Keynote address at the Refugee Law Initiative Annual Conference, 3 June 2024 (Conference theme: ‘Pacts, promises and refugee protection’)

I. Introduction

Ladies and Gentlemen, distinguished colleagues, and esteemed guests,

It is a real honour and great pleasure to join you today at this 8th Annual Conference of the Refugee Law Initiative. The collective efforts of experts of your calibre in advancing refugee law and protection are indispensable in these trying times. This is a legal field in which high-quality research, critical analysis and informed debate are more important than ever.

This week, we gather to discuss the theme of "Pacts, Promises, and Refugee Protection." It’s great to see that the conference programme foresees discussions which will explore the intersections of law, policy, and the lived experiences of refugees worldwide.

I am particularly grateful for the role that academia plays in advancing knowledge, engagement and respect for rights in refugee law, forced displacement and migration. Many of you are actively engaged in teaching and building knowledge on key principles; in rigorous, ethical research – which increasingly and extremely positively involves refugees as leaders and experts – which can provide an essential evidence base for protection- and rights-based policies. I am thus honoured – alongside UNHCR colleagues present throughout the conference –to speak to this essential topic and, more importantly, to hear - and learn - from you.

II. Confronting Global Challenges

Today, I will discuss how the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) - built on foundational legal principles including the UN Charter, the 1951 Refugee Convention and international human rights law - has reinforced and operationalized  these principles to meet contemporary challenges in novel ways.

In doing so, I will highlight some of the GCR's concrete impacts and further potential to facilitate protection and solutions to forced displacement. I will highlight some of the Compact’s important innovations, including those emerging from last December’s Global Refugee Forum – while seeking to address some of the valid questions which have been raised by some critics- and recognizing how much work is still to be done.   I will conclude with a call to action to all of us to redouble our efforts to promote respect for crucial legal principles and access to rights for refugees in the prevalent challenging political context.  

III. Contemporary global challenges to refugee protection

We are all acutely aware of the significant and unprecedented challenges facing international refugee protection today.  These include vast scale of displacement in many parts of the world, with refugee numbers doubling since the New York Declaration in 2016. Yet, responsibility-sharing remains alarmingly uneven: three out of every four refugees are hosted in low- and middle-income countries near their countries of origin, as UNHCR statistics attest.

We are also witnessing a troubling erosion of respect for international legal standards, including but not limited to international refugee law. Breaches of international humanitarian law in recent months have been particularly egregious.  We have observed some states taking restrictive approaches to international protection criteria; or implementing, or trying to implement, unlawful externalization policies involving attempts to shift responsibility for their protection obligations to other states. UNHCR and many others continue to document pushback and refoulement practices worldwide. These repeated breaches of a cardinal principle of international refugee law are a matter of serious concern.  

In mixed movements, we also often see particular obstacles to protection. Many refugees move alongside migrants using dangerous irregular routes for various reasons in the absence of legal pathways. We see people resorting to asylum channels, including many without a basis for their claim, as the only available means of lawful stay. This means challenges for states as well as individuals, as this congests asylum systems, creates delays for refugees waiting to have their status determined. In turn, this can negatively impact the efficiency of asylum systems and public and political support for refugees, as well as for migrants.

Other practical and operational challenges to refugee protection include obstacles hindering humanitarian access to refugees for the UN and other international and non-governmental entities in situations where we are called on to provide direct support and protection. Worldwide, we also see growing funding pressure on humanitarian budgets; leaving protection and assistance massively underfunded in many situations. This is notably evident for so-called ‘forgotten’ emergencies which are not in media headlines. As a stark example, as of end of May, the Refugee Response Plan for Sudan was only 8% funded and the Humanitarian Response Plan 15%.

Adding to the complexity of movements both within and across borders, climate change impacts are also increasingly contributing to displacement - sometimes giving rise to international protection needs, particularly where they cause or exacerbate conflict, violence and human rights violations.

IV. The Global Compact and its potential to reinforce rights and principles under international refugee law (IRL) and other legal frameworks

To address these multifaceted challenges, we need new tools anchored in principles which can be effectively implemented in practice. To this end, the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) articulates and revalidates key legal standards and offers a relevant framework for action today.

The GCR is built on the foundation of enduring principles of international refugee law, particularly the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol.

While the Compact itself was never designed to formulate new, legally binding standards, it articulates a number of novel commitments by the international communinity. Further, its affirmation by the United Nations General Assembly in 2018 was a renewed expression of states’ commitments to existing standards under international refugee law, human rights, and other bodies of law and a reaffirmation of established rights and obligations. The GCR also aims to encourage and enable states to uphold these standards more effectively and take concrete actions to enhance their implementation.

