The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants

On 19 September 2016, the landmark New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants was adopted by acclamation at the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly on addressing large movements of refugees and migrants(the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants). The New York Declaration included a set of commitments for refugees and migrants, and elements towards the achievement of a Global Compact on Refugees and a Global Compact forSafe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

The text of the New York Declaration includes a number of principled commitments to fully protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants as rights-holders, regardless of their status and to devise responses to large-movements with full respect for international human rights law.

“We reaffirm the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. We reaffirm also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recall the core international human rights treaties. We reaffirm and will fully protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants, regardless of status; all are rights holders. Our response will demonstrate full respect for international law and international human rights law and, where applicable, international refugee law and international humanitarian law.”

The New York Declaration contains bold commitments both to address the issues we face now and to prepare the world for future challenges. These include commitments to:

• Protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants, regardless of status. This includes the rights of women and girls and promoting their full, equal and meaningful participation in finding solutions.
• Ensure that all refugee and migrant children are receiving education within a few months of arrival.
• Prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence.
• Support those countries rescuing, receiving and hosting large numbers of refugees and migrants.
• Work towards ending the practice of detaining children for the purposes of determining their migration status.
• Strongly condemn xenophobia against refugees and migrants and support a global campaign to counter it.
• Strengthen the positive contributions made by migrants to economic and social development in their host countries.
• Improve the delivery of humanitarian and development assistance to those countries most affected, including through innovative multilateral financial solutions, with the goal of closing all funding gaps.
• Implement a comprehensive refugee response, based on a new framework that sets out the responsibility of Member States, civil society partners and the UN system, whenever there is a large movement of refugees or a protracted refugee situation.
• Find new homes for all refugees identified by UNHCR as needing resettlement; and expand the opportunities for refugees to relocate to other countries through, for example, labour mobility or education schemes.
• Strengthen the global governance of migration by bringing the International Organization for Migration into the UN system.

External links

• UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants 2016
• New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 19 September 2016, 71/1
• In safety and dignity: addressing large movements of refugees and migrants, Report of the Secretary-General on 21 April 2016, A/70/59