United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has accepted the recommendations contained in an Independent Review Group’s report into the operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the region.
The review, chaired by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna working with three European research institutes, was established to assess whether UNRWA was doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to make recommendations to improve and strengthen work in this area, if necessary.
The review commenced soon after Israel leveled untested allegations against several UNRWA staff accusing them of colluding in the October 7th Hamas attack but these claims did not form part of this panel’s review.
The review found that Israel had never expressed formal concern about anyone on UNRWA’s staff lists that it received annually and while not mandated to verify the allegations of terror links by UNRWA staff, the report states that Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence to its accusations that led to key donors suspending funding of around 450 million dollars.
António Guterres accepts independent review of UNRWA
Colonna says, “In the absence of a political solution, we know it provides lifesaving humanitarian aid and essential services to the population. And of course, as we speak, in this critical time UNRWA has a a vital role in the humanitarian response in Gaza. Overall, the findings of the review, all that UNRWA has in place, a very significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian principle of neutrality. Actually they probably have a more developed system than other UN organizations or agencies, which is a necessity considering the very difficult environment, complex and difficult situation in which they operate and the uniqueness of their mission. There is always room for improvement, and some issues related to neutrality persist.”
The report makes 8 recommendations in a number of key areas including greater engagement with donors to enhance transparency and address the trust deficit; strengthening governance structures in support of leadership; enhance management and internal oversight; the neutrality of staff in an Agency that faces challenges of politicisation among workers, neutrality of installations in the context that UNRWA facilities are sometimes misused for political or military gains; neutrality of education that uphold UN standards, the neutrality of staff unions and the need for enhanced cooperation with all UN agencies to help ensure delivery of life-saving humanitarian operations in Gaza.
Colonna adds, “I would like to stress that the international community has a responsibility in helping and supporting UNRWA in addressing neutrality issues, normally speaking in its mission, including in helping the agency to address these difficult challenges it faces sometimes. It is a shared responsibility. We have recommendations for governance without changing the mandate. It is what it is and the structure is it what it is. I recommend the Advisory Commission to meet more regularly, maybe at a higher level, sometimes at the UN headquarters, here in New York or in Geneva, why not at level of permanent reps? I recommend to have neutrality as a standing issue on its agenda.”
The UN Chief has pledged, with the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, to establish an action plan to implement the panel’s recommendations.
UN Spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric says, “The Secretary-General accepts the recommendations contained in Ms. Colonna’s report. He has agreed with Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini that UNRWA, with the Secretary-General’s support, will establish an action plan to implement the recommendations contained in the Final Report. In this regard, the Secretary-General counts on the cooperation of the donor community, the host countries and the staff to fully cooperate in the implementation of the recommendations. Moving forward, the Secretary-General appeals to all stakeholders to actively support UNRWA, as it is a lifeline for Palestine refugees in the region.”
A separate investigation into Israeli allegations that 12 UNRWA staff supported the Hamas attack on October 7th has yet to be completed by the UN Office for Internal Oversight Services.
