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1995 - Address by Mr Jean Foyer |
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| Vice-President of the Jury | |
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Mr
President of the Republic of Senegal, The Jury of the Prize considered that it was in line with the wishes of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, whose colleague I had the honour of being, to choose this year as joint Prize-winners the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and its High Commissioner, Ms Sadako Ogata. In accordance with the statutes adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 14 December 1950, the High Commissioner's mission is to provide protection and assist in the repatriation or assimilation of populations whose fundamental rights to life, freedom and security are threatened by a conflict. As you yourself, Madam High Commissioner, have written in such forceful terms: “ (...) finding a solution to the fate of refugees is inseparable from the United Nations' wider aim of preventing and resolving armed conflicts. The peace process cannot advance without taking into account the problem of displaced populations.” It is true that since the creation of your Office, a number of high distinctions have been conferred on it. But the most recent was more than 15 years ago. Evil times have made it necessary to extend its tasks as regards both the persons and the missions concerned, and to do so in changing and more complicated circumstances; to adapt its methods accordingly, and to define and constantly renew its doctrine, as you have written yourself: Today the whole problem of asylum and refugees has taken on a dimension going far beyond what was foreseeable in 1951. These changes are to be seen in the growing numbers involved and above all in the changing nature of the phenomenon. The amount of work carried out in the last 15 years, which continues on all continents, is immense. It deserves fresh international recognition. We have thus sought to pay particular tribute to the High Commissioner responsible for this work since 1991. In traditional international law, on which the Geneva Conventions signed in 1948 are based, war is an inter-State relation and its laws proceed from the distinction drawn between combatants and non-combatants: the former exposed, alas, to death and injury, the latter assumed not to be affected by operations. There is a yawning gap between what really happens and these principles, which are, moreover, inapplicable to most internal conflicts. The number of civilian victims and refugees is a measure of this gap. As regards refugees and other individuals coming within the responsibility of the Office, the total in 1995 was 27,418,900. One inhabitant of the earth in 130. How great was our illusion in believing that History had come to an end! What a monumental error, to have forgotten the truth that History is tragic! The historical era which opened half a century ago was to a great extent that of disappointed hopes. May 1945 saw the complete liberation of the nations of Western Europe, but at the same time consolidated the enslavement of Central and Eastern Europe. For half a century, voluntary exile, where it was possible, was the only way of regaining freedom. Countries in South-East Asia have experienced, and others are still experiencing, this tragic destiny. The end of empires and decolonisation did not open up new eras of peace for all countries. The maintenance of frontiers revealed the irrational and arbitrary nature of those drawn by conquest and the dividing up and regrouping of territories. In our lifetime, the difficulty has emerged of ensuring that States with minorities live in peace and concord. The last few decades have seen not only local wars at a time when deterrence kept the peace between the superpowers, but also domestic conflicts with disastrous consequences, and outbursts of ideological, ethnic and religious hatred. A High Commission document speaks of the rise of nationalism, ethnic conflicts, vulnerable or non-existent States, human rights violations and millions of people taking to the road in search of protection. The industrialized world, inhabited by the most fortunate among human beings, who are not aware or do not wish to be aware of their good fortune, pays little heed to the misfortunes of millions of men, women and children. The reports of the Office describe appalling flights of refugees, whole populations arriving in desolate, arid lands where they are 'free' to die, children separated from their parents whom they will never find again, infants dying from lack of food, lack of hygiene and epidemics, women and girls raped, defiled by ignoble brutes in their country of origin, in the country of asylum and in some cases by their own companions in misfortune in camps. In some countries — in Europe, for example - systematically organized rape has been used to trigger off the departure and flight of whole populations. All over the world and on all continents, the period we are living through is a period of horror. The Office's mission of protection and assistance is becoming increasingly difficult to carry out. This began with the refugee problem, the only one covered by the institutional texts, the Statutes of the Office and the 1951 Convention. Neighbouring States, which frequently find themselves forced to admit whole populations of refugees without any form of request for asylum, are very often extremely poor States. The sudden influx of a large population is in many cases disastrous for the environment, since it causes uncontrolled deforestation and the pollution of already scarce water resources. Camps become centres of