In a statement delivered today at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch called for immediate action to assist Kosovar refugees and establish conditions suitable for their peaceful return home.
Access to refugee protection: Fifty years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, its promise of the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution rings hollow for the Kosovo Albanians. Testimony of hundreds of refugees at the border establishes a clear Serb policy of persecution and ethnic cleansing. Kosovo Albanians are facing mass expulsion from their homes and villages, systematic destruction of their property, and even execution by Serb military and paramilitary units.
We believe that all those fleeing Kosovo have a valid fear of persecution and should be considered as bona fide refugees under the 1951 Refugee Convention. Yet the Serb authorities have intermittently closed the borders with Macedonia and Albania and forced the fleeing refugees back to uncertain fate in Kosovo. And Macedonia has played the reluctant host, repeatedly closing its border to refugees and stalling on their admission to its territory. Finally, countries offering protection outside of the region promise only temporary protection, which we know from Bosnia can mean long-term legal limbo.
Human Rights Watch urges the Commission to resolve that the fleeing Kosovar refugees shall enjoy unhindered access to countries of asylum and full recognition of their Convention refugee status. In the event that a mass influx of asylum seekers makes immediate individual status determination impracticable and states extend some form of temporary protection, the full rights of the refugees must still be protected, particularly against refoulement. Temporary protection should not be used as a lesser status, or as a substitute for full refugee protection. No one should be returned to their country without an individual examination of their asylum claim.
Treatment of refugees: Human Rights Watch monitors working on Kosovo's borders have for the past three weeks reported appalling conditions for the half million people fleeing Serb atrocities. First, in the early days of the refugee crisis inadequate preparation by the international community left thousands with almost no food, shelter, clothing, medicine, and other humanitarian assistance. While these resource problems have now substantially abated, thousands have been involuntarily deported from Macedonia to third countries, in many cases separated from their families and communities, deprived of information about their destination or rights, and denied the benefit of registration or monitoring by UNHCR and other refugee assistance organizations.
To address these concerns, the Commission should call for the continued international commitment of resources to deal adequately with the influx into neighboring countries. In particular, the Commission should urge the UNHCR and receiving states take immediate steps to implement the UNHCR's guidelines on the protection of refugee women and children. The Commission should also emphasize the importance of providing refugees with some form of identification that can eventually facilitate their voluntary return to Kosovo when it becomes safe. The Finally, the Commission should resolve that no refugees shall be transferred to third countries involuntarily or in violation of the principle of family unity.
Root causes for the Kosovo Albanians' flight: It is impossible to discuss the plight of Kosovar refugees and displaced persons without reference to the gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law compelling their flight. It is the international community's repeated failures—to condemn and sanction the persistent violations of human rights in Kosovo over the past decade, to signal an end to impunity by arresting the architects of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, and to act decisively when the atrocities began in Kosovo over a year ago—that has brought us this current crisis. As the Commission recognized in its resolution on Kosovo adopted earlier this week, the international community must hold those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo accountable and insist on a resolution to the conflict in Kosovo that will ensure all refugees the right to return under conditions ensuring their safety and full enjoyment of fundamental human rights.