Another key objective of the GCR was to address the long-standing gap in the international refugee protection regime regarding responsibility-sharing. As we know well, the 1951 Convention, in its Preamble, indeed highlighted the need for international cooperation – but did not articulate how States could or should work together in the coordinated manner required to ensure effecttive protection, solutions and humanitarian responses. This has been referred to as the ‘perennial gap’ in the Convention, namely the absence of specific provisions on how states need to share responsibility.

So the GCR was drafted with the aim of addressing this perennial gap and strengthening international responses to forced displacement. This should occur through better and more systematized coordination, expanded partnerships, and more equitable burden-sharing including through expanded access to protection in all regions and reinforced support to host countries.

Such practices by States and other actors reflect the UN Charter’s aim to achieve international co-operation – as well as the obligation in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to take steps through international assistance and co-operation to achieve the full realization of the rights in that Covenant.

The GCR, through its four objectives (to ease pressure on host countries, to enhance refugee self-reliance, to expand access to solutions and to support conditions in country of origin for return in safety and dignity), seeks to address a number of essential challenges:

1. Firstly, it seeks to expand solutions for refugees – which, given the rise in protracted displacement, is urgently needed. This includes solutions in third countries through resettlement and legal pathways as well as voluntary repatriation, where conditions permit, in safety and dignity to countries of origin; as well as local integration in countries of asylum. The importance of this has also been recognized by UNHCR’s Executive Committee, which is this year working on a new conclusion on durable solutions and complementary pathways – drawing on the GCR and thereby translating some of its key objectives into a ‘soft law’ instrument.
2. Secondly, the Compact seeks to ease pressures on host countries while enhancing refugee protection and self-reliance by way of strengthened inclusion in national systems including documentation, education, health, and access to jobs and livelihoods.
3. Thirdly, it enshrines a multi-stakeholder approach which acknowledges and creates space for other actors to contribute to more comprehensive refugee responses. The aim of this is not for non-state partners to assume the functions and duties of states – but to encourage them to complement, to support, and, where necessary, to advocate and push states to respect their obligations, as the High Commissioner for Refugees indicated to the UN Security Council last week.
4. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the GCR both promotes access to rights and facilitates the enabling conditions needed for the realization of those rights by making host countries the centre of gravity. The most recent GCR indicator report, issued in late 2023, shows us that there are clear examples of sustained progress across the four GCR objectives, such as assisting refugee-hosting countries with lower incomes and increasing refugees’ access to education, economic inclusion, resettlement, and complementary pathways. While more needs to be done, this progress is significant and welcome.

V. The Compact’s innovations and achievements:

Against this background – let us consider concretely how the Compact has been implemented in innovative ways, and what impact it has had in practice – where it matters: meaning in terms of improving the lives and enjoyment of rights of refugees worldwide.

The Global Refugee Forum:

One central innovation is the mechanism of the Global Refugee Forum, first convened in 2019 and again in December last year. While the second GRF came at a moment when the world seemed beset by even more crisis — with escalating conflicts and climate pressures, economic challenges, and threats to human rights - it was deemed by most observers as a success, both in terms of the pledges made, but also in terms of the richness and diversity of participation. Speaking frankly, we feared that discord among the international community might deter meaningful engagement, pledging and participation. But instead we saw States come together at the Forum with more than 420 non-state organizations – an example of what our High Commissioner has called a “new multilateralism” in the making.

Multistakeholder Pledge Process:

Among the Compact’s other novel features, the Multistakeholder approach – and in that connection, numerous Multistakeholder Pledges made at the Global Refugee Forum 2023 - have brought new contributions and energy to protection and support to refugees. These complement host government policies and donor government contributions.

I would like to emphasize one such pledge – the GRF Legal Community Pledge. Following the first GRF, this pledge had unlocked more than 585,000 hours of pro bono legal support to refugees, including from  over 100 private firms . Under the coordination of PILnet, hundreds of legal practitioners have dedicated their time and resources to ensuring that refugees can take full advantage of their right to seek international protection. Building on this success, the updated Global Legal Community Pledge has set a new goal of providing 1 million hours of legal assistance to refugees and asylum seekers over the next four years. This ambitious yet achievable goal would not be possible without the mobilizing power of the multistakeholder pledge process. You will hear more about these efforts during tomorrow’s panel discussion led by UNHCR on law and policy in the GCR and GRF.

Asylum Capacity Support Group (ASCG):

The work of the Global Legal Community is further reinforced by the work of the Asylum Capacity Support Group (ACSG), a GCR initiative that was launched in 2019, to support states in building up their asylum systems by strengthening institutional capacities, promoting legislation to facilitate asylum processing, and modernizing case management systems, mainly through matching asylum capacity requests with technical, material or financial capacity support. This work has already seen significant success. As one example, between 2018 until 2022, Mexico was able to increase its asylum capacity by an astonishing 438%, supported by Canada and the U.S., as a part of the Asylum Capacity Support Group pledge.

