Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Human Rights
Issue 16 - Evidence - May 7, 2015
OTTAWA, Thursday, May 7, 2015
The Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights met this day at 8:01 a.m. to examine and report on how the mandates and practices of the UNHCR and UNICEF have evolved to meet the needs of displaced children in modern conflict situations, with particular attention to the current crisis in Syria.
Senator Mobina S. B. Jaffer (Chair) in the chair.
[English]
The Chair: Honourable senators, welcome to the thirtieth meeting of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights in the second session of the Forty-first Parliament.
[Translation]
The Senate has entrusted our committee with the mandate to examine matters of human rights at home and abroad.
My name is Mobina Jaffer. I am the chair of this committee and I am honoured to welcome you to this meeting.
[English]
Before I continue, I would like my colleagues to introduce themselves, starting with the deputy chair.
Senator Ataullahjan: Salma Ataullahjan from Ontario.
Senator Eaton: Nicky Eaton from Toronto.
Senator Tannas: Scott Tannas from Alberta.
Senator Hubley: Elizabeth Hubley from Prince Edward Island.
The Chair: On May 6, 2014, the Senate passed the following order of reference:
That the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights be authorized to examine and report on how the mandates and practices of the UNHCR and UNICEF have evolved to meet the needs of displaced children in modern conflict situations, with particular attention to the current crisis in Syria
[Translation]
The Syrian conflict has given rise to one of the most terrible humanitarian and refugee crises in modern history. Particularly alarming are the consequences of the situation on children. The number of displaced children inside Syria has been estimated at 3 million, with a further 1.2 million children as refugees outside the country.
Millions of children are no longer going to school; they are separated from their families and in need of protection and medical care, both physical and psychological. Displaced children are also particularly threatened by poverty, mistreatment, negligence, violence, exploitation, trafficking, forced marriage and recruitment into armed groups against their will.
[English]
Canada is a significant financial contributor to both the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Children's Rights & Emergency Relief Organization. Both of these organizations have been working on the ground to provide relief for millions of Syrians who have been affected by this conflict.
The organizations have had to use their limited resources to respond to the changing humanitarian needs that arise from a modern, protracted conflict. As a result, their mandates and practices have had to evolve accordingly. We are studying how those mandates are evolving.
Today, we welcome our final witnesses for this study. First, appearing by video conference from UNICEF headquarters is Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque, Deputy Director, Office of Emergency Programmes. Dr. Haque is not a stranger to this committee; she appeared at the beginning of our study. Dr. Haque, we are certainly happy that you have made time for us again today, and we look forward to hearing from you.
I understand you have some remarks for us.
Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque, Deputy Director, Office of Emergency Programmes, UNICEF Headquarters: Indeed. Good morning, Madam Chair. It is a privilege to be with you and the committee again. My greetings to all of you from the Office of Emergency Programmes of UNICEF in New York.
Of course, I must start by thanking the government and all the people in Canada for the very generous support for the children around the world who have been facing humanitarian crises — for the support they have been receiving from the Government of Canada. In particular, I think we have really counted on Canada as being a strong ally as we support the children who are in the fifth year of a conflict that shows no sign of abating.
Since my last appearance in front of your committee in May 2014, the crisis tragically has escalated. We continue to see the numbers of conflict-affected people in Syria increasing 12-fold since the beginning of the crisis in 2011.
At the moment, there are about 12.2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, both within Syria and among those who have fled the country. This really is the largest displacement crisis, globally. Half of Syrians have been forced to leave their homes. Most are suffering secondary or multiple displacements, and children, of course, continue to be disproportionately affected. About 5.6 million children inside Syria and over 2 million Syrian children in neighbouring countries have had their childhood disrupted. They no longer have the regularity we look for in childhood.
The conflict in Syria continues to be characterized by chronic violations of international humanitarian and human rights law and by impunity of all parties to the conflict. The use of sieges as weapons of war, indiscriminate attacks against densely populated areas, and the targeting of civilian infrastructure are having devastating impacts on children.
Furthermore, as you mentioned, Madam Chair, there are the grave violations being perpetuated at a large scale by all parties in a climate of total impunity and fear. These include killing and maiming, recruitment and use of children in combat, sexual violence and attacks against schools and hospitals. In 2014 alone, we, along with our partners, registered about 2,000 grave violations against children. These have been documented, and they include the killing and maiming of more than 1,100 children.
Safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to the population inside Syria remains a significant challenge for the humanitarian actors due to widespread insecurity and conflict, shifting front lines, bureaucratic impediments and restrictive conditions imposed by all parties to the conflict. At this stage, I must mention our admiration for our colleagues who are operating within Syria and the countries, especially those within Syria, as well as the challenges they face and the risks they take whenever trying to access communities that are under siege.
We estimate that some 4.8 million people, including 2 million children, reside in those hard-to-reach areas inside Syria, and about 440,000 people are trapped in the besieged areas. The recent events, as you must have seen in Yarmouk, Idlib and Deir ez-Zor, are further evidence of this trend. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are left with limited or no access to life-saving assistance.
The protracted conflict has had a devastating impact on infrastructure and basic services, as we can well imagine. Some 11.6 million people inside Syria are in urgent need of continuous and regular water and sanitation services that have been affected by the power shortages and sanctions, as well as by nature in the form of drought. Only 43 per cent of hospitals are functioning; 24 per cent of schools have been damaged, destroyed or are being used as shelters. As a result, about 2 million children are not attending school or are attending school irregularly.
Due to the protracted nature of this crisis, a significant proportion of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries have depleted their savings and are really reliant upon the support of communities, the government and the international community.
Once again, pausing to acknowledge the support that host communities give to people who are displaced, who are coming into their areas of residence, although incredibly resilient, many families are resorting to negative coping mechanisms that directly impact children, such as increases in child labour, child marriage and school dropouts, as you mentioned, Madam Chair. Just to reflect on child marriage, Syrian indicators had been improving so much. It is to the extent that before the conflict, one in five girls under the age of 18 was married. Now if we look at the data it's about three in five girls, so clearly it's a documented evidence reversal of the achievements that had been made.
The ability of impacted host communities and host governments to provide sustained support to the Syrian refugees is being strained. Also, it's stressing the economy of the communities that they have taken shelter in.
Madam Chair, I have a lot more information, but I'll just quickly end by giving you an idea of what we have been able to do, including through the contributions from the Government of Canada. In 2014 we were successful in vaccinating about 25 million children against polio inside Syria and in the region; providing 16.5 million people inside Syria and 2.1 million refugees with access to safe drinking water; reaching 3 million children in Syria with school materials; and providing 1.1 million children in Syria and the sub-region with psychosocial support, which is so needed, through the No Lost Generation initiative. Again, we must thank the Government of Canada for the strong support on that.
Delivering essential supplies to people in hard-to-reach areas has been critical to our work, and we have managed to reach 720,000 people across conflict lines and almost 750,000 people through cross-border convoys from Turkey and Jordan under the framework of the Security Council Resolutions 2139 and 2165.
In 2015 we're committed to continue with the work, especially in building resilience and addressing the longer-term needs of the people affected by the crisis through the inter-agencies, Syria's Strategic Response Plan and the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan.
As the situation in Syria continues to deteriorate, additional funding of course is essential to scale up the ever- growing needs, but also to make sure we maintain the basic services that the population needs. Ultimately, without a political solution to the conflict in Syria, the immense suffering of children and their families will continue. We look to governments and everyone with influence to urge all parties to the conflict into meaningful, inclusive peace talks that take the rights of millions of affected children and their families into account.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair, for this opportunity to provide you with a brief update. I am available to answer any questions you may have.
The Chair: Thank you very much. I'll start with the first question, if I may.
The committee has often heard the situation of people, whether they're internally displaced or outside Syria, who get services according to how they are labelled, how they are identified. For example, if they were Palestinians, then UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, would help them; if they were internally displaced, they would get different services. How can we provide services to individuals? What can happen to change this reality?
