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refugee law. A major task was to ensure that the implementation
of these instruments matched the obligations laid down by them.
He drew attention to the failure of some ships to pick up "boat
refugees".
6. The High Commissioner justified by implication his upgrading
of two heads of divisions (see para 563 of doc A/AC/9563) by saying
that this was the first reorganisation for seven years, during
time which/the work load of the Office had greatly increased and that
the four heads of divisions should be on a par. He drew attention
to ECOSOC resolution E/1978/36 recommending an expansion of the
Executive Committee by up to nine new members; if the General
Assembly concurred the election would take place at the first
regular session of ECOSOC in 1979. He concluded that in spite of
the universality of refugee problems, the slogan "burden-sharing"
should not be used as an alibi for doing less.
General Debate and Assistance (Items 3 and 6)
7 The text of Mr Gould's statement in the General Debate is at
Annex B. He praised the work of UNHCR and the British voluntary
societies, surveyed the problems of boat refugees (in particular
as this affects Hong Kong) and stressed our special interest in
Southern Africa. He also announced the UK contribution of £3.5m to
the 1979 General Programme; this was far above the few contributions
to the General Programme announced by other delegations which were:
Australia
Austria
A $740,000
$ 55,000
same as in 1978
10% above 1978
Finland
F mks
1,450,000
33% above 1978
Italy
L 50m
50% above 1977
Norway
Sweden
Switzerland
N Kr 6.4m
$ 6m
for 1979,80,81
sume as in 1978
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