Building Consensus within UNHCR's Executive Committee: Global Refugee Norms in the Making

Abstract

UNHCR’s Executive Committee is the only specialized multilateral forum which contributes to the development of international guidance on refugee protection. Based on observation of the negotiation of ExCom Conclusion No. 107, this article examines global refugee norms in the making. It argues that empirical studies can further our understanding of global refugee policy, by re-embedding norms and policies that claim to be global into the specific configurations of state and non-state actors that produce them. The ethnographic approach in particular sheds light on how different stakeholders’ conflicting interests, beliefs and legal frameworks are turned into a depoliticized and consensual narrative of global refugee protection, having an apparently positive and ambitious connotation. These narratives produce a hegemonic ‘truth regime’ on refugee issues but also windows for contestation. Moreover, the article illustrates how global refugee norms may not necessarily be about improving refugee standards for decision-makers but may be used for other, implicit, reasons such as perpetuating narratives, maintaining social prestige, making claims for political consideration, or legitimizing new bureaucratic interventions.