To clarify what I'm saying, to me, if anybody comes and needs assistance, they should not be categorized and receive the services according to their category. I would like to know how UNICEF is dealing with that, especially with regard to children.
Dr. Haque: Thank you, Madam Chair. That's a crucial part of it. When you have so many different streams, you might have refugees from one country, internally displaced people, and for UNICEF, all children count. For example, the mandate of our offices in Lebanon is to address the needs of all children within Lebanon. It doesn't matter whether they are refugee children, internally displaced children or a host community.
From that mandate, it very much goes into the needs assessment to see that the response is always proportionate to the needs, especially when you are having to prioritize your interventions based upon what funding is available, but the coordination is very important. As we know, within the UN we have a division of labour. UNHCR is the agency that coordinates a refugee response. UNICEF has its leadership related to various clusters, such as water and sanitation, nutrition, education. UNRWA itself has a specific mandate, and that's where the inter-agency coordination is so important. It has not been easy because the streams have different ways of functioning. I think the crisis emanating from Syria has really tested the humanitarian system as a whole.
What we have now is a regional coordination mechanism, and it has been evolving as the situation has also been evolving. On behalf of the UN there is the regional humanitarian coordinator, based in Amman, who looks at the big picture of what the population needs are, whether they're refugees or IDPs — internally displaced persons — from whichever location, and how agencies are managing to coordinate their response. Within Syria, there will be a mechanism that is for Syria. And, as you can imagine, with the cross-border, cross-line and the various modalities coming together, it's really important that we all remain on the same page.
I assure you it's one of the challenges that all agencies are very acutely aware of, and we have been evolving the mechanisms to make sure that we don't end up with a different type of à la carte menu for the different streams of people who have needs. It's important that we address the needs of all children.
The Chair: You said this so well by saying "à la carte menu,'' and that's something the committee has been preoccupied with, especially with regard to children.
Senator Ataullahjan: Dr. Haque, thank you for being here. I would like you to outline for me the most significant changes in the mandates of UNICEF to assist children displaced by conflict, since it was created in 1946.
Dr. Haque: Thank you, senator. When UNICEF was formed in 1946, it was looking at the huge needs after the Second World War of children who had been affected. A lot of our work was really related. It was supply-driven, providing supplies and catering to the immediate needs of children.
As we evolved as an agency, we have taken on the mandate of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. That is where it is not just about how UNICEF meets the needs of children in crises, but very much looking at the right to survive, thrive and become an optimal citizen. It is looking not just at the newborns or young children, but sticking to the definition of a child as under the age of 18. Through the life cycle there are the various needs of children according to their rights.
We have also taken it from children not just being objects of providing services, but children as right holders, as one of the constituents who are there to uphold their rights, and to progressively realize the rights of all children everywhere. I think this is where, as we talk about progressively realizing their rights, it's a matter of looking at how we can gradually take things forward and how we strive for universal rights for all children. At the same time, we must recognize that we have to look at them, we have to be specific on targets, and we have to set goals for ourselves.
You will remember the years when universal immunization campaigns became such a strong mandate for UNICEF. We saw that it was the very vaccine-preventable diseases that were causing the worst of child mortality. In the 1970s and 1980s, we saw universal child immunization as one of the biggest thrusts of UNICEF programs, and we see the results today as we see child mortality decreasing significantly across the world. We addressed vaccine-preventable diseases, getting in place the knowledge and the technology that communities need to be able to prevent deadly diseases, such as diarrhea, pneumonia, asthma and malaria, which remains today a major concern, especially in parts of Africa.
We've evolved in that we have taken the child survival agenda seriously. As that is improving, we haven't let go of the whole commitment to looking at education, because it is through investing in education that we will see children taking their rightful place in their communities, in society and in the nation as a whole.
To that, we have also focused more and more on early childhood development, recognizing that it's not just school learning. It's very much from the time the baby is in the mother's womb. That's when the nurturing begins. It's the whole thousand-day agenda, looking at the child from the womb until the critical period after birth when they need the services to help them really beat the infant and under-five mortality tragedies that we face.
At the same time, how do we bring in the voices of children? How do we make them an active participant in what happens? The way we involve children has also gradually influenced the way we do programming — within schools, how we work with children to have children's committees; how we work with children to have shadow parliamentary committees; and how we find avenues to get children's voices out there.
In today's day and age, the use of technology is how we are able to amplify the voices of children.
The important part is how we close that feedback loop. For example, we have been working on technologies such as UReport where we send out messages to young people registered as UReporters who are in a crisis to ask them whether their needs are being met. What would they suggest? It is to get feedback from them, but really to act on it and to make sure that our programs are adapting to it. That's how we're also trying to evolve as we move forward.
An important part, again, is looking at the grave violations of children. I think this is something that UNICEF and the UN have really stood up and said, "We are not an investigative agency, but we are documenting and taking account of children who are facing violations.'' We're verifying the reports and we're going back to governments and to parties of conflict with the hard evidence of how their violations are affecting children. They're going into discussions and negotiations to come up with action plans on how to stop those violations and how to release children who have been forced into recruitment by armed groups.
There are various dimensions to the work that have been evolving over the years. I've been working with UNICEF since the 1990s. Emergency Programmes is now at a time where we wonder how many more crises we're going to see for children. We have the Syria crisis, the crisis in Yemen, and Iraq has multiple crises going on. In South Sudan, where I worked for three years, we see no sign of the conflict abating. Then we have the typhoons in the Philippines and Vanuatu, and now the earthquake in Nepal.
How we deliver in crises is something we have been evolving a lot. Learning from each crisis and how we reach children, especially in complex and high-threat environments — that has been crucial to our evolution as an organization.
And we have taken lessons —
The Chair: Dr. Haque, we have a lot of questions and limited time. I know there is so much to cover, but I must go on to the next question.
Senator Eggleton: You mentioned vaccinations. A statistic that we got about three years ago indicated that immunization had fallen in half for Syrian children. Is that situation improved, or is it still very much below what it needs to be?
Dr. Haque: It is still very much below what it needs to be, senator. The issue is the type of vaccination. As you will see from the data that we present, polio vaccination has improved. We have really been able to work with communities, even in besieged areas, to get the polio vaccination coverage to over 90 per cent. It comes in a vial and can be administered orally.
When we get to vaccinations that need syringes, and a stronger co-chain management — that is where we are running into issues. For example, measles vaccinations are far below the coverage, especially in besieged populations, because there is a reluctance to allow syringes and medical supplies to cross lines, as they might be taken up by parties to the conflict.
That's where our advocacy is continuing — and the strong advocacy to get the measles vaccination up. As we know, measles can be quite deadly in populations that are besieged, who do not have adequate access to services and who are facing overcrowding.
So, yes, we have made improvements in polio vaccinations but not for regular immunization.
Senator Eggleton: It's not a question, then, of the supply of the medicines but a question of the access to the children.
Dr. Haque: Absolutely. It's access to the children with the supplies that are needed. We have access for polio but not for measles.
Senator Eggleton: Let me ask you about education, because I think there is the concern about a lost generation. As this conflict goes on, that's more likely to happen. I understand that, in Jordan, where there are camps, the majority of the children — 56 per cent — are still not going to school. In Lebanon, it comes up to 80 per cent, where there are not camps.
What more can be done? What more can you do, or what more can countries of the world like Canada do to help get these people educated?
Dr. Haque: It is indeed worrisome. It's one issue that children are facing that worries us the most. As you rightly point out, we risk them becoming a lost generation.
We are working very intensively on trying to prevent it. It's not always easy, especially, for example, in areas where children are refugees. Which curriculum do they use? Do they use the curriculum for Syria, which allows them better chances when and if they go back to their homes? Or do they use the curriculum that is in Lebanon? Simple things like that take a lot of negotiation and a lot of discussion with the communities and authorities in the host countries.
We are seeing in a promising way that, especially for Lebanon, there has been a huge injection of funds to Lebanon to cover education needs of all children; it's not just the refugee children, but very importantly the host community children who are also not going to school in the proportions that were expected.
