The Assembly recommended inter alia that the Committee of Ministers should call on Council of Europe member states: 1. [T]o review their policies in respect of Palestinian asylum-seekers, with a view to effectively implementing United Nations High Commission for Refugees’ (UNHCR) new guidelines published in 2002 on the applicability of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees; 2. to ensure that where Palestinian refugees are legally recognized, they should be entitled to all benefits of socio-economic rights, including family reunion, normally accorded to recognized refugees in these member states. 3. to include the information on Palestinian origin in the statistics concerning asylum-seekers and refugees; 4. to contribute to the international debate on durable solutions offered to the Palestinian refugees, and encourage as well as commission political and academic research and studies concerning refugee problems and compensations.370 The Council of Europe thus advocates an interpretation of Article 1D as recommended by UNHCR, including recognition of refugee status ipso facto if Palestinian refugees leave UNRWA’s area of operations. 2.4. European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) is the umbrella organization for seventy-seven refugee-assisting agencies in thirty countries working towards fair and humane treatment of asylum seekers and refugees. ECRE has adopted a position on the interpretation of Article 1 of the 1951 Refugee Convention which recommends, with regard to Article 1D, that: Article 1D should not be invoked to exclude a refugee unless it can be shown that the United Nations agency which is mandated to take care of the person has both an assistance and a protection mandate and is able to fulfil these responsibilities in practice. In particular, as a refugee will, by definition, be outside the area of the agency’s mandate the asylum determination authorities must prove that the refugee can return to the agency’s area of competence.371 ECRE’s interpretation addresses solely the issue of Article 1D as an exclusion clause (first paragraph of Article 1D) and does not discuss the issue of automatic inclusion (second paragraph). 370 371 70 Ibid., para. 10. European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), “Position on the Interpretation of Article 1 of the Refugee Convention,” September 2000, para. 68, http://www.ecre.org/component/downloads/ downloads/136.html. See also Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, “Situation of Palestinian Refugees Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1612 (2003) - Reply Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 4 December 2003 at the 864th Meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies,” December 4, 2003, https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=96945&Site=COE. Handbook on Protection of Palestinian Refugees