopting resolution 41/123 by a vote of 147 to 1 (United States), with 8 abstentions, the Assembly called upon Governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to intensify their support and solidarity with refugee women and children outside South Africa and Namibia and in front-line States.

In particular, they were asked to provide: for the widest possible dissemination of information about the situation of refugee women and children; legal, humanitarian and other assistance to refugee women and children and their families who were victims of apartheid; and assistance to women in the national liberation movements to enable them to attend major international conferences and seminars and to undertake speaking tours "further to promote international solidarity with the oppressed women."

They were also asked to support projects and activities of the southern African national liberation movements recognized by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), particularly those involving refugee women and children.

The Assembly asked the Secretary-General to ensure close co-ordination among United Nations bodies to maximize publicity on the situation of refugee women and children. The Special Committee against Apartheid was asked to organize, in co-operation with other relevant United Nations bodies, a seminar in 1988 on the special needs and ways of increasing measures of assistance to South African and Namibian refugee women and children.

In resolution 41/141 the Assembly asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to continue his efforts in mobilizing humanitarian assistance for the relief, rehabilitation and resettlement of voluntary returnees and refugees in Ethiopia. The vote was 150 to 1 (United States), with 1 abstention (Israel).

The Assembly also commended the efforts made by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other United Nations organs and specialized agencies in mobilizing such assistance and appealed to Member States and to international organizations and voluntary agencies to render adequate assistance to that Government in its efforts.

Texts adopted without vote dealt with the work of UNHCR; the 1984 Second International Conference on Assistance to Refugees in Africa (ICARA); assistance to student refugees in southern Africa; situation of refugees in Sudan; assistance to refugees in Somalia; humanitarian assistance to refugees in Djibouti; and emergency assistance to returnees and displaced persons in Chad.

UNHCR: By resolution 41/124, the Assembly urged States to support the High Commissioner for Refugees in his efforts to achieve durable solutions to the problem of refugees and displaced persons, primarily through voluntary repatriation or return, including assistance to returnees, through integration into countries of asylum or resettlement in third countries. Governments were asked to contribute, in a spirit of burden-sharing, to the High Commissioner's programmes to ensure that the needs of refugees, returnees and displaced persons were met.

The Assembly condemned violations of the rights and safety of refugees and asylum-seekers, in particular those perpetrated by military or armed attacks against refugee camps and settlements and other forms of brutality and by the failure to rescue asylum-seekers in distress at sea.

Welcoming the fact that arrangements introduced by the High Commissioner had increased significantly the rescue of asylum-seekers at sea and that preventive measures had resulted in a decline in the number of refugee boats attacked by pirates, it urged States to take measures to ensure the safety of refugees and asylum-seekers.

States were also urged to establish fair and expeditious procedures for determining refugee status or granting asylum in order, among other things, to protect refugees and asylum-seekers from unjustified or unduly prolonged detention or stay in camps.

The Third Committee deferred to 1987 consideration of a draft resolution proposed by Denmark relating to international procedures for the protection of refugees. By the text, the Assembly would ask the Secretary-General to evaluate costs involved in setting up United Nations refugee processing centres to deal with existing flows of refugees, and to indicate numbers of refugees each State Member of the United Nations, according to its population, population density and gross national product, might be able to receive. Member States would be asked to indicate how many refugees they would be willing to receive on an annual basis.

ICARA: The Assembly in resolution 41/122 urged the international community to maintain the momentum created by ICARA II and to translate into reality projects submitted as well as the principles of the Declaration and Programme of Action agreed upon by the Conference. The High Commissioner for Refugees was asked to continue to keep the situation of refugees in Africa under constant review to ensure that adequate assistance was available for care and maintenance and for bringing about durable solutions.

The United Nations Development, Programme (UNDP) was asked to increase its efforts to mobilize additional resources for refugee-related development projects and to promote and coordinate with the host countries and the donor community the integration of refugee-related activities into national development planning. Member States and concerned United Nations and other organizations were called upon to intensify their support for the speedy implementation of the recommendations and pledges made at the Conference.

In resolution 41/136, the Assembly asked the High Commissioner, in cooperation with the Secretary-General, to continue to organize and implement an effective programme of assistance for student refugees from Namibia and South Africa who had been granted asylum in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zambia. Member States and intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations were urged to continue contributing generously to the assistance programme for student refugees, and to assist countries of asylum to enable them to continue to discharge their humanitarian obligations towards refugees.

Country aid: By resolution 41/139, the Assembly expressed grave concern at the serious and far-reaching consequences of the massive presence of refugees in Sudan on its security, stability and development, and at the shrinking resources available for refugee programmes in that country and the serious consequences on its ability to continue to act as host and provide assistance to refugees.

The Secretary-General was asked to ensure that continued joint inter-agency expert planning for the Sudan took place, and to mobilize the assistance needed for the full implementation of the ongoing projects in the areas affected by the presence of refugees. The Assembly appealed that the Sudanese Government be provided with the resources for the implementation of development assistance projects in regions affected by the presence of refugees.

