This is a cryptic, but important article. Examine the
numbers carefully. Compare UNHCR to UNRWA. A number of issues and concerns will
be revealed. The intent is to stimulate dialogue on these issues. Writers are
invited to use this as source material to elaborate on the issues involved.
Israel Zwick, Editor
From the Mouth of the UN
The official organizational chart of the United Nations http://www.unsystem.org/ lists 108 agencies of
the UN. Three of these agencies have
been selected below. For each agency,
excerpts were cut and pasted from their official websites. All of the statements are from the official
UN website, there are no comments from the editor. The reader is encouraged to
draw his own conclusions. In the interest of brevity, some of the statements
had to be taken out of context. The hyperlink for each statement is provided so
that the reader needs only to click it to get the complete web page. In event
that the hyperlink doesn’t work, please cut and paste the URL into the browser
address.
The three agencies are, in alphabetical order:
1.
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
2. United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, Office of the (UNHCR)
3. United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
Part I. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
http://www.unicef.org/about/who/index_mission.html
UNICEF is committed to ensuring special protection for the most
disadvantaged children - victims of war, disasters, extreme poverty, all forms
of violence and exploitation and those with disabilities.
UNICEF is non-partisan and its cooperation is free of
discrimination. In everything it does, the most disadvantaged children and the
countries in greatest need have priority.
UNICEF aims, through its country programmes, to promote the equal
rights of women and girls and to support their full participation in the
political, social, and economic development of their communities.
http://www.unicef.org/about/who/index.html
We involve everyone in creating protective environments for
children. We are present to relieve suffering during emergencies, and wherever
children are threatened, because no child should be exposed to violence, abuse
or exploitation.
We are more than 7,000 people working in 157 countries around the
world.
|
Algeria |
occupied
Palestinian territory |
http://www.unicef.org/oPt/overview.html
UNICEF is a world-wide reputable organization in existence for
more than 50 years. In the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), UNICEF
has a large and dynamic programme to the tune of about US$17-million for
basic humanitarian and development assistance for the most vulnerable women and
children.
Top priorities for 2005 are to restore basic
services for Palestinian children such as health services, immunization,
nutrition education and protecting children against violence, abuse and
exploitation, including a response to the children's psycho-social distress.
The chronic consequences of the conflict, due
to closures, barriers and movement restrictions, result in a fragmentation of
society, impoverishment and increased aid dependency. This is why UNICEF
interventions are more needed than ever.
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/oPt.html
The decline in the wellbeing and quality of life of Palestinian
children in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) over the past two years
has been rapid and profound. This is directly linked to the violence and
mobility restrictions children experience daily, including death and injury to
family and friends, damage to their property, and the frustration and poverty
they sustain through stifling closures, curfews and home confinement.
Since 80 per cent of Palestinian parents reported a change
in their children’s behaviour, UNICEF's response to the increased psychosocial
distress among Palestinian children affected by violence includes the training
of school counsellors, kindergarten teachers and social workers. In addition,
UNICEF supports activities which promote the peaceful and non-violent
participation by children in the social and cultural life of the oPt through
assistance for more than 300 summer camps, sports activities, media by and for
children and youth forums, including the Palestinian youth parliament in Gaza
and Jericho. UNICEF supports the development of mentoring and peer support
groups through schools and community based organizations. Up to 48 groups
have been set up providing approximately 2,500 children and adolescents with
peer-to-peer support in hardship areas of Jerusalem and Ramallah. A
hotline was established by the same organization offering support to
adolescents in out-of-reach areas.
http://www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/conflict.html
Estimated number of children killed in conflicts since 1990: 1.6
million
Estimated rise in the under-five mortality rate during a ‘typical’
five-year war: 13 per cent
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_24979.html
September 8, 2004
STATEMENT ATTRIBUTABLE
TO DAN ROHRMANN, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE, UNICEF OPT IN RESPONSE TO THE SHOOTING
OF A NINE-YEAR-OLD GIRL IN AN UNWRA CLASSROOM
"I feel saddened
by the news that a nine-year-old Palestinian girl was critically shot while
sitting at her desk in a classroom on Monday. Having commented just a few days
ago all that is being done in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to get kids back to
school and provide a safe learning environment, it feels frustrating to receive
tragic news like this.
The schools that
children learn in and playgrounds they play in must be seen as zones of
peace.
According
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have the right to a safe
learning environment and have a right to be protected from violence."
