High Commissioner’s opening speech at the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review 2025

Consigliere federale - caro Ignazio,

Chère Zakia,

Distinguished delegates,

Colleagues and friends,

On 15 December 2023, exactly two years ago, the Second Global Refugee Forum came to its conclusion. It certainly felt like a different time, and yet, in thinking ahead to the next Global Refugee Forum in 2027, in my closing remarks, I cautioned that - and I quote: "Let's not have any illusions. The road there will not be smooth. There will be interruptions and obstacles. And we will have setbacks caused by storms of all kinds."

I believe I speak for all of us when I say: I wish I had been wrong!

This past year has been defined by one storm after another. Altogether a perfect storm, really.

Witness the unending atrocities committed in Sudan, in Ukraine, in Gaza and in Myanmar. In the past few days alone, we have seen yet another kindergarten, yet another apartment building and yet another hospital bombed, killing dozens and displacing thousands more, adding to the millions already forced to flee senseless violence in search of safety. In a global context in which hate is allowed to increasingly spread racist divisions, as yesterday's appalling massacre against the Jewish community in Sydney sadly proves.

A year when refugees were frequently vilified, scapegoated in so many places. With their suffering cynically used by traffickers for profit, and their situation by politicians to gain votes for the next election.

A year of repeated attacks on the 1951 Refugee Convention and on the very institution of asylum.

And of course, a year when the sudden, drastic, irresponsible and short-sighted collapse of foreign assistance continues to devastate the aid sector, inflicting so much unnecessary pain in its wake; on refugees of course, but also on all those - all of you - working to bring whatever relief you still can.

Today, however, I don't want to dwell on these challenges. Indeed, the road to protection is long, narrow, and difficult. There will inevitably be more setbacks along the way. We have always known that, just as we have always known that compassion and solidarity would be dismissed and derided.

We cannot let that discourage us, and we simply will not be discouraged.

Instead, we must always remember that, as Zakia so gracefully described on behalf of millions of refugees, solidarity saves lives.

La solidarité sauve des vies.

Merci, Zakia, pour avoir partagé avec nous ces mots si importants, si nécessaires aujourd'hui. Par votre exemple, vous nous rappelez - malgré un discours global de plus en plus intolérant - qu'il ne faut jamais renoncer. Que les personnes réfugiées enrichissent nos sociétés et nos communautés, comme vous-même l'avez démontré de manière si inspirée, par vos actes et vos propos. C'est donc nous qui vous remercions.

Dear friends,

This determination must remain our north star. And as we navigate these and future turbulent times together, the Global Compact on Refugees is the map that will continue to guide us on a journey that - let us not forget - began almost 10 years ago, in 2016, with the adoption by the General Assembly of the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants.

We have come a long way.

It is important to remember that. I know that the temptation is to always focus on the day's problems. Indeed, there are real emergencies that must be addressed, real obstacles to overcome. And sometimes we are tempted to despair.

But if we are to stay the course, if we are to remain on track, we must also learn to lift our gaze. To understand where we are going, we need to remember where we came from. And so, my main message today, as we open this Progress Review of the Global Refugee Forum, is that we have already accomplished much. We should not shy away from that - on the contrary, now is the time to build on it.

The last decade - including the last two years since the second Global Refugee Forum - have been about much more than setbacks. Thanks to our collective efforts, the framework that we have patiently created and developed together over 10 years - surely not perfect - has nevertheless delivered.

Through the Global Refugee Fora, the pledges, the commitments - all the different facets of our work - we have made a real difference in the lives of refugees and of the communities hosting them. Just look at the numbers. Since the last Forum in 2023, close to 3,500 individual pledges and 47 multi-stakeholder pledges were made, with more than $2.6 billion already disbursed through fulfilled financial pledges - many of them matching the pledges of host countries to adopt more inclusive policies.

We have made huge strides in bringing development funding more quicky and effectively into refugee responses. According to OECD data, roughly $4 billion are invested annually by development actors in forced displacement situations. And this is new - it didn't exist 10 years ago.

These efforts have driven advances in education, in employment, in refugee protection, in climate action, and in improving access and quality of services for refugees and their hosts. The future of responses to forced displacement lies in strengthening the capacity of national systems to include refugees - not in setting up parallel systems. This will not only ensure that responses are more sustainable, it will also mitigate the impact of future financial shocks by reducing dependency on foreign aid.

It will be critical to continue forging new and innovative partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders - the private sector, refugee-led organizations, international financial institutions, climate-related funds, academia, civil society, sports organizations, and of course refugees themselves - each contributing their talent, expertise and determination in the search for solutions.

We would not have made such progress had it not been for the Compact and its pledging framework. As I always say, the Refugee Compact - to be seen as complementary to the one on safe and orderly migration - is a toolbox that proposes to States and other partners solutions on how to implement the principles of the 1951 Convention and other legal instruments in the complex world of today.

And beyond frameworks and structures, it is the underlying vision of cooperation and responsibility-sharing that we must absolutely preserve and nurture. The belief that, by working together, solutions to forced displacement are possible.

There are many examples, some offered by the co-convening countries.

Uganda frequently - and rightly - reminds us that it is not possible to earmark refugees when thousands cross your border every day. I would go further - with your permission, Permanent Secretary - and say that Uganda has shown, year after year, what it means to believe in the potential of refugees not only through words but especially through its commitment to their self-reliance and dignity. And this despite hosting nearly 2 million refugees.

