[MUSIC] In this section, we'll discuss solutions for refugee situations. Once a person is considered to be a refugee, either through the blanket prima facie status or through individual recognition, what happens to that person? We know that he can't be sent back to the country where he fears persecution. The convention doesn't say that she must be given citizenship in the country that's hosting her, although it does encourage this. So, what does happen? Although there's no reference to them in the Refugee Convention, three long-term solutions to refugee situations are briefly noted in the statute that created UNHCR and they've been further develop over the decades. These are known as the three durable solutions. The first of the durable solutions is return home when it's possible for the refugees to do so in safety and dignity. This is known as voluntary repatriation. It's by far the solution that most refugees want. Virtually every refugee around the world wants desperately to go home. No one wants to be a refugee. No one wants to be torn away from their homes, their family, their culture. Most refugees assume they will return home and want to stay nearby to facilitate that. In fact, over the years UNHCR has helped millions of refugees return to their home countries. The problem is that as conflicts rage on for years or decades, return is usually not possible for a very long time, if at all. Recent years have seen the lowest number of voluntary returns since the 1980s. That leads us to the second durable solution, which is known as local integration. This means that the refugee hosting country allows their refugees to stay there permanently, and essentially gives them the rights that its own citizens have. This, too, is a great solution when it happens. The problem is that it doesn't happen very often, because most refugees are not only from developing countries, but are being hosted by developing countries, usually neighboring countries that have their own economic challenges and are often politically fragile. They fear that permanently integrating large numbers of refugees will be detrimental to the welfare of their own country. That leads us to the third durable solution, the one that's been the subject of much debate by policy makers and even the public in recent years. And that's known as third-country resettlement. This is the process by which certain refugees are brought from the country where they're being hosted to another country, such as the United States, Canada, Sweden or elsewhere, and are given legal admission to that country. In most cases, such admission to another country is intended to be permanent. And the refugees are eventually eligible for that country's citizenship. Resettlement is wonderful when it happens. And in fact, it is life-saving. The problem is that it's a very limited solution. In fact, less than 1% of the world's refugees are ever able to be resettled. That's because resettlement countries have ceilings on how many people can be resettled, and these ceilings are very small compared with the overwhelming need. For that reason, resettlement is reserved for refugees who are considered to be extremely vulnerable in the host country. All refugees by definition would be vulnerable if returned home, but since are most are at least safe in the neighboring countries that are hosting them, the criteria for resettlement is very strict. Most resettlement countries ask UNHCR to identify and refer to them refugees who are in the most need of resettlement. UNHCR's criteria for resettlement includes certain medical cases, victims of torture or severe violence, unaccompanied children, women at risk, and a number of other factors. In some cases, close family reunion may also be considered. The resettlement countries themselves, not UNHCR, decide whether to approve or deny a refugee for resettlement. They decide how many refugees will be resettled and which ones. The resettlement process is an orderly and legal means by which refugees relocate to another country. The process is complex and usually very time-consuming. And it's available for only a tiny fragment of the world's refugees. But it does offer those individuals and families a chance for a new life in a new country that will hopefully embrace them. Now in discussion of these three durable solutions, it's been noted that each one is incredibly important, but each one is also quite limited. The question, then, is what happens to the overwhelming majority of refugees who don't benefit from any of these solutions? The reality is they wait, and wait, and wait. The average length of time that a refugee is displaced is close to 20 years. Children are born and raised in refugee camps, settlements or urban areas, living as refugees, and never knowing their homeland. In some places, a second or third generation of refugees has been born. Because of this reality of waiting for years or decades, the international community is currently exploring interim solutions, such as access to temporary work visas, and educational opportunities, as well as humanitarian admission programs. For more information on this new thinking for protracted refugee situations, I welcome you to check out the website listed on the course page. So now that we've discussed the current and new solutions for refugees, let's go back and discuss the other major category of uprooted people. IDPs, Unlike with the refugees, there is no international treaty providing for the protection of IDPs. And there is no lead agency like UNHCR that is mandated to assist them. However, over the years, the UN and its partners have developed a system for responding to IDPs that in some way mirrors refugee response. UNHCR and many other humanitarian organizations are very engaged in providing assistance to IDPs throughout the world, as well as in trying to protect them and find long-term solutions to their plight. And yet IDPs aren't in exactly the same situation as refugees. Since they're still inside their country of persecution, many of them are living in active conflict zones. Remember the human rights we discussed earlier? Well, the primary obligation of ensuring human rights rests with the government. But in the cases of refugees or IDPs, it's often their own government that's complicit in violating these rights, which is why they are forced to flee. Therefore, individuals who have fled their homes are generally in a more dangerous situation if they're still in their home country. And that danger extends to the humanitarian agencies that are trying to assist them. Yet these agencies, even those that are part of the UN, need the permission of the government to work in that country and provide assistance. So the issues surrounding IDP assistance become very complex. Nevertheless, IDPs do have human rights whether or not they're currently being protected. The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement is a document that compiles and restates human rights and humanitarian law that is relevant to internally displaced persons. It also addresses gray areas and gaps in the rights of IDPs, including by bringing in relevant comparisons to refugee law. While it's not a legally binding document in and of itself, the guiding principles are based on existing international law that is already binding on many governments through treaties that they've already ratified, or through customary international law. The guiding principles also provide useful guidance to many others that are dealing with IDPs, including the UN and non-governmental organizations that are assisting IDPs, as well as to non-state actors such as rebel groups and insurgents. However, the primary obligation for ensuring the rights of IDPs rests with governments, just as governments have the primary obligation to protect refugees in their territory. This may be a good time to revisit a graphic from the beginning of this module showing the intersection of international human rights, humanitarian, and refugee law. As this discussion has hopefully made clear, these three bodies of law may work not only individually, but often together in the situations that cause people to flee their homes, particularly situations of violent conflict. Tragically, there are situations where civilians have fled their homes due to persecution or conflict and have found refuge in a neighboring country, only to be impacted by violence in that neighboring country as well. Given the regional nature of many conflicts these days, it's not unusual to see persons fleeing back and forth across borders, and even to see two countries hosting refugees from each other. This has been the case, for example, with respect to Iraqi refugees in Syria and Syrian refugees in Iraq. Situations like these are particularly relevant to the overlap of human rights, humanitarian and refugee law. I would now like to summarize a few of the main points from this module. Human rights apply to everyone, and it's typically the responsibility of a person's government to protect their fundamental rights. International humanitarian law is the law of armed conflict. It provides protections for civilians and others not participating in hostilities. A refugee is a person forced to flee their country to escape war, violence or persecution. An internally displaced person is someone who has fled their home, but is still within the borders of their country. Since a refugee's government either cannot or will not protect their fundamental rights, the international community offers specific protections, largely through the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. The most important refugee protection is the right to not be forced to return to the country the refugee was forced to flee. This is known as non-refoulement. This is customary international law, and even countries that have not signed the Refugee Convention or Protocol are expected to uphold this right. Governments or organizations like UNHCR conduct asylum procedures to verify who qualifies for refugee protection and who does not. Everyone has the right to apply for asylum. I know that we covered a lot of information in a short period of time. If I can leave you with one message, it's that refugees, internally displaced people, and others uprooted from their homes by violence and persecution, are individuals, women, men, and increasingly children. They're people like us, each with a story, each in need of help and a future. I thank you for your interest in this topic, and urge you to continue informing yourselves and to add your voices to the global discussion on this critical topic. Thank you. [MUSIC]
