It’s Dec. 14 and I am fortunate to be sharing a birthday with an exemplary United Nations agency that recruited me back in 1994 and which I had the privilege to serve until 2013. It’s the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR – the High Commission for Refugees.
This month UNHCR is marking the 25th anniversary of the formal opening of its office in Ukraine, and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of UNHCR.
I was happy to work with this organization as its senior policy adviser in former Soviet republics. This involved, among other things, missions to hot spots in Russia’s Ingushetia, Georgia’s Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and later being the organization’s representative in Belarus, Azerbaijan and Angola.
Challenging and fulfilling years serving humanity through UNHCR, meeting fine humanitarian colleagues and tenacious victims of war and intolerance.
2020 also sees the 75th anniversary of the creation of the United Nations.
Regardless of Josef Stalin’s motives in allowing Soviet Ukraine to be a founding member, the fact remains that Ukraine, implicitly recognized a possible sovereign actor on the international scene, was represented in this august international body from the outset.
Yes, I know better than most that the UN is far from perfect and, for all the good it’s done over the years, there is also much to be dissatisfied about and to question.
Still, the UN is what we have, and I don’t want to be sidetracked into a broader discussion about its merits, failures and shortcomings. I will simply limit myself to paying tribute to the UN agency I know best – UNHCR and indicate what added value it has brought to Ukraine.
It’s important to remember that UNHCR is one of the UN’s operational agencies. It’s active on the ground in real situations where lives are at stake – situations involving conflict, intolerance, ethnic cleansing, human rights violations, humanitarian emergencies, and the need to provide protection, legal and humanitarian, to the uprooted according to international norms.
Of course, the effectiveness of UNHCR’s work depends to a greater or lesser extent of it working partnerships with the government, other UN agencies and international and national NGOs and the support of civil society and the media, not to mention donors. And the level of trust it wins among the displaced population.
So first, what is UNHCR’s relevance for Ukraine now and what did it contribute before? Clearly, in today’s conditions of war with Russia and given the forced displacement of close to two million people from Crimea and particularly the occupied areas of the eastern Donbas, this should be obvious enough.
Yet it is not just about humanitarian assistance, as many would think. Protection, in the legal sense, of the rights of the displaced is vital. As is promoting the development of proper national legislation and application of recognized standards, influencing official and public mindsets in this regard, and helping create conducive conditions for the displaced to continue their lives.
Let’s go back in history. How many millions of people (ethnic Ukrainians, Jews, Crimean Tatars, and others) were forced to leave Ukraine because of intolerance and persecution during the last 120 years or so. Add those who emigrated because of economic hardship, inequality and social and political injustice to North and South America, Europe, Australia and elsewhere.
Today’s large and vibrant Ukrainian diaspora is a product of these outflows, some forced – which created refugees and stateless persons, and others voluntary, as in the case of economically motivated emigration.
The initial international attempts to address the growing challenges posed by forced displacement were made in the early 1920s by the League of Nations. Its first high commissioner for refugees, the famous Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, actually came to Ukraine in 1921 to oversee relief work.
During World War II, massive numbers of Ukrainians were again displaced and constituted a significant proportion of the millions of Europe’s refugees who in the second half of the 1940s awaited an international solution to their predicament. Within Soviet Ukraine itself, there were forced deportations and forcible transfers of the population both within, and especially from, the republic.
One of the major challenges facing the UN was the issue of the post-war-refugees, which were more commonly referred to at that time as DPs – displaced persons. Eventually, on Dec. 14, 1950, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was created. The Refugee Convention adopted by the UN in 1951 became the key legal document underlying UNHCR’s subsequent work.
After the dissolution of the USSR at the end of 1991, Ukraine, like the other independent post-Soviet states, was not yet part of the international system to protect asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons.
The new Ukrainian state was confronted by challenges inherited from the Soviet period – refugees from areas of conflict (e.g., Georgia, Central Asia, Afghanistan), but also a new phenomenon – asylum seekers from outside the region, many hoping to make their way westward.
Moreover, Ukraine had to address the onerous consequences of a crime committed during the Stalin era when the entire Crimean Tatar nation had been deported from the Crimean peninsula to Soviet Central Asia. Almost 50 years later, around 250,000 of them wanted to return to their Crimean homeland, which in 1954 had been “transferred” by Moscow to Soviet Ukraine.
As early as 1994, at the invitation of the Ukrainian government, UNHCR was on the scene to help, although its representation was officially established only in 1995. It supported the Ukrainian government in developing capacity to provide protection and assistance to asylum-seekers and refugees, prevent and reduce statelessness, particularly in the case of the reintegration of the Crimean Tatars, and to overcome the inherited propiska system restricting freedom of movement and choice of place of residence.
Almost exactly 25 years ago, at the end of 1995, UNHCR’s Director of Policy Planning and Operations, the legendary Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello, visited Kyiv. Emphasizing UNHCR’s commitment to assisting Ukraine, he recommended that the capacity and status of UNHCR’s Kyiv office be enhanced.
Sergio was killed along with 20 of his colleagues in a bombing in Bagdad in 1993 and this year a feature film about his life and achievements was released.
His legacy in Ukraine was gradually brought to fruition by UNHCR’s international and national staff. In 2002, the country ratified the 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 Protocol. In 2013, Ukraine ratified two UN Conventions relating to the status of stateless persons (1954) and on the reduction of statelessness (1961).
Unexpectedly, in 2014, the Russo-Ukrainian conflict produced massive internal displacement. UNHCR had had to make major adjustments in its work to address, in concert with its partners, this new challenge, and to become active in and around the conflict-affected zones.
Since then, UNHCR has been in the forefront of supporting the government and the and civil society of Ukraine in responding to the forced displacement of IDPs from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Donbas. It has been providing legal, material and social assistance to them directly, or in partnership with international and local organizations. Its activities have been focused on strengthening IDP rights and freedoms, improving their living conditions and providing long-term solutions.
The donor countries that enable UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies deserve special thanks. And the costs are high. Since 2014, the United Nations and humanitarian partners on the ground in eastern Ukraine have provided relief and protection assistance worth more than $1.2 billion. More than one million people received assistance during the first nine months of 2020. The UN in Ukraine is seeking $168 million to meet the needs of the displaced in 2021.
I should also mention that Ukraine has produced two winners of UNHCR’s prestigious Nansen Award for outstanding achievements in support of displaced people. They are Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev in 1998 and this year Tetiana Barantsova, together with her team in the Luhansk non-governmental organization “AMI-Skhid” which helps IDPs with disabilities to find shelter, food, financial and psychological support.
UNHCR is one of the UN”s success stories. In Ukraine too it has made an impact and continues to make a difference. On this day, I proudly say thank you to my humanitarian colleagues and wish UNHCR both in Ukraine and globally, a happy jubilee and birthday.