Here we've been working closely with Gordon Brown in his capacity as the UN Special Envoy for Global Education.
We're working with the Government of Lebanon, and this is also part of our No Lost Generation initiative. We strongly support a system development and rollout of education for children who are facing this. We do realize that a refugee population has an average period of displacement of about 17 years, so we are going to be seeing hundreds and thousands of children who are going to be displaced for their entire childhood. That's how we ensure not just primary education but also secondary, and how we can engage with young people in their skills development so that their education is put to use. In some places in Lebanon, the refugee population outnumbers the host community. How do we reduce tensions and keep peace and harmony going?
What more needs to be done? We need to continue to push for peace and for children to be able to return to their home.
Senator Eaton: Doctor, you talked a little earlier about the sector and cluster approach. Could you tell me the difference between the two, and are both needed? Would it be better to have one over the other, or are both needed?
Dr. Haque: They're both needed, yes. If I can differentiate, a cluster is something that really comes together in an acute crisis, where we have multiple partners, and we need to have a coordinated approach by knowing who is doing what, where, and in relation to the needs children and communities face.
Senator Eaton: Would that be something like Nepal? Could you give us examples?
Dr. Haque: All right. I will give you the example of Sri Lanka during the tsunami. Sri Lanka is also a country where there are strong government systems. When the tsunami hit, suddenly the regular strong systems were also disrupted to an extent. That's when we took a cluster approach.
With the sector approach, which is part of any development program, we look at sectors as being coordinated. But because of the huge number of partners coming in, the huge needs that had to be coordinated, where the mechanism needed to be adapted, we took on a cluster approach.
As the crisis waned, as people were relocated, as the media crisis was over, we went back to a sector approach. Traditionally, a sector approach is part and parcel of a development program. In countries where it is not as strongly established, when we put a cluster in place, our intention is to then move towards a sector so that we are also building as we are responding to a crisis.
We see this as one of the core strategies for the clusters nowadays. How do we move into transitioning from a cluster to a sector, because the coordination approach is needed? How do we transfer the ownership, even stronger, to the government and the partners who are on the ground, whether there's a crisis there or not?
Traditionally for UNICEF, we're very engaged in the education sector, in the WASH sector, the health sector, the child protection sector; and since we're there on the ground before a crisis, we're able to help shore up during the crisis because of the global support that we have. And then we go back to a sector approach. This is ideally how it should work.
The Chair: Can I get a clarification? I thought the sector approach was for refugee response coordinated by UNHCR.
Dr. Haque: It is not just in a refugee response, Madam Chair. The sector coordination will happen in any country at any time because as part of our development work, we need to be establishing sector coordination. In a refugee situation, because the refugee mandate is seen as something that is an unusual response for people who are displaced out of their country of nationality and UNHCR has a specific mandate, the cluster approach doesn't always apply.
There are discussions going on as to how we can rationalize, because it is not efficient or effective when we have a sector for refugees and a cluster for IDPs if they're in the same location. It also adds burden on the coordination mechanisms. These are the questions that are being examined by the humanitarian community, especially in the Syria- plus countries, and more specifically in Iraq where we have a huge displaced population and a huge refugee population. The burden of coordination has to be streamlined, and it has to be equitable across both groups.
A lot of discussion is ongoing on that side of it.
Senator Andreychuk: I have a very practical question. How do you collect your data in these conflict areas? We keep hearing figures about how many children are at a real risk, some children are migrating and not getting some of the services. We get 20, 40, 80 per cent. How do you collect statistics so that we have some reliance? We get NGO information that sometimes is different about where the children are critical, as opposed to ongoing needs. Could you explain how you go about verifying where children are and what their needs are?
Dr. Haque: Indeed this is a major challenge, senator. As I was talking about, that's where we have been evolving and learning from our experience in Syria, which we're also applying in other countries, such as Somalia and South Sudan. We rely a lot on the communities themselves, and we have been working with a network of facilitators within the communities where we have no direct access ourselves.
A lot of triangulation takes place. It's the information we're getting from our partners on the ground, information based on projections of the population data we have and the reports we get on services that are provided with some verification exercises after that. In countries like Syria, at the moment, we have third-party monitoring in place. In some areas, UNICEF staff themselves do not have access, either because of permissions or because of the insecurity. We have a network of people on the ground that collect information on a routine basis and feed it into our system.
Again, it is a matter of when we report on it. It is not just for UNICEF; it is for our partners in the specific sectors or clusters, whatever we may denote them as. The verification of that information is important. The third-party monitors do receive training. We do bring them out of the besieged areas at times. They receive training with our colleagues in locations. We do spot checks on the information they are providing us, through other means, so it is as sure data as we can have in the situation.
Our offices are acutely aware of this issue, and that is where we take a lot of time before we are reporting back on data. The other element, of course, is that we have to report back to the Secretary-General, according to the Security Council resolutions, through the Secretary-General to the Security Council on many of the issues.
Currently in Syria we estimate that we have close to 2,000 monitors who report back to us on the situation of children and the services that they are receiving.
Senator Andreychuk: You indicated that Syria very much depends on a political solution, and I think most people would agree with that. The difficulty is that in the meantime one year goes by, two years go by and there is no political solution. The prevailing opinion is that it won't be a solution imposed on the conflict groups — if I can call them that — including the government.
Are you contemplating, or have you used, different ways to negotiate to get help to the children?
I am mindful of the old days in Ethiopia. When the conflict was raging, children were not getting the supplies they needed. It took some innovative way of transporting goods to ensure that the children got them and that they weren't siphoned off somewhere else.
Every crisis demands a different solution. How are you negotiating — or are you negotiating — with the conflict perpetrators?
Dr. Haque: This is where UNICEF's mandate comes in. Especially in conflicts, we have the mandate to negotiate and discuss with all parties to the conflict so that we are able to reach children wherever they are. It does mean that our staff do take risks in those negotiations and discussions. We rely a lot on communities and on local government authorities that still are functioning. That's an important part of it, especially when you see how we have been able to increase polio immunization coverage to over 90 per cent, even in areas that are besieged. That is where we have really made sure that our contacts with local government authorities have worked very well.
It doesn't put us in a very comfortable situation all the time. I speak from the personal experience of working in Sri Lanka, where we were negotiating with the Tamil Tigers and with the government. We were constantly being bashed by both sides at times, especially over the issue of child soldiers. It didn't stop us from doing it.
Our teams in Syria tread a very fine line, because if we are to go into a particular area where children are not getting services, and we have especially to get supplies in, either through a cross-border route or a cross-line route, there are a number of parties to be negotiated with. It is not just two parties. The biggest challenge in the Syrian context is the number of parties to the conflict. It is not a straightforward two-party conflict.
Also, because news passes so quickly nowadays, we get information in real time. Mobile phone technology is making sure that nothing stays secret, really, and we are able to amplify that voice and push for access. At times it works; at times it doesn't work. That's where we really rely on the voices of governments around the world to keep bringing the situation of children to the forefront — the issues that children face — and how we can keep the attention focused on children and their rights.
We really appreciate the efforts and the support we have been getting from the Government of Canada in doing that, especially on the issue of children who are affected by armed conflict. We see your government as being a strong ally for children in that cause.
Senator Eggleton: You have thanked Canada several times, and that's appreciated. The situation, though, as you point out, is deteriorating. More needs to be done by Canada and other countries that are able to do so. Whatever more we are able to do, I hope at the same time that your agency and UNHCR, plus other NGO organizations — all the people you are working with — are able to better coordinate all your efforts — the sector, cluster, division. The complex situation that exists makes it most difficult.
I hope things like which curriculum you use can be settled soon, because these young people, if they lose hope, then tend to become radicalized. We need to do what we can to prevent a lost generation.
The bottom line question is, since the situation is deteriorating, what more can countries like Canada do to assist further?
Dr. Haque: There are a number of things. We have talked about all of them before, but I would welcome suggestions from your side on what more you would like UNICEF to be doing.
