Interview: UNRWA Commissioner General Peter Hansen

Interview: UNRWA Commissioner General Peter Hansen

In February 2005 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan decided against extending the mandate of UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen. Hansen had served as head of UNRWA for nearly a decade. Many suspected that the decision was related to political pressure from pro-Israel advocates who have been campaigning against UNRWA and calling for the resettlement of Palestinian refugees. BADIL spoke to the Commissioner-General shortly after it was announced that the UN would be looking for a replacement for Hansen.

BADIL: In February the UN Secretary General decided not to extend your mandate as Commissioner General. It's not a secret that Israel and some officials in the US administration have not been pleased with your performance as Commissioner General. Do you believe that this had some impact on the Secretary General's decision?

Peter Hansen: Well, first of all, I have never had any criticism of my managerial performance as head of UNRWA, but I have seen some rather public and dissatisfied statements on the part of some Israeli official sources and some American congressional sources who complained in particular about my statements on the shooting of Palestinian refugee children in our schools, on the demolition of some of our own institutions, and the demolition of some refugee houses. I know that some in these two countries have been unhappy with the degree to which I have expressed myself concerning the actions of the Israeli army, but I will not speculate about how this criticism is directly or indirectly associated with the decision not to avail themselves of my willingness to carry on for a little while longer, something that I have been strongly encouraged to do by several host countries.

What kind of reactions from the refugee community have you received as Commissioner General to this decision?

In the last few days I’ve been meeting with the refugee community here in Jordan. I must say I’ve had an extremely warm reception among them and if I was prone to being egomaniac I would have had lots of fuel for that, but I’m not. I have appreciated very much to hear what they have to say, about being encouraged by me noticing their plight and speaking out against the indignities and humiliations to which the Palestinians in the occupied territories have been exposed. In the next few days I will be discussing that with others in the refugee community.

What are some of the difficulties that a Commissioner General of UNRWA faces in carrying out his role as head of the Agency? Are these difficulties avoidable or part of the job?

Well, there are many difficulties. The task in itself is inherently very difficult, but it has been particularly difficult during years of conflict where the demand for neutrality has to be weighed by the demand for standing for the values and principles that should gain United Nations support. I have never seen neutrality as being an exercise in applying the equi-distant principle which is applicable in international maritime law (when you want to delineate the continental shelf between two countries you put a line that has the same distance between the two countries at the time). If you do that in questions of moral and ethical conflicts it would only mean that you would be moved toward the position of the most extreme party. I feel that we must be guided by a compass. We are not operating in a vacuum where we put ourselves arithmetically between two positions. We are guided by the norms and standards that we have in international humanitarian law and international human rights law. It is that compass that I have been trying to apply in my assessments and in the situations that I have been faced with. That clearly is something that can very easily lead to disagreement with one or the other party, and in situations where, especially on the part of Israel, there has been a tendency to say that those who are not 110 percent behind everything we do are against us. Under those circumstances I could not be 110 percent behind everything that Israel did and have tried to be as fair and as objective as I could be.

What are some of the major challenges that your successor as Commissioner General will face?

Well I think and hope that my successor will be operating in an environment where violence and violent strife is no longer the main mode of interaction between the two parties and that s/he will be operating in an environment again where peace is actively being sought by the international community in order to support the peace process and UNRWA’s efforts to give a better life to the refugees so that they can have a horizon of hope which will induce them to accept whatever solutions will come out of negotiations.

What do you see as some of the immediate and longer-term challenges facing UNRWA, both here in the occupied Palestinian territories and in its other areas of operations?

There are many challenges. UNRWA will undoubtedly continue to be needed until some years after the refugee problem has been declared solved. Until then, one of the major challenges for UNRWA is to restore the quality of its services in education and health to the standards that they were in the best of days when we were not fighting, like we have been for several years now, chronic deficits. That is a very major challenge because UNRWA in the future should leave assets to its successor organizations in the national environment in the region rather than leaving liabilities. I think that there is a great deal to be done on a longer-term perspective in modernizing education systems, in improving the health services, and in also improving the development of the end of the spectrum which UNRWA has been very successfully pursuing through its microfinance and micro-credit programs.

Although the prospect of final status negotiations are a long way off, do you have any thoughts about what role UNRWA could play in facilitating durable solutions for Palestinian refugees? What specific expertise does UNRWA bring to the table?

Well UNRWA could primarily play such a helpful role by lending its vast resources of information to the parties in the negotiations. I hope that UNRWA will be considered to be a resource, as a truly engaged party, that can be helpful to both sides in the conflict when it comes to clarifying issues and bringing information resources to bear on the negotiations.

Do you have any thoughts about what kind of additional role, beyond UNRWA, the United Nations should be playing in terms of both protection and the search for durable solutions for Palestinian refugees – i.e., implementation of Resolution 194? Can and should the UN do more? If so, what?

Well I think that the United Nations can play a role through UNRWA, but beyond that an active role of the UN in the peace process itself can be very productive and very helpful. I think that over the past 10 years or so the UN has done more than it has done in its past history to make itself available and to promote and push initiatives to help the refugees. But when it comes to the refugees specifically, UNRWA, as long as it exists, will be the predominant organ. And when UNRWA does not exist, it would mean that the refugee problem did not exist and the UN would then be of assistance to all Palestinians without distinction as it is in all other normal national state settings.

How do you view the last nine years as Commissioner General? What are some of the developments/events that stand out in your own mind as significant issues? What are some of the things that you will remember most?

Well for the last nine years UNRWA has struggled to maintain the quality and level of its services faced with severe budgetary deficits. It has over the past years faced a protracted violent conflict in the occupied territories. I think it has been quite an achievement that we have been able to maintain as much as we have of these services, and indeed, also set in motion new initiatives. We have made major pushes in the field of information technology teaching, we have made use of information technology in education. We have, despite difficult odds, made a number of steps in the right direction in the health sector. And I would also say that the evolution in the micro-credit/microfinance program has helped demonstrate to everybody that UNRWA, far from keep refugees, as we have often been accused of, in a state of dependency, we have been gearing our efforts towards developing the human capital aspect of the Palestinians and thereby helping them on the paths to self-reliance and a position where they can take off in development the day that the political parameters for their national life will allow them to do so.

What are your plans after you complete your mandate? Do you plan to do any academic or other writing about UNRWA and Palestinian refugees?

Well I am still considering whether I return to academia where I came from, whether I invest my time with various non-governmental organizations that I have been associated with or whether I do some of the think-tank and similar institutional work that I have had several proposals about. I simply have not had time in my last few hectic months in UNRWA to make any such decisions in a final way. I have a couple of book offers already, but I think I will want to wait to have things a bit more in the perspective of the past before rushing into writing about it straight away. Of course I shouldn’t wait to long because I will have to rely on my memory because I have not prepared the way via databases or notes for such a book adventure.