prepare a news report on the life of refugees
Answers
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to join you.
If I may, I would like to begin with a short personal reflection.
Coming to Geneva for this refugee forum carries great meaning and emotions for me.
I feel I am among friends – not only good colleagues past and present, but also friends of one of the great causes of these or any times: answering the plight of people forced from their homes by war, conflict or persecution.
I have been fortunate to have had many formative experiences in my life: as a social volunteer in the poor neighbourhoods of Lisbon; being part of a democratic revolution in my country; public service in parliament and government.
But without diminishing any of those involvements, I would place at the top of the list the decade I served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Those were difficult years – a period that saw skyrocketing flows of people, plummeting solidarity among nations, and spreading discrimination against victims that compounded their already dire circumstances.
We tried our best to reduce suffering and improve lives. Thanks to outstanding work by UNHCR and the humanitarian community, and support from many leaders and partners, I believe we were making a difference.
Of course, there is far more to do: the numbers of refugees, the levels of hatred and the threats to long-established norms and standards all remain high.
More than 70 million people have been forced from their homes, including 25 million refugees. UNHCR has described these numbers as the “highest levels of displacement on record”.
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 are being detained and divided from their families, we need to reaffirm the human rights of refugees.
And the Global Compact on Refugees gives us the blueprint.
And this Forum is an opportunity to give the implementation of the Compact energy and dynamism – by drawing together the expertise, ideas, resources, commitments and new forms of collaboration that will drive it forward.
I urge you to be bold and concrete in the pledges you will make.
This is a moment for ambition.
Dear friends,
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.
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.
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.
Next year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations – a moment when tens of millions of people uprooted by war and persecution were piecing together their lives and starting to rebuild a future.
Helping them to secure that future, and ensuring a right to refuge for the generations that would follow, were pressing priorities of the new United Nations then born.
Today, protecting refugees and resolving displacement remain an imperative. This work is an expression of our determination to live and prosper together as a community of peoples and nations.
Together, through this forum and implementation of a landmark Global Compact, we can chart a bold and practical path to help millions of people find protection and dignity, and to help all of us find a shared path towards a better future.
Thank