Support Platforms:

On the operational level, situation-specific GCR Support Platforms mobilize and focus international support on key refugee situations. These enable a more efficient, predictable and comprehensive response to displacement crises by bringing together countries of origin, host countries and donors with development actors. These include, among others, the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR); the MIRPS in Latin America; the IGAD-led Support Platform for refugees in the East and Horn of Africa; and the Central African Republic Solutions Support Platform. These Platforms have facilitated tangible improvements in the delivery of humanitarian aid and access to rights in their regions. To illustrate this:

• Between 2022 and 2023, the MIRPS support platform helped direct USD 192 million from the United States to displacement responses in Central America and Mexico.
• Through the SSAR Support Platform, the Core Group in Pakistan advocated for and financed the Document Renewal and ID Verification Exercise in Pakistan, offering some 1.3 million Afghan refugees new identity cards.
• Most recently, UNHCR collaborated with the IGAD Support Platform to launch the IGAD Policy Framework on Refugee Protection, which establishes priority areas, key actions, and responsible parties on a range of topics including access to territory, protection, and identity documents.

The GCR has also enabled us to respond to several emerging operational and protection challenges.

• Route Based Approach: Building on the complementarity between the two Compacts the GCR and the Global Compact on Migration, the "route-based approach" promoted by UNHCR and IOM has been developed to address the complexity of rights, protection, and human mobility in our current landscape and to facilitate access to protection at an early stage, to reduce the compulsion to dangerous irregular journeys.
• Climate Action: For the first time in a UN General Assembly resolution on refugees, the GCR recognizes the intersection between climate impacts and factors giving rise to international protection needs – the ‘traditional drivers of refugee movements’ – namely persecution, conflict, and serious human rights violations. UNHCR has issued guidance (in 2020) on the need to apply more broadly and systematically the existing international protection criteria, under refugee and human rights law, as relevant. It is important to recognize also that many of those on the move because of disaster and climate change impacts are not in need of international protection. We need more effective international responses in climate-impacted contexts to address the challenge of ensuring respect for human rights of all.

VI. Unlocking a truly Whole of Society Approach to Rights

With significantly upscaled efforts towards broadening the base of support, the GCR has promoted a whole-of-society approach which reinforces the importance of States, but also non-State actors, working together to advance refugees’ rights —a new multilateralism. Allow me to reflect on this truly innovative aspect of the Compact and how it has mobilized states and others in novel ways.   

As we all know, States have the first and last obligation to ensure access to rights. States have been mobilized, pursuant to the Compact, to pledge to accede or lift reservations to international refugee law instruments; adopt laws reflecting international standards; and work together to build protection/asylum capacity. And we are seeing in real time how the measures pursuant to the GCR can push, and enable, States to meet their obligations.

Regional organizations such as the League of Arab States, the East African Community (EAC) have also played a key role in enhancing regional cooperation, dialogue and response in a consistent fashion around specific refugee situations.

UN agencies, development actors, International Financial Institutions, and other sources of financial and technical support can help host countries to meet their obligations to refugees and the communities that host them.

• During the 2023 GRF, 32 UN organizations and 50 UN Country Teams came together around the “UN Common Pledge 2.0”, committing to support refugee-hosting countries with the inclusion of refugees in national and UN plans, budgets, and service delivery systems – such as education, health, water and sanitation, housing and social protection; as well as access to decent work.
• The GCR and its associated innovations advanced cooperation between states and development actors and the increased involvement of multilateral financial institutions (MFIs) in refugee responses.
• In the Americas, for example, the Inter-American Development Bank launched a USD $100 million fund for displacement response, coordinated through the MIRPS support platform, of which $40 million has been allocated in the last three years for six projects.

Civil society, academia, religious groups, municipalities, the private sector, and other key actors also make a significant contribution. They can highlight the social benefits and contributions of refugees, and promote the legal and moral obligation to protect and include refugees. Some specific examples include:

• Through the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions pledge, some 120 National Human Rights Institutions have committed to implement national initiatives to promote greater human rights protection for displaced and stateless persons, in line with their unique mandates and functions under the Paris Principles.
• Academics – who have made and fulfilled two broad categories of pledges :
  • Through scholarships and university places, many Universities are enabling refugees to access education, which equip them and their communities with the means to exercise their rights.
  • Carrying out ethical research that includes refugees - raising awareness and providing the a basis for evidence-based advocacy and policy-making.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the GCR has increased and deepened the meaningful participation of refugees and stateless people at multiple levels. This in turn has the potential to  curtail divisive rhetoric against refugees. The GRF in 2023 saw more than 300 refugees taking part, including as part of 14 state delegations. There is no other multilateral forum where refugees are involved and present in such a concrete and effective way, addressing heads of state and others directly, but also engaging in the conceptualization, development of pledges and advocacy for their fulfillment.

