By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Jan 6 2000 (IPS)

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) marks its 50th anniversary in December this year. But it has already indicated that it sees no cause for celebration.

Among the reasons for that disenchantment are the continuing problem of refugees, who number roughly 22 million in the world today, and the situation of millions of others who figure among the most vulnerable sectors of national populations – the internally displaced.

When it began its work in December 1950, the UNHCR had a staff of 23 and an annual budget of five million dollars to assist more than one million refugees from eastern Europe.

The staff now numbers over 5,000, with a budget of around one billion dollars to cover the expenses of the Geneva headquarters and offices in more than 120 countries.

But while UNHCR funding has grown, its original mandate has remained the same: the agency is basically to attend to refugees, defined as people who have crossed international borders in search of safe haven.

The rights of refugees are clearly outlined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, signed and ratified so far by 133 states. But the text fails to mention the internally displaced, people who stay within national frontiers after fleeing their homes.

Given that legal vacuum, humanitarian organisations like the UNHCR frequently run into problems in assisting the displaced, while the international community has not yet come up with a formula to overcome the difficulties.

But “othing in the [UN] Charter precludes a recognition that there are rights beyond borders,” said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last year.

Annan added fuel to the debate when he urged UN member states to put aside their “most jealously guarded powers – sovereignty and the sanctity of national borders – in the higher interest of protecting and assisting civilians caught in the crossfire of war.”

He suggested that in the case of internal conflicts, the UN Security Council should authorise the creation of “safe corridors” in war zones to allow humanitarian agencies access to beseiged groups of civilians.

UNHCR official Ray Wilkinson said Annan’s address was “one of the most controversial speeches by a secretary-general in recent history, and sharply split member states.”

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin concurred with Annan, stating that “the UN mission is not limited to the settlement of conflicts among states….[but] extends to defending human dignity within each state and, where necesary, against states.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jaxuan, however, warned that “respect for national sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs are the basic principles governing international relations, and any other approach would lead to the imposition of old-fashioned gunboat diplomacy in world relations.”

And the President of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, said “we do not deny that the United Nations has the right and duty to help suffering humanity.

“But we remain extremely sensitive to any undermining of our sovereignty, not only because sovereignty is our last defense against an unequal world, but because we are not taking part in the decision-making process of the Security Council.”

While the international community discusses solutions to fill up the legal lacuna, Special Representative of the UN Secretary- General for Internally Displaced Persons, Francis Deng from Sudan, established “Guiding Principles as a basis for dialogue with governments and other actors.”

Deng’s principles “cover several phases: a preventive phase, that is the right not to be displaced; protection and assistance if people are displaced; long-term solutions, either return or resettlement, and in either case ensuring the protection and integration” of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

“There was a time when the idea of designating one existing organization [UNHCR] to take over the IDP mantle seemed plausible, an option I have recommended,” said Deng, who assumed his post in 1992. “But I am resigned to the fact that conventional wisdom believes a collaborative effort of existing organisations is better.”

Given those differences, the UNHCR, which for over a quarter century has participated in operations providing support to the internally displaced, has followed a cautious approach when it comes to a more heavily committed involvement, which it fears could weaken or compromise its chief task: assisting refugees.

While the debate continues, the international map of displaced populations indicates more than four million in Sudan, between one and 1.5 million in Angola, 1.4 million in Colombia, one million in Iraq, 500,000 to one million in Afghanistan and Burma, and 400,000 to one million in Turkey.

In Bosnia-Hercegovina the displaced are estimated at 840,000, at 576,000 in Azerbaijan, 560,000 in Sri Lanka, 550,000 in Russia, 520,000 in India, 500,000 in Burundi and Rwanda, 450,000 in Lebanon, 400,000 in Uganda, 340,000 in Peru, 300,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 300,000 in Sierra Leone and 280,000 in Georgia.

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