Global Refugee Forum Opening remarks of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi
Your Majesty, Distinguished participants in the Global Refugee Forum, Figures do not tell real stories. But there is one figure — 114 million — which is important to begin our reflection: 114 million represents the number of refugees and displaced people whom...
Statement by Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Humanitarian chiefs will not take part in unilateral proposals to create “safe zones” in Gaza
NEW YORK/GENEVA/ROME – As humanitarian leaders, our position is clear: We will not participate in the establishment of any ”safe zone” in Gaza that is set up without the agreement of all the parties, and unless fundamental conditions are in place to ensure safety and...
Statement by Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, on the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, “We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”
NEW YORK/GENEVA/ROME, 5 November 2023 – For almost a month, the world has been watching the unfolding situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory in shock and horror at the spiralling numbers of lives lost and torn apart. In Israel, some 1,400 people...
High Commissioner’s 2023 Kofi Annan Geneva peace address
There was a time, in the lives of many of us, in which we thought that we had entered an era of peace — not perfect peace, not global peace, but peace that could progressively extend to further parts of the world. A time, after the Berlin Wall was finally reduced to...
High Commissioner’s statement to the United Nations Security Council
Thank you, Mr President, Our latest figures speak of 114 million refugees and displaced people around the world: 114 million! This is surely a tangible but sometimes neglected symptom of the world’s current extreme disorder, and including this yearly discussion in...
High Commissioner’s statement to the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly
Mr Chairman, We have all watched in shock the events in Israel and Gaza over the past four weeks including the devastating bombing of Jabalia refugee camp today. I echo the calls of the Secretary-General for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian...
High Commissioner’s closing statement to the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme
Thank you, Madam Chair. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets out in Article 1 that, I quote, “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of...
74th Session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme – Statement by Ms Gillian Triggs, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection
Mister Chair, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, The High Commissioner’s Note on International Protection this year takes its inspiration from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, agreed 75 years ago. For it was the Declaration that first affirmed...