75th plenary session of UNHCR’s Executive Committee, 14 – 18 October 2024, Statement by Ms. Riia SALSA- AUDIFFREN, Permanent Representative to the UN Office and other International Organizations in Geneva

Madam Chair,

Estonia aligns itself with the EU statement.

Estonia commends UNHCR for continuing to fulfil its mandate in very challenging humanitarian contexts around the world year after year. We appreciate UNHCR’s work on the ground, alleviating dire humanitarian needs, often in the most difficult circumstances.

It is disheartening to see the number crises and consequently the number of forcibly displaced persons grow year by year. This, together with the increasing humanitarian funding gap paints a dark picture of the future. We welcome UNHCR’s efforts made for prioritisation and efficiency and underline the need to engage development actors and the private sector where possible.

Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine constitutes a systematic violation of the UN Charter, international law, including international humanitarian law and human rights. It has cultivated a conducive environment for committing atrocities against civilian population and being the main driver of forced displacement in our region. This is aggregated by the attacks against civilian objects, including critical energy infrastructure. Today, nearly half of the country’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Estonia is doing its part to help and share the burden. We are hosting more than 40 000 Ukrainian refugees, that is 3% of our population. With a whole-of-society approach, most are well settled in the country and engaged in employment or education. We appreciate UNHCR’s support in Estonia and the wider region as part of the regional refugee response plan.

The humanitarian needs in Ukraine remain high, to date, Estonia has provided an estimated 27 million euros in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Our current focus in Ukraine is on helping prepare for the coming winter, Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have made this a critical humanitarian need. We call on others to continue their support for Ukraine.

Despite the major humanitarian and refugee crisis in our immediate neighbourhood, Estonia continues to be a long-time predictable donor to UNHCR. We aim to continue our unearmarked contributions to allow UNHCR to respond effectively to the many crises around the world. Most recently we provided support to UNHCR for the alleviating the humanitarian crises in Mozambique and Syria.

We are extremely concerned about the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and the spillover of hostilities into Lebanon. Over a million people in Lebanon have been displaced in the past weeks. We deeply deplore the deadly attacks against UNHCR workers in Lebanon and stress the need to protect humanitarian workers. We condemn the obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian aid, which contravenes international humanitarian law and further increases human suffering. Estonia is providing humanitarian aid to Lebanon through our civil society partners in cooperation with local organizations and we have more than doubled our humanitarian assistance to the civilians in Gaza.

Madam Chairperson,

We are seeing cynical instrumentalization of people by the Russian Federation and Belarus in our region. Individuals from third countries are deliberately sent to our borders in blatant violation of international law, including international human rights law. These actions only serve to undermine 1951 Refugee Convention and must be condemned in the strongest terms.

Lastly, we welcome the launch of the Global Alliance to End Statelessness. It is essential to guarantee everyone, including the stateless, basic human rights and respect their dignity. Protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms remains one of the cornerstones of Estonian foreign policy.

Estonia once more commends the UNHCR for its tireless work to protect and alleviate the situation of the world’s most vulnerable population. The UNHCR can count on our ongoing support.

Thank you.