I take your point on coordination very clearly. As a humanitarian community, we have to be addressing those issues.
Our hope is that we would continue to receive the generous funding from the Government of Canada; that Canada continues to nurture, push and advocate for discussions, especially around looking at ways of reaching children in besieged areas; and that we do see the voice of children, the focus on children and the dire circumstances that they are in. The needs they face are central to any discussion that goes on. Those are crucial supports that we would continue to need from the Government of Canada.
The Chair: I want to thank you for, again, making yourself available, and I'm sure we will be working in the future as well, and we appreciate the time you have given to us.
The next panel we have this morning is officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development who have worked very closely on this issue and who appeared in front of us on this issue when we started our study. We welcome Mark Gwozdecky, Director General, Middle East and Maghreb; and Leslie E. Norton, Director General, International Humanitarian Assistance. I understand you have a few remarks, and then we will have questions for you.
[Translation]
Mark Gwozdecky, Director General, Middle East and Maghreb, Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada: Honourable senators, ladies and gentlemen, my colleagues and I would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide you with information on Canada's policies towards the Syrian conflict and its implications. I will provide a brief overview of the political context and the current state of the conflict, and my colleague Leslie Norton will provide a detailed update on our response to the humanitarian situation unfolding in the region.
The conflict in Syria is mired in a political stalemate, though the military situation on the ground continues to evolve. A highly simplified description of the military conflict involves an essentially three-sided dynamic, involving the Assad regime, dominant in the centre and northwest of the country, the moderate opposition, which holds territory and influence largely in the south, and jihadist extremists, who control much of the north and sparsely populated, but oil-rich, east.
The Kurds retain control of significant territory in the extreme northeast and in areas along the Turkish border, but they are not really attempting to fight beyond their traditional territory.
[English]
The focus of the military campaign has shifted from attempts by the government and jihadists to eliminate the moderate opposition, which were largely successful in the north, to the jihadists and moderate opposition more systematically attacking regime forces, which has resulted in a perceptible loss of territory and influence by the regime.
There is now a sense that the Assad regime may be facing a serious threat to its longevity. This is good news in one sense, but should the regime fall in the near term, it is unclear what or who would take its place, and continued fighting involving various forces and groups, including ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra, is likely inevitable.
Despite the regime's recent setbacks, we are likely some distance from the end game. Assad will certainly intensify his efforts to protect regime strongholds in Damascus and along the coast to Latakia. Additionally, Assad retains the support of his principal international patrons, Russia and Iran, supported on the ground by Hezbollah troops, and there is no sense they are willing to cut him loose. It may happen at some point, but not yet.
Canada continues to believe that a political solution is the only viable option in resolving this conflict. The prospects remain dim. However, both the United Nations and Russia are spearheading separate efforts to keep peace talks alive, though with limited tangible success so far. We will continue to support efforts to move these efforts forward.
[Translation]
Of huge concern to the government is the victimization of innocent civilian populations caught between the warring factions of the conflict. We have all seen the horrific treatment of religious and ethnic communities by most factions, whether it be the virtually unimaginable savagery of ISIL or the indiscriminate barrel-bombing of civilian populations by the regime.
Added to this is the misery of displacement of literally millions of Syrians, both within Syria and to overburdened neighbouring countries, which will take years of concentrated effort to ameliorate.
[English]
The practical effect of all of this is to reinforce that it is vital for the international community to support humanitarian efforts, all the while seeking a political solution and the humanitarian efforts, which are of course designed to deal with the effects of this horrible conflict. Ms. Norton will now detail Canada's work on this file, and I would like to emphasize that Canada is doing all it can to encourage other donors to fulfill promptly, and in a timely manner, their commitments to the various humanitarian appeals.
Syrians displaced at home and abroad by this conflict essentially want little more than the ability to return to their homes in peace. This is the objective behind Canada's actions, both political and humanitarian, in this conflict.
[Translation]
Leslie E. Norton, Director General, International Humanitarian Assistance, Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada: Good morning, and thank you for the invitation to update you on the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Children's Fund. These two organizations continue to be critical partners for Canada in meeting the needs of people affected by humanitarian crises.
The humanitarian situation in Syria and the surrounding region continues to deteriorate. The UN estimates that over 16 million people inside Syria and in neighbouring countries are in need of humanitarian assistance, making this the largest number of people displaced by a single conflict in the world.
Canada remains committed to saving lives and addressing the most critical needs of people affected by the Syrian crisis. To date, Canada has committed more than $800 million in humanitarian, development and security assistance to the Syrian crisis. This includes $503.5 million in humanitarian assistance funding, of which $100 million was announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on May 2, 2015. As of that date, Canada is the sixth largest single country donor to the humanitarian response in Syria.
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Recognizing the reach of this crisis and the strain of the influx of refugees on host governments, a significant element of Canada's response has been to provide support for refugee-hosting countries. Canada has committed over $300 million in humanitarian funding to meet urgent humanitarian needs and over $245 million in development funding to improve access to services and strengthen the resilience of communities and government institutions, thereby improving their capacity to meet the needs of the affected populations.
Canada's humanitarian assistance funding is provided to experienced partners in order to meet the food, shelter, protection, health and emergency education needs of affected populations. As part of our response, the UN and other experienced humanitarian organizations continue to be important partners in getting assistance to those who need it the most, particularly children.
UNHCR reports that through 2014, children, who represent over half of the total refugee population from the Syrian crisis, remained at risk of serious rights violations, such as child labour, recruitment into armed groups, early and forced marriage and sexual and gender-based violence.
Refugee camp settings, in particular, may increase critical protection risks such as sexual and gender-based violence, child protection concerns and human trafficking. This is among the considerations that have led UNHCR to launch its Alternatives to Camps policy. This is a significant shift in the agency's approach as the policy advocates that UNHCR avoid establishing refugee camps wherever possible.
To further inform its operations, UNHCR commissioned a real-time independent evaluation of its response to the refugee influx to Lebanon and Jordan. The report will be officially launched in the coming week.
We see these developments as positive steps by UNHCR, and Canada will look at what this means in practice in the context of refugee situations, including the Syria crisis.
Turning to UNICEF now, it continues to provide humanitarian assistance for children in Syria. With the support of Canada and other donors, it was able to achieve key results in 2014, such as the vaccination of over 25 million children against polio, including 2.9 million children in Syria, resulting in the successful containment of the disease. UNICEF and its partners provided water treatment chemicals to clean water for a network that reached 16.5 million people inside Syria, and has provided 2.1 million people with safe drinking water in host communities and camps in neighbouring countries. Nearly one million children received psychosocial support through mobile and static child- and adolescent-friendly spaces and school clubs, and 965,000 children received winter clothing, blankets and other winter supplies.
[Translation]
To ensure that a generation of Syrian children are provided with a protective environment and learning opportunities, Canada continues to be a strong supporter of the "No Lost Generation'' initiative. In 2014, Canada provided $50 million to support this initiative. In the first year of "No Lost Generation,'' implementing partners reached over 985,000 children with education support, 660,000 children with psychosocial support, and provided 60,000 adolescents with vocational training opportunities.
Canada's humanitarian partners remain committed to providing life-saving assistance to those most vulnerable, including children. Safeguarding the safety and security of humanitarian workers is critical to ensure they can continue to reach affected populations. However, despite operating under the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence, humanitarian workers' safety and security remain at risk in complex situations such as Syria, where at least 73 international and Syrian national aid workers have been killed, and over 200 abducted, during the course of this conflict.
Following the recent attack on UNICEF workers in Somalia, Minister Paradis underscored that the loss of a single humanitarian worker is unacceptable. To that end, the Government of Canada will continue to support measures that improve the safety and security of humanitarian workers so they can help those who need it most. Thank you.
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The Chair: Thank you.
I have one question for both of you, and then, if there is time, I have others. Will the recent signing of the memorandum of understanding on development and cooperation between Canada and Jordan affect the response to the Syrian crisis in that country, especially with regard to children?
With what Ms. Norton had to say about children, we would be very much interested if this aid is toward the lost children or other specific aid.
