CONCLUSIONS ADOPTED BY THE EXECUTIVE ... - UNHCR

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