The UN’s global compact on refugees could be a game-changer—and Canada is well-placed to help make it a reality, say two cabinet ministers and a UN official
Sep 24, 2018
The Compact isn’t just a bunch of words on paper. It represents the common understanding and political commitment to protect and find solutions for refugees differently. This is why it lists new strategies and specific goals. Through regular follow-up meetings on the Compact, member states and partners will thus hold each other more accountable on their promises to deliver results for refugees and their hosts.
The starting premise of the Compact is that caring for those forced to flee their home is a shared responsibility that must be borne more equitably and predictably. As stated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “Millions of people around the world are fleeing their homes because of conflict and persecution. The international community must come together to address their immediate needs and to help rebuild their lives.” The Compact and its renewed commitment toward refugees and the countries and communities that host them is a moment of truth, as it calls upon all players—development actors, the private sector, non-governmental and faith-based organizations, and states—to contribute and to share responsibilities in a fairer manner.
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Canada was actively involved in the drafting of the Compact. With input from domestic NGOs, Canada was one of the first countries to offer concrete suggestions in the early days of the consultations around issues that the Compact should highlight and address, from the benefits of refugees’ economic inclusion, to the imperative of increasing political and financial support for frontline hosting countries, to ways to increase pathways to durable solutions in third countries, and to the specific vulnerabilities faced by refugee women and girls. And as the chair of UNHCR’s executive committee in 2017, Canada took an active role in convening partners on several issues in particular related to gender and education.
So Canada is committed to the task of leading and encouraging other partners to realize its ambitious goals, to ensure that action breathes life into the words of the Compact.
The Compact’s goals are, after all, ambitious. The first is clear: to ease the pressure on countries that welcome and host large numbers of refugees, currently mainly in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Frontline countries like Turkey, Lebanon, Uganda or Bangladesh have argued that the impact of hosting hundreds of thousands or even millions of refugees is significant, especially as it’s often after a sudden influx. They are right: distributing safe drinkable water, putting kids in schools or providing maternal health care to pregnant women are logistical and costly endeavours. These countries are unfairly being asked to carry the burden simply as a result of their geography as they nobly keep their borders open to those fleeing for their lives from neighbouring states.
