UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency

A Safety Net

Governments normally guarantee the basic human rights and physical security of their citizens. But when people become refugees this safety net disappears. Refugees fleeing war or persecution are often in a very vulnerable situation. They have no protection from their own state - indeed it is often their own government that is threatening to persecute them. If other countries do not let them in, and do not protect and help them once they are in, then they may be condemning them to an intolerable situation where their basic rights, security and, in some cases their lives, are in danger.

The protection of 36.4 million uprooted or stateless people is the core mandate of UNHCR. The agency does this in several ways: it ensures the basic human rights of uprooted or stateless people in their countries of asylum or habitual residence end that refugees will not be returned involuntarily to a country where they could face persecution. Longer term, the organization helps refugees find appropriate durable solutions to their plight, by repatriating voluntarily to their homeland, integrating in countries of asylum or resettling in third countries.

In many countries, UNHCR staff work alongside other partners in a variety of locations ranging from capital cities to remote camps and border areas. They attempt to promote or provide legal and physical protection, and minimize the threat of violence - including sexual assault - which many refugees are subject to, even in countries of asylum. They also seek to provide at least a minimum of shelter, food, water and medical care in the immediate aftermath of any refugee exodus, while taking into account the specific needs of women, children, the elderly and the disabled.

Emergency Preparedness and Response

UNHCR is often faced with a sudden emergency requiring an immediate response - an eruption of fighting causing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, perhaps, or a massive earthquake displacing hundreds of thousands. That means the agency must be able to rush aid and experts to the affected zone without delay. Providing fleeing civilians with emergency help is often the first step towards their long-term protection and rehabilitation.

To prepare for and respond to an emergency, UNHCR has assembled teams of people with a wide range of key skills who are ready for deployment anywhere in the world at a moment's notice. The agency has also created emergency stockpiles of non-food aid items in Copenhagen and Dubai to supplement local aid supplies in areas of need. We have established long-standing agreements with freight forwarders and logistics companies, and developed a global network of suppliers, specialist agencies and partners.

This means that at any given time, UNHCR has the capacity to respond to a new emergency impacting up to 500,000 people. The agency can also mobilize more than 300 trained personnel within 72 hours. These experts come from its Emergency Response Team (ERT) roster. UNHCR has also developed mechanisms for the immediate mobilization of financial resources to help meet the response to an emergency without delay.

To maintain this capacity and preparedness, UNHCR has developed training programmes that are held at regular intervals. They include the Workshop on Emergency Management, or WEM, which prepares all volunteers on UNHCR's ERT rosters. This weeklong exercise is held four times a year for up to 40 people and every effort is made to create the atmosphere of an actual emergency deployment. The main subjects include team-building, operations planning, financial and administrative systems, operational partnerships, communication and negotiation skills, security, coordination and information-sharing, telecommunications, and humanitarian protection.

UNHCR's eCentre in Tokyo, meanwhile, is helping improve emergency preparedness and response capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region through targeted training and other capacity-building measures. UNHCR also contributes to inter-agency initiatives to enhance early warning and preparedness.

The Ultimate Goal

While UNHCR's primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees, our ultimate goal is to help find durable solutions that will allow them to rebuild their lives in dignity and peace. There are three solutions open to refugees where UNHCR can help: voluntary repatriation; local integration; or resettlement to a third country in situations where it is impossible for a person to go back home or remain in the host country. UNHCR helps achieve one or other of these durable solutions for refugees around the world every year. But for several million refugees and a greater number of internally displaced people, these solutions are nowhere in sight. UNHCR has been highlighting these protracted situations in a bid to get movement towards solutions. In many cases, the absence of longer-term solutions aggravates protection problems.