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Senior UN official urges ‘burden sharing’ in caring for the internally displaced

Senior UN official urges ‘burden sharing’ in caring for the internally displaced

High Commissioner António Guterres closes annual meeting of UNHCR's Executive Committee
Humanitarian Aid

The burden of caring for the world’s 43 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) should be shared by the entire international community and not just the developing countries where 80 per cent of those uprooted from their homes live, the United Nations refugee chief said today.

“I think that what we really need is a new deal on burden sharing. It is the capacity of us all to work together in order to make sure that this generosity and this hospitality is fully matched by the solidarity of the international community,” said High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, at the end of the annual meeting of his agency’s executive committee in Geneva.

International solidarity, he said, would improve protection and assistance for the refugees and IDPs that receive assistance from the agency, known as UNHCR. It would also complement UNHCR’s efforts at making returns sustainable, supporting local integration projects, regional development programmes for refugee-affected areas and rehabilitation of former refugee settlements.

“It is also clear we do not have the capacity or the resources to do much more. So, in this kind of new deal, we need to make sure that others get involved.”

Mr. Guterres said UN development agencies, international financial institutions and regional organizations should all work “in order to make sure a true impact is felt by these populations and that they feel international solidarity in a strong way.”

The annual five-day executive committee meeting reviews and approves UNHCR’s programmes and budget, advises on protection issues and discusses a wide range of other topics. Subjects discussed this year included the issue of accountability of the organization.

During the debate, the United States and several other countries expressed reservations about expanding UNHCR’s role in dealing with people forced out of their homes as a result of natural disasters, according to a news release issued by the agency.

The High Commissioner asserted that despite UNHCR’s expertise in assistance and protection for the forcibly displaced, his agency’s actions to serve other people in need would “never” undermine the “integrity” of its core mandates with respect to refugees and stateless people.

As part of the UN humanitarian reform process, UNHCR has been increasingly called on to help IDPs in partnership with its UN agencies.

Mr. Guterres renewed his call for States to step up accessions to the various conventions related to the protection of refugees and stateless people and voiced the hope that in 2011, “refugees, stateless persons and internally displaced persons will have a much stronger protection capacity in the international community than the one they enjoy today.”

UNHCR will next year mark its 60th anniversary, as well at the 50th anniversary of the Reduction of Statelessness Convention and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Fridtjof Nansen – the first High Commissioner for Refugees.