Opening Remarks:
Workshop on Compensation as Part
of a Comprehensive Solution to
the Palestinian Refugee Problem
Source: Workshop Papers
by Maureen O'Neil
President of the International Development Research
Centre
July 14-15, 1999, Ottawa
I would like to welcome you on behalf
of IDRC - the International Development
Research Centre, to this "Workshop
on Compensation Issues as Part of
a Comprehensive Solution to the Palestinian
Refugee Problem".
For many of you, this is not the
first visit to IDRC, but rather a
follow-up visit, after your participation
in the Stocktaking conference on
Palestinian refugee research, which
IDRC and the Palestinian Refugee
Research Net convened in December
1997. For those of you who are unfamiliar
with the Centre, I'd like to take
a few moments at the outset to situate
this conference within the work of
IDRC, which is dedicated to assisting
developing countries to build the
research capacity needed to address
and resolve the problems they confront.
Created by an act of Parliament
in 1970, IDRC is a crown corporation,
at arms length from the Government
of Canada. I like to say that IDRC
is an asset for Canadian foreign
policy, but not necessarily an instrument.
IDRC has an international board of
directors and staff in Canada and
around the world representing a variety
of backgrounds and cultures. Through
our seven regional offices, and by
maintaining direct contact with researchers
and policy- makers, IDRC supports
the efforts of people in developing
countries - researchers, policy makers,
NGOs - to create, acquire and use
knowledge. Our mission has been described
as empowerment through knowledge.
It is IDRC's modus operandi to bring
together researchers and policymakers
to facilitate an exchange of views
often on sensitive issues backed
up by research and analysis.
One of IDRC's programs is the Expert
and Advisory Services Fund, set up
in 1992 as a Canadian contribution
to the Middle East Peace Process
and designed to support developmental
aspects of the multilateral negotiations.
The Fund supports work in the areas
under discussion at the multilateral
level - water resources, the environment,
regional economic development and
in particular, the Refugee Working
Group, for which Canada holds the
gavel. IDRC manages the Expert and
Advisory Services Fund on behalf
of the Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA) and works closely with
both CIDA and the Department of Foreign
Affairs and International Trade.
Indeed, this workshop is funded and
organized through the fund, thanks
to CIDA, which we gratefully acknowledge.
The Fund also supports the Palestinian
Refugee Research Net and the FOFOGNET
refugee discussion list, with which
I know most of you are acquainted.
IDRC is not a newcomer to the Middle
East. We have been doing projects
in a number of countries in the region
since the beginning of the Centre
in 1970. I had the opportunity in
May to accompany three members of
our Board of Governors on a mission
to the Middle East, so that they
could get a better sense of the kind
of work IDRC undertakes and supports
in the region. IDRC-supported projects
in the West Bank and Gaza focus on
strengthening the capacity of Palestinians
to build and consolidate their institutions
and to increase self reliance in
economic development and in management
of natural resources. The projects
seek to shape and influence policy
in diverse development fields and
disseminate research results to policy
makers and Palestinian negotiators
involved in the peace process. IDRC
projects we hope also contribute
to peace building through support
to research on Palestinian refugees
and to joint Israeli-Palestinian
approaches to environmental issues.
We were able to visit a number of
projects supported by IDRC in the
West Bank and Gaza such as:
- the Women's Empowerment Project
of the Gaza Mental Health Community
Program which deals with the issue
of violence against women in the
Gaza Strip by using action-oriented
research;
- a project led by the Jerusalem-based
Palestinian Consultancy Group,
concerning joint Israeli-Palestinian
management of the mountain aquifer,
which starts in the West Bank and
flows under the 1967 Green Line
to rise in Israeli territory;
- Palestinian Women in Society,
a research program at Bir Zeit
University supported by IDRC, working
to promote and strengthen gender-based
public policy research and analysis;
and
- the Galilee Society for Health
Research and Services/Israel which
is seeking to develop sustainable
strategies for the preservation
of genetic material from medicinal
and pesticidal plants in Israel.
Another project that is particularly
relevant to today's discussion, is
the effort to produce and disseminate
resource material on Palestinian
refugees and prepare the ground for
needed research and policy strategies.
IDRC is helping the Institute of
Jerusalem Studies to preserve the
UNRWA refugee archives and to render
this data available to researchers,
Palestinian civil society organizations
and policy-makers.
And through our Expert and Advisory
Services Fund, the Economic Cooperation
Foundation in Tel-Aviv and the PLO
Department of Refugee Affairs, are
working to develop a detailed strategy
concept and practical plan to bring
the refugee issue onto the agenda
of the Palestinian and Israeli public.
The goal of this project is to educate
both sides on the refugee issue and
its various components through social
history tours and public discussions
on various components of the refugee
circumstance.
One such component is compensation.
Compensation as an issue is not
new in the context of the Arab-Israeli
conflict. As you know very well,
it was specifically identified as
early as 1948 in UN Resolution 194
as a crucial element in the settlement
of the Palestinian refugee problem.
Nor is the concept of compensation
novel in the international context.
Indeed, the subject has some historical
relevance for many Canadians and
I am not referring to payments made
by Japanese Canadians many years
after WWII. In 1794, the United States
undertook to compensate royalists
who fled to Canada at the end of
the American revolutionary war, for
the loss of property and damages
suffered during the conflict. Some
have suggested that this spirit of
fair play laid the foundation for
two centuries of peaceful and friendly
relations across the world's longest
undefended border.
At the 1997 stocktaking conference,
some participants were reluctant
to engage in detailed discussion
of compensation at all, for fear
that it might compromise the rights
of refugees. In the end, it was agreed
that academic discussion of compensation
should in no way constrain negotiators.
In fact, this kind of discussion
serves a useful function by helping
to identify advantages and disadvantages
of different compensation systems.
Such a discussion in no way takes
away from the other inherent rights
of the refugees. It is hoped that,
in the process, such a workshop can
provide information that could be
valuable to both sides in the negotiations
of the peace process.
So here we are. The floor is yours,
you are the experts. To help you
frame your discussions, we have set
an agenda for the two days that lie
ahead. In the limited time that is
available, we have suggested discussions
of the legal dimensions of compensation,
relevant international and domestic
law and precedents, calculating Palestinian
claims, finding the resources, adjudicating
and distributing compensation, eligibility
in the Palestinian case and finally
the political constraints to compensation.
So I once again welcome you and
wish you good luck in your deliberations. |