Mr. Gwozdecky: Senator, the expert on that file isn't with us today, but what we can say about that MOU is that it's a framework that governs the very dramatic increase in our support to the Government of Jordan, much of which is focused on helping them cope with this refugee crisis and helping host communities become more resilient. The MOU, in and of itself, doesn't address the issue of children as much as it provides a framework that governs our overall increase in investments and support for that government.
The Chair: Thank you for the answer. May I ask if you could have that expert please give us a brief response and send it to the clerk?
Mr. Gwozdecky: Sure.
The Chair: I appreciate that.
Senator Ataullahjan: Thank you for being here this morning. A witness last week, Dr. Martin Barber, stated that it is essential for us to look at the refugee situation in a more comprehensive manner, such as the consequences of the refugees left behind and for the people in the host countries.
Has Canada been working with UNHCR or other organizations on a more comprehensive outlook of refugee movements?
Ms. Norton: The approach of the UN and the international community, writ large, has been a comprehensive approach to deal with the refugee situation. This means that we have all been called upon to bring all the tools in our respective tool kits to play in the response.
What that means explicitly for Canada is that I work very closely with my colleague who manages the long-term development assistance programming in the region. I work very closely with my colleague, Mark Gwozdecky, on the political side, and we bring all the tools we have, along with the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force for the security assistance programming — and I did speak about the three elements. We bring all of these elements together and we take a very comprehensive approach.
So while the humanitarian assistance will be providing assistance to the refugees in the refugee-hosting countries, we will also be ensuring through our respective programs that the hosting communities who have also been rendered vulnerable from the influx are also having their needs met. This can mean institution building, in some contexts; it can mean support to basic services in other contexts; and then it also means ensuring that UNHCR and UNICEF in refugee-hosting countries also have the funds they need to meet the needs of the refugees.
Senator Eggleton: Ms. Norton, you give a lot of statistics about assistance that Canada has provided. What is the frequency of this assistance? Is this to the individual? Is this one-time only? Is it occasional, or is it ongoing?
You have 985,000 children with education supports and 660,000 with psychological support. Is this ongoing, occasional, one-time-only, or do we know?
Ms. Norton: That would have been a good question to put to your last guest from UNICEF. Those numbers are rolled-up numbers for 2014. So the amount of children who have received that assistance for psychosocial counselling would depend, case by case, whether they needed one, two or three sessions or treatments.
For winter clothing, which I also mentioned, blankets would be a one-time provision for the season itself. Then there is also education, which would be more frequent.
So it depends on what sector or need is being met. Then you would get a better sense of the frequency of delivery.
Senator Eggleton: Yet we hear that the majority of children are still not being educated. The statistic I cited earlier was 56 per cent in camps in Jordan and another 80 per cent in a non-camp situation in Lebanon.
Is there something more Canada can do to reach these populations on a more ongoing basis in terms of their education?
Ms. Norton: It's a complex situation, and I imagine our UNICEF colleague highlighted that. Already this year, Canada has provided $150 million to help respond to the needs resulting from the Syria crisis. A large part of that is for education or the No Lost Generation initiative. Canada is one of the top donors in this context, namely, for education and emergencies. We are currently the sixth overall top single-country donor.
It's a question of working very closely with other member states and other donors to try to bring them along, as well, to fund education in emergencies. It's something that Gordon Brown is working very strongly on; he's been working very closely with Minister Paradis. Minister Paradis is very committed to this.
Senator Eggleton: You have also said UNHCR is launching an Alternatives to Camps policy and this is a significant shift in the agency's approach as the policy advocates that UNHCR avoid establishing refugee camps wherever possible.
What's the alternative to that? If you take the Lebanon situation, where it mixes in with the population, a lot of tension results. It appears that education needs, for one thing, are not as well looked after in the Lebanon situation, where again there are no camps, than in the places where there are camps. So what is the alternative? What's a reasonable alternative here?
Ms. Norton: The expert will be coming, following me — Furio De Angelis is here. But we do know that when people are residing with hosting communities instead of in camps, a whole range of their needs are better met; for instance, their protection needs are better met because they are residing closely within communities.
There are challenges with both contexts. To better protect and ensure assistance is provided to folks in this context, it might be a better alternative. In each and every context, it is challenging. You can say, on one hand, that if you have people in camps, it's easier to reach them. One of the big challenges in the context of the Middle East is that when people are not in the camps, it's harder at times to find them. In urban settings it's more challenging, for instance, but we would defer to the experts, which are UNHCR in this context. If they see this as an alternative, we would support it.
Senator Eggleton: You had it in your remarks. That's why I asked you.
Mr. Gwozdecky, you say in your closing statement that Syrians displaced at home and abroad essentially want little more than to return to their homes in peace. We all know that, but that doesn't seem to be a reality in the near future.
What more should Canada be doing in terms of refugees, both in bringing them permanently to Canada or bringing them to Canada on a temporary basis? It seems to me that during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, we did bring a number of people over here, established some sort of refugee camp situation, and then they went back.
What has been the consideration of that matter in view of the dire circumstances that exist for these people?
Ms. Norton: Senator, I'm going to take that question. It's our understanding that in this context, as in many others, what refugees really want is to go home.
Senator Eggleton: Yes.
Ms. Norton: I think that is understood. Whether this has been explored in Canada, I would defer to our colleagues from Immigration to respond to this particular question. Whether it's been explored at the international level, I would defer to our colleague from UNHCR. However, I think you will know that on January 7, Minister Alexander announced that Canada will welcome 10,000 Syrian refugees in the coming years. It will be in the next three years, as a matter of fact.
Senator Eggleton: How many are here already?
Ms. Norton: You'll have to ask our Immigration colleagues that.
Senator Eggleton: A pittance.
Senator Eaton: I'd like to go back to my earlier question to Dr. Haque, and perhaps you have another perspective. Very often aid is given either in a sector approach or in a cluster approach. Do we need both of them? She was talking about a transition. How well do you see that working? Is Syria a cluster approach, a sector approach or both?
Ms. Norton: You're asking a very good question. As she had mentioned, in all complex emergencies a cluster approach is stood up, and that is in the context of a reformed humanitarian architecture. I think she also mentioned that it depends on the context of where you have a very strong government in place.
It is a very challenging context, because in the neighbouring countries you have lead for the response. It's a refugee crisis, so the lead for the response is UNHCR, but in Syria itself it's internally displaced, and a whole range of other humanitarian components.
Senator Eaton: I think your colleague pointed out that Syria is divided into three sectors, Assad, moderate and jihadists. Did you not say that at the beginning of your remarks? That's very simplified.
Do the sectors cross all those barriers, or do you have clusters in each of those sectors? How does it work in Syria?
Ms. Norton: Specifically in Syria, I couldn't tell you whether they have the clusters in those exact areas. I can tell you that to reach the north of Syria, the UN runs its programming out of Turkey for what they call the cross-border activities. You will have the clusters existing and working out of southern Turkey. In that case, they are clusters. That is for the inside of Syria.
Senator Eaton: The cluster being health, education, protection, all that?
Ms. Norton: Correct.
Senator Eaton: And the south and in the middle?
Ms. Norton: It's my understanding that they are also clusters for the response. My understanding is the clusters are stood up, and what they often do in these contexts is that you will have clusters in the capital, so that's where the main conversation will happen. But then in many contexts they also have satellite hubs out in other towns or cities. You will have almost a sub-cluster set up, so the working groups get together. They might be more sub-working groups of clusters.
We can get you information on the exact layout, if that would be helpful.
Senator Eaton: Could you? Our researcher would need that information for our report.
The Chair: I have two questions. First, I understand the cluster approach is inside Syria and then the sector is outside. Am I mistaken? Second, what is the coordinating mechanism of the refugee response?
Ms. Norton: The coordinating mechanism, because it is a refugee response, is led by UNHCR. UNHCR can give you the full details of that when they appear after us. It is a standard refugee response. However, it is rendered more complex because next door is the Syria crisis, which is not the refugee context, as you fully understand.
