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	Human Rights Defender

Australian Achievements at United Nations Refugee Meetings in Geneva

Jackie Keegan

Jackie Keegan is a researcher for the Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes (NSW) and a final year law student at UNSW. She works on refugee and other social justice issues, from the perspective of international human rights law. In the last issue of the Defender, Jackie wrote about the Australian Refugee Rights Alliance and its planned work at the Executive Committee of the UNHCR meeting in Geneva, in September-October 2002. Now returned from ExCom, the following is a brief report of her experience.

The Australian Refugee Rights Alliance (ARRA) sent twelve people to Geneva to participate in ‘PrepCom’, the Non Government Organisation (NGO) / United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) preparatory meeting for the intergovernmental refugee agency meeting, called the Executive Committee of the UNHCR Programme, or ‘ExCom’. The goals of the ARRA team for this trip were limited to participating in NGO involvement at the annual PrepCom and ExCom meetings on the strength of our research and preparation and to increasing awareness of the Australian situation.

Although NGOs are allowed to be present at Government meetings, they have limited access to the draft materials and to genuine deliberations. This means that the focus of NGO work during the annual refugee meetings mostly takes place outside the main conference hall. Despite these limitations, I believe that the ARRA team was successful in a number of ways, some of which were felt immediately, but most of which were foundational for future work by ARRA or others working in the refugee field. With the long-term nature of the project in mind, the main team members were asked from the outset to make a three-year commitment to it, so that the contacts and experience gained at this first meeting might bear fruit at later meetings.

The five main areas of success were:

1. Raising the profile of the Australian situation.

Australia’s position on refugees is well-known. The Tampa incident just prior to the 2001 Executive Committee meeting had highlighted the current Australian Government attitude towards refugees and it appears that many governments have been approached about taking refugees from Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The ARRA team, by being such a large, well informed and well-behaved group, was able to reinforce the view that the Australian situation is grave, that many Australians are concerned about the issue, and that these Australians and the refugees need the help of the international community in order to bring about change.

The Director of International Protection and the High Commissioner for Refugees, Erika Feller, made guarded as well as relatively open statements about Australia’s policies, some in response to questions posed by ARRA, and some in other contexts. Mrs Feller used a case study provided, at her request, by a member of the ARRA team as an example of where protection is not provided in a western context. The High Commissioner responded to a question about a detention regime that exactly matched Australia’s by exclaiming that ‘This tendency and these practices are outrageous.  Full Stop.  Totally unacceptable.’ More subtle victories were achieved in quiet meetings with Mrs Feller and her staff.

Conversations with the delegates of other Governments confirmed that there was good knowledge of parts of the Australian refugee policy and that, for the most part, Australia’s behaviour is not considered acceptable. Delegates from a number of governments and other NGOs quickly took up a booklet produced by ARRA relating to the Australian situation. NGO interest in the Australian situation is particularly important. We have many requests from all over the world for copies of the videos ARRA was able to show during the two meetings in one of the rooms made available to governments and NGO participants. Some NGOs were seeking to have them shown on their national television stations in order to raise the alarm about Australian practices more broadly. In order to use the international community to make changes in Australian refugee policies we need the support of the international NGO community. I think that we have that now. The issue is now about how best to make use of it.

2. Learning about how ExCom works.

Although we were not able to influence the documents agreed to this year, we have a much better idea about how we might achieve that in the future. What can NGOs do within the context of ExCom as it functions today?

3. Participating in raising the profile of NGOs in the ExCom world.

At the moment, since ExCom conclusions (best practice and Convention interpretation documents agreed to by Governments at ExCom, but prepared over the months leading up to the October meeting) are not publicly available, NGOs are not able to contribute to their development. By appearing as a strong but appropriately behaved team, we assisted in showing Governments and the UNHCR how NGOs can be strong without compromising the meeting. We got our message across without causing an international incident, and through our preparation, we may have influenced the preparation that other NGOs will put into ExCom in the future. The NGOs said in their statement that ExCom and, in particular, the Conclusions, needed more NGO input. I think that our presence both strengthened the NGOs this time, and also caused some long-time Government, UN, and NGO participants to re-think NGO involvement in the future. We have already started to talk with other NGOs at a regional and international level about preparations for next year’s meetings.

4. Making contacts for use in our work in Australia and internationally.

ARRA’s good relations with international NGOs and with the UNHCR mean that Australians will be a part of the growth of NGO involvement in ExCom meetings in the future. These relations also mean that we can better use the international system from Australia to push for change both in Australia and in our region. Australians have been attending ExCom for some time, but Australia’s recent actions, and ARRA’s numerical strength and the approach we took meant that Australia was especially on the minds of government and NGO delegates this year. When the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention tables its report on Australia’s detention system in March, our communication with NGOs based in Geneva will assist them to make the most of the report and its comments. In addition, those attending ExCom next year will go with an understanding of how the system works and with colleagues ready to work with them.

5. LOTS of jobs to do from Australia.

From meetings with representatives of the UNHCR, the Commission on Human Rights, and other UN bodies and NGOs, the ARRA team learned about work that can be done in Australia and then sent overseas. This includes use of established mechanisms as yet underused in Australia, continued use of mechanisms Australians have used to good effect, and the development of new procedures for international monitoring of human rights and refugee law obligations. All the possible avenues cannot be pursued immediately, but we are now in a good position to think about the ideas that have come from the two meetings and to think about those most suited to our needs and skills. Perhaps the most important of all the possible tasks ahead of us is the writing of companion reports to those that the Australian Government is compelled to submit to various UN agencies and bodies on its compliance with international human rights and refugee law norms. These companion reports will require the effort of many people working on the sections most relevant to their own work. Our colleagues in International NGOs can be invaluable in developing what we produce into a successful international campaign.

These five points are the beginning of a discussion about ExCom 2002. The ideas raised here need to be deconstructed and discussed by many people all over Australia so that the best use can be made of the trip.