08 March 2002

Humanitarian Issues Are Priority Concern for Bush Administration

Washington - Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Arthur E. Dewey says "the humanitarian agenda has never been higher on the national agenda" than it is under the Bush administration.

Addressing representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) involved in humanitarian work at a March 8 Washington briefing, Dewey cited U.S. conduct of the campaign in Afghanistan to substantiate the administration's commitment to humanitarian concerns.

In an unprecedented effort to achieve coordination, representatives of U.N. agencies have been present at the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, where a campaign is being directed to provide guidance in minimizing collateral damage to civilian and humanitarian facilities. "Coordination has been remarkable," Dewey said.

The United States has also provided 80 percent of the food aid which has averted a famine in the drought-parched, conflict-ridden nation, he said, and is also committed to providing a significant amount of aid that will be necessary as reconstruction begins in Afghanistan.

Dewey came into his position in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) on January 30, bringing a long record of experience in humanitarian affairs. After a full career in the U.S. military, he worked in State Department refugee programs during the Reagan administration in the 1980s. Subsequently, he served as a U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees and with an NGO involved in world hunger issues.

During those years, Dewey observed some humanitarian disasters in which he said the international community failed to muster an adequate response. He cited the displacement of people that occurred during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, the citizens' flight from Kosovo under Serbian pressure in 1999, and the massacres and displacement in Rwanda in 1994. The lessons that emerge from those episodes "scream at us," he said.

In the wake of these disasters, Dewey said the international community should be ready to recognize mistakes of the past and plot a wiser course of action for dealing with crisis situations of the present and future. He outlined what he called "tools for success" that PRM will use as it devises action plans for humanitarian operations.

He emphasized the importance of planning in an effort to anticipate problems and devise solutions. Training relief workers is also very important, Dewey said, to improve organizational development and better enable workers to coordinate their actions with other organizations. PRM will also be conducting frequent situational assessments to determine conditions and the prospects for return and resettlement of refugees. Informational management is also vital, he said, so that individuals leading a humanitarian operation are given essential information and not overburdened with minutiae.

Accountability is another critical element for success in humanitarian operations, Dewey said. He emphasized the importance of establishing accountability in the recently revealed scandal at West African refugee camps, where humanitarian workers were discovered to be bartering relief aid for sexual favors.

In crafting a response to the misconduct described in a study released February 27 by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Dewey said "the guiding principle" must be to prevent further harm to the refugees in camps in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three nations where the abuses were discovered. He said establishing accountability is the next priority in ascertaining the degree of responsibility to be borne by the peacekeeping forces, the local humanitarian workers, NGOs and UNHCR, all of whom were found to have some role in the misconduct, according to the report.

Dewey said the United States bears significant responsibility in urging U.N. organizations to establish accountability and maximize productivity in all their operations. As a major U.N. donor, the United States must "monitor and mentor" how international organizations are responding to humanitarian disasters. With that approach, Dewey said, the "finest hours" of both the United Nations and the United States will be achieved in their responses to humanitarian disaster.