The same commitment and courage informed the groundbreaking decision by Colombia to approve Temporary Protection Status for displaced Venezuelans in 2021, benefiting close to 2 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants - a real high point of my tenure as High Commissioner, and an example that I often return to.

Remember, at the time, the world was still in the throes of a global pandemic that had affected everybody. And yet, then-President Duque understood that giving Venezuelan refugees and migrants access to residency, jobs and services would benefit both Venezuelans and their Colombian hosts. And he was right.

That is the power of inclusion.

Many other countries have shown similar leadership and moved towards greater inclusion of displaced people into their societies and economies. This year alone Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Brazil and many others have all presented roadmaps or adopted policies that aim to both enhance refugee self-reliance and bring dividends to host communities. Kenya's Shirika Plan is a particularly striking example that shows how - after years of difficult debate around the presence of refugees in the country - it is possible to shed the divisions of the past and move towards greater unity.

But - and this is a critical point which I have made countless times - these efforts cannot succeed on their own. Hosting refugees has a cost, one that countries such as Chad, Iran, Costa Rica, Egypt and many others cannot bear alone. They must be supported, especially financially, otherwise there is a risk that protection gains for refugees will be eroded, and that, as the recently issued GCR Indicator Report shows, progress will be undone. Or rather, be further undone I should say, considering the impact that recent funding cuts have already had.

I returned last week from a visit to Sudan - my last UNHCR mission, to a country very dear to me as it is where I started working for UNHCR in 1988. It was a sobering reality check. The scale of the destruction I saw, and the depth of the trauma inflicted on the Sudanese people, are devastating. It was hard to hear displaced Sudanese women in Ad-Dabbah describe the sexual violence they had escaped. It is harder still to explain that UNHCR and its partners cannot provide all the help they need because of lack of funds. What a shameful indictment of the state of international solidarity.

And so I must appeal to your generosity once more, on behalf of these women, on behalf of all refugees, displaced and stateless people, and on behalf of the communities that host them, especially in situations that remain at the margins of global attention. I must appeal again both for more funding and more quality funding - meaning flexible, unearmarked funding that can be used to respond where needs are greatest.

And I must appeal for the disbursement of pledged funds as early as possible in 2026, to avoid any disruptions in the provision of life-saving assistance - or indeed in the provision of life-changing assistance.

And here I am thinking in particular of our work in the context of solutions - another key objective of the Global Compact on Refugees, as you know.

It is impossible to speak of solutions to forced displacement today without immediately thinking of the situation in Syria, given the momentous changes of the last 12 months which have enabled the large-scale, voluntary returns of over 3 million Syrians, including 1.2 million refugees. Syria is a country at an important crossroads. It is also a country - as I am sure we will hear on Wednesday in the context of the dedicated side event - that needs immense investment to rebuild, provide jobs, create access to basic services, and of course guarantee security so that the return of refugees and displaced people can be sustainable. This is where our collective support, and your pledges, can make a significant difference. This is where humanitarian relief, long-term development, peace and human rights intersect.

Dear friends,

There are so many other important aspects of our work that I have not mentioned. The innovative route-based protection approach we have promoted - jointly with the International Organization for Migration, the European Commission and others - to respond to the mixed movement of refugees and migrants, to name an obvious example.

Or the enormous progress made in addressing statelessness since the launch of the Global Alliance to end Statelessness just over a year ago.

But let me not preempt the discussion, as that is exactly why we are here - to review the progress made in meeting our commitments, identify gaps that remain or those that have appeared, and to map out the road ahead.

A road that I will continue to travel, but - as of next 1 January - no longer as High Commissioner for Refugees but as a citizen, a supporter and with the same belief in the power of working together.

A new High Commissioner for Refugees - we've heard this from the Federal Counsillor - whose selection - as you surely know - is about to be finalized, will succeed me very soon. Since the process has not yet formally concluded, let me simply say for now that I have full trust in the judgment of the Secretary-General - a previous High Commissioner for refugees himself - and of course in the decision by the General Assembly.

Meanwhile, we do not stop. We have important work to do in the next three days.

So for now, let me welcome all of you once again, along with our Swiss hosts, whose generous support made this event possible. And thank you once again, dear Ignazio, for your kind words, your constant support, your personal friendship, and of course for the beautiful gift.

Let me close by mentioning one final highlight of the last decade, certainly for me personally. In June 2022, I spent World Refugee Day in Côte d'Ivoire, to witness the return of Ivorian refugees to their country, for some after 20 years of exile. During my visit, I went to the border with Liberia, where soon-to-be returnees crossed the Cestos River on a small boat, many of them setting foot in their home country for the first time. I joined one of the last groups of returnees to cross that river.

When the time came to disembark in Cote d'Ivoire, I vividly remember holding the hand of a little Ivorian girl. She could not have been older than 6 or 7 years, and wore an oversize bright orange life vest. I have often thought of that little girl, wondering if I was holding her hand - or if, in fact, she was holding mine.

And so, I want to especially acknowledge today the more than 300 participants who have been or are themselves refugees, displaced or stateless people, and who will be part of this Progress Review. I want to thank you very specially for being part of this process, and for helping us move forward.

We cannot succeed without you.

And now let's get to work.

Thank you.