Statement on
shooting of a three-year old girl in occupied Palestinian territory
JERUSALEM, 27 January 2005 - The UNICEF Special Representative in
oPt, Dan Rohrmann, expressed his sadness today in the aftermath of the latest
fatality, when yesterday, a three-year-old Rahma Ibrahim Abu Shamas was struck
dead by a bullet while sitting in her house in a very poor area in the central
Gaza Strip.
Rohrmann said that unfortunately children have these days limited
opportunities to play and exercise in areas safe for them and where they can be
with their peers. Close to half of the children in West Bank and Gaza spend
less time on extra-curricular activities. UNICEF and others are working tirelessly
in promoting child survival and development.
http://www.unicef.org/protection/files/childsoldiers.pdf
FACTSHEET:
CHILD SOLDIERS
It is
estimated that some 300,000 children – boys and girls under the age of 18 – are
today
involved in more than 30 conflicts worldwide. Children are used as combatants,
messengers,
porters and cooks and for forced sexual services. Some are abducted or
forcibly
recruited, others are driven to join by poverty, abuse and discrimination, or
to
seek
revenge for violence enacted against them or their families.
Children
are more likely to become child soldiers if they are separated from their
families,
displaced from their homes, living in combat zones or have limited access to
education.
Children may join armed groups as the only way to guarantee daily food and
survival.
In some
situations, the involvement of children in conflicts as soldiers may even be
accepted
or encouraged. Children may ‘voluntarily’ take part in warfare, not realizing
the
dangers
and abuses they will be subjected to. Most likely these children are responding
to
economic, cultural, social and political pressures.
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/opt_23468.html
GAZA CITY, 6 October 2004 – At 3 a.m. on a fog-shrouded morning,
Israeli military vehicles opened fire on an area in the Gaza Strip near the
Rawdet Tal Zaatar kindergarten.
“I was with my wife and six children. We hid in the kitchen to
protect ourselves from the missile attack and gunfire,” said Jabr, a
middle-aged Palestinian man who has run the kindergarten for five years.
When the hundreds of schoolchildren arrived later that morning
they found their school reduced to rubble. “I felt unfairness and injustice
when I saw the destroyed kindergarten. Palestinian children are being deprived
of their basic rights to play and learn peacefully,” Jabr said.
http://www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/conflictissue.html
The destruction wreaked by war is likely to mean that children are
deprived of key services such as education and health care. Education, for
example, is often disrupted due to hazardous roads or the absence of teachers.
Often, schools are directly attacked, as was seen in September 2004 during the
hostage crisis and subsequent calamitous battle in the Russian town of Beslan,
which left more than 150 children and even greater numbers of adults dead. In
Aceh, Indonesia, as part of the conflict between government forces and rebel
groups, 460 schools were systematically burned to the ground during May 2003
alone. In Nepal, schools are regularly used as centres for propaganda and
recruitment by groups opposing the government. Attacks on and abductions of
both teachers and students are frequent.
Part II. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Office of the (UNHCR)
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/basics
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly.
The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect
refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to
safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that
everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another
State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to
resettle in a third country.
In more than five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people
restart their lives. Today, a staff of more than 6,000 people in more than 116
countries continues to help some 17 million persons.
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/protect
The protection of some 17 million uprooted people is the core
mandate of UNHCR. The agency does this in several ways. Using the 1951 Geneva
Refugee Convention as its major tool, it ensures the basic human rights of
vulnerable persons and that refugees will not be returned involuntarily to a
country where they face persecution. Longer term, the organization helps
civilians repatriate to their homeland, integrate in countries of asylum or resettle
in third countries. Using a world wide field network, it also seeks to provide
at least a minimum of shelter, food, water and medical care in the immediate
aftermath of any refugee exodus.
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/country?iso=isr
The total
population of concern to UNHCR fell from 20.8 million persons at the end of
2002 to 17.1 million by the end of 2003 (-18%). Refugees constitute 57 per cent
of the total population of concern to UNHCR, up from 51 per cent in 2002.
By the end
of 2003, the global number of refugees reached an estimated 9.7 million
persons. This constitutes a net decrease of approximately 920,000 refugees. In
addition, some 4 million Palestinian refugees fall under the responsibility of
the United Nations Relief
and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Resettlement
22. In
2003, almost 26,000 refugees were resettled from first asylum countries with
UNHCR
assistance. The main nationalities benefiting from UNHCR-facilitated
resettlement
were refugees from Sudan (5,160), Afghanistan (3,560), Somalia
(3,310),
Ethiopia (3,030), the Islamic Republic of Iran (2,670), Liberia (2,140) and
Iraq
(1,270).
