Estonian Statement at the 62nd Session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme

Geneva, October 4-th, 2011

Mr. Chairperson,
Mr. High Commissioner,
Excellencies,
Delegates,

My delegation thanks the Chairperson and the High Commissioner for their commendable leadership and opening statements to which we listened very attentively.

Mr. Chair,

This year has continued to pose many challenges to the international community: the new and more complex nature of conflicts; a marked increase in conflict-induced humanitarian crises; an increase in protracted situations; the number of people forcibly displaced reaching its highest in 15 years (43,7 million); and more complex displacement situations caused by natural and man-made disasters.

We express deep concern over the increased humanitarian needs in the world, especially due to humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa and North Africa, which have affected many hundreds of thousands of people. Those who have suffered as a consequence of the civil war and especially the victims of protracted refugee situations continue to need assistance from the international community. Estonia highly values the humanitarian work of the UNHCR in the field and has continued providing financial support to its life-saving activities, such as supporting refugees and IDPs in Horn of Africa and implementing educational and food security projects in South Sudan for IDPs, returnees, and host communities.

Mr. Chair,

Estonia is concerned about the situation of approximately 12 million stateless people in the world who lack access to any kind of basic and political rights and live in a legal limbo. We would also like to stress the importance of accurate data and information in order to map statelessness around the world. It is important that the UNHCR co-operates closely with governments and civil society to solve this issue and provide stateless people with long-term solutions.

Although the problem of statelessness is global in scope, compared to the highly publicised plight of many displaced populations the situation of stateless persons remains largely unknown among the wider public. This year’s celebrations on two important conventions provide good opportunities to raise awareness about the UNHCR’s activities in this regard and to gather more support worldwide - including from the private sector. We commend the UNCHR for its innovative approaches and for using digital diplomacy to increase both awareness and fund-raising opportunities. We are pleased to note that the UNHCR’s interactive web-based game “Against all odds”, in which students can put themselves in the position of refugees, is now also available in Estonian.

Estonia holds the view that governments need to support people striving for nationality. Government of Estonia continues to encourage persons living in Estonia with undetermined citizenship to apply for Estonian citizenship. From the day when Estonia regained its independence in 1991 we have granted Estonian citizenship to 153.277 persons. That is more than 15 % of existing citizenship.

More importantly, all people living in Estonia are documented and have the right and opportunity to enjoy fundamental freedoms and basic rights, as at numerous occasions confirmed by UNHCR. Persons with undetermined citizenship enjoy more rights than foreseen in the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless persons.

Mr. Chair,

Statistics shows that every day millions of refugees face violence, rape and terror, and that unfortunately the problem of sexual and gender-based violence is growing. One of Estonia’s priorities in our human rights policy as well as in Estonia’s development cooperation policy is the protection of women and children.

We would like to commend the UNHCR for reinforced efforts in this regard - for the recently released “Age, Gender and Diversity Policy” and “Age, Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming Forward Plan 2011-2016”. We believe that these very useful tools as well as the whole systematic approach that the UNHCR has taken in its operations worldwide are of utmost importance in dealing with this worrying problem. In this context Estonia would also like to underline the importance of the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 on “Women, Peace and Security” and inform that Estonia has a national action plan to implement the respective resolution.

Finally,

We commend the increased effectiveness of the UNHCR in fulfilling its important mission and also the progress made in the field of the internal reform process of the UNHCR, which has led to a rise in efficiency and increased field presence. Estonia has already supported the work of the UNHCR for more than a decade and will continue to support its operations and programs in the future by increasing its core contribution and responding to crisis appeals.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman!