CCDH and UNHCR Celebrate World Refugee Day

The Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH) and the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Morocco commemorated the World Refugee Day under the theme of “real people with real needs”, on June 18, 2009 in Rabat.

This day was an opportunity to assess the situation of refuges at the international and local levels and define the mechanisms used by various stakeholders to protect refugees.

At the opening of this event, the CCDH Secretary General, Mr. Mahjoub El Hiba, stressed that Morocco has been always concerned about the situation of refugees along with other partners and the best ways to protect and promote their lots, recalling the roundtable organized by the CCDH in collaboration with the UNHCR in Morocco on February 14, 2008. The proceedings of this roundtable, which were published, were a basic reference allowing for the improvement of the institutional and legal framework to protect the refugees.

He said that the meeting was part of a series of meetings organized by the CCDH with those concerned with the affairs of migration and refugees to ensure that the information and data related to refugees are accurate and to remove any ambiguity between the concept of refugees and that of migrant (mainly for economic reasons), and to define the way to distinguish between them.

Mr. El Hiba stressed the need to improve the laws on refugees and give special interest to training programs for the NGOs working in the field. Also, he highlighted that NGOs for refuges should be set up, given the key role that civil society should play to promote the lots of refugees.

He said that the Convention relating to the Status of Refuges (1905 Geneva Convention) and its Optional Protocol should be reviewed in light of the international developments and the gains achieved in human rights, adding that the concept of refugee has been broadened and has become inconsistent with that specified by the Geneva Convention.

Mr. Ali M’hammedi, Director of the Consular and Social Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, said that the celebration of the World Refugee Day coincided this year with a changing context characterized mainly by an unprecedented financial, economic and social crisis and a surge of violence in many regions of the world, which had negative impacts on the humanitarian aids.

He said that Morocco cannot but express its regret that the majority of refugees and displaced people in the world were found in the developing countries, some of which were suffering from many crises. He underlined that Morocco deemed that it was urgent that the international community took appropriate measures to strengthen the international solidarity, so that the burden of protecting and helping the refugees can be shared evenly between the countries of the North and those of the South.

Mr. M’hammedi said that given its strategic position, Morocco had given a special interest to the issue of refugees and bore in mind the need to join the efforts made by the international community to find sustainable solutions for the problems of refugees, recalling that Morocco considered that the international community’s efforts should focus on fighting the networks which exploited the miserable situation of refugees.

He highlighted the need to update the national legal framework as regards the protection of refugees. He said that the future legal and institutional framework should take into account the significant changes in migrations on the regional and international levels.

Mr. M’hammedi said that Morocco has been always careful to collaborate in a constructive manner with the UNHCR in Morocco and help it accomplish its mission as part of respect for its international commitments, recalling that Morocco decided in 2005 to raise its financial contribution to the UNHCR budget. It moved from $ 50,000 in 2004 to $ 500,000 in 2009.

The representative of the UNHCR in Morocco, Mr. Johannes Van Der Klaauw, said that the World Refugee Day was an opportunity to assess the situation of the refugees worldwide, to express solidarity with them, to acknowledge the obstacles encountered when meeting their needs and to show the value of their contribution in the host countries.

He said that the number of the forcefully displaced persons because of oppression and conflicts worldwide amounted to 42 million people by 2008, including 16 million refugees and asylum-seekers, and 26 million internally displaced persons.

Mr. Van Der Klaauw thanked the government of Morocco for contributing with $ 0.5 m to the program of the UNHCR in 2009, which made Morocco one of the first 40 donors in the world as regards the UNHCR program.

It is worth mentioning that Morocco ratified the Geneva Convention related to the Status of Refugees on November 7, 1956 and its Optional Protocol in 1967 on April 20, 1971.