Preface
This report is designed to encourage non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to work on migration-related issues in the former Soviet Union (fSU). The intended audience includes policy makers and NGOs, primarily those headquartered outside of the region, which are considering the establishment or expansion of activities in the region. The specific objective of the NGO work in question concerns population displacements.
The occasion for the issuance of this report is an unusual international conference process, the Regional Conference to Address the Problems of Refugees, Displaced Persons, Other Forms of Involuntary Displacement and Returnees in the Countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Relevant Neighboring States, which is to take place in Geneva in May 1996. A unique Programme of Action being drafted for issuance at the conference, as well as the conference process itself, will undoubtedly encourage NGO work in the region. This report is offered as a long-term resource for organizations considering an initiation or expansion of activities in the region.
Since 1991, more than 5 million people have been uprooted by the conflicts and changes occasioned by the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands reside in crude, temporary shelters waiting out the wars in Tajikistan, the Caucasus, and southern Russia. Roughly 25 million ethnic Russians are living with uncertain futures in republics outside the Russian Federation, anxious about the possibility that, one day, they will suddenly feel pressed to emigrate.
With over 130 ethnic groups in the fSU and nationalism, secessionist movements, and discriminatory measures in evidence, the potential for further dislocation in the region is enormous. Official systems responsible for meeting the needs of those forced to flee are embryonic and easily overwhelmed. Resources in the independent sector are diffused and non-governmental organizations are still in formation. In the meantime, suffering and loss of life result. Strengthening of the role of NGOs in the former Soviet Union is an important objective, not only because of these organizations' contributions to resolving migration and refugee problems, but also because a thriving independent sector inherently strengthens the growth of civil society and helps prevent the causes of forced migration.
The upcoming regional conference on migration-related issues in the countries of the CIS could put regional issues, including strengthening the capacity of NGOs, on the agenda of the international community and assist policy makers and donors in their efforts to address new responsibilities. A comprehensive, regional approach would include preventive and post-emergency strategies to address the evolution of humanitarian action from relief to rehabilitation as well as the promotion of respect for fundamental human rights. To encourage maximum participation by the independent sector, the Forced Migration Projects initiated an informal conference preparation process, encompassing local and international NGOs, independent experts and policy makers. Meetings to assess the situation of NGOs and exchange information were conducted in Almaty, Kiev, Moscow, New York, Novosibirsk, Tallinn, Tbilisi and Washington, D.C. This report is one product of this process.
During the past few years, experts in the field have watched the rise of a broad array of local and national groups, associations, and foundations dedicated to issues as varied as physical disabilities, revival of national literature and heritage, women's rights and gender issues, and the resettlement of people uprooted by ethnic conflict and economic turmoil.
The proliferation of groups working in so many endeavors is an encouraging step in the gradual evolution of an open society. While the focus of this report is predominantly forced migration and refugees, it strives to set these issues in the context of the burgeoning NGO field.
The breakup of a unitary state in the twilight of the twentieth century poses a host of unprecedented challenges to the successors, including the reformulation of legal and institutional frameworks, including a new regime of international treaties. This, compounded by the sheer complexity of the Soviet Union's past of forced deportations and labor migrations, requires a reconceptualization of traditional criteria.
For example, this report deals not only with issues pertaining to classic refugees, as defined under the terms of the international refugee treaties, the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, but also with the more voluminous population of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and "returning Russian-speakers"-some of whom feel welcome - who were born in or settled in non-Russian republics.
Similarly, the emergence of a whole new sector of "non-profit" groups - voluntary organizations created and operated outside state control - is something without precedent in Soviet history. Not surprisingly, in the midst of a chaotically privatizing economy, the traditional definitions of "public charity" and "non-profit" are often difficult to identify in practice. For purposes of this report, the Forced Migration Projects have therefore followed the lead of NGO workers in the region in adopting a slightly more ambiguous definition of "NGO."
