Few threats to international peace are more urgent and compelling than the possibility of mass atrocity. When the UN Security Council becomes aware that genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity are in progress or in prospect, it has both the duty and the means to respond effectively. Doing so quickly is important.
Equitable vaccine distribution represents one of the most challenging, vexatious political issues facing UN member states in 2021. Governments that can afford large-scale purchases have already contracted the lion’s share of vaccine production for their own use. But they have left the rest of the world, where there is limited capability to manufacture and deliver vaccines, high and dry.
World Refugee & Migration Council members and others call on the UN Secretary-General to hold an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council.
His Excellency António Guterres Secretary-General of the United Nations 405 East 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10017 Dear Secretary-General, As members of the World Refugee Council we urge you to intensify your crucial efforts to address the perilous state of the world’s refugees and displaced persons during the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Secretary-General […]
While the international refugee regime is anchored in the 1951 Refugee Convention and the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Convention is silent on the question of state culpability, and the UNHCR’s Statute established its entirely non-political character.
