RWG GAVEL'S SPEECH
TO UNRWA DONORS' MEETING
Notes for Remarks by Andrew Robinson
Director-General, MEPP Coordination
Bureau
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
and Gavel-Holder Refugee Working Group
UNRWA Donors' Meeting, May 9, 1996
Amman, May 9,1996
Mr. Commissioner General, Mr. Chairman.....
I should like to thank the Commissioner General
for his kind invitation to address this meeting in
my capacity as Gavel Holder of the Refugee Working
Group. In that capacity, I would like to take a few
minutes of your time to bring you up to date on the
activity of the RWG in recent months and to talk a
little about some of the future directions of the
group. While saying this, I do so in the recognition
that, with a few exceptions, most of the governments
and delegations represented around this table are
also among the strongest supporters of the Middle
East Peace Process. I am very conscious also of the
active support of those governments for the RWG, paralleling
their support for UNRWA. Indeed this has been the
foundation of the consensus that has enabled us to
move forward in the Refugee Working Group.
As most of you know, the Refugee Working Group,
like the other Working Groups in the Multilateral
Process, was set up to complement the bilateral negotiations
and to address broad regional issues whose solutions
require coordinated actions and the support of the
international community. We do this by improving the
current living conditions of refugees and displaced
persons without prejudice to their rights and future
status; easing and extending access to family reunification;
and supporting the process of achieving a viable and
comprehensive solution to the refugee issue.
Since the meeting of UNRWA donors and host governments
here last year, the RWG has held an important and
successful plenary meeting last December in Geneva.
It was a constructive and productive meeting, which
enabled us to take stock of developments since the
preceding meeting, to establish a wide measure of
agreement among the parties, and to plan future activities
for the RWG . I think it is clear that the RWG has
played an important role in establishing a greater
level of confidence among the parties who have participated
in the bilateral negotiations. This has led to a growing
recognition of the real possibility of us working
together to identify win-win activities which benefit
everyone. We are now on the road to developing one
such initiative, about which I will speak a little
later.
Since the early meetings of the Refugee Working
Group, we have welcomed the presence of UNRWA at our
deliberations. At the last meeting, the RWG expressed
strong support for UNRWA and for its invaluable work
in delivering assistance to refugee communities. Given
the evolving situation, the group also stressed the
importance of ensuring adequate future funding for
UNRWA, and drew attention to the impact this shortfall
could have on vulnerable refugee populations.
While the RWG is not a pledging forum, its meetings
have served as a focus for the mobilisation of support
for UNRWA projects, as well as for other support to
Palestinians. In this work the countries which have
served as "Shepherds" in the various themes
deserve special gratitude: Significant support has
been mobilized for UNRWA projects in the areas of
Social and Economic Infrastructure, for example, a
theme shepherded by the European Union, and in the
theme of Public Health, for which Italy serves as
our "shepherd". Likewise important projects
have been contributed in the themes of Child Welfare,
led by Sweden, and Human Resource Development, Job
Creation and Vocational Training, led by the USA.
Norway has been particularly active in the theme of
"Data bases" while France has led the difficult
and sensitive theme of Family Re-unification.
At the VIIIth Plenary meeting of the group in last
December, we decided to explore a possible new direction
for the work of the Group. Several members highlighted
the importance of focused assistance to the Palestinian
authority in the area of adaptation of Palestinian
refugees and returnees. The Plenary mandated an intersessional
meeting on "Rehabilitation and Adaptation of
Refugees in the West Bank and Gaza, without prejudicing
their rights, as well as project co-ordination",
which Italy served to host.
How we will pursue this concept of Adaptation is
not yet well defined. As you are all aware, many activities
in the peace process have been somewhat delayed by
the tragedies that have beset the region. However,
I am happy to inform you that, like the other Working
Groups, the RWG has resumed its activities. In that
regard, the shepherds and other countries most directly
involved in the RWG will be having a coordination
meeting in the near future to establish dates for
the various outstanding intersessional activities.
We hope that at the coordination meeting we will also
be able to obtain a clearer indication from the most
affected parties of how the concept of adaptation
can be dealt with at our subsequent intersessional
devoted to that subject. We hope that UNRWA will play
a role in that intersessional.
I am hopeful that in the future the RWG will be
able to identify and develop other areas in which
it can play a role in developing win-win activities.
