Speech #970098233

Mr. Speaker. refugees by the very fact of being refugees become people without a country: men. women. and children without the protection of citizenship or nationality. They become citizens of the world. dependent on the protection of the world community. Unfortunately. the world has not always responded to the claims of humanity in offering protection or in dealing with the enormous logistical and political problems of people who have been forced to flee their homelands. The governments of the world have entrusted a great responsibility to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugeesto a certain degree. giving that office a job that the governments themselves did not want and one which no government alone could handle. On October 14. the Nobel Peace Prize Committee announced that. for the second time in history. the Office of the Commissioner has been awarded the prize. according to the terms of Alfred Nobels will. for "the best work for fraternity between nations." The Nobel Prize is perhaps the only appropriate recognition for a group that bears monumental humanitarian responsibility for feeding. clothing. housing. and resettling the worlds refugees who number between 14 million and 18 million men. women. and children. The High Commissioner has a staff of 1.700 and an annual budget of $500 million. The United States contributes $123.5 million of that amount. ours is the largest single contribution. an indication more of the modesty of worldwide support for refugee needs than of the generosity of our contribution. The United Nations General Assembly established the Refugee Office 30 years ago to provide assistance to the victims of war. In the subsequent three decades. the office undertook to provide for the basic needs of the million Bengalis who fled what is now Bangladesh during the war between Pakistan and India. The High Commissioner has assisted refugees who fled from Zimbabwe during the civil war. refugees from Cambodia. Ethiopia. and now the approximately 1.4 million Afghans who fled following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The UNHCR has two major responsibilitiesinternational protection of the refugees and the promotion of solutions to the plight of the refugees. UNHCR goal is to empty refugee campsto enable refugees either to return to their homeland. or to establish themselves in a new land. The worlds refugees live in conditions that make peace for them impossible. Moreover. their status as homeless citizens and their poverty are conditions which have an additional effect of destabilizing the countries and regions to which they have fled. To alleviate their problems. to stabilize their lives is to increase the climate for peace in the world.