The Global Response to Refugees and Migrants: Perspectives from UNGA 2017
Seeking to address current global mobility concerns and to prepare the world to respond for future challenges, the commitments made during the 2016 High-Level Summit for Refugees and Migrants – discussed in my earlier ISIM post – were revisited during UNGA 2017. This year’s meetings of the General Assembly also served as a platform for numerous side-events on a variety of topics of relevance to the situation of refugees and migrants. I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in some of these events reporting on themes such as climate change, the Sustainable Development Goals and, more directly related to the issue of displacement, the protection-security spectrum informing current approaches to the management of human mobility.
High-Level Meeting on the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants: One Year On
On September 20th, 2017, a special meeting was held to mark the first anniversary of the New York Declaration. Hosted by UNHCR and the Office of the UN Special Representative for International Migration, this UNGA side event also served as a high-level briefing on the previously mentioned Global Compacts that constitute two key commitments of the Declaration.
Several key UN officials highlighted the need to continue working together towards more equitable ways to share the responsibility for refugees, as well as achieve safe and orderly migration. These included Louise Arbour, UN Special Representative for International Migration, who is responsible for leading the follow-up to the migration-related aspects of the 2016 High-Level Summit. Ms. Arbour underscored the important role of both Compacts in guiding future international community’s efforts to better manage human mobility. She added that global action must be human rights-centered, grounded in reality, and reflective of the needs of displaced populations.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015, pointed to several priority areas for the year ahead as Member States work to advance the two Compacts: (a) to re-establish the integrity of the refugee protection regime; (b) to develop national and international cooperation mechanisms on human mobility issues; and (c) to ensure greater accountability for those involved in human trafficking. I was struck by the SG’s remarks on what he referred as the “paradoxical and misrepresented” character of human mobility. As an illustrative example he reminded the audience that “the number of refugees that entered Uganda from South Sudan last year was three times greater that the number of those who crossed the central Mediterranean”, a reality close to my heart as someone who has been working with refugees from this region of Africa for over 15 years. However, Mr. Guterrez added, “the situation in the central Mediterranean led to a crisis in public confidence and political debate in many countries, while the situation in Uganda . . . remains largely unreported by the global media.” Highlighting the stark geographical differences in the politics of representations surrounding forced displacement, The SG called for an end to xenophobia, intolerance and unwarranted negative assumptions about displaced groups.
Affirming his presidency’s commitment to the two Global Compacts, President Miroslav Lajčák expressed his confidence that both would be adopted in 2018, urging all concerned to continue the current momentum. “One focus of my presidency is people, and another is human rights,” Mr. Lajčák added. “People do not lose their human rights when they move. It is essential that we uphold the human rights of all people,” he exhorted the global community joining the SG’s earlier emphasis on human rights protection.
Director General of IOM, William Lacy Swing concluded that “we must marshal our collective efforts to ensure that migration and human mobility take place through safe, regular and orderly means, to protect the human beings at the heart of these journeys and to realize the tremendous benefits that migration can bring”.. His emphasis on migrants as sources of positive opportunities echoed the remarks of the other UN officials participating in the One Year On High-Level Meeting. Their positive outlook was, however, contrasted by the more guarded and, at times, alarmist tone adopted by some other UNGA 2017 attendees. Indeed, outside of the One Year On Meeting, potential links between uncontrolled population flows and the so-called “global terror threat” were often suggested, an issue I will discuss in my next post.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi noted that the crises that drove the adoption of the New York Declaration have not abated. To the contrary “the need for international protection for those fleeing in search of safety is more compelling than ever,” he added. Mr. Grandi further concluded that the root causes of refugee flows and the triggers of irregular migration are often intertwined; in mixed migratory movements, refugees and migrants often face overlapping risks. Hence the need for both Compacts to be complementary and comprehensive.
The Global Compact on Refugees will be proposed by the High Commissioner in his annual report to the General Assembly in 2018, and will be considered by the Assembly at its seventy-third session. The General Assembly will also convene an Intergovernmental Conference on International Migration in 2018 with a view to adopting the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The real test of the significance of these normative developments will be the extent to which they can result in concrete action on the ground to find practical solutions to what is now the highest level of humanitarian needs since the Second World War.
Marisa O. Ensor, PhD, LLM, is a GU Faculty Affiliate of the Institute for the Study of International Migration in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Prior to joining Georgetown she taught at several universities in the US and abroad, including the American University in Cairo’s Center for Migration and Refugee Studies.
