/5 2. what protection means to unrwa For UNRWA, protection is an integral part of a holistic approach to meeting refugee needs in education, health, relief and social services, microfinance and infrastructure and camp improvement, and to obtaining full respect for the rights of refugees under relevant international law.2 UNRWA’s protection activities are firmly grounded in relevant General Assembly (GA) resolutions, which recognise the “valuable work done by the Agency in providing protection to the Palestinian people, in particular Palestine refugees”3 and provide specific encouragement to UNRWA to make “further progress in addressing the needs and rights of children and women in its operations” in accordance with, respectively, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women.4 Also, as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly, UNRWA has an inherent commitment to observe human rights and associated international standards and good practice in its programmes. This commitment is in line with the stated purpose of the UN under the Charter of the United Nations5 and the GA’s call “upon all parts of the United Nations to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms”.6 UNRWA’s operational definition of protection, as referred to in the Agency’s Medium Term Strategy 2010-2015, is as follows: 2 UNRWA’s Interim Programme Strategy 2008-2009, 24 September 2007, section 3.2.2., p. 9 3 See for example, UNGA res. 63/93, 5 Dec. 2008 and res. 64/89, 19 January 2010 4 See for example, UNGA res. 64/89, 19 January 2010 5 Charter of the United Nations, Art. 1, para. 3, 1945. 6 General Assembly A/RES/60/1. 2005 World Summit Outcome, para 119. © Alaa Ghosheh/ UNRWA archives “Protection is what UNRWA does to safeguard and advance the rights of Palestine refugees”.7 This definition is based on wording used in a consultancy report, “What Protection Means to UNRWA in Concept and Practice”, prepared by Nicholas Morris in March 20088 and is in line with the definition of protection adopted by the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC).9 The Agency’s commitment at the highest level to protection is recognised by the central place human rights and protection occupy as a key cross-cutting theme in the Agency’s Medium Term Strategy 20102015 (MTS) and as one of UNRWA’s four human development goals,10 “Human rights enjoyed to the fullest”.11 The UNRWA protection strategy as described in the MTS focuses on achieving protection through quality service delivery and action on international protection.12 7 UNRWA Medium Term Strategy 2010-2015, para. 49. 8 Nicolas Morris, “What protection means for UNRWA in concept and practice”, 2008, pp. 2-3, para. 3.1. 9 The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) defines protection in the following terms: “The concept of protection encompasses all activities aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the relevant bodies of law (that is, human rights law, international humanitarian law and refugee law)”. See: IASC, Protection of Internally Displaced Persons: InterAgency Standing Committee Policy Paper, New York, December 1999, p. 4 and IASC, Growing the Sheltering Tree: Protecting Rights Through Humanitarian Action, 2002. It should be noted that this definition was first arrived at through a series of inter-agency workshops conducted under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at the end of 1990s. See: ICRC, Third Workshop on Protection, background paper, 7 January 1999. 10 UNRWA’s four goals for the human development of Palestine refugees are: 1. A long and healthy life; 2. Acquired skills and knowledge; 3. A decent standard of living; and, 4. Human rights enjoyed to the fullest. 11 UNRWA MTS 2010-2015 paras 47-49 12 UNWRA MTS para 49