Catherine Colonna, a former French foreign minister, chaired the Independent Review Panel of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in February. The head of the independent group to review the activities of UNRWA met with the UN Secretary General UN
Catherine Colonna, the former French foreign minister who chaired the Independent Review Panel of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in February, spoke to reporters at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday after a meeting with the Secretary General.
“My goal is to prepare a detailed, evidence-based report that will help UNRWA fulfill its mandate, taking into account in particular the very complex and very unique situation in which the agency currently operates, and general context over the past decades,” Colonna said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in consultation with UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, appointed an Independent Panel to assess the extent to which the agency remains neutral and how it responds to allegations of serious abuses. The decision to create this mechanism was made after allegations were made against UNRWA that several agency employees may have colluded with Hamas during the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The independent group began work on February 14.
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Column emphasized , that the task of the group is “not to investigate allegations of potential involvement of some UNRWA personnel in the terrorist attacks of 7 October – this is being done in parallel by OIOS at the UN.” “It’s a separate process,” she added.
She explained that the Independent Review Panel was investigating whether UNRWA was complying with the principle of neutrality. “We will examine the existing mechanisms, processes, structures and see if they ensure the neutrality of the UNRWA leadership as needed, in the best possible way,” Colonna said.
“We will also look at how they [the mechanisms – editor’s note] were implemented in practice, that is, we will check not only their suitability for the purpose, but their implementation,” she explained Column.
The Chairperson of the UNRWA Independent Review Panel concluded that it would make a number of recommendations as appropriate. The groups will submit their interim report to the Secretary-General at the end of March 2024, with the final report expected to be ready by the end of April 2024.