Ref: 44/2015
On Thursday, 13 August 2015, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) organized a seminar titled “Is the UNRWA Crisis Financial or Political?” The seminar was held in the Commodore Hotel in Gaza City and was attended by representatives of UNRWA, the UNRWA’s Arab Staff Union, Palestinian refugees committees in the Gaza Strip and representatives of civil society organizations and political factions.
Mr. ‘Adnan Abu Hasnah, UNRWA spokesperson in Gaza, emphasized that the UNRWA suffers from a deficit that has accumulated for 5 years and has been borrowing money every year from the next one’s budget. This has doubled and aggravated the crisis as witnessed since June 2015. Abu Hasnah added that the deficit in UNRWA’s budget is estimatedatUS$ 101 million threatening UNRWA, which has been involved in its services and has assumedits responsibilitiestoward thePalestinian refugees for 66 years, as some countries have not fulfilled their financial obligations toward UNRWA. He also warned that the UNRWA would face other financial crises of around 135 million dollars with a normal increase of 6.5% in the number of Palestinian refugees and an increase of 1.5% in the UNRWA’s budget. Abu Hasnah added that the UN and its Secretary, Ban Ki-moon, make great efforts to bypass the current crisis, start the new school year on time and ensure that all Palestinian refugees in all places obtain the UNRWA services. He also called for pressurizing the international community to fulfill its financial obligations toward UNRWA.
Dr. Amal al- Batshdeputy head of Union of Arab employees in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), raised questions about the reasons that prevent UNRWA from overcomingand covering the deficit in its budget for five years. Al-Batsh attributed the UNRWA’s deficit to the administrative and financial failure in all UNRWA departments,in the absence of transparency and accountability, and developing a programs exhausting the general budget at a cost of US$ 100 million, (US$ 50 million for the computerized administration program). This is the deficit UNRWA is suffering from. Additionally, al-Batchrevealed that the UNRWA’s Arab staff Union demands bringing those responsible for financial and administrative corruption to justice, but no action has been taken in this regard.She emphasized that if the next school year was delayed for weeks under the pretext of financial deficit, it would be a prelude to postpone it for months in the coming years. Moreover, she warned of dealing with the crisis as a financial one without putting it in its context by describing it as a political crisis that target redefining a Palestinian refugee as Israel demands. She demanded UNRWA to rearrange its priorities to serve the Palestinian refugees, and called for merging UNRWA into UN agencies to ensure it will have constant and permanent budgets.
In his speech, RajiSourani, Director of PCHR, emphasized that we do not have a problem with the UNRWA Commissioner-General, who has high professionalism and capabilities, but with UNRWA as an organization. This was clear in the Commissioner’s determination when addressing the UN Security Council from Gaza and not from New York stressing on the importance of providing international protection for the Palestinian refugees. He said that UNRWA has suffered from a catastrophic financial crisis for years and that the crisis is overtly financial but in the essence is political. This crisis also coincides with series of crises in the Gaza Strip, which has been under a tightened closure for 9 years and continued deterioration in the humanitarian conditions. Sourani also called for urgent measures to be taken in order to address the current crisis. He also called upon the international community to assume its responsibilities toward providing protection for the Palestinian refugees.
During the discussions that followed, participants called for concerted Palestinian and Arab efforts to ensure international support, in addition which is compulsory and not voluntary. Theparticipants also warned of the risk of decreasing UNRWA’s services which may eventually lead to their cancellation. Additionally, participants emphasized the need for UNRWA to continue providing its services as long as the refugees issue remains outstanding, and stressed the international responsibility towards the UNRWA’s crisis.