The Assembly appealed for maximum and timely assistance to the Government of Somalia in its efforts to provide assistance to the large numbers of refugees there, and to enable the Office of the High Commissioner to "restore its original programmes to their normal scale". The Secretary-General was asked to dispatch a high-level inter-agency mission to Somalia to review existing refugee programmes and to prepare a comprehensive programme of assistance, combining both refugee-related humanitarian and developmental needs, for eventual submission to the international community (Resolution 41/138).

In resolution 41/137, the Assembly urged the High Commissioner to intensify his efforts to mobilize resources, on an emergency basis, to implement lasting solutions in respect of the refugees in Djibouti. Member States, United Nations agencies and intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations were called on to continue to support Djibouti's efforts to cope with the emergency refugee needs.

The Assembly asked the High Commissioner and the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator (UNDRO) to mobilize emergency humanitarian assistance to the voluntary returnees and displaced persons in Chad (resolution 41/140).

|Twelve million refugees'

Jean-Pierre Hocke, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, introducing his report (A/41/12) in the Third Committee, said that out of a total of 12 million refugees in the world, some 9.5 million had found asylum in developing countries. Less than 10 per cent of the total refugee population was found in developed countries outside their regions.

Getting bogged down in controversies over who was a "real" refugee was unproductive under present circumstances. The vast majority of refugees and asylum-seekers in developing countries did not always correspond to the formal definition. They had left their countries because of danger to their lives and security emanating from armed conflicts or other grave forms of danger, and were in need of international protection, he said. He added that he intended to explore all ways of making UNHCR a more field-based, performance-oriented, better technically-equipped organization, and was committed to improving cooperation with other United Nations agencies.

In his report on UNHCR activities in 1985 and early 1986, the High Commissioner said UNHCR had faced the challenge of attaining durable solutions to refugee problems in the midst of a major emergency in Africa and the persistence of difficult situations in many parts of the world. Wherever feasible, relief efforts had been complemented by self-sufficiency activities, in order to limit the need for prolonged care and maintenance programmes. In the field of international protection, certain encouraging developments in terms of improved treatment of refugees had been offset by mounting concern over refugee movements across continents, and over the granting of asylum. Violations of the physical safety of refugees continued to cause grave anxiety.

A major proportion of the Office's energies in 1985, he said, had been absorbed by the African emergency, in which UNHCR confronted a situation of mass exodus in the midst of severe drought and famine, and that emergency remained a major preoccupation in 1986. The High Commissioner on 25 February 1986 had launched an appeal for an $80.7 million emergency assistance programme in Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.

With a growing number of Afghan refugees, the report said, Pakistan had remained the country hosting the largest single refugee population; significant numbers of refugees from Afghanistan also had remained in Iran. In South-East Asia, resettlement had remained the main durable solution for refugees in camps, though an increasing number of Indo-Chinese "long-stayers" awaiting resettlement had caused concern.

UNHCR had assisted some 112,000 refugees in Central America and Mexico through a combination of care and maintenance in camps and rural self-sufficiency programmes. In Europe, the negative public reaction to the arrivals of larger numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers from other continents had become an increasing cause of concern.

The Office had promoted several voluntary repatriation movements. Major local integration activities had also been undertaken in a number of countries. Resettlement in third countries had remained the primary solution for Indo-Chinese refugees, some 58,350 of whom were resettled during 1984. An additional 24,940 had been reunited with their family members abroad under the Orderly Departure Programme, which had reached the milestone of 100,000 orderly departures in December 1985. UNHCR's overall expenditure in 1985 totalled $459 million.

According to the report, many of today's refugee problems differed in nature and scope from those prevalent when the Office was established, because generalized violence was increasingly the source of many of today's refugee movements, rather than individually experienced persecution or its fear. It was urgent that new ways in which those problems could be solved in an appropriate and humane manner be identified.

Although, in general, States had made considerable efforts to ensure that refugees and asylum-seekers were treated according to accepted international standards, such fundamental issues as the physical safety of refugees and even their very survival had assumed greater importance during the last few years and remained among the most serious challenges confronting the international community in the area of international protection, he concluded.

The 41-member Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme, at its thirty-seventh session (Geneva, 6-13 October 1986) reported (A/41/12/Add.1) its concern about UNHCR's continuing financial difficulties. As of 1 October 1986, it stated, there was a total shortfall of $62.5 million - $46.8 million for General Programmes and $ 15.7 million for Special Programmes.

Developing countries hosted most refugees in the world, extending "hospitality from an empty table", Mr. Hocke said in an opening statement to the session. The industrialized world must also share the burden of accepting those among them who sought asylum outside their regions, at least long enough to gain time pending the attainment of natural solutions to their plight.

The Secretary-General, reporting on assistance to refugees in Africa (A/41/572), said that while economic and financial measures alone could not resolve Africa's refugee problems, they could serve to activate and sustain the political process that would result in lasting solutions. Despite better harvests in 1985, economic difficulties had continued to hinder efforts to promote refugee self-sufficiency. The programmes for 1987 aimed at fostering self-sufficiency, while actively promoting repatriation wherever possible.

