Refugee Camps and the Right to Adequate Shelter
a short-term solution to a long-term problem?
Doodle: https://doodle.com/poll/hb5v5cxr2ru5rnnp?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link
Study guide in PDF form: Here
1. A short Introduction to the Committee
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) is the main policy-making body of the UN. As all member states are part of this council and have an equal vote, it provides a unique setting for multilateral discussions on all of the various issues facing the international community, including the issue of refugee camps and adequate shelter. The General Assembly meets in regular sessions from September to December every year.
2. Introduction to the Topic
About 800’000 Rohingya refugees are living in the Kutupalong refugee settlement in Bangladesh, more than the total population of Washington D.C.1 It is only one of many refugee camps, designed as a temporary facility to provide safe haven, which has developed into an urban structure providing shelter to people for several years if not decades. In total, six million refugees, or 22% of the total refugee population, live in refugee camps around the globe and these numbers keep rising.
According to the UNHCR, a refugee camp is a temporary facility built to provide immediate protection and assistance to people who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, persecution or violence. While camps are typically not established to provide permanent solutions they offer a safe haven for refugees and meet their most basic needs such as food, water, shelter, medical treatment and other basic services.2 They can take the form of tarp shelters, tents, shipping containers, or concrete buildings; official settlements administered by the UNHCR and national governments or makeshift shelters. Refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people (IDPs) or stateless people are all represented.3 The temporary nature of refugee camps contrasts with the actual average length of stay of most refugees, who live in these camps for several years. The UNHCR refers to people living in refugee camps for a duration of more than five years without being likely to return home or being well integrated into the societies of the respective host countries as refugees in protracted situations.4
Refugee camps, in the form of official settlements or makeshift-camps, perpetually suffer from deficient infrastructure and a lack of resources and funding. Short supplies of potable water, energy and food further exacerbate these poor living conditions. For refugees in protracted situations, these conditions turn into chronic problems.5 Even though the UNHCR aims to provide more durable shelters and expands its services to include educational and livelihood opportunities, this group of refugees suffers particularly from the consequences of the temporary nature of refugee camps. The challenge to come up with solutions which address the specific situation and needs of refugees in protracted situations remains unsolved.6
Due to frequent and cruel civil wars and the effects of climate change the number of people forced to flee their homes and in need of shelter will only grow. Hence, the question of how to build and sustain existing and future refugee camps that do not only serve as a temporary shelter, but address the lived realities of refugees who live in camps for years remains an urgent issue. The next chapter “Current Situation” addresses and outlines some of these challenges.
3. Current Situation
The UNHCR has established seven key elements in its response to the humanitarian issue refugees pose. These seven key elements are emergency preparedness and response, cash assistance, public health including mental health and psychosocial support, prevention and response to gender-based violence, nutrition and food security, water and sanitation and shelters or settlements. Some of these key elements are further expanded upon in the following paragraphs:
a. Cash Assistance
Cash assistance is one of UNHCR’s approaches to support refugees in camps. The UNHCR provides cash or vouchers for basic household and hygiene items7, whereas the World Food Program (WFP) provides cash for food.8 Despite the expansion of cash assistance, many refugees struggle to meet their basic needs such as food, housing and health care. In post distribution monitoring globally, 74% of respondents said they could only meet half of their basic needs or less.9 In Jordan, 64% said they could not afford enough food, 27% struggled to pay their rent, and 31% could not pay health costs. 60% of respondents had borrowed money in the four weeks prior to data collection.10 To address some of the main challenges in attaining system-wide efficiency in cash assistance, the UNHCR strives towards achieving the UN Common Cash Statement. It is reliant on contributions by the member states and private donors in order to acquire the money needed for these programs.
b. Food Assistance
As the Covid-19 pandemic progressed, the humanitarian food assistance for refugees decreased in many operations leading to a sharp increase in global food insecurity. Refugees struggled to meet their nutritional and other basic needs and started to engage increasingly in negative coping strategies that put their health and nutrition at risk. These changes and challenges will have undone some gains made towards reducing malnutrition. Measures to mitigate these negative impacts remain key. Unfortunately, UNHCR operations will need strengthened capacities to bridge various gaps in resources and funding.
