We, the undersigned members of the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC), prompted by the current funding crisis faced by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), take this opportunity to state our grave, collective concern at these deeply troubling developments, and to call for both the immediate introduction of fair and effective remedial measures, and an urgent rethink in the approach employed by the United Nations and the international community towards the protection of
Palestinian refugees; a community now numbering in excess of 7 million people.

This chronic funding shortfall in UNRWA’s core budget, necessary for running its essential programs, currently stands at US $101 million (this amount does not include the budget required for supplementary programs and projects of UNRWA). This has resulted, inter alia, in the suggested postponement of the academic year for half a million Palestinian students across the Middle East – among them, 320,00 students in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) – and a possible implementation of mandatory unpaid vacation for roughly 23,000 employees (60% of whom are in the oPt) . Without prejudice to UNRWA’s employees’ rights and demands, it is wholly unjust for refugees to bear the consequences of UNRWA’s budget crisis, and
access to education is not just a basic human right, but a crucial building
block of a healthy, stable and functioning society. Delivery of education,
therefore, is of no less importance than that of other essential humanitarian
services, with the postponement of the academic year representing an individual
tragedy for students, but also an indirect form of punishment for the
Palestinian people. As such, the implementation of such emergency
administrative measures by UNRWA represents an infringement of the human rights
of refugees, as well a clear deviation from UNRWA’s mandate.

In addition, this funding gap will place
further strain on host states which are themselves operating at full capacity
and suffering from chronic underfunding in their protection of refugees. Not
only does this harm refugees in practice, but it also sets a dangerous policy
precedent insofar as UNRWA is able to gradually divest itself of its
responsibilities towards those to whom it is mandated to provide services.

Indeed, this mandate in its present form is
already narrower in its understanding of ‘protection’ than that afforded by
international law. Hence, it must also be emphasized that international
protection should be deemed to include physical protection (that is, the
provision of safety and security), legal protection (ensuring fundamental human
rights, including accountability and the non-repetition of international crimes
particularly, in the Palestinian case, those of forcible population transfer
and deportation), and humanitarian assistance (including the provision of
relief, shelters, health care and essential education).

Despite this narrowly-interpreted mandate,
however, the importance of UNRWA to Palestinian refugees must not be
underestimated. In field research conducted with Palestinian refugees in 2015
throughout the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan and Lebanon by the BADIL Resource
Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (BADIL), a lack or absence
of humanitarian assistance was identified as the most pressing protection gap,
whilst 89% of those surveyed across all four regions stated that this gap had a
significant impact on stability in the Middle East generally. UNRWA’s leading
role in addressing this gap is thus of extreme importance, whilst awareness of
the agency among Palestinian refugees is widespread. Moreover, the perceived
effectiveness of UNRWA in addressing this humanitarian assistance gap is
notably high, particularly among those in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Accordingly, that UNRWA must fulfill its
mandate is an essential starting point in any discourse pertaining to the
ongoing plight of Palestinian refugees. To this end, enabling UNRWA to provide
essential services is the responsibility of the United Nations and third party
states; not that of host states or refugees themselves. PHROC members,
therefore, reiterate the great importance of UNRWA being adequately funded so
that it may both fulfill this essential mandate and avoid overburdening
national governments. It naturally follows, then, that the address of this
funding crisis – resulting from a gross shortfall in voluntary contributions
from member states, combined with an ever-growing Palestinian refugee
population, a deepening level of poverty within this population, and an absence of the international
protection to which Palestinian refugees are entitled – be treated as a top
priority for both the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and the Secretary-General.

Yet, recent developments highlight that the
present crisis goes far beyond the issue of cash flow, and instead reveals an
approach to the protection of Palestinian refugees which is fundamentally
flawed and entirely unsustainable. The pressing question must surely not be how
the steady increase in demand for essential services can be met, but
rather how this demand can be reduced. This necessitates the
implementation of a durable solution for more than 7 million Palestinian
refugees in accordance with international law and UNGA resolution 194 of 1948,
and United Nation Security Council resolution 237 of 1967. Reduction in demand
also necessarily includes the tackling of secondary displacement from host
countries, which have – as witnessed in Syria and the Gaza Strip – generated
mass human suffering and placed a steady drain on already scant humanitarian
resources.

To this end, Palestinian refugees have become
the victims of a collective short-sightedness, manifesting itself in a
protection approach which focuses on tackling ever-worsening symptoms at the
expense of any concerted effort to address the root causes of the displacement
or to facilitate a fair, just and durable solution to this most protracted of
refugee crises. Such a solution demands the marrying of humanitarian and legal
responses, bolstered by full political support.

This need was recognized by UNGA in the
immediate aftermath of the 1948 Nakba, and reflected in the Assembly’s
subsequent establishing of a complementary configuration, or special regime, of
UN agencies – consisting of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for
Palestine (UNCCP), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
and UNRWA – to ensure the protection of Palestinian refugees. This regime has
been allowed to fail by the international community, firstly through a lack of
meaningful support for UNCCP and its mandate to pursue a political solution to
the Palestinian refugee crisis, but more recently through a collective failure
to ensure just and consistent application of Article 1(D) of the 1951 Refugee
Convention in domestic courts, and this present chronic shortage of funding for
UNRWA.

What is required is a just and durable
solution which identifies and addresses the causal factors underpinning both the
continued displacement of Palestinians and the worsening living standards to
which this population is subjected; a solution which sees the inalienable
rights of Palestinian refugees not just recognized in word, but enacted in
deed.

This can likely only be achieved through the
presence of a fully-functioning and fully-supported agency dedicated to
pursuing such a solution. Thus, there is a clear and pressing need to either
revive UNCCP, or to officially extend UNRWA’s existing mandate. Recent research
by BADIL reveals that this latter option enjoys strong support among
Palestinian refugees, particularly inside the West Bank.

Until such a solution is implemented,
however, the role of UNRWA in providing key services to Palestinian refugees
remains absolutely essential, and it is a role which demands prompt and
adequate funding. Whilst the funding crisis endures, so too will the multitude
of hardships faced by Palestinian refugees.

PHROC members therefore call upon:

1. The UNRWA Commissioner-General to
reconsider the agency’s existing focus on implementing emergency measures and
cuts in essential services, and instead focus on identifying long-term sources
of funding to bridge this shortfall.

2. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, in his capacity as
the United Nations Secretary General and as the chairman of the UN System Chief
Executives Board of Coordination (CEB) – (the executive head of all UN funds,
programs and specialized agencies)  to
explore all available measures, including the reallocation of part of the UN
general budget, to address the shortfall in UNRWA’s funding and thus enable the
agency to fulfill its mandate;

3. The UNHCR to make the filling of the
legal protection gap from which Palestinian refugees have long suffered a
priority of the highest order;

4. The UNGA, and the Secretary-General,
to consider the tabling of a resolution which seeks to guarantee sufficient and
stable financial resources for UNRWA to fulfill its mandate. To this end, the
steady growth of the Palestinian refugee population and an extension of UNRWA’s
mandate must be factored in;

5. Mr. President, Mahmoud Abbas –
through the Arab league, Islamic Conference Organization and non-aligned states
– to draft and issue a UNGA decision which renders contributions towards the
funding of UNRWA’s core budget as a mandatory obligation of third party states.
In doing so, UNRWA’s budget will become both secure and sustainable, similar to
other specialized agencies , rather than the current status whereby 97% of
UNRWA’s essential budget  is dependent on
voluntary contributions  and grants;