Crisis in Yugoslavia: displaced populations
Recommendation 1176
(1992)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 5 February 1992 (22nd Sitting) (seeDoc. 6554, report of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography, Rapporteur : Sir John Hunt). Text adopted by the Assembly on 5 February 1992 (22nd Sitting).
- Thesaurus
1. The crisis which broke out between Serbs and Croats in Yugoslavia in June 1991 has caused the displacement of more than 600 000 persons, many of whom have been obliged to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.
2. The Assembly is deeply concerned at the grave consequences of the Yugoslav crisis on the afflicted population, whose situation continues to deteriorate as the conflict continues.
3. Numerous unaccompanied children among the displaced persons need special help to overcome the hardship caused by the displacement and the separation of families.
4. In spite of agreements to guarantee safe-passage, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other humanitarian international organisations have experienced great difficulties in gaining access to certain areas to provide assistance to those in need.
5. After seven months of crisis, the strain on host families accommodating these displaced persons and on the neighbouring countries, notably Hungary, is becoming more and more difficult to sustain.
6. Consequently, the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers :
6.1 launch an appeal to the conflicting parties to respect, in all circumstances, the four Geneva conventions of 1949 which provide protection to wounded military personnel, to prisoners of war and to civilian persons in time of war ;
6.2 take the necessary measures to set up rapidly an early warning and emergency relief system, so as to allow member states to co-ordinate and improve their assistance to the displaced population as long as the crisis persists ;
6.3 take urgent measures to assist unaccompanied children, victims of the crisis, to withstand the distress and reunite with their families ;
6.4 examine ways in which the Social Development Fund could be used to improve the situation of the displaced population, to facilitate their voluntary repatriation and to reconstruct the areas ravaged by the war ;
6.5 invite the governments of member states :
a to support the fullest possible protection of minorities and human rights which will encourage confidence in those displaced persons who feel that they would be at risk if they returned ;
b to show greater solidarity with the countries accommodating displaced persons by stepping up aid ;
c to increase their financial support to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the various humanitarian international organisations assisting the displaced population.
