Geneva, 31 January - One month into
his mandate as new High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers gave his
first press conference in Geneva. The former Dutch prime minister,
the longest-serving post-war premier (1982-94), in a direct and pragmatic
style, presented some of his agenda items focusing on the relations
of the UN Refugee Agency with donor countries and partner agencies.
Lubbers gave an account of his first
steps as leader of one of the world's principal humanitarian agencies
with a staff of more than 5,000 personnel worldwide who help an estimated
22.3 million people in more than 120 countries. Cautious and determined
at the same time, the High Commissioner showed a sincere interest in devoting
his full attention to support his personnel of whom the large majority
serve in crisis situations and non-family duty-stations.
Lubbers expressed his ambition of "converting UNHCR in a truly multilateral institution" expanding the support of donor nations, that - in his views - should show a "stronger commitment" to the protection of refugees. Under his tenure, UNHCR should become "less vulnerable" - he said- gaining wider international support, while reaching out beyond the traditional constituency of donor nations which he called the "coalition of the willing".
He put emphasis on the concerted role of all humanitarian agencies well supported by OCHA to provide assistance to refugees and displaced people and expressed himself in favor of new partnerships with NGOs and eventually with transnational corporations.
A pragmatic approach, displayed by Lubbers, which was also in his words when speaking about the need to do more for the security of refugees and also for humanitarian personnel. "Time has come to consider the issue of security more seriously"- Lubbers said, adding that UNHCR will invest in the training of his own staff but also in "good equipment" in order to reduce the risks involved in the field-work.
Lubbers announced that his future commitments would start with visits to several European countries (Belgium, UK, Sweden) and to West Africa (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia). "In Africa, I will go to Guinea first because of the magnitude of the refugee-problem" - he stated, excluding that the Former-Yugoslavia will be among his initial priorities.
Lubbers indicated that he is currently seeking closer cooperation with the European Commission and that his recent meeting with the President of the Commission, Romano Prodi, was about to be followed by meetings with all relevant European institutions and authorities. He remarked that the Europe Union remained at the top of the donors' list but that among individual countries there were some particularly visible, such as the Scandinavian countries, and others , including France and Germany, whose contributions to UNHCR were too modest. He also referred to the European legislation, which should allow for quicker decisions with regard to asylum seekers (DKP).