wfn.org | Joint statement

[Sheila MESA <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Update
For Immediate Use
15 April 1999

JOINT STATEMENT ON THE PROTECTION OF HUMANITARIAN PRINCIPLES
IN KOSOVO REFUGEE RESPONSE

cf. WCC Press Update of 25 March 1999
cf. WCC Press Release of 29 March 1999
cf. WCC Press Release of 31 March 1999

The World Council of Churches (WCC), the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF), the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches today  issued a joint statement on *The
Protection of Humanitarian Principles in Kosovo Refugee Response*. The
statement was signed by WCC acting general secretary, Georges 
Lemopoulos; LWF acting general secretary, Agneta Ucko; CEC general
secretary, Keith Clements and WARC general secretary, Milan
Opocensky.

Text of the *Statement on the Protection of Humanitarian Principles in
Kosovo Refugee Response*:

*The war in Yugoslavia and especially acts of ethnic cleansing
committed by Serbian forces against the Albanian population in Kosovo
have created a humanitarian crisis of dramatic proportions which
presents immense challenges to international humanitarian organizations
as well as to political and military actors.

Within this context the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the World
Council of Churches (WCC), the Conference of European Churches
(CEC) and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) are deeply
concerned that basic principles of humanitarian assistance which are
fundamental to humanitarian refugee response be recognized and
protected.  These principles include the right to asylum under the same
terms and conditions to which any other group of refugees is entitled,
including evacuation on a voluntary basis only, respect for the unity of
the family and priority for the elderly and vulnerable.

Established international humanitarian organizations and institutions have
responsibility  to ensure that such basic humanitarian principles are
protected.  In the present context the military has a necessary role in
providing logistical support, in the establishment of infrastructure and in
the safeguarding of both refugees and humanitarian personnel, but such
support must be provided within the framework of humanitarian
principles and under the coordination of these humanitarian organizations

Therefore the LWF, WCC, CEC and WARC call on all member churches
and their related humanitarian agencies to press their respective
governments:

- to support the presence and coordination role of established
international humanitarian agencies and institutions to ensure that
established humanitarian principles are protected in all aspects of
refugee response, including provision of sufficient support and
resources to allow for assistance which meets the standards set out in
the "Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement and Non-Governmental Organizations in Disaster Relief" and
the "SPHERE Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster
Responses".

- to ensure that lead humanitarian organizations such as UNHCR and
ICRC be given sufficient support and prominence to equip them to
coordinate humanitarian response.

- to ensure that the actual management of refugee services be handled
by humanitarian organizations and their personnel and that the role of
military actors be limited to logistics, infrastructure and security.*

**********
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 338, in
more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions.  The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but
works cooperatively with the WCC.  The highest governing body is the
Assembly, which meets approximately every seven years.  The WCC
was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Its staff is
headed by general secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church
in Germany.

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