1.2. Global Compact on Refugees

Amid this backdrop, the international community continued to develop solutions for people in need of protection, often through multistakeholder cooperation. The Global Compact on Refugees, a key agreement which was reached in 2018, provides the framework for predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing through international cooperation. Its objectives include: 

i)    easing pressure on host countries; 
ii)    enhancing refugee self-reliance; 
iii)    increasing access to third-country solutions; and 
iv)    improving conditions in countries of origin.26

 
In November 2023, an indicator report was published with an overview of the progress made in the initiatives pledged at the first Global Refugee Forum in 2019. The report highlights concrete examples of progress toward the four key objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees, such as increasing refugees’ access to education, economic inclusion, resettlement and complementary pathways.27  The report also identifies areas where gaps exist and efforts need to be scaled up. For example, it showed that often the gains occurred in high-income countries and that more is needed to assist refugees in low-income countries and in protracted situations to foster more equitable responsibility-sharing.28 Reflecting the increasing diversity of actors involved in providing solutions, the report also shows that the number and range of partners involved in refugee responses increased, including more local NGOs, faith-based organisations, and refugee- and women-led organisations.29  

The second Global Refugee Forum, which took place in December 2023, provided an opportunity for governments and other stakeholders to pledge their support for specific policies and programmes for protection solutions, thus showing their solidarity with displaced populations and countries hosting refugees. More than 4,200 participants from 168 countries attended the forum in person, with an additional 10,000 joining online. Through a combination of contributions and pledges, governments, international actors, the private sector and civil society organisations committed over USD 2.2 billion. Countries also pledged to resettle 1 million refugees by 2030 and support an initiative to assist an additional 3 million refugees to access third countries through community sponsorship.30  

Regional cooperation through three support platforms continued to provide targeted support to specific situations in Afghanistan (SSAR), Central America and Mexico (MIRPS) and East Africa (IGAD). New initiatives in 2023 included the launching of a solutions support platform for the Central African Republic (CAR-SSP), which has been a major hotspot of displacement with over 725,000 Central Africans registered as refugees in neighbouring countries in 2023,31 ^, 32 and a regional pledge made at the Global Forum to develop a plan of action in support of the Cartagena+40 Process.33  

In an effort to further coordinate action and protect asylum seekers and refugees, in December 2023 a group of UN and regional experts launched the Platform of Independent Experts on Refugee Rights (PIERR). The platform aims to better coordinate joint advocacy initiatives and promote the implementation of international human rights norms and standards. It provides the space to share knowledge, act on, intervene and speak about concerns related to forced displacement in a coordinated matter. The platform is composed of the UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights of migrants and on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the UN Committee against Torture (UNCAT); the Special Rapporteur on refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and migrants in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights; and the rapporteurship on the rights of migrants of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.34