You will have a regional humanitarian coordinator who is based in Amman, you will have a humanitarian coordinator in each one of the refugee hosting countries, you will have a humanitarian coordinator in Syria. The teams work together in a way to ensure that there is a comprehensive approach to the Syrian crisis. I believe last year was the first year they actually had a joined up appeal. They used to be completely separate approaches, and then they joined up the appeal so that it was one appeal for the entire crisis.
The Chair: I understand UNHCR coordinates, but isn't there also a humanitarian coordinator, and do they work together or separately? How does that work?
Ms. Norton: Yes, there is a regional humanitarian coordinator, and they work very closely with UNHCR.
Senator Eaton: A number of witnesses have said that earmarking a fund and short funding cycles are limiting the effectiveness of aid. From another point of view, how can more flexible funding arrangements be developed so that they are accountable to the donor country? Can you send us how much of Canada's funding of UNICEF and UNHCR is earmarked for specific purposes?
Ms. Norton: We can send that to you, senator.
Senator Eaton: Thank you very much.
Senator Andreychuk: I want to go back to this Policy on Alternatives to Camps. We set up refugee camps and participate in it. It was really the UN that set them up. They were always based on temporary; we would set up the camps, provide the services. But because the conflicts continued to rage, these camps became more and more permanent. It was then that we found out some of the ills within the camp. We knew some of the positives. We knew there would be some access to food, education, recreation for children, but we then started to find out that some of the actors from the conflicts would be inside those refugee camps, so some of the ills of the camps were starting to be identified.
I think we've spent perhaps some decades learning the practices of what happens in camps, the pluses and minuses. Now we're doing the alternatives to camps, which is perhaps the Syria situation.
How will Canada monitor these two concepts? On the one hand I see the alternatives to camps having a place. I see a good response from the international community, including the UN, in understanding that we have to deal with the problems within the host country. For example, the differences between Jordan and Lebanon. We're not going to leave those children behind. We're trying to ensure they get the services of some level of capacity that the UNHCR gives to the refugees so that there isn't tension between them.
I think it's commendable that the international community is struggling with trying to find the best answer and working with these two, but I would like to know what kind of monitoring we will do on the two concepts to determine when and how they should be used. As more of a preface, Syria was almost a middle-class country in the sense that there was an education standard and much higher, higher expectations of people. When the conflict came, all kinds of people left, temporarily or otherwise, so it was their expectations, their needs. And the Syrian conflict is much more unique than the Somali conflict I knew about, or Sudanese. Each conflict brings its own set of difficulties and expectations.
There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. It would be good to know how Canada will now monitor the success. We'll certainly put to the UNHCR how they intend to monitor these.
Mr. Gwozdecky: Senator, that's a very good question. I'd like to start, and then I'll ask Leslie to answer the monitoring piece.
What makes this region rather different from many others is the fact that we have a large homogeneity in the populations spilling across the borders. What we're talking about, particularly in northern Jordan, southern Syria and in parts of Lebanon, are the same populations with tremendous tribal and familial links. To some extent that can be an advantage, and we saw that in the early days where many of the people from southern Syria spilling into Jordan were moving in with family, distant relatives or friends.
To some extent that is a more desirable outcome, and this is in answer to Senator Eggleton's question about a good alternative to camps. A better alternative is if you're able to move in with family members, distant relatives or friends, as was the case in the initial waves. There is a limit. At a certain point in time, those connections are no longer there, they are all used up and individuals have no support systems to move into communities with. That's where real support is required.
I would say it is also important to remember that there are formal camps — capital C camps — run and supported by the UNHCR, and they are typically the ones we see on television. They have a look of a temporary kind of system. And then you have camps all over Lebanon and Jordan, Palestinian in nature, which are called camps but in fact are effectively suburbs of major centres with no distinguishing feature, no boundaries. They're merely portions of the cities that have grown up predominantly to house Palestinian individuals. Then you have a third category, which is host communities. They have been forced to absorb refugees, and they move anywhere there is accommodation to use. So they are dispersed right across the communities.
Solutions need to be aimed at all three of those categories, and I think Ms. Norton can speak to those.
Ms. Norton: Thank you very much for the question. All policies that are adopted by UNHCR are in fact adopted by its governing board, the executive committee, and we've been a long-standing member of the executive committee. Perhaps it's important to go back, before all policies are adopted. The analysis behind them is what's very important. What's been taken into consideration in this case would be the perspective of the refugee and the host communities, the political context, the protection situation, the scale of displacement.
Turning to how we would actually monitor this, I did mention that UNHCR will officially be launching its real-time independent evaluation of its response to the refugee influx. That is one way that UNHCR will be looking at this context. We work through our missions in the field and have them monitor. We have monitoring missions going out from headquarters as well.
We will also ask that UNHCR report on the implementation of this policy in upcoming standing committee meetings and executive committee meetings. If need be, if this is seen as quite an innovation, then it's something we would call for an evaluation on as well.
UNHCR has a very robust evaluation function, and Canada has historically worked very hard with the agency to ensure it is robust. This is also another way for us to ensure focus on the implementation of this policy and whether it is indeed effective in this context.
Senator Andreychuk: As an editorial, my concern is that there are children in refugee situations not only as a result of the Syrian crisis, and there may be again because of natural disasters or political situations. We look at the children's needs and that there be some fairness of scale of Canada's contribution. I am monitoring other refugee situations as I am the Syrian one. Some evaluation, whether we are being fair to children in a global sense, would be one of the suggestions I would have.
The Chair: Thank you very much once again for being here and supporting our work. We look forward to working with you in the future.
We now have our last presenter for this study. I think we started with you, and so we're really happy that Mr. Furio De Angelis, from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, is here to help support our work. We look forward to hearing from you. As you can see, we already have a lot of questions for you.
[Translation]
Furio de Angelis, Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Honourable members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for inviting me once more to appear before the committee on behalf of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Since the last presentation I made to the committee, the situation in Syria and in the region has deteriorated. The war is becoming more intense and humanitarian assistance is needed for longer.
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Over 3.9 million refugees are registered now in neighbouring countries and are becoming increasingly impoverished and vulnerable. Host countries are at a breaking point. Living conditions across the regions are deteriorating, and there is insufficient international support to cover even the most basic humanitarian necessities. There are increasing tensions between communities as a lot of families struggle harder to cope the longer the conflict drags on.
Inside Syria, more than 12 million people are in need of aid to stay alive, and almost 8 million have been forced from their homes, sharing crowded rooms with other families or camping in abandoned buildings. An estimated 4.8 million Syrians inside the country are in places that are hard to reach, including 212,000 trapped in besieged areas.
In addition to Syrians, the spillover of the crisis into Iraq has displaced some 2.2 million Iraqis internally, and over 220,000 to neighbouring countries. As host countries not only face growing security risk to the regional spread of the conflict but also do not get the help they need to cope with the refugee influx, Syrians and other displaced are finding it extremely difficult to reach safety. In this increasingly desperate situation for both refugees and host countries, it is not a surprise, I think, to anyone that more and more refugees are forced to move farther afield.
Since January, some 61,500 people have crossed the Mediterranean by boat to seek protection in Europe. It is double compared to the same period last year, and these numbers, as you know from the news, are growing on a daily basis.
Over 1,800 refugees have drowned already in 2015, and this figure is increasing by the day. Refugees from Syria represent 33 per cent of these arrivals. Other nationalities are 10 per cent from Afghanistan, 10 per cent from Eritrea, 8 per cent from Somalia, which largely confirms the pure refugee nature of these movements.
As refugees grow increasingly desperate, thousands of children also attempt to move farther afield, putting themselves at risk of abuse by smugglers and traffickers. Half of the over 25,000 children who arrived by boat in Southern Europe last year were unaccompanied. Hundreds of others drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean.
In the first three months of 2015, 900 children arrived by smuggler's boat, of whom 610 were unaccompanied. Protecting refugee children is a core priority for UNHCR, and doing this right requires the close cooperation of all stakeholders.
