York Declaration Research Articles

The Global Gaze of Protection, Care, and Power

The Global Compacts on Refugees and Migrants have been widely considered as opportunities for the world to reconsider old approaches to refugee and migrant protection. The New York Declaration is global, not only because it emanates from a global institution, but also because of the following aspects, to be detailed in course of this article: First, a single declaration covering subjects of migration and forced migration is an acknowledgment of the reality that the two have deep relations, and that population flows are increasingly mixed and massive, defying neat categorization. Second, the declaration also highlights the limits and/or unwillingness of states to carry primary responsibility of refugees and migrants, and hence opens up the possibility to include the “whole of society,” which is to say the “whole of globe” covering stakeholders including business and commercial segments. Third, the new approach is global because refugees and migrants are conceptualized as subjects of global development. Fourth, migration and refugee “crises” are considered inevitable, hence the need for durable solutions, such as the need for a globally relevant comprehensive response framework. And finally, the article touches on the changing nature of the rights question under such a technological mode of management. These aspects are not discussed separately in order, but in an interrelated way. The article is a post-colonial critique of an emerging global apparatus of care and power.

Climate change and displacement: protecting ‘climate refugees’ within a framework of justice and human rights

One of the far-reaching consequences of climate change relates to the forced displacement of people. Climate-induced migration is a very complex issue. The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants noted the varied reasons for migration as being armed conflict, poverty, food insecurity, persecution, terrorism, human rights violations, climate change and natural disasters. Despite the recognition in the very first IPCC report in 1990 that the greatest single impact of climate change could be on human migration, it took climate negotiators over two decades to include displacement in climate documents. This article discusses complexity, scale and displacement scenarios, paying particular attention to the plight of small island states and to the climate-conflict-displacement nexus. It analyses the legal regime applicable to political refugees under international law and the current legal lacuna with regard to climate refugees. It surveys recent developments including the Global Compact on Migration, and the Task Force on Climate Displacement. This article argues that while current human rights law provides some protection, it is insufficient, and that the international community should take urgent action to design a legal regime to protect the rights of climate displacees. This is especially true of inhabitants of small island states who will be forced to move because their states are ‘disappearing’. The article argues that major emitters owe a legal duty to help climate displacees and especially the inhabitants of small island states.

AMMISSIONE DI STRANIERI SUL TERRITORIO NAZIONALE ATTRAVERSO ‘CORRIDOI UMANITARI’ CON SPONSOR PRIVATI

The scope of the present research is to understand to what extent a recent and fruitful private initiative sponsoring a safe alternative legal pathway ‘par avion’ recently spread from Italy and called “humanitarian corridors”, may in a future become a general and uniform alternative model for other European Union States. Such a best practice, which represents currently an exceptional route for vulnerable migrants mostly from Lebanon and Eritrea to enter the country without harm after a security screening and to be materially supported by the same sponsors in the crucial initial phase of integration, could potentially be extended to other EU States. Its legal basis should not be restricted to Article 25 of the Visa Code (recently interpreted by the EU Court of Justice as posing no obligation on Member States to grant humanitarian visa). There already exist clear obligations to grant humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people at risk stemming out from international law (both general and conventional) that do constitute the adequate legal basis both for States and civil society, to act in a “multi-stakeholder alliance” in order to find solutions to the challenges and opportunities deriving from international migration, as indicated in the 2016 New York Declaration.

