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Security Council UN Council Opens New Debate
January 13, 2000
on Homeless in Africa
ReutersUnited Nations, Sadako Ogata, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, addresses the U.N. Security Council on Thursday on the plight of 6 million homeless Africans, neglected by donor nations compared to war victims in Kosovo. But before the council session, she will attend a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke who wants UNHCR to pay more attention to victims who do not leave their homeland, known as internally displaced people or IDPs.
Holbrooke, this month's council president, is focusing on Africa and has frequently complained that more attention was being paid to those driven out of a country than those left behind and equally in need, such as in Angola or East Timor.
"UNHCR is better equipped to deal with this than any other agency," he said recently, adding that he was aware of the "vast budgetary implications" of expanding the group's mandate. But he said the object was to "focus more on the IDP's which fall between the cracks."
Angola, for example, he said, had more homeless people within its borders than refugees. Anticipating the controversy, UNHCR, in its latest publication, said that governments had been reluctant to expand the agency's mandate or give any legal underpinnings to the rights of IDPs for fear of violating a nation's sovereignty. It noted that Sudanese lawyer and diplomat Francis Deng, also attending Wednesday's meeting with Ogata, was appointed a special representative for IDPs in 1992, operating on a shoestring budget and "beating a lonely drum."
Deng had thought UNHCR should be the logical candidate for taking cares of IDPS. But he said he was "now resigned to the fact that conventional wisdom believes a collaborative effort of existing organisations is best" attackling the problem. UNHCR does not become involved in an internal conflict unless it is asked to by the U.N. secretary-general, the Security Council or the General Assembly. Notable cases have been in the former Yugoslavia, in Bosnia and Kosovo.
But the article said the agency was cautious, concerned about "diluting or comprising its own core work with refugees," stretching limited resources or entering a congested field of humanitarian agencies, governments and even armies.
Ogata is expected to appeal to the council not to neglect the homeless in Africa, where some 6 million refugees and displaced persons account for about one third of the world total. In November, she told the 15-member body that funds for displaced persons were scarce, there was no protection for refugees or to separate combatants in camps, and proper support for African regional organisations was lacking.
"Decisive international involvement is not the norm today," she said. "Indeed in most other situations, we cannot count on the same level of organised political support as in Kosovo."
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