Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, it's my privilege to be addressing members of this committee on behalf of the World Refugee Council, which I co-chair with Lloyd Axworthy, a former foreign minister of Canada.
Let me start by saying a few words about the World Refugee Council itself.
It is an independent body that includes more than 20 political leaders, policy advisers, academic experts, business leaders, civil society actors, and human rights activists from around the world. The council was convened by the Centre for International Governance Innovation with the support of the Government of Canada.
Our aim was to produce a good analysis of the situation of refugees around the world, of the issues that are now emerging with this mass movement of people, and of the problems that have beset host countries in particular with this phenomenon that we see. We have prepared the report and are about to launch it next year, but I would like to apprise the committee of some of the findings and the conclusions we have arrived at.
We recognize that the UN has recently concluded the UN global compact on refugees. The council's work is complementary to the UN global compact on refugees and is designed to build on the consensus that the UN has been able to achieve already.
We think it's worthwhile progress and that it needs everyone's support. However, we are conscious that because of certain weaknesses in the multilateral system at the UN—for instance, the dominance of major powers, the north-south divide in the UN, the bureaucratic and siloed character of its institutions, the fear of undermining the 1951 refugee convention, and the built-in limitations of the UNHCR's mandate—the UN process has not generated the far-reaching change that is so urgently needed.
We believe that the global compact on refugees will not reset the refugee system. In its own words, the global compact on refugees is entirely non-political and fundamentally humanitarian, but as you must have discovered in your own search for the realities of the situation of refugees, the causes of and the responses to forced displacement are entirely political. To quote Sadako Ogata, the former High Commissioner for Refugees: humanitarian problems do not have humanitarian solutions; they only have political solutions. The council aims to produce these political solutions and identify strategies by which they will become a reality.
I would also like to give you an overview of the scale of the challenge that we see today.
The challenge of forced displacement is growing. The UNHCR reports that the number of people displaced globally by conflict and persecution stood at 68.5 million at the end of 2017, the greatest number since World War II. Figures released in May 2018 show that there were 30.6 million new internal displacements in 2017, with a total of 40 million estimated to have been internally displaced as a result of conflict and violence at the end of 2017.
The number of people globally facing acute hunger due largely to conflict and instability reached almost 74 million, pushing more people towards despair and driving more people because of war and conflict. Meanwhile, refugees are woefully undersupported. Appeals for funding consistently fall well short of their goals.
The World Refugee Council contends that the response to the challenges of forced displacement must be a global one, recognizing among the nations of the world common but differentiated responsibilities based on state capacity. Host communities must be supported as they manage refugees, and refugees themselves must have timely access to protection and support.
The refugee issue carries serious tones of gender discrimination and widespread abuse. Present border crossings from Venezuela to Colombia are sites of sexual harassment and assault. At the same time, the role of women in being active participants in coping with refugee issues has been downplayed in government action, particularly by indifference to the absence of education for women and children who have been displaced.
The first words of the report that I just mentioned state: “At its core, the world is not facing a refugee crisis so much as a crisis of leadership, a deficit of vision, humanity and solidarity.” We believe that the report makes recommendations and calls for action in key areas that will bring forward some new and innovative thinking about the issue of refugee situations and such issues as collective responsibility and shared responsibility, and in many practical ways we have suggested how that thinking can be done.
Among the key areas where we have called for action is accountability for perpetrators who act with impunity, often enriching themselves in the process and shielded too often by Security Council vetos. We believe that accountability is one area to which more attention needs to be paid, with more institutions and mechanisms of accountability at the international level. Better arrangements for accountability that is credible at national levels need to be encouraged.
The other area that we find extremely important is the level of funding for refugees. I hope that my colleague Allan will speak a little bit about this. We are insisting that there must be greater support for those countries hosting a large number of refugees, in a manner in which not only are refugees supported but local populations feel a part of the development and the benefit that come with international cooperation.
We also believe that resettlement is extremely important. It is lacking in any kind of visionary initiatives, both at the international level and at the level of the UNHCR. We believe that the international community has to make better arrangements for resettlement, which must be expeditious so that refugees are not left for long periods in refugee status in which they have no predictable way to see when their plight is going to end.
We also believe that governance reform must be significant and are proposing changes in the UN Secretariat itself. The council will also advocate new approaches to decision-making affecting the forcibly displaced, calling for regionalization and decentralization of policy decisions. We are very keen that regional institutions be involved and be given much more of a role in solutions to the refugee crisis that we see today.
We have also in the report given very practical ways in which the recommendations made by the World Refugee Council can be implemented; these are very feasible, practical, and doable.
I will end here and say that a more effective global response to forced displacement with shared responsibility will result in greater predictability and efficient resource mobilization. It will improve management of borders and of the migration process, with an emphasis on prioritizing the dignity and the rights of both the forcibly displaced and the host communities.
I believe that fixing the system will not only save the lives and meet the needs of the displaced, but will also help countries, including Canada, to better manage pressures for refugee resettlement. In a very real sense, self-interest and the interests of the displaced coincide.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.