57th Session of the UNHCR Executive Committee U.S. Government Plenary Statement Mr. Chairman, Thank you for your disciplined leadership of this Committee over the past year. We welcome Portugal and Jordan as new members of EXCOM and look forward to their continued contributions in helping to provide durable solutions to refugees in need. Thank you, High Commissioner Guterres for your remarks, which clearly lay out the challenges we face. In response, I would like to emphasize the importance of partnerships in addressing the needs of refugees while seeking durable solutions. First, partnerships in providing protection are critical. We have worked closely with UNHCR and others to ensure that it has sufficient protection and community service officers where they are most needed. We urge UNHCR not to sacrifice these core posts as you – correctly, Mr. High Commissioner – look at ways to streamline costs and make operations more efficient and effective. The work of these officers is at the heart of UNHCR’s mandate. With other donors we have supported UNHCR’s new registration tool, Project Profile. As this important protection tool is mainstreamed into operations worldwide, we urge UNHCR to ensure improvements in refugee registration made in recent years are not lost or diminished. Indeed, its use should become as routine in new refugee situations as the distribution of tents and cooking utensils. In further operationalizing protection, we commend the conclusion on women and girls at risk to be adopted later this week as an important advancement in the protection of these individuals. Second, partnerships in securing critical field and headquarters reform. UNHCR’s long-term success depends on difficult, yet much needed changes in how it does business. An administrative budget that is larger than field operations is simply unsustainable. A system of accountability that doesn’t measure the impact of programs is untenable to appropriators. We, therefore, commend efforts to effect results-based management as well as the Structural and Management Change Process. While difficult decisions will no doubt need to be made as a result of this latter effort, we ask UNHCR to consult broadly and regularly with staff and Member States as this effort is rolled out. Its implementation will need the support of governments, implementing partners, and those affected by the changes. We must work together in a spirit of mutual trust and cooperation so that our common interests and original ideas can all contribute to a joint success. Third, partnerships are key to securing durable solutions. The much anticipated return of refugees to southern Sudan, the Republic of Congo, Burundi, and the DRC is promising. Success depends on working through UNHCR in partnership with governments in the region and NGOs. However, we have much more work to do in other regions of the world. One such population is the Bhutanese in Nepal. In partnership with other donors, UNHCR, and the governments of Nepal and Bhutan, we must resolve this protracted refugee situation. The long-awaited refugee census in Nepal is an important first step. We urge all parties to move expeditiously so we can bring this long-standing situation to a close. We call upon everyone in this room to make durable solutions a priority. This requires UNHCR to expand its referral capacity for refugee resettlement; it also requires refugee hosting countries to better integrate refugees into their communities as well as new resettlement countries coming forward to provide refugees with a new start in life. Fourth, partnerships are necessary in defining who is internally displaced and responding to their needs. Last year at ExCom, my government welcomed UNHCR’s spirit of cooperation with the new “cluster” approach to internally displaced people (IDPs). This approach is, perhaps, the quintessential example of partnership within the UN system. Key to this effort involves a sense of “mutual accountability.” It requires a process that involves and respects the role of all stakeholders (donors, implementing partners, and beneficiaries), and holds governments responsible for creating the conditions that cause forced displacement. It also requires UNHCR to be prepared for the vast scaling up of its staff and programs in response to a crisis involving large numbers of refugees and IDPs and which may last a long time. UNHCR, in addition to its own preparedness, must also lead its protection partners to be prepared. Fifth, and finally, partnerships in security. To quote Secretary Rice, “[W]e have come to a moment of great consequence in Darfur. The security situation is clearly deteriorating. Innocent people are suffering and dying. The humanitarian situation, already tenuous, is at risk of grave worsening. And the hope of peace is now in danger of collapsing altogether.” Mr. Chairman, new outflows of Sudanese refugees to Chad are possible. By working together we can improve our preparedness for such a scenario and greatly reduce human suffering. At the same time, we must all work to ensure that humanitarian workers are also protected. I want to salute the heroism of UNHCR staff, NGOs, ICRC, and others who are serving those whose lives are at risk. Mr. Chairman, Thank you.
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