IPU, Alm.del - 2022-23 (2. samling) - Bilag 6: Erklæringer og resolutioner vedtaget under IPU-sessionen i Bahrain

Dansk Interparlamentarisk Gruppes bestyrelse 2022-23 (2. samling)
IPU Alm.del Bilag 6
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146th IPU Assembly

Manama (11–15 March 2023)

Raising awareness and calling for action on the serious humanitarian

crises affecting the peoples of Afghanistan, the Syrian Arab Republic,

Ukraine, Yemen and other countries, and on the particular

vulnerability of women and children

Resolution adopted by consensus

by the 146th IPU Assembly

(Manama, 14 March 2023)

The 146th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Considering

that low- and middle-income countries host 74% of the world’s refugees and

other people in need of international protection, that the least developed countries provide asylum to

22% of these people, and that 90% of the world’s humanitarian needs are concentrated in 20 countries

that, together, represent no more than 13% of the world’s population and 1.6% of global GDP,

Cognizant

that the affected countries cannot meet the needs of the at-risk population,

making it essential for the international community to guarantee humanitarian assistance including food

distribution, health care and, in many cases, infrastructure reconstruction, and that, in 2023,

an estimated 340 million people will need humanitarian assistance,

Recalling

that such international humanitarian assistance is protected by the “right to life,

liberty and security” of all persons, an inalienable and universal principle enshrined in Article 3 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

of 1948, and that these rights have been endorsed in the

International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights

and the

International Covenant on Civil

and Political Rights

of 1966, the

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

of 1948, and the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols, among others, which

together constitute the international legal framework that, pursuant to Article 2 of the

Universal

Declaration of Human Rights,

promotes and protects the human rights of all “without distinction of any

kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,

property, birth or other status”,

Underlining

that the United Nations General Assembly has made achieving gender equality

by 2030 a target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular through Goal 5, including

but not limited to Target 5.2: “Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in public and

private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation”,

Recalling

United Nations General Assembly resolution 2816 of 14 December 1971, which

established the post of Disaster Relief Co-ordinator (DRC) to provide humanitarian assistance to victims

of natural disasters and other emergencies, and resolution 46/182 of 19 December 1991, through which

the DRC was renamed the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

and given expanded powers to coordinate humanitarian assistance, to facilitate access to emergency

areas, to conduct the organization’s needs assessment missions, to prepare joint appeals and to

mobilize resources,

The delegation of Yemen expressed a reservation on the entire resolution.

The delegation of India abstained from supporting the resolution.

#IPU146

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Welcoming

the creation of the Central Emergency Response Fund, managed by

OCHA, which, based on voluntary donations, makes it possible to finance humanitarian response

actions worldwide,

Recalling

the

Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees

of 1951, which defines a

refugee as any person who, “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race,

religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the

country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the

protection of that country”,

Recalling also

United Nations General Assembly resolution 73/195 of

29 December 2018 on the

Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,

Noting with deep concern

that women and girls are still exposed to sexual violence,

in particular committed by combatants,

Emphasizing

that rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy,

enforced sterilization and all other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity constitute crimes

against humanity,

Noting with deep concern

the especially dramatic situation in Afghanistan, where

about 24 million Afghans are experiencing misery, hunger and freezing temperatures, including

many children at severe risk of violence and family separation,

Noting

that decades of uninterrupted war, coupled with years of drought and low

temperatures, have led to total social and economic collapse, causing the displacement of

3.5 million people and making Afghans one of the largest refugee populations in the world,

Recalling

that the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) works in favour of peace and

cooperation among peoples, promoting the defence of universal human rights, and

stressing

that

absolute respect for such rights is an essential factor for democracy and the development of all

nations,

Recalling also

the joint statement on Afghanistan issued on 30 August 2021 by

the IPU Committee to Promote Respect for International Humanitarian Law and the IPU Committee

on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians,

Alarmed

by the situation of Afghan women and girls, and

noting

that the Taliban

takeover caused the immediate repression of women, excluding them from secondary and

university education, while the absence of a male “guardian” prevents many of them from leaving

their homes or even accessing essential services, causing them to lose jobs and the corresponding

economic support,

Deeply disturbed

by attacks on women parliamentarians, including the assassination

of Ms. Mursal Nabizada on 15 January 2023 and the attempt on the life of Ms. Fawzia Koofi on