Micro-enterprises are a good case in point. A group of IDPs or returning refugees who need to rebuild their homes, for example, might form a micro-enterprise "NGO" to repair local buildings that they found destroyed. The micro-enterprise, however, could be profit-making. Or an international relief organization might help a local NGO refurbish a defunct factory in order to produce the blankets needed by tens of thousands of IDPs. That project might be profit-making, but it would serve the IDPs at a fraction of the cost of buying the blankets elsewhere and shipping them to the affected population.
Of necessity, this report touches upon a varied set of factors relevant to population displacements. These range from conventional emergency assistance, protection, local integration and repatriation, to development-oriented measures needed to stabilize a region and prevent forced migration. The report also takes into account the work of human rights monitors, legal services and legislative policy advocacy, as well as preventive measures such as citizen-initiated conflict prevention and reconciliation. The fundamental organizing principle, however, is the coerced movements of people.
This report is one of a series of special reports. It is based on a mission of inquiry conducted in March 1996 by Kathleen Hunt, a writer and consultant, under the auspices of the Forced Migration Projects of the Open Society Institute. Ms. Hunt, a former Moscow correspondent for National Public Radio, is a visiting scholar at the Harriman Institute of Columbia University, and is finishing a book on the post-Soviet transition. She is the principal author of this report. Assistance in research and the preparation of report appendices was provided by Debra S. Cooper, a lawyer, Elisabeth Socolow and Françoise Girard of the Forced Migration Projects, and Eliana Jacobs and Christian A. Nielsen, graduate students and interns with the Projects.
Ms. Hunt spent the period from 2-16 March 1996 conducting research in Moscow and the southern republic of Ingushetia, home to thousands of Chechens and Ingush displaced by conflict. More than 36 lengthy interviews were conducted with international and local NGO officials, as well as international relief and monitoring groups. Prior to the field research, Ms. Hunt interviewed 25 individuals involved with humanitarian work in the fSU. To maintain confidentiality, interviews and queries were conducted with the understanding that observations would not be attributed to the individual speaking, but to a general category such as an "NGO official," or "an expert with several years of experience working in the former Soviet Union."
The lists of NGOs in Appendices I and II were selected from thousands of entries in a number of lists and databases. However, they cannot hope to reflect an authoritative compilation covering the vast ground in this changing and expanding field. They do, however, reflect a concerted effort to survey the local groups known in the former Soviet Union, as well as those based in the West, involved with migration-related issues. Queries were dispatched to a wide array of organizations and individuals on three continents, including the European Community in Brussels and Moscow, and the bilateral aid headquarters of the leading Western donor countries. Many furnished us with information on their work with local NGOs, and that information has been incorporated as appropriate.
The bibliography, legal analysis, and list of laws in Appendices III, IV, and V are designed to provide basic references for those planning to establish or expand activities in the region.
The research for this report was conducted independently of the Open Society Institute or other entities or foundations supported by George Soros. Certain OSI offices have been listed in the appendices, however, when other NGO sources identified their programs as relevant to this report. The Forced Migration Projects apologize to any organization whose work with refugees, migration or related issues escaped notice. At the same time, the Forced Migration Projects have not knowingly listed any organization which has abused the status of "NGO" for purposes of conducting activities unrelated to human rights, migration, refugee assistance, NGO development or advocacy. Inclusion in the lists, nevertheless, does not imply an endorsement in any respect by the Forced Migration Projects.
The Forced Migration Projects wish to acknowledge specifically the generous cooperation of the Armenian Assembly of America, Center for Civil Society International, Eurasia Foundation, InterAction, Save the Children Federation, Swedish SIDA, United Nations Development Program, USAID, World Bank, and World Learning in furnishing lists of grantees and partners throughout the newly independent states.
Despite the abundance of NGOs registered across the Eurasian continent, one field which is conspicuously under - served is the very topic that concerns this book: forced migration, including refugees. It was therefore gratifying in the course of the research conducted for this report to receive encouragement and support from numerous individuals who welcomed the prospect of the addition of this report to the literature of the field.
The Forced Migration Projects sincerely thank the many people in the field - local citizens and expatriates - who untiringly answered queries and offered their insights and experience. Their generous assistance is a testimony to the dedication and energy that will foster the development of open societies.
Arthur C. Helton
Director, Forced Migration Projects
May 1996
