|
UNRWA's Mandate
 The General Assembly accorded UNRWA a
short-term mandate. It was expected that those
refugees wishing to do so would soon be able to return to their homes in accordance with General Assembly
Resolution 194(III).
All relief and works operations were to be
terminated by the middle of 1951. UNRWA’s mandate has been extended on a
regular basis due to the lack of durable solutions for Palestinian
refugees. All refugees have the right to return to their homes of
origin and repossess their properties. Those not wishing to do so are
entitled to resettlement assistance. Assistance to internally
displaced Palestinians inside Israel was terminated in 1952 at the
request of the Israeli government.
Early programs aimed to
increase the “practical alternatives” and thus encourage a more
“realistic” view of the future. The United States, Europe and others
hoped that economic development would encourage resettlement and lead to
a “liquidation” of the Palestinian refugee problem. By the end of the
1950s, the United Nations had concluded that the economic development
programs had failed to provide a solution to the refugee problem. Faced
with high overhead costs, lack of regional cooperation, and beset by
strong opposition among refugees to de facto resettlement, UNRWA shifted
its humanitarian operations to the delivery of basic education, health
and social assistance services. In 1967 the United Nations General
Assembly –
Resolution 2252(ES-V)
–
requested
UNRWA to extend its services to Palestinian refugees displaced during
the 1967 war.
UNRWA currently provides education, health care, and social
assistance to more than four million Palestinian refugees in
five areas of operation - West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan,
Lebanon, and Syria. Approximately one-third of the refugees live
in 59 official refugee camps. UNRWA does not run refugee camps.
This
responsibility has always remained with the host countries and
Israel. UNRWA continues to provide education, health, and social services to
refugees in need due to the lack of a durable solution based on
international law as affirmed in Resolution 194(III).
Education, Health and
Relief and Social Services
UNRWA's education program
is the largest of the Agency's programs. Refugee children registered
with UNRWA have access to free elementary (6 years) and preparatory (3-4
years) education. In Lebanon, UNRWA also operates five secondary schools
(since 1993) due to limited access to public secondary education and the
high cost of private secondary schooling. The Agency offers special
education for children with learning difficulties. UNRWA also operates
eight vocational and technical training centers and a teacher education
program.
UNRWA health services include primary health
care, nutrition and supplementary feeding, assistance with secondary
health care, and environmental health. Primary health
services cover medical care, family health, disease control and
prevention, and health education. They are provided directly and at no cost to
refugees registered with UNRWA. Refugees share costs for
secondary care, tertiary care, prosthetic devises, specialized medical
investigations and non-program life-saving medicines. Refugees in
Lebanon are exempt from the co-payment system
except for specialized life-saving treatment.
UNRWA's relief program provides food support
for special hardship case families, shelter rehabilitation, and
selective cash assistance. Eligibility and registration for UNRWA
services falls under the relief program. The social services
program consists of five main sub-programs: development of
community-based organizations, women in development, a disability
program, youth activities, and a poverty alleviation program, which
includes financial and non-financial services to individuals and groups
for projects such as business start-ups and for training in technical
and business skills.
Emergency Relief and Refugee Protection
UNRWA
provides emergency medical assistance, remedial education, food and cash
assistance, psychological counseling, post-injury rehabilitation, as
well as repair and reconstruction of refugee shelters and Agency
infrastructure during political and humanitarian crises. The Israeli
invasion of Lebanon in the 1980s largely undid the Agency’s work of
three decades in the country. Following the withdrawal of Israeli
forces, UNRWA was left with the task of providing emergency care to the
wounded as well as the families of the victims of some 3,000 refugees
massacred by Israeli-allied Lebanese Phalangist militiamen in the Beirut
camps of Sabra and Shatila and the reconstruction of camps and Agency
infrastructure. UNRWA has provided similar services to Palestinian
refugees in 1967 occupied Palestine in the context of the first and
second Palestinian uprisings against Israel's military occupation.
UNRWA does not have an
explicit mandate to provide international protection to Palestinian
refugees. The United Nations accorded a protection mandate for
Palestinian refugees to UNRWA's "sister agency" - the
UN Conciliation
Commission for Palestine (UNCCP). The provision of services that guarantee
basic economic, social and cultural rights may be considered as a
type of protection - i.e., "relief protection". UNRWA has undertaken a limited protection role
through intervention with relevant authorities through
reports, warnings, and representations. During the first
Palestinian intifada (uprising) in 1967 occupied Palestine that began in
December 1987 the Agency recruited additional international staff to
monitor, report, and make interventions with Israeli authorities. The
Agency set up a similar, but scaled-down program during the second
intifada that began in September 2000.
Related BADIL Publications:
|
