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3. The UK has not been represented on the Group. We have, at best, been lukewarm about the Group and the possibility of it
achieving anything useful. However, out of respect for the FRG we have refrained from making statement or EOVS in the past. Not
others both the US and USSR made EOVS on the financial
implications of 40/166.
So
4. Our scepticism has rather been borne out by the Group's report. It says virtually nothing new and its recommendations could hardly
be called concrete. In effect they do little more than ask states
to abide by their international obligations and call on the UN
Secretariat to do its job properly. They do not require any machinery or mechanism to ensure their implementation. Rather the machinery already exists: the Security Council, Political sections of the Secretariat, UNHCR, UNDRO, UNDP, Human Rights Committee, the
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the relevant
UN co-ordinating mechanisms.
5. The only solution, of corse, is to encourage states not to
create circumstances which give rise to refugee flows. This will only be successful where the state concerned is amenable to
international pressure and suitable leverage exists.
References
A.
A/41/324 Report of the Group of Governmental Experts on International Co-operation to Avert New Flows of Refugees.
Presidency Statement at the 40th UNGA.
UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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