Will it make a difference? Towards a Global Compact on Refugees that actually works

New York, NY, June 7, 2018 — UN Member States are entering the final stages of consultations to agree a Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). As discussions reach their final stage in Geneva, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has three key recommendations on how to improve the text before the UN General Assembly endorses the GCR in New York in late 2018. 

The fundamental question is: will the GCR concretely improve the lives of refugees?  As the text stands, the answer is: we will never know. The current GCR text (Draft Three) is not heading in the right direction. A key gap is the fact there is no shared commitment to the progress the international community wants to achieve collectively. 

Meanwhile, conflicts around the world continue to displace evermore people. In order to shift the paradigm of refugee response, the final draft of the GCR outcome document must clearly state that stakeholders will:

1. Define together a set of shared outcomes, targets and indicators against which we can measure concrete improvements in the lives of refugees and their hosts, and hold each other to account;
2. Align proposed and existing responsibility-sharing mechanisms around these collective outcomes and targets, with the CRRF as the centerpiece of an improved international refugee response; and
3. Ensure that additional, more predictable and flexible financing is provided to help achieve collective outcomes. 

Without these three fundamental steps, the GCR will miss the opportunity to make a real breakthrough in international refugee response.

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