Ms Erika Feller
Director of the Department of International Protection
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
94, rue de Montbrillant
CH-1202 Geneva

Versoix, 22 September 2000

Dear Ms Feller,

The International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) has followed with great interest the recent launch of the initiative to hold global consultations on the scope and content of refugee protection. We believe that this is a significant initiative to counterbalance the worrying trends in the protection of refugees as we have observed them since the early nineties. Given our interest in this issue and your invitation to NGOs to provide feedback regarding the purpose, modalities, and content of the consultations, following are some observations and views that we would like to share with you. These views are of the ICVA Secretariat. Undoubtedly, several of our members will furnish you with their views on the consultations as well.

Purpose

The purpose of the global consultations should be to achieve a better protection regime for refugees. A crucial way to improve the protection regime is to devise a means by which States would be held accountable for violations of the 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees and other international standards that protect refugees.

Modalities

We believe that the global consultations should take the form of a transparent and open dialogue between the relevant stakeholders, i.e. governments, UNHCR, NGOs and refugee law experts. We do not agree with the practice of governments, together with UNHCR, engaging in standard-setting processes behind closed doors, as is presently the case, for example, with regards to the EXCOM Conclusions. There is a risk that, in particular, the more sensitive and delicate issues will be discussed in sessions generally referred to as "informal consultations."

The consultations should include NGOs at all levels and make full use of their experience working with refugees and specific expertise on refugee related matters. Where possible and relevant, given the existence of regional instruments that protect refugees, consultations should also take place on the regional level.

In order for the consultations to be most productive, we suggest thematic working groups on specific issues. In any case the actual consultations should be conducive to dialogue, rather than sessions or meetings where prepared written statements are read by delegates.

Content

Improving the protection regime does not only concern reaching consensus on uniform interpretations. We wholeheartedly agree with the US Committee for Refugees (USCR) and the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) that a debate on the interpretative issues of the "second circle" may only reopen debates which UNHCR and NGOs and, in certain cases also governments, have put to rest. The consultations should only focus on what has been described as the "third circle," which would highlight existing gaps in standards.

Of primary importance, however, is the full implementation of the 1951 Convention. We believe, therefore, that the consultations should devote significant time and attention to developing new ways or mechanisms to enforce the 1951 Convention since the largest gap is the lack of mechanisms to monitor compliance with the established normative framework.

We are pleased to see references to NGOs in the concept paper. We believe that it goes without saying that NGO involvement should be meaningful and not merely token. In its role as global PARinAC focal point - a role that, as of recently, also includes the facilitation of the future of the Reach Out process - ICVA is committed to participating in the consultations.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Schenkenberg van Mierop
Coordinator