UN High Commissioner for Refugees Dialogue on Protection Challenges (Geneva, 9-10 December 2009)

Contributed by Renuka T. Balasubramanian, Co-Chairperson, MigRATE Working Group, Bar Council Human Rights Committee

Representatives of national governments, municipalities, non-governmental and inter-governmental organisations, academics and refugees participated in the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Dialogue on Protection Challenges held in Geneva from 9-10 December 2009. The focus of the dialogue was on the hurdles faced by people of concern to UNHCR in cities and other urban settings

Migration Working Group (MWG) - a coalition of civil society organisations in Malaysia, and of which the Bar Council’s Human Rights Committee (HRC) is a member - was extended an invitation to the event by UNHCR. MWG in turn, nominated Renuka T. Balasubramaniam, Co-Chairperson of the HRC’s working group on Migrants, Refugees and Trafficked Persons (MigRATE), to attend the event. An invitation extended to the Mayor of Kuala Lumpur was politely declined, presumably because Malaysia has not ratified the Convention.

The two-day dialogue at the Palais de Nations, was preceded by a roundtable- "Humanitarian Challenges in the Context of Urbanization." Mayors from some 20 cities around the world met with the purpose of promoting a free and frank discussion on specific challenges faced by cities and towns around the world and to highlight specific areas of concern and identify good practices. The outcome of the roundtable gathering was fed into the High Commissioner's Dialogue.

The dialogue itself, opened with remarks by High Commissioner António Guterres and a brief video produced by UNHCR containing testimonies of urban refugees, a statement by Syrian Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Faisal Miqdad, a report from Geneva's Mayor Remy Pagani and a report from an NGO representative on the 2009 NGO consultations.

Not surprisingly, the video featured two refugees currently living in Malaysia. While the first testimony was by a refugee man about the arrest and detention of more than 20 days of his wife and children, and his harrowing search for them, the second testimony concerned a refugee woman’s fear of arrest and detention resulting in her never leaving her home. Refugees living in urban settings in other parts of the world were also featured.

The participants of the Dialogue then broke into four separate group sessions, each of which explored the following key questions:

•     Identifying populations of concern in urban settings and responding to vulnerabilities and risks: identification and profiling of individuals, families and communities; community outreach; registration; and documentation

•     Securing “protection space” in urban settings: enjoyment of fundamental rights; meeting the specific protection needs of women and children; access to assistance and services; fostering an enabling environment; combating predatory practices; combating arbitrary detention; access to justice/legal remedies

•     Livelihoods and self-reliance: building capacity, preserving social capital, and laying the ground for durable solutions

•     Challenges for municipalities and authorities: urban planning, slum clearance, cities as theatres for emergencies, law and order

Participants were encouraged to engage in free-flowing discussion and debate. Reports of the working group sessions were then presented in a plenary session followed by an exchange of ideas.

Side events were organised during the lunch breaks and before the meetings officially began. In Voices from Cities refugees, IDPs and other persons of concern shared their experiences. In another event former representative of the High Commissioner to Malaysia, Volker Turk introduced and took questions on UNHCR’s Policy on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas. According to UNHCR's latest statistics, as many as 50 per cent of the world's 10.5 million refugees under UNHCR's mandate are now living in cities and towns across the globe. At least twice that number of internally displaced people (IDP) and returnees are believed to be living in urban settings. The policy therefore calls on states, municipal authorities and mayors, humanitarian agencies and civil society to recognize this new reality and to join forces to meet the challenge raised by a growing refugee population living in towns and cities worldwide.

The Dialogue was not structured to elicit formal or agreed outcomes. The High Commissioner only provided a summary of the discussions, and proposed elements for follow up whilst highlighting specific areas of concern and identifying areas of good practice.

Participants’ observations

The principle of non-refoulement –the idea that people should not be forced to return to countries where they face persecution – has become part of customary international law and is binding on all states. Therefore no government should expel a person in those circumstances.  In the end it is host governments- even those who have not ratified the 1951 Convention- that are primarily responsible for ensuring non-refoulement and protecting refugees.

There was an under-representation of voices from Asia- Pacific in this regard. If this is typical of all consultations and dialogues organised by UNHCR, it may well be that this is a factor contributing to the continued resistance of governments in this region toward the ratification of the 1951 Convention.

UNHCR maintains only a “watching brief” to ensure refugees are granted asylum and are not forcibly returned to countries where their lives may be in danger, either through local integration, voluntary return to their homeland or – if that is not possible – through resettlement. Greater Asia-Pacific representation at UNHCR consultations and dialogues may also have an impact on the extent of advocacy UNHCR engages in regionally, with these governments. Civil society in these states therefore need to be more visible at UNHCR dialogues.

The participant raised this fact in an intervention with the High Commissioner just before the close of the meeting.

Finally, recent developments locally concerning local elections and the need to obtain information concerning city populations, provide fresh opportunities for engaging municipal authorities across Malaysia in the recognition of refugees and extending of services to them through UNHCR’s Policy on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas.