The ceremony
The ceremony
🎤 Opira, a South Sudanese refugee, interviews Maral Sheuhmelian, a Syrian Refugee and @made51_unhcr Artisan, at the Global #RefugeeForum. Discover her key message to world leaders.
— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) December 15, 2023
🎥 Watch Maral’s quick-reply interview. pic.twitter.com/n4NnmOspVW
Speakers at Thursday's high-level event: ‘Rohingya Refugees: Enhanced Resilience, Expanded Solutions’.
That's all from the second day of the Global Refugee Forum. Today, participants announced a raft of high-level pledges to support refugees and the countries hosting them across a broad range of issues. They also debated pressing topics in a series of high-level panel events. Join us again tomorrow for updates from the last day of the GRF 20203.
The final day’s opening plenary session began with a last “GCR in action” session of multi-stakeholder pledge announcements. They included:
- Pledges on resettlement and community sponsorship – by 2030, states pledged to resettle 1 million refugees by 2030, while governments and charitable foundations launched a pledge backed by a new global sponsorship fund to help a further 3 million refugees access third countries through community sponsorship schemes.
- Refugee participation – more than 100 organizations committed to promoting the meaningful participation of refugees by including them on governing boards and in decisions that affect their lives.
- Digital Protection – led by Google, and including Meta and other partners, this pledge commits companies and other organizations to increase resources devoted to understanding, addressing and preventing misinformation and hate speech against displaced and stateless communities and humanitarian responses.
- Peacebuilding – 32 states led by Colombia, Egypt and Norway and supported by the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs pledged to engage with countries of origin to address the root causes of displacement and facilitate safe returns by promoting peace and economic development.
- Risk of trafficking and alternatives to child detention – The UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons announced a pledge supported by UNHCR to improve protection mechanisms to mitigate the risk of trafficking for refugees and migrants, while states and other stakeholders pledged proposals to end the detention of refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant children.
