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Egypt referred to the plight of Palestinian refugees and the need for legal and physical protection of refugees. They also referred to the need for durable solutions.
45. Tunisa likewise regretted the lack of agreement on the issue of military attacks on refugee camps.
46.
Vietnam categorically denied that they had launched any attacks on refugee camps. They refuted all such allegations.
47. The Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Affairs spoke of the need for revitalising the concept of burden sharing at both regional and global level. UNHCR should be involved in this process. They also stated that there was a need for international consultations on the distinction between asylum seekers and refugees. They referred to the vulnerability of refugee women and children and the need for both physical and legal measures to protect them. On voluntary repatriation they said that the success of a programme depended on the success or failure of reintegration programmes for returnees. The protection of returnees was vital and although the General Assembly had given UNHCR a mandate to assist returnees, they needed to extend this mandate to include protection of returnees. Finally they referred to the growing problem of statelessness of defectors. Once again international registration was lagging behind reality and there was a need for further discussion on this matter.
48. ICVA noted the need for efforts to promote new legislation to cope with new problems arising in refugee matters. They also commented on the role of NGOs to prevent restrictive measures and interpretations of the criteria concerning asylum seekers. In particular, they hoped that the Sub-Committee would arrive at a good set of conclusions on the use of detention against asylum seekers. Action was required against unjust detention which violated the letter and spirit of Article 31 of the 1951 Convention. The main agents of protection for refugees were governments and UNHCR, they should cooperate on the admission of asylum seekers, the suppression of restrictive measures, the determination of refugee status, and the implementation of the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol.
48. The International Institute of Humanitarian Law basically spent their speech advertising their various courses while supporting international humanitarian law.
49. Democratic Kampuchea in their right to reply on the Vietnamese statement gave further details regarding the attacks in April 1986 on the Kampuchean/Thai border.
They
/stated