Throughout 2011, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) has been celebrating 60 years of the UN
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (July
28).
Originally founded in 1951, UNHCR was initially
given a mandate for three years; enough time, it was
believed, to sort out the refugee issues which
had arisen after World War II. After the war,
''people found themselves in countries that were not
their own. They had been fleeing from communism or
had found themselves in concentration camps'' says Melita Šunjić of UNHCR.
The
folly of originally only granting a three year
mandate soon became apparent as it was realised that
there was no stopgap solution to the refugee issue.
As the century progressed, seismic events such as
the partition of India and Pakistan, independence in
African countries and, civil war in Central America,
triggered flows of refugees en masse, which led to
the mandate being continuously extended.
Finally, 50 years after UNHCR's foundation, common
sense prevailed and ''we got a permanent mandate
because it became obvious that the refugee problem
is something that occurs at all times; that refugee
protection is not something that you can resolve and
then you are over and done with it. You have to keep
a mechanism going that will permanently protect
people who become victims of persecution'' says Ms.
Šunjić.
But
while the refugee problem has remained constant,
there has been a marked attitude change to how
refugees are treated in their new European host
countries. In the aftermath of World War II, there
was more sympathy and compassion afforded to the
plight of refugees, as there was a genuine awareness
that these people were fleeing persecution.
''They
were the bad guys in the communist world and we were
the good guys in the west. It was understood that
when these people came, it was on the presumption
that they were being persecuted and even if there
might have been some among them who had economic
motives, this wasn't questioned at the time'' says
Šunjić.
The
onset of globalisation, however, has muddied the
waters. Whereas almost all of Europe was in some way
touched by World War II - which in turn heightened
the awareness of the horrors perpetrated amongst the
common man, due to the fact that many Europeans
witnessed such atrocities at first hand – now the
common European is generally unaware of the human
rights abuses occurring in more far off countries.
''Now,
people are going further and further and Europeans
don't understand why someone comes; they don't know
what is going on in Congo, for example.'', says
Šunjić.
In
order to educate and raise awareness, UNHCR has
started many campaigns and hosted many events during
the year. The ''Do One Thing'' campaign, for
example, is taking place in may European countries.
''We ask people to do one thing about refugees, such
as helping a refugee, donating money or simply
learning a new fact about refugees'' says Šunjić.
Another
major campaign is the ''60 Years, 60 Lives'' campaign
which is running in 30 European countries. As is
evident by the title, 60 people who have found
refuge in Europe over the last 60 years told of
their reasons for fleeing and what life as a refugee
has been like since arriving in Europe.
According to Šunjić, the point of this campaign is
to ''remind Europe of its great tradition of
offering safe haven which somehow has been lost in
the public debate over the last 10 years...we
wanted to revise that and remind Europeans that
Europe was a place where people who were persecuted
could be protected.''
Restoring this ''great tradition'' is what she
considers UNHCR's biggest challenge at present.
Whereas European host countries used to perceive
asylum as a ''human right'' and a ''humanitarian
tool'', it is now ''very often discussed in the
context of being an economic burden and a danger to
'our culture'.''
She
would also like to see international politics to
intervene more often in situations where people
could become refugees. ''We don't have enough
preventative mechanisms for preserving human rights
for making sure countries are governed well, that
they are democracies where people can feel safe and
free there; that a refugee doesn't have to become a
refugee.''
What
she sees as of paramount importance, however, is
enabling people to see past all of the superficial
things associated with asylum through to the kernel
of the matter; namely, that ''asylum is a tool of
saving lives.''
The
institution of asylum is, in fact, as old as
humankind and one of its finest traditions and it
should not be thrown overboard.''
