CONCLUSIONS ADOPTED BY THE EXECUTIVE ... - UNHCR
CONCLUSIONS ADOPTED BY THE EXECUTIVE ... - UNHCR
CONCLUSIONS ADOPTED BY THE EXECUTIVE ... - UNHCR
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2002 (Executive Committee—53 rd Session)<br />
distance from the border, maintaining law and order, curtailing the flow of arms into refugee camps and<br />
settlements, preventing their use for the internment of prisoners of war, as well as through the disarmament of<br />
armed elements and the identification, separation and internment of combatants;<br />
(b) Urges refugee-hosting States to respect the civilian and humanitarian character of refugee camps by<br />
preventing their use for purposes which are incompatible with their civilian character;<br />
(c) Recommends that action taken by States to ensure respect for the civilian and humanitarian character of<br />
asylum be guided, inter alia, by the following principles;<br />
(i) Respect for the right to seek asylum, and for the fundamental principle of non-refoulement,<br />
should be maintained at all times;<br />
(ii) Measures for the disarmament of armed elements and the identification, separation and<br />
internment of combatants should be taken as early as possible, preferably at the point of entry or<br />
at the first reception/transit centres for new arrivals;<br />
(iii) To facilitate early identification and separation of combatants, registration of new arrivals should<br />
be conducted by means of a careful screening process;<br />
(iv) Refugee camps and settlements should benefit from adequate security arrangements to deter<br />
infiltration by armed elements and the strengthening of law and order;<br />
(v) Once identified, disarmed and separated from the refugee population, combatants should be<br />
interned at a safe location from the border;<br />
(vi) Where the granting of refugee status is based on group determination, civilian family members of<br />
combatants should be treated as refugees and should not be interned together with them;<br />
(vii) Combatants should not be considered as asylum-seekers until the authorities have established<br />
within a reasonable timeframe that they have genuinely and permanently renounced military<br />
activities, once this has been established, special procedures should be put in place for individual<br />
refugee status determination, to ensure that those seeking asylum fulfil the criteria for the<br />
recognition of refugee status, during the refugee status determination process, utmost attention<br />
should be paid to article 1F of the 1951 Convention, in order to avoid abuse of the asylum system<br />
by those who do not deserve international protection;<br />
(viii) Former child soldiers should benefit from special protection and assistance measures, in<br />
particular as regards their demobilization and rehabilitation;<br />
(ix) Where necessary, host States should develop, with assistance from <strong>UNHCR</strong>, operational<br />
guidelines in the context of group determination to exclude those individuals who are not<br />
deserving of international refugee protection;<br />
(d) Further to para (c)(ii) above, calls upon <strong>UNHCR</strong> to convene a meeting of experts in support of the<br />
elaboration of measures for the disarmament of armed elements and the identification, separation, and<br />
internment of combatants, including the clarification of relevant procedures and standards, in consultation with<br />
States, United Nations Secretariat entities and agencies, and interested organizations, such as the ICRC, and<br />
report back to the Executive Committee on progress achieved;<br />
(e) Calls upon States to ensure that measures are taken to prevent the recruitment of refugees by<br />
government armed forces or organized armed groups, in particular of children, taking into account also that<br />
unaccompanied and separated children are even more vulnerable to recruitment than other children;<br />
(f) Calls upon the relevant United Nations organs and regional organizations, in pursuance of their<br />
respective mandates, as well as the international community at large, to mobilize adequate resources to support<br />
and assist host States in maintaining the civilian and humanitarian character of asylum, in line with the<br />
principles of international solidarity, cooperation, burden and responsibility sharing;<br />
(g) Calls upon <strong>UNHCR</strong> and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations Secretariat<br />
to enhance collaboration on all aspects of this complex matter, and as appropriate, to deploy, with the consent of<br />
host States, multi-disciplinary assessment teams to an emerging crisis area in order to clarify the situation on the<br />
ground, evaluate security threats for refugee populations and consider appropriate practical responses;<br />
(h) Calls upon <strong>UNHCR</strong> to explore how it may develop, in consultation with relevant partners, its own<br />
institutional capacity to address insecurity in refugee camps, inter alia by assisting States to ensure the physical<br />
safety and dignity of refugees, building, as appropriate, upon its protection and operational expertise.<br />
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