23. Some
75 UNHCR country offices were engaged in facilitating resettlement
departures
during 2003. The largest number of refugees resettled with UNHCR assistance
departed
from Kenya (7,300), Egypt (3,510), Turkey (2,940), Côte d’Ivoire (1,650),
Pakistan
(1,290), the Islamic Republic of Iran (910), India (750), Ethiopia (620) and
Guinea
(540).
24. In
2003, twenty-four countries received refugees resettled under UNHCR-auspices.
The main
countries which resettled refugees through UNHCR were USA (54%), Canada
(17%),
Australia (15%), Norway (5%) and Sweden (3%).
Local
integration
26. In
many countries, refugees have the opportunity to integrate locally because the
host
country has provided them with access to land or the labour market. In other
countries,
refugees remain confined to camps where they depend on assistance from the
international
community. Using UNHCR beneficiary statistics, it is possible to
determine
the degree to which refugees depend on the international community for
their
survival. Industrialized countries, where assistance is generally provided by
the host
country,
are not included in this analysis.
Part. III. United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
http://www.un.org/unrwa/overview/index.html
Following
the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, was established by United
Nations General Assembly resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949 to carry out
direct relief and works programmes for Palestine refugees. The Agency began
operations on 1 May 1950. In the absence of a solution to the Palestine refugee
problem, the General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA's mandate, most
recently extending it until 30 June 2008.
Since its
establishment, the Agency has delivered its services in times of relative calm
in the Middle East, and in times of hostilities. It has fed, housed and clothed
tens of thousands of fleeing refugees and at the same time educated and given
health care to hundreds of thousands of young refugees.
UNRWA is
unique in terms of its long-standing commitment to one group of refugees and
its contributions to the welfare and human development of four generations of
Palestine refugees. Originally envisaged as a temporary organization, the
Agency has gradually adjusted its programmes to meet the changing needs of the
refugees. Today, UNRWA is the main provider of basic services - education,
health, relief and social services - to over 4.1 million registered Palestine
refugees in the Middle East.
http://www.un.org/unrwa/index.html
UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East) is a relief and human development agency,
providing education, healthcare, social services and emergency aid to over four
million refugees living in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and
the Syrian Arab republic.
UNRWA is by far the largest UN operation in the Middle
East, with over 25,000 staff, almost all of them refugees themselves, working
directly to benefit their communities - as teachers, doctors, nurses or social
workers.
http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/whois.html
WHO IS
A PALESTINE REFUGEE?
"Under
UNRWA's operational definition, Palestine refugees are persons whose normal
place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both
their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli
conflict. UNRWA's services are available to all those living in its area of
operations who meet this definition, who are registered with the Agency and who
need assistance. UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of
persons who became refugees in 1948. The number of registered Palestine
refugees has subsequently grown from 914,000 in 1950 to more than four million
in 2002, and continues to rise due to natural population growth.
http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/wheredo.html
WHERE
DO THE REFUGEES LIVE?
One-third
of the registered Palestine refugees, about 1.3 million, live in 59 recognized
refugee camps in the area of operations in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab
Republic, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A camp,
according to UNRWA's working definition, is a plot of land placed at the
disposal of UNRWA by the host government for accommodating Palestine refugees
and for setting up facilities to cater to their needs. Areas not designated as
such are not considered camps. However, UNRWA also maintains schools, health
centres and distributions centres in areas outside camps where Palestine
refugees are concentrated, such as Yarmouk near Damascus.
The plots
of land on which camps were set up are either state land or, in most cases, land
leased by the host government from local landowners. This means that the
refugees in camps do not "own" the land on which their shelters were
built, but have the right to "use" the land for a residence.
UNRWA's
responsibility in the camps is limited to providing services and administering
its installations. The Agency does not own, administer or police the camps as
this is the responsibility of the host authorities. UNRWA has a camp services
office in each camp, which the residents visit to update their records or to
raise issues relating to Agency services with the Camp Services Officer (CSO).
The CSO, in turn, refers refugee concerns and petitions to the UNRWA
administration in the area in which the camp is located.
Ten of the
camps were established in the aftermath of the June 1967 war and the Israeli
occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, to accommodate a new wave of
displaced persons, both refugees and non-refugees.
Socio-economic
conditions in the camps are generally poor with a high population density,
cramped living conditions and inadequate basic infrastructure such as roads and
sewers.