VII. Call to Action: How can you use the GCR?

Ladies and Gentlemen, distinguished colleagues,

Notwithstanding positive achievements so far – we are far from the level of responsibility-sharing and access to rights at which we need to be. Much remains to be done.

The Compact’s impact is tracked through an indicator framework, report, and stocktaking – and it is judged by its results on the ground through the GCR Indicator Framework. The GCR Indicator Report acknowledges that progress has been insufficient. For example:

• Quite powerfully, data shows us that in 2022 new displacement continued to outpace available solutions, including returns.

• Host countries of large refugee populations have voiced frustration at what they see as the international community’s failure to deliver on its promises. While the total volume of Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocated to refugee situations in developing countries remains significant – some USD 26 billion – it is unevenly distributed across refugee situations. And while many host countries have committed to law and policy measures giving refugees more access to work, freedom of movement, and inclusion in national education systems, these commitments need to be matched by commensurate support so they can be translated into practice and real impact on the ground.
• In the face of many violations and breaches of international refugee law, we need to maintain our collective efforts as organizations, lawyers, and advocates to bring attention to these violations, and where relevant, to hold states accountable – including in the courts – for violations of rights.  In that regard, the ICJ as well as various regional and national courts and quasi-judicial bodies have played an important role in upholding the rights of forcibly displaced persons.. 

In considering its impact so far in terms of practical, concrete applications of the Compact, - and its potential looking forward – it is important to recall that the GCR is an expression of political will by States to respect their obligations. The absence of such political will is often the crucial obstacle to enjoyment by refugees of their rights. The challenge, of course, is to ensure that we can move beyond the commitments on paper to acts which can ensure fulfilment of the rights of refugees.

We see several important ways that together with the academic and legal community we can continue to further enhance the positive impact of the GCR:

1. Firstly, in today’s challenging global context, we must leverage all the tools at our disposal, including the GCR, to urge states to strengthen their laws and policies in line with the obligations outlined in the 1951 Convention. We can cite and draw upon the Compact in national, regional, and international fora, as a basis for a wide range of partners to mobilize/rally support for fulfilment of commitments by states. After all, as I pointed out, the Compact does not replace or diminish the obligations set forth in the Convention but complements and reinforces them. We can also use it to garner support from donors and other stakeholders to enable these to be translated into practice. The GCR can advance access to rights and broaden the base of actors who are working in concert to advance those rights, including by providing guidance onrights should be interpreted and understood to be inclusive of refugees and host communities.
2. Secondly, we should consider how the Compact can inform and guide responses to displacement situations, in ways which can highlight its utility and build its authority. For this, there may be scope to follow the example of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement – a non-binding framework which has developed into a major authoritative text that is widely respected and used, and and which clarifies how international human rights law and international humanitarian law should be applied and understood in the IDP context..
3. Thirdly, there are ways to use the Compact as an instrument for accountability and an incentive for action – through the regular formal follow-up and review processes it foresees, such as the GCR Indicator report and the Global Refugee Forum pledge mobilization and implementation monitoring arrangements. These can also contribute to effective capturing and analysis of data on refugees (in line with data protection), to help measure progress and gaps towards the SDGs, notably on access to rights. Academia has a unique role to play here.
4. Fourth, we can all contribute to advancing the Objectives of the Compact to achieve better protection for refugees through pledging – whether to support state capacity on asylum through developing guidance; to contribute to knowledge and evidence on refugee situations through academic research and data including in the context of the GCR Indicators Report, or to support refugees directly through legal advice.
5. Finally, an additional concrete priority area for engagement I would like to raise is Statelessness, as we mark the 70^th anniversary of the adoption of the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons and the 10^th year since the launch of the IBelong Campaign. As part of the forthcoming Executive Committee meeting in October, a High-Segment on Statelessness will be held, as a key multilateral moment to mobilize the world's attention on statelessness, to celebrate progress, and to renew commitments through concrete pledges on statelessness.  I encourage you to engage and advocate on the pressing nature of this challenge and the benefits of guaranteeing the right to nationality in your capacities as legal experts. In line with Paragraph 43 of the GCR, academics’ engagement broadly encompasses refugee, other forced displacement and statelessness issues.

VIII. Conclusions

As we have seen, the Compact does not replace or diminish the obligations set forth in the Convention. On the contrary, it complements and reinforces the Convention by placing rights at the center of responses to refugees.

As we navigate an increasingly complex global context, leveraging the GCR as a fundamental legal instrument as well as an advocacy tool and accountability mechanism is vital.

We must use the Compact to push for stronger laws, policies, and practical measures that uphold refugees' rights.

I look forward to hearing from you about your perspectives on the Compact, including how we can collectively continue to advance the goal of upholding and lifting standards of protection for refugees worldwide.