Resolution 1497 (2006)1
Refugees
and displaced persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia
1. The
Parliamentary Assembly, referring to its
Recommendation
1570 (2002) on the situation of
refugees and displaced persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, believes
it is necessary to resume consideration of this issue since, despite certain
isolated examples of progress, it continues to be a serious obstacle to the
development of countries in the region in economic, socio-political and
health terms.
2. It is
difficult to gauge the number of refugees and displaced persons in the
region. By law or by virtue of administrative practice, the three countries
tend to recognise the descendants of persons displaced in various capacities
within the region as “refugees” or “displaced persons”, with the result that
the total number of refugees and displaced persons never seems to decrease.
The majority of refugees and displaced persons are in that situation because
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and deportations between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. Many others were displaced as a result of the conflicts in
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, not to mention the Chechens who took refuge in
the Southern Caucasus because of the conflicts in Chechnya.
3. The fact
remains that there are still substantial urgent humanitarian needs. The
three countries are therefore obliged to make maximum use of their own
capacity for providing assistance at a time when donations from the
international community are waning.
4. The
Assembly notes that some of the people concerned have been able to return to
within Georgia’s acknowledged borders. The Assembly
congratulates the Georgian Government on its efforts to find a solution to
its internal conflicts and extends its support to this process.
Nevertheless, security concerns still prevail in both South Ossetia and
Abkhazia and there is still much to be done to increase confidence and to
create preconditions for large-scale voluntary returns.
5. The
Assembly is, however, bound to point out that the efforts made by Armenia
and Azerbaijan to find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have not
as yet produced results. These efforts are continuing. It deplores
the frequent incidents along the ceasefire line and the border incidents,
which are detrimental to refugees and displaced persons as well as to local
people, and regrets the clearly insufficient co-operation between these two
countries over the fate of missing persons.
6. The
Assembly also draws attention to the presence of numerous landmines
resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which are still injuring
and, occasionally, killing people.
7. Enabling
refugees and displaced persons to return voluntarily to the regions from
which they came remains one of the main objectives of conflict settlement.
8. The
Assembly welcomes the fact that Azerbaijan, Armenia and, to a lesser extent,
Georgia have now embarked on programmes for the local integration of their
refugees and displaced persons. These programmes have the twofold advantage
of enabling these communities to regain their dignity by living in decent
conditions and by working, which allows them to contribute to the
development of the regions that have taken them in, and of preparing them
for voluntary return under the best possible social, health and
psychological conditions.
9. There
are still, however, many obstacles to the success of these programmes:
poverty is endemic, particularly in rural areas, and malnutrition a cause
for concern; unemployment is still very high; access to means of production
and to property is problematical; the infrastructure, especially of
collective centres or areas hosting larger numbers of displaced persons, is
often in a deplorable condition, which is an additional obstacle to
development; schools are still being used to shelter refugees and displaced
persons, whereas they should be used for children’s education, and the
health services are still inadequate. In these circumstances, it is
impossible to continue providing humanitarian assistance and to care for
refugees and displaced persons without international aid.
10.
International humanitarian assistance is therefore still needed and must be
supplemented, and gradually replaced, by international development aid, not
just to meet the urgent needs of refugees and displaced persons but also for
the benefit of the local population.
11. The
Assembly therefore calls on the member states of the Council of Europe:
11.1. to
provide financial support for the efforts of Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia to deal with the situation of refugees, including those who have
obtained citizenship, and displaced persons, by helping to rehabilitate
buildings and build roads, a water and electricity supply infrastructure,
hospitals and schools, so as to enable these communities to be more
effectively integrated while facilitating the development of the regions
in which they live, without forgetting the local population, who are often
likewise living below the poverty line, while ensuring that financial
resources are allocated to support initiatives regarding the protection of
human rights and reconciliation efforts in these three countries;
11.2. to
continue to provide humanitarian aid where needed, while working on more
medium- and long-term solutions to improve the living conditions,
self-reliance and integration of the displaced persons;
11.3. to
offer their good offices in order to try to achieve a permanent settlement
of the conflicts which are still raging and which impede the development
of the entire region.
12. The
Assembly also calls on Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia:
12.1. to
focus all their efforts on finding a peaceful settlement of the conflicts
in the region with a view to creating conditions for the voluntary return
of refugees and displaced persons to their places of origin, safely and
with dignity;
12.2.
actively to pursue their policy of locally integrating refugees and
displaced persons, but not in the occupied territories, always in
consultation with them, and with the understanding that these
countries will guarantee their right to return voluntarily as soon as
conditions permit, which, for Georgia, includes strengthening and adopting
clear policies and related measures for the local integration of refugees
as well as displaced persons;
12.3. to
refrain from the use of refugees and displaced persons for political aims;
12.4. to
make the return of displaced persons a priority and do everything possible
in their negotiations so as to enable these people to return in safety
even before an overall settlement;
12.5. to
co-ordinate better the efforts of the international and non-governmental
organisations on the ground in alignment with governmental policies and
development plans;
12.6. to
bring their legislation into compliance with the Geneva Convention
relating to the Status of Refugees, the European Convention on Nationality
(ETS No. 166), and the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of
Statelessness by fully implementing their provisions;
12.7. to
continue their policies of encouraging international aid projects in
sectors where there are needs to be met;
12.8. to
rapidly conclude the negotiations under way with the Council of Europe
Development Bank with a view to membership of the Bank;
12.9. to
co-ordinate their refugee and displaced persons aid policies and
development policies in order to take account of the practical, financial
and other opportunities that the European Union could offer them as part
of its new European Neighbourhood Policy;
12.10. to
step up an inter-regional dialogue by introducing confidence-building
measures and arranging regular consultation between government departments
responsible for the specific problems of refugees and displaced persons;
12.11. to
continue their efforts to adapt their legislation in order to assure
refugees and displaced persons the same political, civil, economic and
social rights as the local population, without prejudicing their status;
12.12. to
reconsider practices of automatically admitting the descendants of
refugees and displaced persons as refugees and displaced persons
themselves, so as to facilitate their local integration;
12.13. to
prepare the ground, by mutual consultation and in consultation with
international and non-governmental organisations, particularly the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Committee of
the Red Cross, for the voluntary return of refugees and displaced persons
by establishing what their needs will be on the spot and seeking to make
an objective estimate of the actual number of people who could and would
be willing to return initially;
12.14. to
continue their efforts to achieve a peaceful and permanent settlement of
the disputes, on the basis of norms and principles of international
law, if necessary calling on the good offices of other countries,
including those in the region, and international organisations;
12.15. to
develop practical co-operation as regards the investigation of the fate of
missing persons and to facilitate the return of identity documents and the
restitution of property in particular, making use of the experience of
handling similar problems in the Balkans.
13. The
Assembly calls on Georgia to grant a more durable status to recognised
refugees, including Chechen refugees, to provide them with greater certainty
about their future and to facilitate their local integration.
14. The
Assembly calls on Azerbaijan to adopt legislation to
provide subsidiary protection to displaced persons fleeing war situations,
or to persons in need of international protection and who do not have access
to the asylum procedure.
15. The
Assembly welcomes the full implementation of the 1999 Refugee Law by
Armenia, providing for a complementary form of protection, and encourages
legislative plans to extend the definition of "refugee" in law to include
all persons in need of international protection.
1
Assembly debate on 13 April 2006 (15th Sitting) (see Doc. 10835,
report of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population, rapporteur:
Mr Cilevics).
Text adopted by the Assembly on 13 April 2006 (15th Sitting).