The other
two-thirds of the registered refugees live in and around the cities and towns
of the host countries, and in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, often in the
environs of official camps. While most of UNRWA's installations such as schools
and health centres are located in refugee camps, a number are outside camps and
all of the Agency's services are available to both camp and non-camp residents.
http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/statements/situation_july2004.html
UNRWA
Headquarters
Gaza 29 July, 2004
Statement by Peter Hansen,
Commissioner-General of UNRWA
The
deteriorating security situation in the Gaza Strip is a matter of serious
concern to me. Recent worrying developments include the extensive Israeli
military operations in Beit Hanoun and increased unpredictability and
insecurity faced by United Nations staff in crossing into and out of the Gaza
Strip at Erez. As a result, I concluded last week that it was necessary to
increase the Security phase rating and to relocate a small number of
Headquarters staff to Jerusalem to enable them to continue to work in the most
effective and efficient manner.
In these
difficult and trying times, I acknowledge with gratitude the commitment of all
my staff, in particular the 8,300 Palestinians working for UNRWA in the Gaza
Strip. They are doing an excellent job under enormous pressure and often in
situations of great danger. They deserve everyone’s support, and I call upon
all elements of Palestinian society to facilitate their vital work.
Let there
be no doubt that UNRWA’s Headquarters and Field Office in Gaza continue to
operate fully and will maintain all the services provided to Palestine
refugees: education, health, social and emergency relief services. As
Commissioner-General, my job is to serve you and I will see to it that no
effort is spared to assist you and to alleviate your suffering to the best of
our ability.
http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/statements/01nov04.pdf
Statement
by Peter Hansen
Commissioner-General
of UNRWA to
the
Special Political and Decolonization
Committee
1 November
2004
2)
UNRWA emergency activities in the occupied Palestinian
territory
In
addition to the challenges posed by running such a large and varied
program,
UNRWA faces enormous hurdles in the occupied Palestinian
territory
that have developed as a result of violence, curfews and
closures.
UNRWA
launched its Emergency Program in 2000, at the beginning of the
intifada, and strives to mitigate some of
the hardship of the crisis. During
the past
year, the Agency provided food aid to over 1.3 million refugees
and the
emergency job creation program generated over 1,823,000 work
days. The
Agency provided temporary accommodation and emergency
assistance,
including tents, food, water, blankets and kitchen kits to
families
when their houses were destroyed, and launched several
rehousing
projects giving refugees new dwellings.
Last year
I expressed concern over the building of the ‘wall/fence’ in the
West Bank.
I should have expressed alarm. This ‘separation barrier’ is
having
severe detrimental effects on the Palestinian population and
UNRWA
operations. Refugee families are cut off from agricultural land,
and access
to schools and health facilities is more difficult. The permit
regime for
the ‘seam zone’ consists of 13 different types of permits.
Residents
require permits to live in their own houses, some of which are
valid for
only three months. UNRWA is undertaking a series of surveys
to
determine how the barrier is affecting refugees and how UNRWA can
best adapt
its services. For example, the number of mobile clinics was
increased,
providing health care to over 91,000 patients who could not
reach
UNRWA health care facilities due to movement restrictions in the
West Bank.
4)
UNRWA’s working environment and the road ahead
The Agency
continues to face severe operational obstacles in carrying out
its
humanitarian mandate in the oPt. Closures and checkpoint delays
prevent
schools from operating normally as teachers and students
regularly
can not reach schools. Doctors and nurses can often not reach
their
clinics. Trucks carrying humanitarian supplies can not reach their
destinations
in time, ambulances are delayed or prevented from moving
patients.
Agency vehicles are fired on, staff members are injured,
beaten, or
humiliated by Israeli soldiers.
Incursions
by the IDF have led to destruction of equipment in UNRWA
schools,
training centres and health care facilities. These facilities have
also been
seized and used by the IDF as temporary detention and
interrogation
centres. UNRWA staff members have routinely been denied
free movement
in and out of the Gaza Strip for unspecified reasons, often
for
extended periods, without explanation.
During the
reporting period, 34 staff members from the West Bank and
Gaza Strip
were detained by the Israeli authorities, and there are now 23
in detention.
In most cases the Agency was not provided with adequate
or timely
information as to the reasons for the arrest/detention of its staff
members,
and was systematically refused access to them.
Restrictions
on freedom of movement of UNRWA staff in the occupied
Palestinian
territory have seriously impeded the effectiveness of the
organization’s
operations. These include external closure of the West
Bank and
Gaza Strip, imposition of curfews and internal closures,
checkpoints,
and the continuation of cumbersome procedures requiring
permits
and magnetic ID cards for West Bank staff entering East
Jerusalem.
