The Global Compact on Refugees: A Step Towards Mending a Broken System

In September 2016, the General Assembly convened the first-ever high level summit on refugees and migrants. Heads of State met against a background of crisis: 65 million people displaced; seemingly unending conflict in Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan; and more than one million people having fled to Europe by sea in the previous year alone. The result of this summit was the New York Declaration, in which UN Member States pledged to improve the global response to displacement and migration. States promised to develop two new “compacts” to be adopted by Omnibus Resolution in September 2018: a Global Compact on Refugees, which I’ll discuss in this post, and a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.