Authority of Second-Tier Governments to Reduce Deforestation in 30 Tropical Countries

The authority of state- and province-level governments (“second-tier governments”) to make decisions related to slowing deforestation independently of national governments varies widely across countries. Here we systematically catalog whether second-tier governments in 30 tropical countries with high projected future emissions from deforestation possess 14 distinct types of general and forest-related authority. We compile this information in a free, open-access database. Second-tier governments have broadest authority to reduce deforestation in India, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, China, Laos, Mozambique, and Vietnam. Second-tier governments have the least authority in Central African Republic, Gabon, Angola, Madagascar, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Guyana, Suriname, Thailand, and Venezuela. Second-tier governments have intermediate authority in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Mexico, the Philippines, Colombia, Myanmar, Tanzania, Zambia, Mexico, and Republic of Congo. Authorities that second-tier governments most commonly possess include development planning, taxation, budgeting, and roads. Authorities that second-tier governments least commonly possess include land ownership, police, permits for mining, Indigenous affairs, and protected areas. Authorities possessed by an intermediate number of second-tier governments include spatial planning, elections, courts, and permits for agriculture. More than one-quarter of future emissions from deforestation between 2020-2050 is projected to come from just seven out of 678 second-tier jurisdictions: Amazonas, Pará, and Mato Grosso (Brazil), Équateur and Orientale (Democratic Republic of Congo), Loreto (Peru), and El Beni (Bolivia). After weighting for authority, our list of the 50 second-tier jurisdictions in the tropics that are the highest priority for reducing emissions from deforestation shifts to include fewer second-tier jurisdictions in Africa (where second-tier governments have 4.2 authorities out of 14 in the average country) and Latin America (6.3 authorities out of 14) and more second-tier jurisdictions in Asia (8.5 authorities out of 14). Second-tier jurisdictions that have formally expressed interest in reducing emissions from deforestation, e.g. through the Governors’ Climate and Forest Task Force, Under2 Coalition, or New York Declaration on Forests, possess greater authority to reduce deforestation on average than other jurisdictions. Information on second-tier governmental authority, when complemented with deeper country-specific knowledge, can help initiatives for reducing emissions from deforestation (REDD+) prioritize support across regions and across sectoral interventions.

The Meaningful Participation of Refugees in Decision-Making Processes: Questions of Law and Policy

There has been a significant push for greater and more meaningful participation of refugees in decision making processes that affect them in recent years. This push is identifiable in a range of international instruments, including the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees, as well as numerous initiatives developed by refugees, civil society organisations and international organisations at the local, national and international level. This article considers the emergent drive for refugee participation from the perspective of both law and policy. It examines the evolution of the international legal framework, analysing the extent to which international refugee and human rights law mandates the inclusion of refugees in decisions that affect them. The article also explores the notion of participation in detail, teasing out several key challenges to consider in the development of inclusive participatory processes. Drawing this material together, the article explores two options that could further promote the moral, political, and ultimately legal authority for meaningfully including refugees in the design and implementation of policy. These options are indicators that establish baselines and track refugee participation in decision making processes, and a new non-binding United Nations declaration that clearly details the right of refugees to have some authority in decision making processes that affect them.

The Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees – origins and effects

Summary Tracing back the roots of the Global Compact for Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees, from the Sutherland Report, the New York Declaration, the Platform on Disaster Displacement and the Nansen Initiative, back to the Balkan wars, which led to the Temporary Protection Directive, one can identify two challenges, which combine, especially taking into account increasing mixed migration: One root is the wish to cope with situations of mass influx, when large numbers of people start to move across borders as refugees, displaced people or migrants. The other source is the climate change, which also could lead to migration and displacement of people. These two challenges were brought into a structure by the two compacts. This article describes the development, which led to the compacts, analyses, that the compacts do not create new obligations for the states and new individual rights, but give suggestions how to improve migration management, and shows, what the next steps could be.

The Global Compact on Refugees: A Historic Achievement

The Global Compact on Refugees: A Historic Achievement

Share the Burden or Pass it on?

AbstractThere are numerous explanations for why Tanzania withdrew from the CRRF (Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework). Being aware that the decision was the sum of multiple coinciding factors the article argues that the decisive features were, firstly, a failed dialogue about the basis and the goals of CRRF between the Tanzanian government and the UN (United Nations); secondly, a disillusion on the Tanzanian side related to the history of international cooperation on refugee issues; and thirdly, a perceived contradiction between the goals of the CRRF and domestic policies, specifically in relation to the agenda of national sovereignty propagated by the incumbent Tanzanian government. Numerous publications on the New York declaration, the CRRF, and the GCR (Global Compact on Refugees) have portrayed the evolution of ideas, principles, and political compromises in question. Yet few analyses highlight which core messages were received on the ground or what impact they had on the very people concerned. This article, therefore will touch only briefly on declarations and statements of the UN and instead focus on a bottom‐up perspective.