We must do better to keep refugee children safe through giving them access to quality education, psychosocial care and targeted support for those with specific needs and by ensuring they are registered at birth. But equally important is support to their families and communities so that they can protect the children better. In this context we have undoubtedly made progress as humanitarian workers try to keep alive millions of displaced persons. But this progress is unfortunately tempered by the real problem which continues to plague Syria and countries in the region. The real problem is the perpetuation of war conflict and terrible abuses of human rights.
Honourable chair, honourable committee members, ladies and gentlemen, it is not my intention today to present the committee with an exhaustive review of progress since our last meeting. Allow me to point out two examples that merit our attention before I share UNHCR's perception on two key issues that we consider of particular significance or concern to this study.
Developments and programs also apply in our submission that has been prepared for background information for the Library of Parliament, and that should be with you all.
It is often said that unprecedented crisis requires unprecedented responses. By its sheer magnitude and complexity, the Syria crisis has both forged and encouraged humanitarian actors to rethink the way assistance is provided, simply because business as usual is insufficient to address the needs.
With over 80 per cent of the refugees in the region living outside of camps, which requires different forms of outreach and assistance delivery, in Lebanon and Jordan UNHCR and its partners have set up websites allowing refugees to communicate directly with the agencies, ask questions and get information about the registration process. Also, we increasingly use biometric registration and iris scan technology to make targeted assistance to the most vulnerable more effective.
Food vouchers and cash grants for very vulnerable families not only allow them the dignity of choice, but we are starting to see that cash grants help to improve over all the quality of assistance and the quality of life.
Thanks to partnership with Cairo Amman Bank, Jordan is the first country in the world to use iris scan technology to enable refugees to access their funds without the need for a bank card or PIN code. The technology brings a number of advantages as refugees use their irises as a form of identification. The system also has very low overhead, meaning that for every dollar donated to the cash assistance program, more than 98 cents end up in the pocket of refugees.
Currently around 23,000 Syrian families living in urban areas in Jordan benefit from monthly cash assistance, but thousands of needy families are on a waiting list and cannot receive the support unless more funding is made available.
Turning now to our first concern, the situation of children, the issue of refugee children is an important one for UNHCR. With the refugee situation growing more protracted and more desperate, one of the risks that worry us most continues to be the growing threat to the lost generation of Syrian children. More than 2.4 million children inside Syria are not in school. Among refugees, nearly half of all children are not receiving an education in exile. In Lebanon, there are more school-age refugees than the entire intake of the country's public schools, and only 20 per cent of Syrian children are enrolled. Similar numbers can be seen among refugees living outside of camps in Turkey and Jordan.
Even though humanitarian agencies have made again some progress in reinforcing national and community systems to give refugee children better access to education and protection, increasing poverty risks reversing those gains when it forces parents to take the children out of school. Another concern with regard to children is the risk of statelessness. I hasten to repeat that birth registration is a right of all children under international law; many of the over 100,000 Syrian refugee children born in exile could face the risk of statelessness.
While the governments of Jordan and Lebanon permit Syrian refugees to register children born in their countries, for numerous reasons many births are not registered, including the complexity of the birth registration process and the inability to provide proper identification documents. We think if the situation is not properly addressed, this crisis-in- the-making could have huge consequences for the future, not only of Syria but in the region.
There is a second challenge I would like to present to you relating to funding, for which urgent action is required. There are more Syrians under UNHCR care today than any other nationality on earth, yet by the end of last year only 54 per cent of the funding needed to assist refugees outside of Syria had been raised. Inside Syria, humanitarian organizations received even less.
I wish to recognize with gratitude Canada's financial support towards UNHCR's work on the Syrian crisis. Canada's total contribution over the last two years for the Syria situation totalled an amount of C$31 million, mostly directed to our operations in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Egypt. The most recent contributions received in 2015 for the world Syrian context has been so far C$17 million. Another important indicator is represented by the fact that of the total 2014 Canadian contributions to UNHCR of $80.7 million, a record contribution, 22 per cent of this total contribution to UNHCR went to cover humanitarian needs related to the Syria situation.
The United Nations calculates the cost of meeting humanitarian needs of the Syrian crisis this year at $8.4 billion. This sum includes two major appeals: $2.9 billion for the more than 12 million internally displaced persons within Syria and $5.5 billion for the refugee program, the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan, which is also called 3RP. This is for direct support to almost 6 million persons, including a projected 4.27 million refugees at the end of 2015, and over a million vulnerable individuals in host communities.
Behind these enormous figures are human beings — women, men and children — who have desperate immediate needs. Significant pledges were made at the Kuwait conference on March 31, 2015, which we appreciate, but much more is needed given the scale of the crisis. While appreciating Canada's sustained support to UNHCR's operation in Syria, the sheer scale of humanitarian needs obliges me to continue asking that more funds be allocated to this immense humanitarian tragedy.
The Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan is a different appeal from previous ones in that it recognizes both the immediate and the long-term imperatives of responding to the crisis by combining humanitarian and resilience components. The appeal was developed in close cooperation with over 200 partners and host governments. It aims to ensure that we can meet refugees' basic needs and prevent them from sliding into abject poverty in increasing numbers.
We are requesting continued humanitarian support for core protection and life-saving activities, also to prevent some of the terrible risks facing refugees, such as child labour, child recruitment, sexual exploitation and abuse or early marriages. The appeal also provides for shelter, water and sanitation, minimum health care requirement and for bringing more children to school. We hope to be able to count on generous donor support for the activities of all agencies under this Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan.
As a last consideration with respect to funding, I would like to reiterate the long-standing appeal of the high commissioner, Mr. António Guterres, with respect to the urgency of bringing together, in a coordinated manner, the funding mechanism of the international donor community with respect to humanitarian needs and long-term development needs.
The humanitarian assistance budget alone is vastly insufficient to meet even the basic needs, and development actors must step forward to support the long-term efforts and solution for a protracted refugee situation.
The Chair: The UNHCR document you mentioned, unfortunately it was in one language, but we are getting it translated and we will circulate it.
There have been a lot of questions about the cluster approach versus the sector approach, and I understand that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs coordinates the cluster approach while your office, the UNHCR, does the sector approach.
There are people listening to this presentation, so can you define what the cluster approach is versus the sector approach, and how do the cluster and sector approaches to humanitarian affairs differ? Also, are two approaches necessary?
Mr. De Angelis: Correct. That's the direction now that all international communities are going, for more and more coordination because the scale of the needs and operations is such that international actors and agencies have to coordinate more and more.
The starting point is the mandate that UNHCR has from the General Assembly of the United Nations to be the UN agencies which report to the international community the responsibilities with respect to protection of refugees.
In the past, that was done as a reaction to refugee crisis, then in the 1990s, as you know, with the overall changing in the world order with respect to the situation of conflicts and also with conflicts becoming more and more complex, because conflicts became based on national and internal reasons for which there has been an increase in internally displaced persons, and, therefore, came the urgency to address also internally displaced persons' movements which originally are beyond the traditional UNHCR mandate.
Therefore, for internally displaced movements, there has been a situation for which the United Nations agencies come together into a cluster approach, and the reforms started in early 2000. In 2005 the inter-agency steering committee, IASC, organized a response which was based on clusters. It means that several agencies having the lead on particular cluster responses, as we have heard from UNICEF, being the cluster lead agency on water and sanitation and education, UNHCR being the cluster lead agency on protection, shelter and non-food items, and different agencies having a different cluster lead approach.
But "cluster lead'' means working with other agencies, so in all situations of internal displacement, all UN agencies work together under the lead of a cluster, according to the different operational needs, and under the overall coordination of the humanitarian coordinator.
When we come to the refugee situation, the traditional mandate of UNHCR remains in place, for which UNHCR is the agency in the system which is responsible for the refugee response, but this is becoming now more and more integrated. There are different operating modalities. A refugee coordination model system has been put in place in order to coordinate the UNHCR representative and the humanitarian coordinator actually working together on refugee situations so that the humanitarian coordinator can create that bridge between the refugee operation and the operations responding to internal displacements and create an operational link that then can effectively result in effective delivery of assistance.
