I am very honoured to be requested to speak at this conference which is being held to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the United Nations as well as the 50th Anniversary of Hungary’s membership in the United Nations. I would like to express my sincerest appreciation to the United Nations Association of Hungary and to the HUN-IDA Company for taking the initiative to organize this conference and the programme of lectures that will follow it. The theme that has been chosen for this conference and lecture series, International Development Co-operation in the 21st Century is both timely and appropriate and the presentations that were made this morning have been very interesting and thought provoking.

As it happens, the conference and the events it commemorates also coincides with the 15th Anniversary of UNHCR’s presence in Budapest; the Office having first opened in October 1989 in response to the influx at that time of refugees from Romania. To be able to mark this anniversary with you is another reason I am very pleased to be here today.

In most people’s minds UNHCR’s work is closely associated with the emergency situations resulting from the mass influx of refugees into a country from a neighbouring one, especially the provision of immediate life sustaining relief in the form of food, shelter, health care and water supply. Indeed these are the most visible and well-known aspects of UNHCR’s work, work which I would like to add, we undertake in close co-ordination, collaboration and partnership with other U.N. agencies, especially WFP, UNICEF and OCHA, and with a great many non-governmental agencies from around world as well.

However, this image of UNHCR most often seen on news broadcasts is but a manifestation of UNHCR’s real purpose. UNHCR is mandated by the United Nations to lead and co-ordinate international action for the world wide protection of refugees and the resolution of refugee problems. Therefore, UNHCR’s primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and ensure the well being of refugees. In its efforts to achieve this objective, UNHCR strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the basic human right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another state, as well as to return home voluntarily. By assisting refugees to return to their own country, or, when this is not possible, to settle permanently in another country, UNHCR also seeks lasting solutions to their plight. UNHCR’s mandate is spelled out in the organization’s Statute and is guided by the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. A total of 145 states have acceded to one or both of these U.N. instruments, including Hungary.

As the immediate causes of mass refugee flight are sudden and dramatic, the effort to provide relief to persons who often arrive with nothing but the clothes on their back becomes an overwhelming humanitarian imperative. Simply protecting people’s rights, if they are dying of starvation or the lack of adequate shelter, water and health care, is obviously not enough, both have to be done at the same time. However, the objective of protecting refugees and ensuring their rights and well being, as important as they are, are not the end of UNHCR’s work. Our work finishes when lasting solutions to refugee problems are found.

To find durable solutions to refugee situations one has to analyze the root causes of the problems that led to the refugees’ flight. The 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee as someone who has been persecuted or has a reasonable fear of persecution due to their ethnicity, nationality, religion, political views or social group. Essentially refugees are caused by the abuse of their fundamental human rights, most often by the States, whose responsibility it is to protect them, although increasingly there are non-state actors in the form of militias or other groups that States can not control, who are guilty of human right abuses and violations causing people to flee for their lives. Very often, if one looks deeper into the sources of problems which result in human rights abuses, they are linked to problems of poverty, inequity, discrimination, marginalization and competition for and control over scarce resources. The conflicts and forced population displacements which regrettably follow from these problems all to frequently result in considerable destruction and loss of life, disrupting economies and future development and threatening peace and security, both regionally and globally. To stop the vicious cycle of human rights abuse, conflict and displacement is to support the establishment of peace, respect for the rule of law and to promote sustainable, equitable development. Unless the causes of forced displacement are addressed in the countries where they have occurred on one hand and/or the needs of uprooted persons are taken into account for the specific purpose of making them productive members of their communities in the countries of asylum on the other, then the chances of establishing peace and promoting development in either place will be severely constrained.

There is a clear linkage between respect for human rights and equitable development; one can not happen without the other. This is clearly articulated, as we have heard today, in the Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In the same way, there is a clear link between implementing lasting solutions to refugee problems and development related processes and programmes. It is for this reason development issues are of great interest to UNHCR. This linkage is most obvious in post-conflict situations, where homes, infrastructure and livelihoods have been destroyed. In order for refugees and internally displaced persons to return home they need to feel safe and they need to have a place and job to return to in order to reintegrate in a sustainable manner. Sadly, these reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts often cost far more and take much longer than the actual conflict and acts of destruction themselves. This phenomenon is easily seen nearby to Hungary in the former Yugoslavia. It requires enormous investment in resources and the concentrated and co-ordinated efforts of a wide range of donors and international development agencies to accomplish the task. In order to have refugee reintegration and rehabilitation incorporated more systematically into post-conflict reconstruction efforts and planning, UNHCR has become a member of the United Nations Development Group or UNDG. From within this group UNHCR is working to ensure that the U.N.’s development planning and assistance activities include refugees, asylum-seekers and other displaced populations both in the countries to which they fled and in their countries of origin. All too often, refugees and asylum-seekers have been characterized as burdens on the country of asylum, hampering progress towards development rather than being seen as a productive asset. In the country of origin or return, the needs of returning refugees and displaced populations are also often not incorporated in national recovery and development plans. UNHCR aims to change both of these views.

