UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced Monday the creation of an independent committee responsible for assessing the “neutrality” of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and its functioning after accusations against several of its employees.
This evaluation group will be led by former French Minister of Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna, in collaboration with three research centers (Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights). , said a press release.
UNRWA has been at the center of controversy since Israel accused 12 of its 30,000 regional staff of involvement in the October 7 attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas that left 1,140 people dead, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count.
A report expected at the end of March
In response, thirteen countries, including major donors such as the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden, announced they were suspending their funding to the agency, which last week said it was under threat of having to cease its activities “by the end of February”.
The objective of the evaluation group appointed Monday is to “determine whether the Agency is doing everything in its power to ensure its neutrality and respond to accusations of serious abuses where appropriate”.
He will have to submit an interim report to Antonio Guterres by the end of March and then by the end of April a final report which will notably, if necessary, make recommendations to “improve and strengthen” the mechanisms in place.
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The Secretary-General "notes that these accusations come at a time when UNRWA, the largest UN organization in the region, is working under very difficult conditions to help the two million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip who depend to survive in the midst of one of the world's worst and most complex humanitarian crises.
This independent assessment will take place in parallel with an internal UN investigation launched in January after the accusations against the twelve UNRWA employees.