António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, announced on Tuesday that he had named Ian Martin of the United Kingdom to head a strategic review of the impact and future of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
The U.N. head said Martin would review the agency’s “implementation of its mandate under present political, financial, security and other constraints” and accompanying “consequences and risks” for Palestinians considered refugees by the United Nations.
UNRWA, an agency of the global body that focuses exclusively on Palestinians, has faced widespread criticism, including from Israel, about ties between its employees and terror groups in Gaza.
Guterres added that he is tasking Martin with “identifying options” for member states and the global body, and “considering overall United Nations mandates provided by the General Assembly and the Security Council.”
The review is due to be completed in mid-June.
Under the U.N. system, which classifies descendants of Palestinian refugees of the 1947 and 1967 wars as refugees apparently in perpetuity, UNRWA has faced regular budget crunches, as the list of people for whom it bears financial responsibility continues to grow.
Washington, which is the largest U.N. donor, and other countries have also suspended funding to the global body amid accusations that some UNRWA staff members participated directly in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks and that many UNRWA employees have ties to terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
The Knesset passed a pair of laws, which went into effect in late January, to close UNRWA facilities operating in Jerusalem, including administrative offices, schools and health clinics, and to cut off all communication between Israeli and UNRWA officials.
Israel has also refused to grant visa extensions or to issue new visas to foreign UNRWA staff members.
Martin recently led an independent strategic review of the U.N. mission in Somalia. He has held U.N. field operations positions in Timor-Leste, Nepal, Eritrea, Rwanda and Haiti, and served as special representative of the secretary-general in Libya.
The United Nations stated that the review is part of Guterres’s UN80 initiative to review the global organization’s operations as it approaches its 80th anniversary.
Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for Guterres, told reporters on Monday that the assessment “is not about changing UNRWA’s mandate,” which falls under the U.N. General Assembly, but “how, in this very complex environment, UNRWA can best deliver” for the Palestinians it serves.
The assessment won’t recommend ways to farm out UNRWA’s responsibilities, including delivering aid in Gaza, to other U.N. agencies and international organizations—as Israel has requested—according to Dujarric.
It remains unclear how many U.N. agencies will undergo strategic assessments under the UN80 initiative.
