TNAG-1277-FCO40-1627-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 135

Appendix A

OPENING STATEMENT BY THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES

TO THE THIRTY-FOURTH SESSION OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER'S PROGRAMME

Mr. Chairman,

Monday, 10 October 1983

I am

First of all, may I congratulate you warmly on your election.

looking forward to cooperating with you this year and I have no doubt that,

under your guidance, we shall have a constructive and inspiring session.

While expressing my deep thanks to the outgoing Chairman for all his help and

good advice throughout the year, and to his colleagues in the Bureau, let me

extend my congratulations and welcome to the new Vice-Chairman and Rapporteur.

-

Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, as you know we are giving the

Executive Committee considerably more information than in the past: following

the wishes and pertinent decisions of the Executive Committee, the Programme

document which we usually call the "book" is more thorough in its

presentation of facts and figures; documents on progress in various fields are

regularly sent to Executive Committee members in the framework of the flow of

information arrangements; and informal sessions or other meetings are held

during the year as required. Therefore, I no longer feel that my introductory

statement should serve to report on various refugee situations in the world,

but rather as a basis for reflecting together on some major issues confronting

this Office in its humanitarian task. The few specific refugee situations to

which I shall refer, should only illustrate the broader concerns I shall now

try to share with you.

When we look at the "book", we find a report on the previous year, an

explanation of the state of affairs in the current year, and our plans for the

next year.

In other words, while reporting on the past, we look more or less

just over a year ahead. This is probably a reasonable time-span for

establishing realistic and sufficiently detailed programmes and targets for

each country, given the fluidity and sometimes rapid or drastic evolution of

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