epidemics. The rich countries which boasted of granting asylum when it was requested by individuals, above all persons of distinction, are reluctant to do so to whole populations. The abuses committed by illicit traders cast discredit on genuine refugees who are unjustly treated as clandestine immigrants or economic migrants, and not recognized as refugees To quote you again, Madam, while respect for the right to asylum of genuine refugees is a duty incumbent on States, international law lays no obligation on them to receive non-refugees, however pitiful their state and however difficult it is to distinguish them from real refugees. Over and above genuine refugees, we now have unsuccessful asylum seekers who come in their turn to seek aid from the Office. Not all those who flee violence and persecution succeed in reaching a foreign country. They crowd together on part of the territory of their State. They are then no longer designated refugees but displaced persons. The Office counted a total of 5,423,000 in 1995. Their need for protection and assistance is as great as that of refugees. How can the Office help them without ignoring the sovereignty of the territorial State, given that the Office's action requires the consent of the State on whose territory it operates? How can it act in cases other than those where a United Nations peace plan is being carried out, or where there is now no government of any kind? As so aptly written by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali : “ Today it is no longer merely a question of maintaining peace between States, with due respect for the sovereignty of each. We must now find remedies for the rifts which divide peoples inside a State. How can this be done? ” Notwithstanding the immensity of the task to be accomplished, the roles of protection and assistance, the flow of persons to be helped, the political, legal, financial and technical obstacles, the Office obtains results which are commensurate with the problem, whether it is acting alone or as the co-ordinator or leader of a group combining the efforts of governmental and non-governmental international organizations. It was no small feat to have succeeded in solving the problem of two million Rwandese in 1994 alone. Since it was first established, the Office has dealt with the situation of more than 30 million people either by freely accepted repatriation, integration in the country of asylum or resettlement in a third country. But it seems that, unlike the Danaïds' sieve, the flow of refugees and displaced persons builds up more quickly than it empties out. Action on this scale, and such results in a task which is never-ending, amount to a prodigious, not to say miraculous, achievement. They prove that so many innocent victims of so many atrocities can still place their hopes and trust in human justice. A major American newspaper has called the Office's delegates ‘Ms Ogata's Angels’. A mission of this kind, which is being carried out on all continents, reveals the wealth of generosity concealed in the human race. It may be that great calamities are necessary to make us aware of this. The effectiveness of all these efforts depends on the quality of those in command. At a time when Ms Ogata was seeking no office, and had forbidden any campaigning on her behalf, when she was an eminent woman academic who had become a diplomat, and had devoted herself to international humanitarian tasks, she was elected by acclamation and unanimously as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This was in 1991, at a very difficult turning-point. Three years later, Ms Sadako Ogata’s term of office was renewed for five years with the same acclamation and unanimity. Madam, at the risk of embarrassing you, let me say that your action arouses worldwide admiration. You direct operations and you give of yourself, never flinching from travelling to organize aid, even under hostile fire. The passion which inspires you leads you not only to provide suffering men and women with the means of survival and reintegration, but also primarily to ensure respect for the rights and individual dignity of these men, women and children, all victims of a dreadful fate. Your writings and your words attest to your penetrating analysis of problems which are constantly changing shape, your boldness in defining solutions, your calm courage in addressing those in power and also your feeling for reality; for what is possible and what is not. The annual reports of your Office, rich in information and full of lessons to be learned, are models of their kind. You summed up everything calmly and firmly, when you said that the fundamental right not to be forced into exile has as its corollary the duty to protect one's people from forcible displacement. Your are an example from every point of view. You are an example of simplicity, freedom from any kind of vanity, the greatest possible personal disinterest. One can say that your example should be imitated and followed by those who at present yield to the temptation of converting humanitarian action into electoral policy operations and seek media publicity for their action. Fortunately, Madam, there are those today who imitate you. Mr Federico Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO, and I will now present the Prize to Mr Karnel Morjane, Director of the Office's African Bureau, who will receive it on behalf of the Office of the High Commissioner, and to Ms Sadako Ogata, who will receive it on her own behalf. Will they please step forward. I ask them to accept this Prize as a testimony of esteem and recognition. To this, Madam, I add the tribute of our respect and admiration. |
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