Azerbaijan joins UNHCR project
Baku, May 11 (AZERTAC). Azerbaijan has joined the UNHCR`s project submission "Asylum Quality Initiative in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus".
According to the UN office in Baku, the two year project, funded by the European Union, co-funded and implemented by the UN refugee agency, will focus on improvement of asylum procedures and refugee protection in six countries. In addition to the Republic of Azerbaijan, the project covers Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
“Over the past twenty years, the countries participating in the project have made considerable progress in the protection of refuges. The project will help further harmonize national laws and practices with European and international standards, as well as address the existing needs in the region’s asylum systems,” explains Vincent Cochetel, Director of the Bureau for Europe of the UN Refugee Agency. The initiative builds on the successes of previous projects in which UNHCR worked with asylum authorities in Europe to improve the quality of refugee status determination.
With its overall objective to strengthen the protection of refugees and asylum seekers, the two and a half million euro budget project will involve three main components.
Under the first pillar it will strive to enhance quality of decision making in asylum procedures by identifying existing gaps and finding solutions in each participating countries. The project involves an exchange of experiences with EU member states, including Germany, Poland, Romania and Sweden, as these countries’ asylum authorities will provide good practice advice and their experience in developing efficient and transparent asylum procedures.
The second pillar of the project will be focused on the capacity building of the asylum authorities - government officials involved in the decision making on the refugee status. In close cooperation with the European Asylum Support Office, the project will translate and adapt the European Asylum Curriculum, a training program for the asylum procedures in Europe. The program will be utilized in a series of trainings in each country, aimed not only to enhance capacity of local staff but also build a network of national experts who can later work as certified trainers.
Under the third pillar the project will help to create the first ever Russian-language database of key documents relating to refugee status determination, particularly information about refugees’ countries of origin. Such information is a crucial source of evidence in consideration of asylum applications. The launch of the Russian version of the UNHCR platform Refworld will help to overcome the existing deficit in accurate, impartial, and up-to-date information about the situation in countries of origin, which will ensure that asylum officials have access to comprehensive and unbiased data.
A high quality process will help to ensure that people with international protection needs are identified fairly and efficiently in the region, thus allowing refugees here to benefit from all rights envisioned by the 1951 Convention and national legislation. By improving the decision making procedure, we are improving chances of these people to obtain the protection they need.
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