c. Water and Sanitation
A vital need that every refugee camp has to meet is the provision of water and sanitation. At the end of the year 2020, only 43% of people overseen by the UNHCR had a minimum of
20 litres of safe water per day.11 Accessibility remains one of the main challenges since many field operations are located in remote areas where the UNHCR is often the sole service provider for refugees. In some instances, the UNHCR works with refugees in difficult operational conditions that are already impacted by conflict, climate change and extremely limited resources. The UNHCR plans to focus on redesigning and installing additional WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) facilities, which are difficult to maintain properly due to their intense usage. One possible solution could be the training of refugees in the camps to maintain the WASH facilities.
d. Shelter Needs
Restricted funding was the main obstacle in meeting refugee’s shelter needs, which include adequate protection against the weather and appropriate shelter for the elderly and children. In Ethiopia, underfunding severely limited shelter interventions in refugee camps for Eritrean refugees, who lived in deteriorated mud brick and/or communal shelters with iron sheeting walls and roofs. Additionally there were on average 8-10 people under one roof, exceeding the standard of five inhabitants per household. That is why, the UNHCR intends to place additional focus on cash-for-rent programmes and innovative shelter designs to increase living space without using more land.
e. Education
As outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the right to education is a human right. Refugee camps must be designed in a way that allows the approximately ten million children and youth under the care of the UNHCR the opportunity to obtain a primary level of education. At primary level 77% of refugee children were enrolled. More displaced children were enrolled in secondary school than ever before, with enrolment up 2% but still low at 31%.12 However, the gains favoured mostly boys and 36% of refugee boys were in secondary education but only 27% of girls. 13 There are several hurdles to pass through including financing, infrastructure and accessibility in order to enable refugee children access to education.
4. International Framework
The core of the international refugee law is the 1951 Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees.14 Besides defining the term „refugee“ and outlining the basic principle of non-refoulement, prohibiting the forcible return of refugees to a territory where their lives or freedom would be threatened15, it ensures that refugees should be treated as favourably as possible and, in any case, not worse than the citizens of the respective host country. Additionally, Article 25 of the International Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) guarantees the right to an adequate standard of living including the right to adequate shelter.16
With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 17(Agenda 2030), the UN Member States committed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to ensure action in sustainable development in the current decade. Specifically, SDG 11 and its target 11.3 aims to improve the living standards of all people, including refugees and IDPs.18
In 2016, the Member States adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (New York Declaration) reaffirming their commitment to respect the human rights of refugees and migrants, pledging to support countries most affected by the international migration stream and agreeing that protecting refugees and providing adequate shelter is a burden that must be more equitably distributed among Member States.19 As set out in the New York Declaration and after two years of intense negotiations with all relevant stakeholders, the General Assembly affirmed the Global Compact on Refugees. This framework strives to distribute the „burden“ more equally and predictably by strengthening host countries, increasing refugee‘s self-reliance and easing access to receive a temporary or permanent legal status in a third country.20
5. Key Players in the international System
As the UN‘s refugee agency, the UNHCR is the primary global organization committed to protecting the rights and better the lives of refugees and plays a key role in providing adequate shelter in humanitarian emergencies. From its main hubs in Dubai, Copenhagen and Durban, the UNHCR provides tools and materials, such as tents and plastic sheets, as well as emergency aid to people in need. In principle, the UNHCR does not believe refugee camps to be a suitable arrangement for displaced persons, unless there are no valid alternatives available. It strives to design camps to suit the needs and address the special circumstances of their inhabitants by offering their services to the respective host countries.
Another important actor is the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) which, together with UNHCR, co-leads the Global Shelter Cluster (GSC). This organization aims to optimise cooperation among different shelter actors, including national and local governments.