난민문제에 관한 서론적 고찰 - 난민 수용의 필요성과 당위성을 중심으로 -

There are now millions of people around the world who are forced to leave their homes behind. One of the problems that will shake the world in the 21st century is the refugee problem. The New York Declaration was issued on Sept. 19, 2016, under the background of the massive migrations and refugees facing the world.BR International migration is caused by various factors such as conflict and famine. There used to be a lot of forced migrants, but now they are mostly in regular channels. Migration is natural and there are many positive economic factors. Nevertheless, some politicians only expose negative aspects to fear. In Korea, there are also views that contradict the views of refugees. While there is a friendly view of refugees based on the principle of compassion and humanism, there is still a cold view of refugees. In the spring of 2018, 480 Yemeni people entered Jeju Island and applied for refugees, causing heated arguments. The Ministry of Justice

The potential and limitations of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: A comment

On 19 December 2018 the UN General Assembly approved the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), with 152 votes in favor, five against (Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Poland, United States), 12 abstentions (Algeria, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Italy, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Romania, Singapore, Switzerland), and 24 countries not voting (UN, 2018). The GCM builds on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2015) and on the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants 2016 (of which it aims to implement Annex II) (UN, 2016). The article discusses the Global compact for migration, highlighting its potential and limits, supporters and detractors.

New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants

New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants

What can ants tell us about ecological restoration? A global meta-analysis

The development of easily observable measures of restoration success is essential for monitoring of the ambitious proposed global restoration targets (e.g. The Bonn Challenge; New York Declaration on Forests). Systematic reviews with meta-analyses are a good way to evaluate the performance of different organisms in the monitoring of ecological restoration. Among the arthropods, ants have a long history in environmental monitoring. We compiled a data set and performed a global meta-analysis encompassing studies conducted in different ecosystems around the world to investigate whether richness and composition of species or functional groups (FG) of ant communities can be predicted during the restoration process. Moreover, we aimed to understand the influence of restoration technique (natural regeneration or active restoration), ecosystem type (temperate or tropical), and past land use (mining or pasture) on ant communities in areas undergoing restoration processes. Notwithstanding the varied conditions in which the studies were carried out, our meta-analysis showed that reestablishment of ant FG takes place more quickly than species richness. The recovery of ant diversity is faster in tropical ecosystems and areas under natural regeneration can have higher ant diversity than the reference areas. In temperate ecosystems, mined areas under restoration are less likely to recover the number of species than FG richness. Both species and FG composition were less predictable in our meta-analysis. As the publication of new datasets is increasing, we hope that future meta-analyses can build on the present study to further describe and understand the patterns in ant communities to be used as indicators of ecosystem restoration.

Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration

On September 19, 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a set of commitments to enhance the protection of refugees and migrants, known as the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. In the Declaration, all 193 member states of the United Nations reaffirmed the importance of the international protection regime and committed to strengthening and enhancing mechanisms to protect people on the move. They also agreed to work toward the adoption of a global compact on refugees and a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. These two compacts were drafted through separate processes over eighteen months in 2017–18 and formally adopted by the General Assembly in December 2018. One hundred and fifty-two states voted in favor of the adoption of the Migration Compact, while twelve countries abstained from the vote (Algeria, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Italy, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Romania, Singapore, and Switzerland), and five countries voted against (Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Poland, and the United States).