Our initiative with respect to Adaptation recognizes
that the region is in transition. The situation is
an evolving one. UNRWA and the RWG both have a role
to play. The RWG has not expressed its own view on
the question of the future of UNRWA per se, but it
has stressed the importance of co-ordination amongst
donors, the Palestinian Authority, Host Governments,
and UNRWA. As gavel I would like to emphasize the
importance of careful preparation and co-ordination,
and gradual implementation so as to avoid further
disruption and dislocation to the lives of refugees
within the West Bank and Gaza. I also think I should
stress the emerging recognition that UNRWA will have
to evolve at different speeds in different fields.
in keeping with the pace of progress in the peace
negotiations
Another activity which the Refugee Working Group
agreed upon at its last meeting was for international
missions to be led by myself, as gavel, to Jordan,
the West Bank and Gaza, and Lebanon.
The mission to Jordan will in fact take place next
week. With the support and agreement of the Government
of Jordan and of UNRWA an international delegation
composed of some members of the RWG will visit a number
of camps here in Jordan, to consult with refugees
in those camps, and meet with the Jordanian government.
This mission has as its purpose to identify the most
appropriate ways for the RWG to assist in addressing
the present and future problems respecting the refugees.
It is important to us that we listen to the views
of the refugees themselves in this process. Through
this mission, we will be demonstrating the willingness
of the RWG to seek the views of the residents of the
camps about their future and to listen to what is
said. An important element of this visit will also
be our meetings with the Jordanian government where
we will seek its views on the prospects for future
RWG action respecting the Refugees.
Mr. Commissioner General, Your excellencies, ladies
and Gentlemen.
Although so far I have talked mostly about the new
initiative respecting the West Bank and Gaza, and
our involvement with Jordan, I would not want anyone
to think that this represented any lessening or diminution
of our interest respecting the situation of the refugees
in Lebanon and Syria. As you know, neither of those
governments is participating in the work of the Group
at the present time. At the last meeting, as at previous
meetings, the group regretted the absence of Syria
and Lebanon and reiterated its hope that progress
in the bilateral track of the Middle East Peace Process
would lead to their early participation, particularly
in light of their important refugee communities. The
group also reiterated its commitment to maintaining
a dialogue with the governments of Syria and Lebanon
and with the Palestinian refugee communities in those
countries.
The group stressed how important it was that the
Palestinian communities in those two countries should
see tangible proof that their situation was being
addressed by the international community. It emphasized
in particular the need for the improvement of the
situation of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
After the meeting in December I visited Syria and
Lebanon to meet with government representatives and
to visit refugee camps. I want to convey to you that
I was particularly concerned about the situation of
the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, both with respect
to their humanitarian and economic circumstances and
with respect to their civil situation. In meetings
which I held with residents of the camps they called
for an increase in UNRWA services, to levels which
certainly could not be supported by UNRWA without
significant new resources. They also underlined their
limited access to the employment market, by comparison
not just with Lebanese citizens but with other foreign
workers. At the time, I relayed these concerns to
the Lebanese government. I hope that the Lebanese
government will find a way to alleviate the situation
of the Palestinian refugees, despite the many burdens
hardships imposed upon it and on the Lebanese people
by recent events. It is the intention of the RWG to
remain engaged, without any hidden agendas and without
prejudging the outcome of the bilateral negotiations.
It is the desire of the members of the RWG to be supportive
and helpful to the Lebanese authorities, as well as
to the Palestinian refugees, in finding ways of improving
the humanitarian situation, as well as in addressing
the underlying problems.
In Geneva it was agreed that the working group should
continue to give priority to the situation of the
Palestinians in Lebanon and to explore ways, through
UNRWA, the Shepherds or other channels, to ensure
the delivery of assistance and assure the Palestinian
refugees in Lebanon of the group's continued concern.
We in the RWG continue to speak on their behalf and
to make them a priority target in resource allocation.
We see UNRWA as a staunch ally in this regard and
I would like to pay tribute to the outstanding efforts
of UNRWA personnel in Lebanon.
Mr Commissioner General, Ladies and Gentlemen
In closing, I would like to reiterate that UNRWA
and the Refugee Working Group have benefited in a
number of ways from the spirit of close cooperation
which has characterized our working relationship,
I do not think that we have yet realized the full
potential of that cooperation. The Refugee Working
Group has looked to UNRWA for the full or partial
implementation of the majority of the 136 projects
which RWG member countries have announced over the
eight plenary meetings of the Working Group. As for
the process of identifying priorities and developing
policy, there has in fact been a great deal of cross-fertilization,
to the benefit of both the Agency and the Working
Group.
Many of the same governments that participate in
the RWG are also the major donors or host countries
of UNRWA. As we move towards the realization of a
comprehensive peace in this region, we must, and I
am sure we will continue to work together.
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