II. RECOMMENDATIONS

To the Guinean Government:

Establish and ensure procedures with due process protections for searching, screening, arresting, and detaining, where appropriate, alleged rebels at checkpoints and elsewhere. The ongoing practice of detaining refugees for days at a time for "verification" does not comply with international due process standards as set out under international law, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Allow UNHCR and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) unlimited access to all refugees detained in temporary or unofficial detention facilities as well as official detention centers that constitute a part of the prison systems or the police facilities.

Allow UNHCR unlimited access to monitor any screening procedures established to identify suspected rebels among the refugees, in order to establish a fair and effective process to separate rebels from civilian refugees and ensure the civilian and humanitarian nature of the refugee camps.

Provide appropriate training to law enforcement and civilian defense militia interacting with refugees, particularly at checkpoints. Investigate and take appropriate disciplinary action or institute criminal proceedings against military, police, or militia personnel where there are credible allegations that they have been responsible for abuses.

Cooperate with UNHCR to ensure the registration of refugees in Guinea and provision of standardized identity documents, and train authorities within the country, particularly those at checkpoints, to recognize what is and is not a valid document. Until such documents exist, refugees should not be asked for documents they cannot produce.

Make public statements condemning incitement of hatred and attacks against refugees. In collaboration with UNHCR, conduct ongoing public education and awareness programs on both refugee and community security issues.

To the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):

Increase the number of experienced UNHCR protection officers within Guinea, and provide appropriate training and briefing on the sub-region and the main protection problems faced by refugees prior to their deployment.

As a protection priority, provide ongoing guidance and assistance to the Guinean government to ensure that measures adopted by the government to address security concerns, including rebel screening, comply with international human rights and refugee law. In particular, provide more guidance to the Guinean government regarding the separation of armed elements from civilian refugee populations and the exclusion of individuals not entitled to international refugee protection. Negotiate with the Guinean government to seek unimpeded access to all screening procedures in order to ensure that screening and separation of suspected rebels is carried out in accordance with international human rights and refugee law.

Cooperate with the Guinean Government to register refugees in Guinea and to provide them with valid identity documents.

Continue discussions with the Guinean government to ensure that refugees remaining in the border region or new arrivals continue to receive protection and needed assistance. Continue, where possible, public information efforts to inform refugees remaining in the border who have not relocated of the dangers of remaining in the region, their options, and conditions both in the new camps and in their countries of origin. Address the possible pressure by armed elements inside Guinea or across the border in Sierra Leone and Liberia to limit refugees' freedom of choice to either repatriate or move to the camps in the interior.

To Donor Governments:

Provide renewed financial support to the Guinean government and UNHCR to meet the extraordinary burden of the refugee crisis.

Provide earmarked funding to UNHCR for more protection staff to be deployed in Guinea.

Provide earmarked funding to UNHCR and the Guinean government to put into place an effective refugee registration system and to provide refugees with identity documents.

Call on UNHCR and the Guinean government to continue to meet, as much as is possible, the protection and assistance needs of refugees remaining in the border region after the relocation.

Actively call on the Guinean government to adopt security policies that do not violate refugee rights, and to hold accountable those law enforcement officials or ordinary citizens responsible for abuses against refugees, particularly at checkpoints and during screening procedures. In particular, call on the Guinean government to immediately cease the practice of arbitrarily arresting and detaining refugees without due process protections.

Provide technical training in practices and procedures to enforce refugee, human rights, and humanitarian law for Guinean law enforcement and judicial personnel. The training should include the standards outlined in the U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials. The training should target the abusive practices used by Guinean law enforcement officials against refugees, and the absence of due process protections for those accused of being rebels. The program should also assist the government to establish appropriate mechanisms for investigating and holding accountable those Guinean law enforcement officers responsible for abuses.