Mission Statement
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Mission statement UNHCR - The United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR is mandated by the United Nations to lead and coordinate international action for the worldwide protection of refugees and the resolution of refugee problems. UNHCR’s primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. In its efforts to achieve this objective, UNHCR strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another state, and to return home voluntarily. By assisting refugees to return to their own country or to settle permanently in another country, UNHCR also seeks lasting solutions to their plight. UNHCR’s efforts are mandated by the organization’s Statute, and guided by the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. International refugee law provides an essential framework of principles for UNHCR’s humanitarian activities. In support of its core activities on behalf of refugees, UNHCR’s Executive Committee and the UN General Assembly have authorized the organization’s involvement with other groups. These include former refugees who have returned to their homeland; internally displaced people; and people who are stateless or whose nationality is disputed. UNHCR seeks to reduce situations of forced displacement by encouraging states and other institutions to create conditions which are conducive to the protection of human rights and the peaceful resolution of disputes. In pursuit of the same objective, UNHCR actively seeks to consolidate the reintegration of returning refugees in their country of origin, thereby averting the recurrence of refugee-producing situations. UNHCR is an impartial organization, offering protection and assistance to refugees and others on the basis of their needs and irrespective of their race, religion, political opinion or gender. In all of its activities, UNHCR pays particular attention to the needs of children and seeks to promote the equal rights of women and girls. In its efforts to protect refugees and to promote solutions to their problems, UNHCR works in partnership with governments, regional organizations, international and non-governmental organizations. UNHCR is committed to the principle of participation, believing that refugees and others who benefit from the organisation’s activities should be consulted over decisions which affect their lives. By virtue of its activities on behalf of refugees and displaced people, UNHCR also endeavours to promote the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter: maintaining international peace and security; developing friendly relations among nations; and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. 3 UNHCR Global Appeal 2006 Editorial team Principal Editor: María Clara Martín Editors: Rohini Deshmukh, Robert Salin Data Co-ordinator: Daniela Ionita Editorial Assistant: Sylvie Genhart-Maillot Contributing Editors: Shoko Shimozawa, Jennifer Byron, Michèle Choffat, Megumi Endo, Sheila Johnson, Taeko Kuwahara Editorial Consultant: John Steinhardt Acknowledgements With special thanks to: Jill Mackechnie, Bryan Deschamp, Paul Stromberg and Ian Myles. The editorial team also wishes to thank all UNHCR field and headquarters staff who contributed to the production of this appeal, as well as the following persons and teams for their invaluable support: Fathia Abdalla, Ursula Aboubacar, James Alemi, Tahir Ali, Karuna Anbarasan, Hiroko Araki, Martha Isabel Alvarado-Watkins, Gabriel Josef Bagui, Emile Belem, Matthew Brook, Eleanor Burns (BSCI), Jean-Paul Cavalieri, Sam Chakwera, Xavier Creach, Josiane Croset, Loan Dam, Hélène Daubelcour, Mohamed Dualeh, Torben Due (WFP), Cathrine Evans, Nadine Ezard, Jean-Marie Fakhouri, Ahmed Baba Fall, Belen García de Vinuesa, Comfort-Rosie Gatungo, Michel Gaudé, Catherine-Lune Grayson-Courtemanche, Ralf H.W. Gruenert, Neyaga Kaba Guichard, Aminata Guye, Arman Harutyunyan, Jens Hesemann, Jon Hoisaeter, Gogo Hukportie, Salvatore Ippolito, Arafat Jamal, Chansa Kapaya, Naomi Kawahara, Anne Marie Kerrigan-Deriche, Mirza Hussain Khan, Ioli Kimyaci, David Lambo, Brian Lander, France Lau, Philippe Lavanchy, Preeta Law, Pierre-Bernard Le Bas, Giovanni Lepri, Mathijs Le Rutte, Marie-Noelle Little, Martin Loftus, Javier Lopez Cifuentes, Davit Makhmuryan, François Marrillet, Pablo Mateu, Jim Mayer, Raouf Mazou, Lee Mc Donald, Mary-Jane Meierdiercks-Popovic, Jozef Merkx, Zaw Miin, Veronica Modey-Ebi, Terry Morel, Milton Moreno, Panos Moumtzis, Paul Ndaitouroum, Valentine Ndibalema, Mohammad Nisar Khan, Filip Papas, Jane Pierce (WFP), Ron Pouwels, Ron Redmond, Charlotte Ridung Rostorf, José Riera, Nicolas Rost, Jean Bosco Rushatsi, Sholeh Safavi-Hemami, Gloria Sagarra, Arun Sala-Ngarm, Anthony Salmon, Craig Sanders, Volker