Edited News | UNHCR , UNOG
At a three-day global forum aimed at transforming the way the world responds to refugee situations, UN Secretary General António Guterres took the stage in Geneva, Switzerland, today to underscore the importance of protecting refugees, respecting their rights, and addressing the causes of human displacement.
“Now more than ever, we need international cooperation and practical,
effective responses. We need better answers for those who flee, and better help for communities and countries that receive and host them.” the UN Secretary-General said.
The world has experience what experts are calling “a decade of displacement”, during which refugee numbers have surged. More than 70 million people are forcibly displaced – double the level of 20 years ago, and 2.3 million more than just one year ago. More than 25 million of them are refugees, having fled across international borders and unable to return to their homes.
In reference to the main international agreements that have for decades underpinned assistance to refugees the Secretary-General said that there is a need today to “re-establish the integrity of the international refugee protection regime,” based on the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol.
“Indeed, at a time when the right to asylum is under assault, when so many
Borders and doors are being closed to refugees, when even child refugees can be divided from their families, we need to reaffirm the human rights of refugees,” Mr. Guterres said.
The first-ever Global Refugee Forum is bringing together refugees, heads of state and government, UN leaders, international institutions, development organizations, business leaders and civil society representatives, among others, at the United Nations in Geneva.
UNHCR is co-hosting the Forum together with Switzerland, and it is being co-convened by Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Germany, Pakistan, and Turkey. The aim of the Forum is to generate new approaches and long-term commitments from a variety of actors to help refugees and the communities in which they live. Worldwide, over 70 million people are displaced by war, conflict, and persecution.
In outlining possible solutions, Mr. Guterres said that the Global Compact on Refugees, a plan affirmed by the UN General Assembly in 2018, offers a path forward. The Global Compact on Refugees is a blueprint for governments, international organizations, and others to ensure that host communities get the support they need and that refugees can lead productive lives. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2018.
“The Global Compact on Refugees gives us the blueprint,” the Secretary-General said, asking participants “to be bold and concrete in the pledges” they will make.
“This is a moment for ambition. It is a moment to jettison a model of support that too often left refugees for decades with their lives on hold: confined to camps, just scraping by, unable to flourish or contribute. It is a moment to build a more equitable response to refugee crises through a sharing of responsibility,’ Mr. Guterres said.
In his appeal for joint action, Mr. Guterres said that “the Global Compact on Refugees is our collective achievement and our collective responsibility. It speaks to the plight of millions of people. And it speaks to the heart of the mission of the United Nations.”
António Guterres served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees for a ten-year period (2005-2015) prior to his election as Secretary-General of the United Nations. He referred to the protections of refugees as one of the great issues of this era, or any era, and said that “as refugees go, so goes our world.”
"Throughout human history, people everywhere have provided shelter to
strangers seeking refuge – bound to them by a sense of duty and
humanity. Solidarity runs deep in the human character," the Secretary-General said.
"Today we must do all we can to enable that humanitarian spirit to prevail
over those who today seem so determined to extinguish it. We cannot afford to abandon refugees to hopelessness, nor their hosts to bear the responsibility alone,” he added.
Pledges are in support of refugees were expected today by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as by the private sector.
The Global Refugee Forum will continue through tomorrow, 18 December.
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Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza, are unconscionable. For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. This morning, we have received information that dozens more people were killed and injured,” Jeremy Laurence UN Human Rights spokesperson said at the biweekly press briefing in Geneva.
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Edited News | OCHA
Gaza ‘hungriest place on earth’ with aid stymied – UN humanitarians
Starving Gazans continue to be deprived of aid as international relief efforts are being severely constrained by the Israeli authorities, the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA said on Friday.
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Edited News | OCHA , UNRWA
As a controversial United States and Israel-backed aid distribution plan gets underway in Gaza, the UN called on Tuesday for an “immediate surge” of its own pre-positioned supplies to help prevent starvation.
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Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani today urged Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to reject a bill that was recently endorsed by parliament allowing trials of civilians in military courts. The Uganda People’s Defence Forces Amendment Bill 2025, which was passed on 20 May and now awaits presidential signature to become law, among others broadens the jurisdiction of military courts, authorising them to try a wide range of offences against civilians.
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Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango today warned of a further deterioration in the human rights situation in South Sudan at the bi-weekly briefing in Geneva.
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Edited News | OCHA , WHO
Syria: ‘Staggering’ needs amid insecurity, health care crisis - UN humanitarians
Millions of people in Syria continue to face mortal danger from unexploded munitions, disease and malnutrition and urgent support is required, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
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Edited News | UNRWA , OCHA , WHO
UN life-saving aid allowed to trickle into Gaza as civilian needs mount
Amid calls for more humanitarian trucks to enter the food and medicine-deprived Palestinian enclave of Gaza, UN humanitarians have received permission from Israel for “around 100” more aid trucks to cross into the Strip after only five were let in yesterday, But the scale of relief efforts allowed remains entirely insufficient to meet the urgent needs of people there, humanitarian workers say.
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Edited News
A war reporter from Lebanon who lost a limb in the line of duty is calling for an end to impunity for attacks against journalists.
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Edited News | ITU
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) commemorated 160 years dedicated to connecting the world on Saturday, 17 May in Geneva, Switzerland, during the annual World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
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Edited News | WHO , OCHA
Gazans ‘in terror’ after another night of deadly strikes and siege
Amid reports that Israeli strikes across Gaza into Friday killed at least 64 people, aid teams once again pushed back strongly at allegations that aid is being diverted to Hamas and pleaded for the blockade to end.
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Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Deportations over recent months of large numbers of non-nationals from the United States of America, especially to countries other than those of their origin, raise a number of human rights concerns, the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk warned on Tuesday.
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Edited News | WHO
Gaza: Over 50 child malnutrition deaths amid aid blockade; entire generation will be ‘permanently affected’ - WHO
In the aid desert of Gaza, malnourished children are dying while survivors can expect a lifetime of dire health problems, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.