TNAG-0975-FCO40-1194-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-other--1980 — Page 62

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United Kingdom Mission

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Miss Ligh

UNS 243/2

G&A

-que spode

о

Your reference

I W Mackley Esq UND

RECEIVED "

ISTY 22 SEP 1980

Our reference

UN 243/4

FCO

R

PA

Date

17 September 1980

Dear lan,

PREPARATION FOR UNHCR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: 6-14 OCTOBER

1. As you will have gathered from various minutes we have copied to the department (for example Peter Marshall's of 1 September and a record of a meeting on 8 September) there has been considerable activity among Western donor Missions this year in the run-up to the UNHCR Executive Committee. For several months the US and Canadian Missions have been galvanizing us to extract more information from UNHCR, particularly on the administrative and management side. There was also the Swedish-sponsored resolution at ECOSOC calling for a study of how the UN system has reacted to emergency relief situations. I hope that the summary of current local thinking in this present letter will be in time to help you with briefing (incidentally we would welcome the brief soon in order that we can undertake our traditional role in drafting the UK speech in the general debate).

Chairmanship

2. The Africans have pressed hard to have the chairmanship this year and Ambassador Birido (Sudan) who was Vice Chairman last year is their candidate. The Western group has agreed not to resist this and to put forward Peter Marshall for the Vice Chairmanship. The Westerners decided amongst themselves that other things being equal Peter should be our candidate for Chairman in 1981. However, we do not intend to announce at this stage that we consider the Vice Chairman in one year should automatically become Chairman in the next (as is the practice in ECE).* This is partly because it seems reasonable to hope that as in the past the donors should have the chair more often than the recipients. itionally an Asian is Rapporteur and this year it will be Japan.

Main Themes

Trad-

3.

The outgoing Chairman, Ambassador Hessel of France, has been putting the following three points to Hartling (with the tacit backing of the rest of us). First, there should be more transparency of information. Secondly, there should be better co-ordination with other international Agencies. Thirdly, the mechanism for dealing with emergencies should be improved. Hartling's response has been somewhat conservative. The bulky Assistance document A/AC.96/577 mentions the new Policy Planning unit under Heidler; but more needs to be done on such matters as internal evaluation. Hartling also fears undue emphasis on emergency work since in a sense that is the main part of UNHCR's activity and there are other things to remember like long-term work on protection. Finally, Hartling seems rather luke-warm on improved co-operation within the UN system

/98t

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