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Add to Preferred SourcesForty-one million people around the world are internally displaced – and hundreds of thousands more have been forced from their homes since the beginning of the year – an “unacceptable” situation for which solutions can be found, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told a delegation established to address this global challenge.
Opening the inaugural session of the High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement in Geneva, Mr. Guterres spoke of the acute and relentless crisis of people forced from their homes by conflict and human rights violations alone.
Many have been living in limbo stranded for years after their initial displacement without secure housing, jobs, education or other needs and opportunities.
He appealed to the Panel and its members from government, international organizations, civil society, the private sector and countries especially affected by displacement to draw attention to the issue.
The UN chief urged its members to bring fresh ideas to prevent forced displacement, better protect and assist displaced people and identify swifter solutions to displacement.
“It is unacceptable that millions of people are so brutally dislocated from their home and then linger without solutions for years”, Mr. Guterres said. “Being displaced should not be an interminable problem”.
“Our work is timely”, said Panel co-chair Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s former foreign policy chief. “Since the beginning of the year, close to a million people have been displaced as Idlib in Syria is under attack”.
Noting reports that the majority of the displaced are women and children, now living in desperate conditions, she said: “This is a stark reminder that throughout our work, it is essential to pay specific attention to gender considerations, and to the way displacement affects different groups based on age, gender and other aspects”.
And while displacement continues in the Horn of Africa, it is also prevalent in countries such as Afghanistan, Cameroon, the Democratic People’s Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Yemen.
The Panel, tasked with raising global awareness and finding concrete long-term solutions to the dire issue, is expected to meet four times over the next 12 months and consult with countries and relevant organizations before submitting its recommendations to the Secretary-General by February 2021.
Original source: UN News
Published on 25 February 2020