Refugees and asylum-seekers, whether in the country of asylum, or in the country of return, must be treated equally with nationals, after all development solutions have to be found for all groups present and not only for some. In doing so, special account needs to be taken of the high degree of vulnerability of refugees and forcibly displaced populations which result from the specific causes and effects of their flight. Moreover, including refugees in development activities helps to reconcile differences among different groups and prevents the causes of conflict both in countries of asylum and return, and, thus, contributes positively to peace and greater security for all.

What are the key development challenges at stake with regard to asylum-seekers and refugees?

• Many countries hosting large refugee populations are themselves poor and under developed with refugees often living in communities located in remote, poverty prone areas. Hosting large refugee groups over a long period of time in these circumstances can, if not addressed early and properly, create more conflict and insecurity not to mention hamper national development.
• Asylum-seekers and refugees in many countries face very restrictive regulations which limit their freedom of movement and thus lead to inadequate access to language and vocational training, general education opportunities, health care and social services. Consequently, their ability to pursue productive livelihoods and to make positive contributions to the economy and society in the country of asylum may be prevented or severely constrained by the receiving country itself. This is a problem, some dimensions of which are present in Hungary and other EU countries today.
• In post conflict situations, the reintegration of the returning refugees is complex and requires sustained action and investment. Too often returnees are given some initial, short term assistance upon return without due account being taken of their longer-term needs during the extended period of rehabilitation and reconstruction. There is an inadequate transition from short term relief to long development which often leaves returnees in a deprived condition without means or opportunities for the future. When this is the case, returnees may opt to leave their countries again and the cycle of displacement then repeats itself.

The common feature of these challenges is that needs of refugees and returnees have not been systematically incorporated in national development planning by the concerned governments, the donor community, the U.N. system or other international development agencies. To address this situation UNHCR has advocated that far more attention be placed on the needs of refugees by all those engaged in international development activities. I have already mentioned that UNHCR has joined the UNDG which is one tangible example of this effort.

Additionally, the High Commissioner has proposed some specific initiatives to increase UNHCR’s coordination and collaboration, and that of other humanitarian actors, with development agencies and institutions, in order to find solutions to refugee problems that are sustainable and which empower refugees and returnees to help themselves and be productive.

One of these initiatives is called Development Assistance for Refugees (DAR). It aims at promoting the self-reliance of refugees in countries of asylum while durable solutions are being sought by ensuring they are included in national development plans, together with the local population, in an integrated manner and thus preventing them from becoming a dependent and marginalized group. It is expected that the additional financial resources required for DAR will help to share the burden of refugee hosting countries, lead to the empowerment and enhancement of the productive capacities of refugees and contribute to the development of the host communities and country.

In cases where the durable solution that has been identified for the refugees is local settlement and integration, the High Commissioner has proposed a strategy called Development through Local Integration or DLI. The objective of this strategy is for additional development assistance to be provided to those asylum countries permanently accepting refugees for local settlement in order that the refugees become self-reliant and economically, socially, culturally and legally integrated into their new homes. The final step of this process is often the acquisition of the citizenship of their new country.

In cases where returning home is the most viable option, the High Commissioner has proposed another integrated approach called Repatriation, Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction or what he calls the “4Rs” This approach is meant to address the specific challenges arising in post-conflict situations and again is meant to bring together humanitarian and development actors in providing greater resources to create the conditions conducive to sustainable return and reintegration, to promoting long term reconciliation and thus mitigating future conflicts and refugee outflows.

In each initiative it is the goal of UNHCR to enlist development oriented processes, programmes, agencies and institutions of all types in order to form effective partnerships to solve refugee problems and to help prevent the root causes of forced displacement in the future.

Probably before you came to the conference today, you had in your minds a clear distinction between humanitarian relief and sustainable development, two efforts operating under different imperatives which were completely unrelated to each other. The point of my talk today is that this is not the case. Humanitarian and development efforts are two sides of the same coin and are not mutually exclusive activities. One needs only to look at the plight of refugees around the world to understand that humanitarian relief is the equivalent of first aid or initial treatment while development is the long term cure. In fact, it is becoming increasingly counter-productive to maintain the notion that humanitarian action takes place first only then to be followed by development solutions. It is now clear that development solutions need to be part of the humanitarian response.

Nor does one need to be an expert in the field of refugees to understand that a more just, equitable and tolerant world would be the best and most humane way to prevent the problems that cause refugees to flee for their lives. This can best be achieved by all concerned, States as well as individuals, through taking collective responsibility to ensure that poverty is reduced quickly and dramatically, that racism and discrimination are combated wherever and whenever they appear, that women are empowered, that marginalized groups are heard and their rights respected, and that economic growth leads to more jobs and greater productivity for all and not just to more wealth for a few. Asylum-seekers and refugees are indeed a development challenge, but a world without refugees would be the ultimate development success. Let’s work together to make it happen in the 21st century.