On 7 October, the UN News Centre released ‘Rwanda and UN refugee
 agency agree to step up repatriation efforts', announcing that, as a 
result of meetings between the Government of Rwanda and UNHCR in the 
margins of the recent session of the latter's Executive Committee (of
 which Rwanda holds only observer status) in Geneva, ‘UNHCR will 
recommend to States that they invoke the cessation of refugee status 
by 31 December 2011, to become effective on 30 June 2012.’



This is a partial victory for Fahamu and others who have raised the
 alarm over stripping tens of thousands of Rwandan refugees of 
protection in light of the repression, continuing human rights
violations, and instability of the situation in that country. At the 
NGO Consultations last June, UNHCR had promised to release a ‘roadmap’ to implementation of cessation in a few weeks but, four months later,
 they still have not done so. We suspect that the delay in this and in the date of
implementation may be rooted in the procedural nightmare that awaits 
UNHCR. (If cessation is done properly, refugees stripped of their
 status would have the right to be considered for another 'durable'
solution; a right that many, perhaps most, will likely invoke. Since 
the host countries of most of them lack adequate processes, the burden
 will likely fall on UNHCR.)



The struggle is far from over and the anxiety and uncertainty for
 refugees over their status will only continue and mount. The 
Government of Rwanda and UNHCR plan to ‘call a meeting of all relevant
States and other actors in December to achieve increased voluntary 
repatriation and find greater opportunities for local integration or
 alternative legal status for refugees in countries of asylum.’ If the
 past is any guide, however, pressure to repatriate, even 
involuntarily, will be the principle result.
If you or your organisation have not yet endorsed the international
 civil society petition to halt this measure, please do so now and
 circulate it to your networks!