This is more and more necessary because the complexity of the conflicts and the assistance operations now is enormous, if we only think about hosting communities. Hosting communities who may not be displaced are an important actor in refugee assistance and protection.
The first response to a refugee emergency comes from the hosting communities who are able to absorb refugees in the very first days of an emergency.
Senator Ataullahjan: I wanted you to clear some confusion. We have been hearing from witnesses; some said that the mandate of UNHCR has changed, while others said there have been no major changes over the years. Has there been a change in the mandate or activities of UNHCR?
Mr. De Angelis: There has not been a change in the mandate because the mandate remains the United Nations General Assembly resolution which created, in December 1950, the UNHCR and instituted an agency which has a mandate for the international protection of refugees and assisting governments in the protection of refugees and in identifying durable solutions for the refugee situation.
The world is changing. Especially after the 1990s, we all know the world changes, and the international crises changed in ways in which UNHCR, together with the other UN agencies, have adopted their operation modalities into new realities.
Before the 1990s, let's say before the end of the Cold War, UNHCR was an agency that was responsive to refugee crises, working only on the receiving side of refugee situations; we would receive refugees and work responsively to the flow of refugees coming out of crises.
With the changing nature of conflicts, where more internal conflicts erupted during the 1990s, we have seen UNHCR and other agencies also going inside crises and regions of conflict, assisting hosting communities and operating in coordination with other agencies.
It has been the world and the operational modalities that have changed around humanitarian actors, and humanitarian actors have adopted their operation modalities to new realities. The legal mandate remains the same.
Senator Eaton: I was going to follow up on what Senator Ataullahjan and you were saying. Is UNHCR responsible for the refugees, or does the country to which they flee become responsible for the refugees? Who is ultimately responsible for this huge displacement of people?
Mr. De Angelis: Well, in international law, ultimately receiving countries and governments are responsible because they are sovereign states and whatever happens in their jurisdiction, they are responsible for receiving refugees.
The United Nations, as a system, is an intergovernmental organization. As you know, United Nations agencies have a mandate from the General Assembly, which is the general assembly of all countries. The General Assembly gives international mandates to agencies to facilitate the work of countries in accordance with international law and to make sure that international standards for UNHCR — the international standards related to international protection of refugees — are applied by countries.
Senator Eaton: So, ultimately, Lebanon and Jordan are responsible for the refugees within their borders?
Mr. De Angelis: From the international legal point of view, of course they are.
Senator Eaton: But practically speaking?
Mr. De Angelis: From the international law point of view, they are, because they are sovereign states.
Senator Eaton: Yes.
Mr. De Angelis: But the United Nations system enters into operations with their agreements and in their assistance in order to ensure that those international standards are applied. Also, the international community is able to provide assistance, so the United Nations agencies facilitate the delivery of international assistance in that respect and implement directly with the government and in assistance of the government's humanitarian assistance programs.
Senator Eaton: This is perhaps an awkward question, but practically speaking, since you and I have grown up, the United Nations seems to have lost a lot of political power in the world. In the aftermath of the war, in the 1950s and 1960s, when the United Nations said something, the world stopped and listened. Now, it is almost an afterthought what the United Nations thinks. They don't seem to have the political clout anymore.
Do you feel that in the agency? Does that hamper your work a little bit?
Mr. De Angelis: UNHCR is a humanitarian agency and represents the humanitarian part of the United Nations. When we talk about the system of United Nations and United Nations organizations, what is United Nations? It is an intergovernmental organization. Canada and all the other countries of the world are the United Nations.
The United Nations is a tool in the hands of governments and can act very effectively when governments want it to.
There is a political part of the United Nations that represents the political interests of the international community. Then there are the international humanitarian agencies of the United Nations that respond to humanitarian crises in trying to channel all international humanitarian assistance and raising awareness and attention to humanitarian crises in order to respond.
Again, all UN agencies and systems are tools in the hands of governments, and it is up to governments to make them effective with governance and with funding, of course. UNHCR, as it has been said, is governed by an executive committee of which Canada is vice-chair — and it will be chair after being vice-chair. This is a committee of states that governs the organizations, approves the budget and gives directions on the main operations.
The Chair: When Professor François Audet was in front of the committee, he said:
. . . I believe that the UNHCR should focus solely on the protection of refugees, as its mandate in fact stipulates, and not on direct aid. Other organizations, NGOs and UNICEF, could then take care of humanitarian assistance, and the UNHCR could limit itself to its protection mandate.
Can you comment on that, please?
Mr. De Angelis: Comments will be very long. It is a very large theme, and it is a big debate in that respect.
I just want to repeat that the complex nature of today's conflicts and humanitarian operations really requires all different agencies and different mandates to come together in a coordinated manner in order to respond effectively. Otherwise, it will fail.
As I said, funding from the international community would be an absolutely important necessity in that respect.
Senator Eggleton: I picked up from your introductory remarks the phrase "an unprecedented crisis warrants an unprecedented response,'' or words to that effect — it may not be exactly right. You have said a couple of times that more funding is clearly a part of that.
What else is a part of that? What would UNHCR do that could be classified as an unprecedented or innovative response?
Mr. De Angelis: We are trying to raise awareness in the conscience of people in the world. Let's focus a moment on what is happening every day in the Mediterranean now. I woke up in the morning; I listened to the world news and to my Italian channel news, and it is a disaster. Every day, thousands of people are coming in, and hundreds may have drowned in the sea. The figures I gave you this morning are already out of date.
How many Titanics have already been lost at sea? And what has been the impact on the world passions, if you compare this with an accident of that kind, for instance? Okay, it is a different historical time, but still I want to ask this: Are we ready to react as individuals, as communities, as countries, as a political class and as consciences? Are we ready to react with the adequate response and adequate indignation?
This is important. We're trying to raise awareness in that respect.
That would then create the background, let's say, for an adequate level of funding. Systems are in place, but funding them is scarce. We are seeing that the funding of the humanitarian appeal for the Syria crisis is gradually deteriorating. In the first years, 2011-12 was more funded and reached up to 70 per cent, if I remember. Last year, we were down to 50 per cent. The more there is a perpetuation of war and conflict, the more difficult it is to attract the necessary attention and funding.
That's why I say how important support to the host communities is. The host communities were the first responders, the service providers to the Syrian crisis. Now there is fatigue in the host communities. There is deterioration in the living conditions. That's why it's important to maintain the funding at an adequate level.
Senator Hubley: Funding is certainly a topic that we have to address. In 2014, you mentioned that you had received just 24 per cent of the funding requirements in relation to the Syrian crisis. I may have that percentage incorrect, but you may correct me. That would mean there would be difficult choices. Difficult choices would have to be made due to that lack of resources.
Can you tell me what has happened? Have there been those difficult choices for you? What areas are most affected when the funding is not coming through?
Mr. De Angelis: When funding is not coming through, there is an overall lowering of assistance that can be provided. For us, it's very important that special vulnerability and precise registration data are acquired at the very beginning of the refugee crisis. UNHCR is responsible for the registration, which is the entry point to all sorts of services.
We focus very much on having a good registration data, which gives us specific needs that are important to address. In the event of the lowering of funds, we have to highlight those categories with specific needs that would have priority in case of a general reduction of services.
On what you are saying, yes, difficult decisions are being taken with respect to possible lowering of general assistance, but in the meantime we use our technology and upgraded registration systems in order to identify those areas that really need to be maintained with services, despite a lack of funding. It is prioritization of resources.
The Chair: Thank you once again for being here. When you talk about the crisis, I was just in Turkey and saw 2 million refugees being put up in camps, mainly by the efforts of the Turkish government, so it's a huge crisis and you have a big job in front of you. We certainly understand the challenges you face. Thank you for making yourself available once again.
Mr. De Angelis: Thank you for inviting me.
(The committee adjourned.)