Firstly I would like to welcome Mr. António Guterres as the UN refugee agency's 10th High Commissioner.
He has joined UNHCR at a momentous time as the UN goes through a process of challenging reforms including those to the humanitarian system, at a time when asylum and migration flows create increasing challenges and when protection of refugees and the internally displaced must continue to demand our attention.
These are all challenges that we as a Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies face together with UNHCR.
We have welcomed the opportunity to actively participate with UNHCR in the IASC process aimed at strengthening humanitarian capacities. We all have much to gain from the work now being done on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian response.
In our case this very much includes the search for improved mechanisms for ensuring that the communities affected by emergencies are themselves integrated into the design, implementation and evaluation of the relief and recovery programs which are so central to effective response.
In this context we should not forget that it is those communities that provide the first front line of humanitarian response.
However the Tsunami and earthquake disaster in the Bay of Bengal at the end of 2004 and other major disasters show us at the International Federation that some situations are too much for those local communities, our national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies and their national governments. In these situations the international community must respond quickly and effectively.
However our experience following the tsunami has revealed many issues which need to be addressed for the future.
These include several points of particular importance for the International Federation, one of which, relevant here, is the need for the International Federation to play a much more active part in working with the UN system particularly in the provision of shelter to persons affected by natural disasters and the resulting population movements.
The International Federation looks forward to collaborating closely with UNHCR in providing greater predictability and capacity in the areas of shelter, camp coordination and management. In the provision of shelter following natural disasters we are currently looking very positively into what leadership would mean for the International Federation and its member Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
As earlier indicated by Jan Egeland, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, during the panel discussion this question was considered by our Governing Board last week.
Our Governing Board recognized the considerable capacity gap in the provision of shelter, the opportunity this provides for the Federation, and the challenges this request presents to the Federation, particularly as a non-UN agency. Consequently we are now in the process of examining the implications of this request and of providing a detailed proposal to our General Assembly in November.
We anticipate that proposal will be a positive one if we can negotiate a special definition for lead agency.
Chairman, we recognize that to effectively address population movement in a coherent way presents the international community as a whole and UNHCR in particular with a huge and unfortunately unresolved challenge.
UNHCR has a special mandate - one which is of vital importance - but that mandate must remain concentrated on the Protection function which is so essential for refugees and the internally displaced.
The debate taking place at the inter-agency level has been encouraging, and we are pleased to be able to contribute and take part in those discussions, but whilst they are clearly moving forward we do not believe that they will necessarily resolve protection problems.
In this regard we would call upon governments to fulfil their responsibilities to provide a secure environment for humanitarian operations that will better ensure protection. Furthermore we must work with the international humanitarian community to improve coordination, inter-operability across the humanitarian system and the strengthening of regional, national and community capacities in these areas.
Within the inter-agency humanitarian debate we have also attempted to increase awareness of forgotten and neglected emergencies. In this respect we are concerned that protracted refugee situations must continue to receive appropriate attention from the international community and from UNHCR.
Whilst assistance to these situations must continue to be effectively provided efforts must also be made into finding a resolution that enables the affected refugees or IDPs to resume a normal way of life.
We would stress the value and need to explore and develop alternatives to camps for the protection and assistance of the displaced. We would encourage UNHCR to find, where possible, community based solutions that enable refugees and IDPs to be integrated in the local communities to decrease the risk of dependency and protracted assistance.
I shall now briefly mention two further priority points for us in the population movement agenda. Each is within the UNHCR agenda, but each is also dealt with by other global or regional bodies. Each is of high priority for many National Societies as well, in many cases, for national or even local reasons:
Population movement and Migration is and will remain a normal part of human behaviour. We have said many times, and say again today, that it is essential that all governments develop migration policies for their countries which recognise that population movement is a fact of normal life. These policies should aims at creating conditions in which people and their families can move with dignity and bring their contributions to the economies, societies and cultures of the countries to which they move.
For this reason, there needs to be a stronger linkage between UNHCR and organisations - including the IFRC - committed to tolerance and work against discrimination. Tolerance and mutual respect is vital to the work of UNHCR particularly with asylum-seekers who must receive sensitivity and care in the messages and support they receive from officials and communities in countries of arrival, whatever their circumstances.
Trafficking of Human Beings has become a major issue for many National Societies. It arises almost everywhere in the world, especially because of the combination of major contributing reasons like sexual exploitation and forced labour.
Almost every country is either a source, a destination or a transit route, sometimes all three. It involves criminal organisations, and has proved easy to politicise in some countries. But the essential concern for us is the plight of the victims of trafficking.
We would like to see all governments commit themselves to supporting those rendered vulnerable by trafficking, and to support programs aimed at eliminating the conditions which make trafficking seem a viable alternative to poverty and despair at home.
Chairman, we are in active discussion with the Office of the High Commissioner now on ensuring that HCR is able to bring National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies more effectively into its network of humanitarian delivery.
This is important worldwide, and our expectation is that the result will be much easier program implementation arrangements when the need arises, as it regrettably but inevitably will. We wish to stress today our commitment to partnerships.
We were very pleased that both the Emergency Relief Coordinator and the High Commissioner have expressed their appreciation for excellent cooperation with the Red Cross / Red Crescent Movement. We would like to see this further strengthened in the future, and we would like to look for ways of deepening the relationship at the national level and down to the community level.
I close with a special tribute to other populations - those who live in the proximity of refugees and asylum seekers and whose communities and volunteers daily perform those essential neighbourly functions without which no international program could function effectively.
Each year there is reference to these neighbourhood communities in speeches at EXCOM, but too little is done to recognise and support them as they go about their work.
Last year we referred to them in a different way, by speaking of the very large number of displaced persons who are not in camps, but are cared for by communities.
Our hope is that next year there can be progress reported by all stakeholder - governments, international organisations and civil societies - as the result of a more comprehensive coordination mechanism addressing requirements at the international level to recognize, support and strengthen the contributions local communities and their governments make to refugees and the displaced.