5. It is 35 years since UNHCR was founded. The nature of the High Commissioner's function has changed remarkably in the three-and-a-half decades since the Office came into existence: in the number of refugees, in their origin, in the geography and character of the refugee problem itself. When UNHCR was established, refugees were largely a European concern a legacy of the Second World War and of the political transformations that followed it on the continent. Today, refugees are a major global phenomenon of our times, often inseparable from the range of problems affecting the political, social, cultural and economic development of the third world. These problems have all too frequently erupted into violence and contributed to a number of mass migrations within and between developing States, and from these States to the developed world. But the problem of refugees remains
Out of a total of a specific and distinctive aspect of such mass movements. 11,613,300 refugees in the world as at the end of 1985, 9,467,400 - or 82 per cent of the global figure, an overwhelming majority of refugees have found asylum in developing countries. Their problems are added to those already existing in these countries. Yet they receive an exemplary welcome from some of the world's least prosperous states, which extend hospitality from an empty table. Assisting these refugees to achieve a modest degree of self-reliance is an economic, infrastructural and human challenge for the international community as a whole and calls for the appropriate participation of each member of that community.
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6. At the same time the mass movement of asylum-seekers from developing nations to the industrialized world has jolted existing refugee law and practice, and created a situation in which Governments that traditionally have upheld refugee rights are now reacting with policies largely defensive in nature and determined by the imperatives of deterrence. The concept of individual persecution, which underpins the refugee definition in the Statute of the Office and in the Convention and Protocol on the status of refugees, has been overtaken by situations of forced mass exodus across frontiers, oceans and continents. In the eyes of the world at large, the "land people" of the 1950s have been succeeded by the "boat people" of the 1970s and the "jet people" of the 1980s.
7. This is occurring when the dimensions of the problem have also moved my Office beyond the classic verities of the past into an increasingly broad and ill-defined role vis-à-vis large numbers of persons whom I am bound to consider to be of my concern on the basis of the universal humanitarian principles underlying the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol. Assisting these persons in the countries of
The first asylum in the developing world is essential, but it is not enough. industrialized world must also share the burden of accepting those among them who seek asylum outside their regions, at least long enough to gain time pending the attainment of natural solutions to their plight. It is no longer sufficient for States to consider they have fulfilled their obligations by contributing generously to UNHCR programmes. UNHCR needs more than just your humanitarian support. need your collective political will to explore solutions to refugee problems.
8.
We
In our earlier informal meetings I have spoken of the need for action and law to interact in practice, and for States to resist the temptation to entrench themselves behind the existing texts. In the same breath I have reaffirmed the vital importance of preserving and defending the universal humanitarian principles behind the High Commissioner's mandate. I accept the need for States to identify genuine refugees and to distinguish them from those leaving for socio-economic reasons or reasons of personal convenience; but they should not take steps that could affect both groups indiscriminately. Refugees and asylum-seekers who are the concern of my Office should not be the victims of measures taken by Governments against illegal immigration or threats to their domestic security, however
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