Seventy-five years ago today, the United Nations adopted the 1951 Refugee Convention, the cornerstone of international refugee protection. The treaty obligates States to protect and assist people forced to flee war and persecution, not turn them away. Because of the Convention’s guarantees, millions of displaced people over more than seven decades have found refuge from persecution and violence—and that’s worth celebrating.
Despite decades of progress, for millions of people around the world, the full promise of the Convention remains out of reach. This is particularly true for women and girls, who make up half of the world’s forcibly displaced people, face unique dangers in displacement, and have too often been excluded from the protection and decisions that determine their futures. And today, amid incredibly high displacement levels, funding shortfalls, and political backlash, the Convention’s promise is under greater strain than ever.
So today, even as we look back and celebrate how the Convention has been a bridge to safety for so many, we must also look ahead to what needs to be done to uphold it—and to build upon it—for generations to come.
Over the past month, Women’s Refugee Commission has highlighted the tremendous importance of the Refugee Convention to women and girls’ lives:
- We shared individual stories of how displaced women and girls have been personally impacted by the protections laid out in the Convention, “In Their Own Words.”
- We hosted a webinar with refugee women who shared their experiences of how the Convention’s impacted their lives, and their perspectives on the future of protection for displaced women and girls.
- We co-sponsored a bipartisan event in Congress, featuring Republican and Democrat Senators and Representatives, as well as impacted individuals, reaffirming the United States’ commitment to refugee protection.
- We released a report, “At What Cost? Women-Led Organizations, Funding Cuts, and the Price of Survival,” that paints a disturbing picture of how humanitarian aid funding cuts have decimated programs and services for women and girls in displacement and other crisis settings, counter to the commitments of the Convention.
- We advocated in a variety of forums for States to recommit to the promises of the Refugee Convention, including by using our platform at a recent Interactive Dialogue with one of the candidates for UN Secretary-General to ask how she would uphold the Convention and other protections for displaced women and girls, should she be elected.
- We signed on to a statement from the global civil society coalition of which we are a member, calling for strengthened implementation of the Refugee Convention.
- We co-sponsored an event in Geneva that brought together a broad cross-section of government, civil society, and refugee leaders to renew support for the Refugee Convention.
Looking ahead, WRC will work with displaced women and practitioners, build evidence, and engage in key decision-making spaces to reinvigorate commitment to the Refugee Convention during this landmark—and critical—75th anniversary year. Plans include:
- co-hosting a series of dialogues focused on the future of protection and solutions for refugee women and girls;
- amplifying the research and leadership of WRC’s first cohort of Humanitarian Futures Fellows;
- advocating for the priorities and needs of displaced women and girls at the UN High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection and Solutions in Geneva;
- launching a flagship project on the global state of displacement for women and girls; and much more.
In short, we will continue our work to ensure that the promise of the 1951 Refugee Convention can become a lived reality for all refugee women and girls around the world.