Further restrictions are imposed at borders, most
significantly
the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The
Agency has
also had significant problems moving containers with
humanitarian
commodities from Ashdod into the Gaza Strip, and empty
containers
out of the Gaza Strip. The number of stranded containers has
ranged
between 400 and 600 since April of this year. The accumulated
costs of
these delays to UNRWA since the beginning of the crisis will soon
reach $5
million. All these restrictions are inconsistent with 1946
Convention
on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, as
well as
the Comay-Michelmore bilateral agreement where Israel agreed to
‘facilitate
the task of UNRWA.’
In July of
this year, the unpredictability of the Erez passage into the Gaza
Strip, and
the increasing danger caused by major Israeli military
operations
in its vicinity led to the decision by the UN as a whole to move
into
security Phase IV, necessitating the temporary relocation of most
international
staff from the Agency’s Gaza headquarters to Jerusalem and
Amman. One
can well imagine the disruption to even routine work
caused by
lack of office space, support staff, filing systems, difficulty in
holding
meetings, and so on.
The future
is uncertain, not only for UNRWA and its ability to effectively
fulfil its
mandate, but also for the Palestine refugees, particularly those in
the Gaza
Strip. Regarding the proposed disengagement by Israel from
the Gaza
Strip, I fear that a disengagement that is not accompanied by a
radical
easing of movement for both people and goods, will exacerbate
economic
stagnation, and the donor community will continue to bear the
burden of
the humanitarian crisis.
Operational
constraints and program constraints are at an all-time high I
continue
to be thankful for the dedication of UNRWA area staff members,
who
perform their jobs at great personal risk, are paid much less than
other UN
local staff and are the only UN employees in the area not
receiving
hazard pay. I ask again for your support in addressing this
anomalous
situation.
http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2005/hqg01-05.pdf
January
31, 2005
Noran Iyad
Deeb, a pupil at the Rafah Elementary Co-Ed “B” School run by the United
Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), was shot and killed
today
while lining up in the school yard for afternoon assembly. She was ten years
old.
A second
girl, Aysha Isam El-Khatib was injured in the hand by a second bullet fired at
the
same time.
At the
time of the incident, firing had been heard from the direction of the
Israeli-controlled
border
area. The school’s teaching staff were attempting to clear the children from
the
school
yard when Noran was hit. The bullet hit her in the face.
This is
the fifth incident in the last two years in which children have been killed or
seriously
injured
inside UNRWA school premises in the Gaza Strip. Two girls were killed in
separate
incidents
in Rafah and Khan Younis last year and a little girl was permanently blinded in
Khan
Younis in March 2003.
UNRWA has
repeatedly protested the Israeli military’s indiscriminate firing into civilian
areas in
the occupied Palestinian territory. Rafah Elementary Co-Ed “B” School, which is
800 metres
from the border, has been hit on numerous occasions since the start of the
conflict.
This is the first time the shots have had tragic consequences.
Peter
Hansen, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, said: “Despite the hopeful signs of
improvement
in the situation we have again been reminded of the continuing danger to
which
innocent children are exposed by the realities of the occupation and the
irresponsible
use of arms.”
http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2005/hqg02-05.pdf
February
3, 2005
New
Shelters for Rafah Homeless
The United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) today
handed
over 122 new homes to 135 families from Rafah refugee camp whose shelters
have been
destroyed by the Israeli military during the last four years.
These
homes are the visible expression of UNRWA's pledge to provide shelter for all
these
refugees
made homeless by the conflict that has raged since September 2000. According
to UNRWA's
statistics, by end of December 2004, a total of 2,991 shelters, home to over
28,483
people had been demolished or damaged beyond repair in the Gaza Strip since
the start
of the strife.
The 122
buildings opened today will house almost 700 people and are part of a
five-phase
project
that will eventually provide 431 new homes. This, the fourth phase, was funded
by
donations
from Canada, Belgium, Norway and unearmarked contributions to UNRWA’s
emergency
appeals. The total cost of this part of the project, including the
infrastructure
work, is
approximately $ 2.3 million.
Homeless
families waiting for their new shelters have already been provided with
emergency
assistance from UNRWA, in the form of tents, blankets, kitchen utensils, food
parcels,
and rental subsidies. Additionally, the construction project itself has served
to
alleviate
some of the hardships being felt in the Gaza Strip. It provided around 50,000
man-days
of temporary employment for laborers, builders, and tradesmen in an area
where
unemployment is exceptionally high.
In total
in Gaza Strip a total of total of 903 shelters have been rebuilt or are at the
planning
and
tendering stage. However, UNRWA still needs more than $54 million to meet the
current
requirement for a further 2,532 new shelters to house homeless families
throughout
the Gaza Strip.