14 August 2020, and

recalling

that the looming risk to women parliamentarians in Afghanistan

prompted a decision by the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians on

2 February 2023,

Acknowledging

the disastrous humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, caused by a war of

aggression, where civilian casualties and the destruction of critical infrastructure have forced

millions of people to cross borders into neighbouring countries, in addition to the internally

displaced,

Noting

that, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR), as of February 2023, an estimated 17.6 million people in Ukraine require urgent

humanitarian assistance and an estimated 8 million refugees from Ukraine are scattered

throughout Europe, 90% of them women and children, and that, according to the International

Organization for Migration, there are 5.3 million internally displaced persons within Ukraine,

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Recalling

the emergency item resolutions adopted at the 144th and 145th IPU

Assemblies, held in Nusa Dua and Kigali respectively, which recognized the magnitude of the

humanitarian situation in Ukraine and were aligned with the resolutions adopted on this subject by

the United Nations in 2022,

Recalling also

the situation in Yemen, where a bloody civil war, in one of the countries

with the most vulnerable populations in the Middle East, has resulted in violence that has affected

millions of people, caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and led to mass displacement,

Noting

that over 20 million Yemenis require humanitarian assistance, including

4 million internally displaced persons,

Recognizing

the catastrophic and unsustainable situation faced by people in the

Syrian Arab Republic, where the recent earthquake that affected the north of the country, and the

south of Türkiye, has created a humanitarian crisis, compounding the effects of the civil war in the

Syrian Arab Republic,

Noting

that some 6.6 million Syrians have been forced to flee to other countries, and

that there are 6.7 million internally displaced persons within the Syrian Arab Republic,

Considering

the current situation in South Sudan, a country ravaged since its birth by

an ongoing civil war, where 4.3 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance,

including refugees (of which 63% are children), internally displaced persons and asylum-seekers,

Recognizing

the crisis in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, where violence,

insecurity, and lack of food, medicine and essential services have triggered the largest migration in

the history of Latin America, with 7 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants, and

noting

that

these refugees and migrants are frequently forced to take unauthorized routes, falling victim to

traffickers and irregular armed groups,

Cognizant

that humanitarian crises are caused not only by conflicts, corrupt

governments, wars of aggression, invasions and civil wars, but also by climate change, such as the

massive floods that hit Pakistan in 2022, which claimed 1,800 lives, left more than 2.1 million

people homeless and affected 33 million people in total,

Acknowledging

that the above-mentioned crises are only those with the highest

numbers of displaced persons, and

emphasizing

that other humanitarian crises are also taking

place in many other regions of the world, including but not limited to Burkina Faso, Burundi,

the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Democratic

Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq, Mali, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Palestine,

Somalia and the Sudan,

Considers

that humanitarian crises are the leading cause of human rights violations in

the world;

Recognizes

that it is up to the international community to collaborate to protect human

lives, to alleviate suffering, to safeguard dignity, and to guarantee access to basic

services such as food, medical care, water and shelter for all persons, regardless of

their origins, through legal and policy measures at the national level, and

encourages

governments to pursue the SDGs, and Goal 5 in particular, through such measures;

Expresses its sympathy

for the populations of Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Syrian

Arab Republic, Ukraine, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) and Yemen, as well as for

the millions of people who, on every continent, suffer deprivation and persecution as a

result of war, oppressive regimes, terrorism, violence and natural disasters;

Calls upon

the parliaments of the world to speak out against, and to exert political and

diplomatic pressure on, those who bear responsibility for humanitarian crises, and to

offer support to affected populations;