Other relevant actors include the World Food Programme (WFP), which provides food assistance to refugees, the United Nations Children‘s Fund (UNICEF), supporting children in these camps, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), tasked with promoting and protecting human rights around the globe.21
6. Conclusion
Several sub-questions need to be addressed in order to achieve meaningful progress on the issue of refugee camps and the right to adequate shelter. There is the perpetual question of how to fund all these different programs of the UNHCR be it the WASH program, the food or cash assistance program. The question of who should finance shelters and camps in the first place remains to be another fundamental disagreement in the international community. However, there are lives and futures at stake for several millions of people and taking time to address these questions is not a luxury that can be afforded.
7. Questions a Resolution should address:
● What can be done to improve the living conditions of refugees in refugee camps?
● What does the future of refugee camps look like? Will they be built for long-term stay
or will they continue to be temporary safe havens ?
● How can the international community better address the specific needs of refugees in
protracted situations?
● What measures need to be taken in order to address the long-term nature of these
camps?
● Are there alternatives to refugee camps?
● How can the particularly poor living conditions in informal settlements be improved?
● What measures need to be taken to ensure that the burden on host countries can be
eased as outlined in the Global Compact on Refugees?
8. Practical Advice for your Research
When researching your country’s position, think about the following questions:
● What is your country’s official stance on migration in general?
● Does your country host any refugee camps within its borders? If yes, what are some
of the challenges it faces?
● Does your country fund the UNHCR or any refugee camps directly?
● Are there any past statements made by prominent politicians on the topic?● Has your country come up with any innovative solutions to improve the lives of refugees in camps?
9. Country Picks
Suggestions by the chairs (in no specific order and not conclusive):
● Colombia
● Bangladesh
● Kenya
● Algeria
● Jordan
● Sudan
● United States of America
● People’s Republic of China
● Russian Federation
● United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
● France
● Greece
● Turkey
● Syria
● Afghanistan
● Germany
Bibliography
● ‘’2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.’’ https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda
● ‘’A guide to international refugee protection and building state asylum systems.’’ A Handbook for Parliamentarians N°27, 2017.
● ‘’International Decl. Of Human Rights’’
● ‘’New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants.” UNHCR, https://www.unhcr.org/new-york-declaration-for-refugees-and-migrants.html.
● ‘’The Sustainable Development Goals report 2021.’’ https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2021.pdf.
● ‘’UN Teams Assisting Tens of Thousands of Refugees, after Massive Fire Rips through Camp in Bangladesh | | UN News.” United Nations, United Nations, 23 Mar. 2021, https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1088012.
● ‘’UNHCR Cash Assistance and Covid-19.’’ Emerging Field Practices II, https://www.unhcr.org/5eb55d427.pdf.
● ‘’UNHCR Global Report 2020.’’ UNHCR Global Report, www.unglobalreport.org
● “The Global Compact on Refugees.” UNHCR, https://www.unhcr.org/the-global-compact-on-refugees.html.
● “UN and International Institutions.” UNHCR, https://www.unhcr.org/united-nation-and-international-institutions.html.
● “What Is a Refugee Camp? Definition and STATISTICS: USA for UNHCR.” What Is a
Refugee Camp? Definition and Statistics, USA for UNHCR, https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/camps/.
● Cullen Dunn, Elizabeth. “The Failure of Refugee Camps.” Boston Review: A Political and Literary Forum, 28 Sept. 2015, https://bostonreview.net/editors-picks- world/elizabeth-dunn-failure-refugee-camps. Accessed 28 Sept. 2021.
● Martinez Mansell, Claudia. “How to Navigate a Refugee Settlement.” Places Journal, 1 Apr. 2016, https://placesjournal.org/article/camp-code/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwtMCKBhDAARIsAG 2EuEbMBPcdDbj4rWU6rjX5MvaEzJluvWHbFn9B56kYtynv5Xbtj7rH0aAhI3EALw_wcB&c n-reloaded=1#0.
