Der Vatikan hat mehr Schutz für Flüchtlinhe gefordert. Hier der Wortlaut der Ansprache
von Erzbischof Silvano Tomasio, Apsotoilischer Nuntius und Ständiger Beobachter des
Heiligen Stuhls bei der UNO in Genf. (rv 151006 mc) Intervention of H.E. Archbishop
Silvano M. Tomasi, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United
Nations at Geneva at the Fifty-seventh Session of the Executive Committee of the
High Commissioner’s Program Geneva, 4 October 2006
Mr. Chairman,
The
Delegation of the Holy See adds its appreciation for yours, and for the UNHCR High
Commissioner’s, able and committed leadership of the Executive Committee and in the
cause of refugees and forcibly uprooted people.
1. The hundreds of victims
whose lives have been lost in recent weeks and months in their desperate search for
a more secure and decent existence is a red light of alarm that in our globalised
world the international community is failing to uphold its goals of solidarity and
protection. Around the world, through seas and deserts, people struggle to escape
from war, from violation of their human rights, from famine. Motives and flows are
mixed, a major challenge to the responsibility to protect, in our case responsibility
to protect in general. While different mechanisms and institutional arrangements are
in place to address different kinds of movement of people, clearly all of these people
need protection. The valid distinction between migrants, asylum seekers and refugees
has been blurred. A certain reluctance and fatigue to preserve such distinction in
a fair way seem to prevail, thus weakening the protection role of the 1951 Convention
on the Status of Refugees and the related 1967 Protocol as well as the 1969 Organization
of African Unity Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in
Africa, the OAU Convention. It seems reasonable, both in south-south and south-north
population flows, that in the determination of admission the UNHCR should complement
the often political approach of States and guarantee the quality of the process through
its presence or the implementation of its specific guidelines about selection. In
this way, asylum seekers, who are a small proportion in these movements, will not
be exposed to refoulement.
2. The wider awareness of the responsibility
to protect should encourage an added effort to alleviate the plight of asylum seekers
who on subsistent living and in a virtual state of limbo are scattered in various
regions like, for example, the recent flows of Iraqis throughout the Middle East.
They are particularly vulnerable. Conflicts prevent them from returning and in the
country of temporary residence their status is not well recognized; it is almost that
of stateless persons. Political necessity conditions the interpretation of the refugee
convention even though reality on the ground, often effectively witnessed to by civil
society organizations, would demand recognition of these individuals and families
as entitled to Convention protection and assistance. It has become obvious in the
current discussions that more resources are called for to meet all protection requirements
and to address not just populations in a state of limbo, but also the 5.7 million
of the world some 9 million refugees in protracted refugee situations, the more than
four million Palestinian refugees, and the estimated 24 million internally displaced
people (IDP). If international solidarity would add to its budget on aid to refugees
a small proportion of the increase in arms expenses – from 1996 to 2005 military expenditure
increased by 34 percent to US $ 1.118 billions in current dollars – then a major step
forward would be taken toward an adequate response to the pains of uprooted humanity.
3.
Funds are a necessary but not sufficient requirement. The political will is needed
to make the responsibility to protect comprehensive enough to embrace the prevention
of forced displacement tragedies. The way of dialogue and of respect of human rights
should replace that of conflict. Refugee camps, official and unofficial, would no
longer stain the map of the world. In the meantime the task on hand is the dissolution
of these camps through the classical strategies of voluntary repatriation, local integration
and resettlement. It seems to this Delegation that for some present complex situations
the option of resettlement should be revisited. A larger number of countries can welcome
a larger number of refugees anxious to start a new life in freedom and self-reliance.
It is not only an ethical obligation but also a practical advantage since several
developed receiving countries face scarcity of manpower for their economy and for
a sustainable demography. In the preparation of refugees for resettlement non-governmental
as well as faith-based organizations can collaborate and provide competent help. In
fact, as expression of civil society NGOs can be good partners for their closeness
to the reality on the ground, their experience and their capacity to create a favorable
public opinion for newcomers. But an effective partnership has to take into account
the security of also their personnel and, in the least developed countries especially,
that their overhead cannot be supplied by local resources.
Mr. Chairman,
4.
The initiatives undertaken to make UNHCR more effective and flexible, the “cluster
approach”, the reorganization of the budget, deserve support and they show its commitment
and sensibility to the human face behind all statistics. Society at large should also
renew its sense of responsibility to protect. First of all, education can transmit
the values of solidarity and hospitality. Training to enforcement and border officials
will enable them to recognize asylum seekers. Labour unions, employers, schools and
faith communities can prepare their constituencies to an increasingly frequent encounter
with people in need and to welcome them to build a common future. With the human person
and his / her dignity at the center of concern, the responsibility to protect will
continue finding the creative capacity to respond in a humane and fair way to today’s
new developments.