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Calls for

awareness-raising for national authorities and civil society in countries

around the world, so that they are able to contribute, to the greatest extent possible, to

the creation of specialized assistance programmes for people affected by

humanitarian crises;

Calls upon

all nations to strengthen the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-

Level Task Force on Preventing Famine, adopting simplified protocols to increase the

access of children and young people to treatment for malnutrition;

Appeals

for the strengthening of regional and interregional cooperation in order to

facilitate the opening of humanitarian corridors that guarantee safe transit for

vulnerable people, especially women and children from crisis-affected areas,

while managing or negotiating agreements that allow the safe passage of

humanitarian assistance;

Strongly condemns

any attack on the lives, integrity and well-being of civilians, and

calls upon

parliaments and governments to take action against impunity for

international crimes that cause humanitarian crises and persecution, in particular

through support for the International Criminal Court, through national prosecution

efforts and through appropriate legal mechanisms for the punishment of aggression

and other international crimes;

Calls for

an increase in international support and assistance for refugees and

internally displaced persons, be they men, women or children, who lack access to

basic rights and reasonable living conditions, as well as for other people who do not

have refugee status;

Notes

that women, together with children, are the main victims of humanitarian crises;

Calls

for

support for the efforts of the United Nations and other organizations working

for the defence and promotion of women’s rights;

Demands

that governments refrain from the use of sexual and gender-based violence

as a systematic tactic of warfare;

Urges

governments to meet the needs of survivors of sexual and gender-based

violence;

Strongly supports

the empowerment of women and youth, and

affirms

its defence of

the rights and interests of women, especially in Afghanistan, the Syrian Arab Republic,

Ukraine and Yemen, and of all those living through humanitarian crises;

Calls for

global support for vulnerable host countries which have capacity constraints

in order to enable them to provide sufficient education and health care for refugees

and asylum-seekers, and

urges

host countries to develop and implement frameworks

that guarantee refugees and asylum-seekers, particularly women and girls, access to

these vital services,

Calls upon

governments to consistently enforce the prohibition of discrimination on the

basis of gender in all respects;

Deplores

the practice of forced deportation, which is a crime under international

criminal law, international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and

the forced deportation of children in particular, and calls

for

urgent action by United

Nations Member States to stop this practice and to return children to their families;

Expresses particular concern

about the persecution experienced by women and girls

in Afghanistan, and

calls upon

the current de facto authorities to respect the

Charter of

the United Nations,

international treaties and conventions, and the

Universal

Declaration of Human Rights;

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

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19.

Calls upon

all governments and parliaments to ensure that there are no obstacles,

including under immunity provisions or procedural law, that prevent the award of

compensation to victims of international crimes, either through their governments

or directly;

Calls for

closer coordination between United Nations agencies and the international

community in order to guarantee the implementation of the provisions of the

Convention on the Rights of the Child

and its Optional Protocols, especially in

countries such as Afghanistan;

Endorses

the decision of the IPU Committee on the Human Rights

of Parliamentarians to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the atrocious murder

of Afghan citizen and parliamentarian Ms. Mursal Nabizada, and

affirms

that this

brutal crime is an affront to the rights, values and principles promoted by the IPU;

Calls upon

the IPU Executive Committee to follow up on parliamentary work on the

humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine, Yemen and

other countries to support the efforts of the international community, and its

parliaments in particular, aimed at providing assistance to populations, and at

promoting order, stability and the long-term restoration of institutions in order to

achieve human and sustainable development in democracy;

Calls upon

the international community to address the urgent need for robust financial

support by strengthening its institutional support and cooperative financing

mechanisms, including the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the

Central Emergency Response Fund managed by OCHA, and UNHCR, and

recommends

that the above financial support be allocated not only to immediate and

individual humanitarian assistance such as food and medicine, but also to the design

of reconstruction plans for essential infrastructure in order to maintain the basic

functions of society in Afghanistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine and Yemen;

Calls for

the strengthening of humanitarian assistance mechanisms to respond to

these humanitarian crises.

20.

21.

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