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ADRIANO SILVESTRI,
legal counselor, UNHCR
It would be great if our seminar could do more than provide an opportunity to share knowledge or exchange views — if it could become a workshop where we could put our heads together to devise an instrument to help the lawyers and jurists tackling the problems of refugees in various parts of Russia, interact, coordinate their work, share their opinions and so make their work more efficient.
A few words about the UNHCR. As the name suggests, it is a specialized agency of the UN. It was set up by the UN General Assembly in 1951 and has a mandate to protect refugees. I will venture to say that it is the highest international body dealing with refugees. At the very outset its task was twofold: to extend international protection to refugees, and that means to protect refugees from the authorities of various levels, who order their return to places where their lives are threatened, and from other violations of their rights. The overriding principle of our organization is to protect refugees from being forcibly deported. Another major task of our organization is to help formulate a long-term solution of the refugee problem, and that means to help the refugee cease being a refugee. The international law gives less protection to refugees than to other people, so our organization works to have the rights of the refugees fully restored.
There are three formulas for a long-term solution. First, a voluntary return home, when the circumstances that drove a person out of his country are no longer there. That happened in 1990-91 when Check and Slovak refugees were able to return home from Europe and America. Second, if that is impossible, there is an alternative solution: refugees’ integration at places where they found refuge (for instance, the Armenians who fled in the wake of pogroms in Baku and Sumgait in 1988-90 to Armenia, settled and integrated there). And if neither of these two ways is practicable, they may move into a third country. This solution, however, is only possible for small numbers of people, as a country is to be sought for each of them, whose government would agree to accept him.
Our organization is provisional by definition. In 1951 it was set up for a term of three years. The international community believed at the time that in three years there would be no refugees left anywhere. In those years, in the wake of World War Two millions of people were displaced and lived in foreign countries, and it seemed that once their problems were resolved, there would be no need for the UNHCR or a similar organization. Sadly, the UNHCR is still very much alive, and still growing to keep pace with the mushrooming problems on the planet. Today it has 5000 officers on its staff, and offices in most countries.
What is the UNHCR doing in Russia? Let me recall an important conference, organized by the CIS nations jointly with three international organizations: UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration and the Warsaw office of the OSCE. The conference adopted a program of action towards resolving the problems of refugees by governmental, non-governmental and international organizations. That was the first international conference to discuss the problems of refugees and migrants in the CIS, and to approach them from various angles. It also broached the problems of other categories of people, the non-voluntary migrants, including forced migrants, ecological migrants, deported peoples, etc. The new approach, besides identifying the problem, also suggested three stages toward its solution, namely, prevention of non-voluntary migration, protection of refugee rights and individual help to these people.
The Moscow-based UNHCR mission in Russia operating since 1992 is also in charge of Belarus and Moldova. When the Chechen war broke out, we also opened our missions in Daghestan (in Makhachkala and Hasavyurt), Ingushetia (in Nazran) and in North Ossetia (in Vladikavkaz). The job they are doing is rather specific, for they are chiefly concerned with the problems of forced migrants or persons migrating within the country from the Chechen Republic.
What are the UNHCR’s functions in Russia? I will not dwell at length on all we are doing here, but here are some examples: UNHCR makes expert assessment of the legislative structures preparing refugee-related documents; there is a UNHCR expert in the working group reviewing the Law on Refugees. In Russia, we back up the structure, operating on the mandate for refugees, namely, the Federal Migration Service, and non-governmental organizations; we also support the lawyers and other specialists working in this particular field; we are helping the Russian structures formulate legislation on refugees, conforming to the 1951 Geneva Convention, the supreme refugee-related document of international law. And here, our high priority task is to help Russia design just and effective instruments to define the refugee status, instruments of determining if a person is a refugee or some other kind of migrant, regardless of whether he comes from the former Soviet Union or any other country. Another very important task is to assist the Russian structures in finding ways to help the refugees, in integrating refugees and forced migrants in Russia and in bringing them back home if they wish. For instance, we are currently working on a program in North Ossetia — it is a joint program of assisting a voluntary return of Ossetians to South Ossetia. Our organization is also offering help to refugees, especially migrants, from the area of the Chechen conflict. What we are doing in the Caucasus, is an emergency relief operation, and when the flow of refugees from the conflict zone was the heaviest, we had planeloads of humanitarian aid flown in.
We also have regular assistance programs: in Moscow, for refugees from the CIS countries, and on that program we work together with the Coordinating Council of Assistance to Refugees and Forced Migrants, and for refugees from other countries, a program on which we work jointly with the Equilibre organization. We have a similar program based in St. Petersburg.
I will conclude by voicing the hope that this seminar will suggest more ways in which we can be of help to you as jurists, counselors at law, or lawyers.
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