UN Authority Figures

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Executive Committee: Ethiopia

For refugees in Ethiopia, without a future, a sense of relief gives way to despair. "All they care about is their budgets; they don't care about refugees," says a 33-year-old Congolese refugee. "It's a form of psychological killing living here, because we aren't allowed to work," he adds. "We have no hope." Source: Deutsche Welle November 13, 2015

Mission of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees: "The High Commissioner for Refugees is mandated by the United Nations to lead and coordinate international action for the worldwide protection of refugees and the resolution of refugee problems. UNHCR's primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. In its efforts to achieve this objective, UNHCR strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, and to return home voluntarily." (UNHCR Website, "Mission Statement")

Ethiopia's Term of office: 1963- Current, (Rapporteur 2015-2016).

Ethiopia's Record on Refugees:
"Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs): The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated there were 426,736 IDPs in the country as of June, an increase of 51,091 from June 2013. According to the IOM, an estimated 71.4 percent of all IDPs were considered "protracted" IDPs, for whom durable solutions (return to home areas, local integration, and resettlement in other parts of the country) were not possible at the time. This was due to lack of resolution of conflicts, lack of political decisions or resources to support local integration, or undesirability of resettlement to other areas of the country. Categories and totals of IDPs experiencing protracted displacement included victims of interclan and cross-border conflict (1,800)... Significant populations of IDPs experiencing protracted displacement."
(U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2014, Ethiopia)