The UN High Commissioner for Refugees' Forum
1st Meeting
27 June 2003

NGO Statement on Convention Plus Initiative on Resettlement

Thank you, High Commissioner,

The NGO sector would like to thank you, High Commissioner, for your invitation to take part in this initiative, which has the potential to expand and improve the international response to refugees and asylum-seekers.

We have direct links to the field and we feel that we can bring a rich and often unique perspective to the discussion table because of our direct work with affected populations. We are looking forward to participating in the various bodies of Convention Plus and welcome Canada's suggestions for such.

Specifically on resettlement, we appreciated Canada's initiative in facilitating both this discussion and their proposed follow-up. We support the notion presented that Convention Plus agreements would not supplant either asylum or existing resettlement activities and strongly endorse Canada's statement that a solution is only durable when it results in refugees having secured legal status in a country providing the durable solution - including the right to permanent residency and, eventually, of the right to nationality. Only this, as mentioned by Canada, allows for true integration while temporary protection regimes often further refugee trauma and uncertainty.

We appreciate the partnership model both used and endorsed by Canada and stand ready to play a strong role in the implementation of Convention Plus agreements and are ready to propose numerous models for NGO participation.

We endorse both the inclusion of protection-based criteria that go beyond the 1951 Convention and the proposal of States to make multi-year resettlement commitments. We also support the notion of the diversity of actors to be included in Convention Plus agreements, including countries of origin and of first asylum, but would add to that list NGOs active with those refugee populations and representatives from among refugees themselves who know best what their real options are. We also endorse the mention made by Canada in its statement drawing attention to the needs of "residual populations." It is the experience that these are often the most vulnerable of refugee populations - often over-looked as States select those who they wish to resettle.

We urge governments and UNHCR to move forward quickly with comprehensive solutions for protracted refugee situations and recommend that UNHCR and its Executive Committee set annual targets for the resolution of these protracted situations. At the beginning of 2003, some 10 million refugees remained in the world - many of them in protracted situations. As this number has been halved in the past decade, is there any reason we, the international community, cannot set realistic goals of reducing this number by 1 million a year? 2 million? through the use of all three of the durable solutions strategically and through Convention Plus agreements?

In relation to this, we urge governments, particularly those in the North and West with adequate resources and with appropriate legal protections for their own citizens, to develop refugee resettlement programmes of significant size so that we can use resettlement more strategically and make a real impact on protracted refugee situations and global refugee numbers. To do this, we need to enhance UNHCR's resettlement capacity.

Lastly, we would hope for the timely application of Convention Plus agreements that utilise comprehensive solutions inclusive of all three durable solutions in new refugee emergencies before they become protracted situations, before refugees have vegetated in camps for years and decades, before refugees become dependent on international aid, and before refugee children and youth have lost their formative and most important developmental years. Convention Plus agreements need to result in more refugees securing a durable solution, not just shifting around where and how current numbers do so.

Thank you.