The joint Inspection Unit recommended that a UNHCR fact-finding mission should be sent to the front-line States to investigate in depth the situation of South African asylum-seekers and study ways of relieving refugee pressure on those States. The possibility of convening a high-level meeting in Africa devoted to the unique plight of South African and Namibian refugees should be considered.

UNHCR should also help coordinate and harmonize national refugee policies and legislations, further develop and consolidate international refugee law to prevent or regulate mass expulsions of "so-called illegal or economic immigrants on whatever grounds", and eliminate restrictive or selective asylum policies of several countries.

The Secretary-General responded (A/41/380/Add.1) that he would convene a high-level meeting should circumstances justify it. UNHCR had found no evidence that immense resettlement possibilities existed that had not yet been explored, especially in West Africa. Promotion of large-scale resettlement to least developed countries with serious economic problems was not realistic.

Country reports: Reports on refugees and displaced persons in certain African countries were reviewed by the Third Committee. Despite widespread civil strife in South Africa, there had been no significant increase in the number of people seeking asylum in neighbouring countries, except for Namibians, the Secretary-General reported (A/41/553). Most new refugees faced increasing difficulties in securing durable asylum in countries immediately neighbouring South Africa. Some African countries, traditionally not countries of asylum for South African refugees, had offered to admit them.

The Secretary-General reported (A/41/264) that at the end of January 1986, it was estimated that there were more than 1 million refugees in Sudan, 637,000 of whom were being assisted directly by UNHCR. An inter-agency mission had visited Sudan from 8 February to 13 March 1986, reporting that refugees constituted more than 6 per cent of the host population, only half of which were covered by UNHCR programmes.

Due to continued arrivals in Somalia of new refugees from Ethiopia in the first five months of 1986, the total had increased to more than 160,000 persons, the Secretary-General reported (A/41/514). Because of inadequate resources, infrastructure and facilities, and land pressures, Somalia could not absorb the refugees as fully productive members of the community and had encouraged voluntary repatriation.

Ethiopia estimated (A/41/516) the total number of refugees from Sudan in the Gambella region at 180,000. UNHCR also aimed to assist 155,000 of the most needy among the 400,000 returnees in the Hararghe region.

The number of refugees in Djibouti in 1985 was estimated (A/41/515) at 17,000, mostly of Ethiopian origin.

The Secretary-General stated (A/41/531) that in addition to the sporadic fighting since 1965, Chad's fragile economy and infrastructure had been further eroded by severe drought, failed harvests, a large food deficit, and huge migration of large parts of the population. In 1984-1985, some 220,500 displaced persons had been relocated through agricultural projects. During the first half of 1986, some 80,000 people had returned to Chad from Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Sudan and Nigeria.

$137.2 million pledged

A total of $137,230,611 was pledged on 14 November at a meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly for the Announcement of Voluntary Contributions to the 1987 Programme of the UNHCR. That amount was more than $60 million over contributions pledged in 1985.

Assembly asks Member States to respect results

of study on refugee flows

The General Assembly on 3 December by consensus asked Member States to respect the conclusions and recommendations of a four-year study (A/41/324) undertaken by the Group of Governmental Experts on International Co-operation to Avert New Flows of Refugees.

The 24-member Group, chaired by Koffi Adjoyi (Togo), was established in 1981 by the Assembly to develop proposals to improve international cooperation to deal with the continuing massive flows of refugees in many parts of the world and "the human suffering affecting millions of men, women and children who flee or are forcibly expelled from their homelands.

In adopting resolution 41/70, the Assembly also called on Member States to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, and from intervention in matters within any State's domestic jurisdiction. They were also asked to use peaceful means to resolve international disputes, and refrain from creating or contributing by their policies to causes and factors which generally led to massive refugee flows.

States were asked to promote civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, and international co-operation "in all its aspects", and to take appropriate measures to avert new refugee flows caused by natural disasters, as well as to assist the States concerned in the event of natural disasters.

Existing generally recognized norms and principles of international law governing the rights and obligations of States and refugees directly concerned should be respected, the Assembly urged.

The Secretary-General was requested to give continuing attention to the question of averting new massive refugee flows, to ensure that relevant, timely and fuller information was available within the Secretariat, and to improve co-ordination, analysis and availability of such information.

Nansen Medal awarded to

people of Canada

Jean-Pierre Hocke, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, announced on 6 October that the 1986 Nansen Medal had been awarded to the people of Canada "in recognition of the major and sustained contribution made to the cause of refugees in their country and throughout the world over the years". The award is named for Norwegian scholar and explorer Fridtjof Nansen, the League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and is given annually to recognize outstanding work in the field of refugee protection and assistance. Canada over the last decade ranked second among industrialized countries in terms of the ratio of refugees resettled to local population, and is a leading contributor to international humanitarian and refugee and programmes.