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Add to Preferred SourcesThe United Nations General Assembly affirmed a non-legally binding Global Compact on Refugees on December 17, marking the latest move by the Member States to support the rights of 258 million people on the move worldwide.
An overwhelming number of majority States, 181, voted in favor of adopting the compact, with the United States and Hungary opposing the move. The Dominican Republic, Eritrea, and Libya abstained.
UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Chief, Filippo Grandi, said the pact was “historic” and speaking at an event at UN Headquarters in New York to mark the compact, noted it was the first time the Assembly has seen an agreement between and beyond States, that acknowledges the need to work collectively for the rights of refugees.
“In this world of ours, which often turns it back to people in need, that has shamefully politicized even the pain of exile, that has demonized and continues to demonize refugees and migrants and sometimes even just foreigners, this compact, in synergy with the other compact, the compact on migration, can really represent tangibly, a new commitment to international cooperation,” said the UNHCR chief.
He said it represented “a new commitment to shared values of solidarity and the quest to just and sustainable solutions for disadvantaged people.”
This global compact for refugees, which is separate from the newly-adopted Global Compact for Migration, aims to strengthen the international response to large movements of refugees and their protracted situations, and was prompted by the historic, 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, in which all 193 Member States agreed that the protection of refugees should be a shared responsibility.
The Declaration tasked UNHCR with authoring the refugee compact, which came to fruition after 18 months of extensive consultations between the Member States, experts, civil society, and refugees.
Approximately 85 percent of refugees live in developing countries, according to UNHCR, where services are already strained. Though donors have been generous in financing aid to refugees, Mr. Grandi noted that the disproportionate burden on middle and low-income countries is evident, and leaves us “at the mercy of economic downturns.”
Both the Global Compact on Migration and Global Compact on Refugees, surface a time of heightened division across the world and within societies, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said.
“In recent years we have seen a contagion of closed borders, contrary to national refugee and human rights law. Millions of refugees are facing years in exile or risking their lives on dangerous journeys to an uncertain future. And that is why this global compact is such an important step,” she said.
Adoption of the compact is “not the end, but the beginning” of the international community’s work on the issue, General Assembly President, Maria Fernanda Espinosa declared. What’s left is implementation.
Original source: UN News
Published on 17 December 2018