Schimmel, Solange Senaize, Fatima Sherif-Noor, Bellings Sikanda, Paul Spiegel, Karl Steinacker, Hawa Sylla-Kane, Saburo Takizawa, Bamba Tane, Dona Tarpey, Nemia Temporal, Yoichiro Tsuchida, Thomas Vargas, Brian Vaughan, Sabine Wähning, Carolyn Wand, Neimah Warsame, Petrus Wijninga, Girmai Wondimu, the Asia Bureau, CASWANAME Bureau and Europe Bureau teams, both in the Field and at Headquarters. Photographs: Susan Hopper, Anne Kellner (UNHCR Photolibrary) and UNHCR staff in the Field and Headquarters Front cover/back cover: Afghanistan: An 11-year-old returnee girl at her English class in Kabul. UNHCR/N. Behring Cartography: Yvon Orand, Jordan Anastassov (Source: UNHCR Population and Geographic Data Section, Global Insight Digital Mapping © 1998 Europa Technologies Ltd.) Statistics: Bela Hovy, Christian Oxenboll, Tarek Abou Chabake, Population and Geographic Data Section Production Design and Production: Multimedia Design and Production, International Training Centre of the ILO, Turin - Italy Printing: RA Monitorul Oficial, Bucharest - Romania, www.monitoruloficial.ro Disclaimer The maps in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of UNHCR concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, of its authorities, or the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries. All statistics are provisional and subject to change. UNHCR PO BOX 2500 1211 Geneva 2 Switzerland www.unhcr.org Foreword by the High Commissioner s the agency mandated to protect and care for refugees and other displaced populations around the Aworld, UNHCR operates in a complex environment that poses growing challenges to the help we provide to millions of people in need. Today, the problems that we and other humanitarian agencies work to address - persecution, flight, life-threatening conditions - are increasingly confused with issues like migration, terrorism and insecurity. The result is a dangerous misperception about what causes people to leave their homes and what enables them to go back. Our mission must be to defend the principle of asylum for those who need it while securing their right and ability to return. A first challenge is posed by the rise of intolerance in modern societies. Rational debate in many countries is under assault from politicians and media outlets who feed intolerance by blaming society’s ills on those from elsewhere. Intolerance for the “other” has become a populist rallying cry and, for many, a refugee has become a migrant or a security threat. Paradoxically, the rise of intolerance and populism is taking place at a time when the number of those seeking asylum is at its lowest level in almost a quarter of a century. Protection activities must incorporate measures against fraud and abuse to safeguard the credibility of the asylum system. At the same time, UNHCR needs to confront the notion that refugees and asylum-seekers are the agents of insecurity and terrorism, rather than their victims. This will involve sustained advocacy and timely protection interventions, both of which I have made priorities for my Office in 2006. Preserving asylum requires that we be able to find those in genuine need of protection when they are concealed by complex migration flows. The challenge of identifying such individuals grows with their numbers and the risks they are willing to take, as we have seen in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Aden. It is impossible when mixed groups are not allowed physical access to asylum procedures or refugee status determination. UNHCR will work closely with governments over the coming year to support their efforts to improve registration and individual screening. A third challenge is the lack of an effective link between emergency relief and development. This is a long-standing problem but one that seriously handicaps our efforts to implement truly durable solutions for refugees and other people of our concern. As long as peace and economic recovery have not taken root in a post-conflict situation, the sustainability of population returns is in doubt. To address this gap, UNHCR is working with development actors to ensure that people of our concern are included in national development planning exercises. In Afghanistan, Liberia, Sudan and Somalia, for example, durable solutions for refugees and other displaced persons are an integral part of the recovery strategies jointly promoted by the UN Development Group and the World Bank. And we are collaborating with UNDP and other partners to help people of our concern become more productive and self-reliant during their displacement and after their return. In September 2005, the UN family took a significant step towards addressing situations of internal displacement when the Inter-Agency Standing Committee decided in principle