Refugees and responsibilities of justice

This essay develops, within the terms of the recent New York Declaration, an account of the shared responsibility of states to refugees and of how the character of that responsibility effects the ways in which it can be fairly shared. However, it also moves beyond the question of the general obligations that states owe to refugees to consider ways in which refugee choices and refugee voice can be given appropriate standing with the global governance of refuge. It offers an argument for the normative significance of refugee’s reasons for choosing states of asylum and linked this to consideration of a refugee matching system and to refugee quota trading conceived as responsibility-trading, before turning to the issue of the inclusion of refugee voice in relation to the justification of the norms of refugee governance and in relation to the institutions and practices of refugee governance through which those norms are given practical expression.

Situating the Principle of Non Refoulement in the Indian Legal Scenario

‘The problem of Refugees’ and ‘India’ share an umbilical cord. Indian independence was accompanied by the mass exodus of Hindu refugees from the newly created Pakistan. In the years that followed, refugees from Tibet, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka sought refuge in India. However, it is the ongoing genocide of Rohingyan muslims in Myanmar that has brought to light India’s contentious position on Refugee’s rights. Where on one hand the government has granted citizenship to about 4300 hindu and Sikh refugees, it is shying away from even recognising Rohingyans as ‘refugees’ and plans to deport them. While India isn’t a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it is a signatory to the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugee and Migrants, thereby giving a tacit recognition to the Principle of Non-Refoulement (Article 33 of the Refugee Convention; Paragraph 24 of the New York Declaration). But there are some complex legal questions involved with regards to the Indian government’s stance on the Rohingya Issue. Is the principle of non-refoulement a Customary International Law? Does India have an erga omnes obligation towards refugees? Can an obligation erga omnes trump national interest? Can the exceptions to the principle of non-refoulement validate India’s position on Rohingyas? This article aims to emphasize India’s obligations under Customary International Law and look for possible solutions to the ongoing Rohingya issue.

Getting It Right for Persons With Disabilities: Mainstreaming Disability Issues Using the Global Compact, the New York Declaration on Refugees, the Annexed CRRF and the SDGGs.

The movement “nothing about us without us” since the inception of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) continues to grow stronger and stronger with a bid to guarantee effective inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in our societies as well as their socio-economic empowerment. This paper seeks to contribute to this movement by examining the current Global Compact on Refugees, the New York Declaration with annexed Comprehensive Refugee Framework and the reiterated accentuated aim of achieving of the Sustainable Development Goals therein as potential frameworks for the realization of these inclusive and participatory objectives. The assumption postulated in the paper is that the CRRF and the Global Compact on Refugees, presents a colossal/unique opportunity to increase the momentum in the realization of rights of persons with disabilities.

A Heightened Use of Bilateral Agreement as a Paradigm of Doing Justice by the Refugees and the Host Communities in the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework

The revolutionary nature of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and the validation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework is in the international community’s cooperative spirit, in the reaffirmation of principles of refugee protection and in the drawing together of actors and partners in a multi-stakeholder approach with the purpose of addressing protracted refugee situations more effectively. This approach, which encompasses governments, UN organisations, the private sector, civil society, non-governmental and academics among others, introduces a robust and inclusive way of sharing responsibility that is intended to guarantee that refugees and migrants are treated fairly and in accordance with international refugee law and human rights principles in general. Hence, this article in joining this inclusive pathway proposes a stronger and heightened use of bilateral agreements that expressly require that recipient governments must apportion a certain amount of related activity for the benefit of refugee communities within their territories. It argues that a heightened use of bilateral agreements is already evident in the Declaration and ongoing processes. It also suggests that to guarantee effective use of this mechanism, accountability and transparency are essential and must be included in the agreements. The article holds that if this form of participation is efficiently done, it can guarantee results in diverse areas for the refugees and host communities.

The human rights of smuggled migrants and trafficked persons in the UN global compacts on migrants and refugees

On 19 September 2016, the UNGA adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants through which States committed to developing two compacts: one on refugees and one on safe, orderly and regular migration. The Zero Drafts of the compacts were published on 31 January 2018 and 5 February 2018, respectively. The move towards the discussion and adoption of the global compacts comes in part in recognition of the unprecedented number of displaced persons (and human mobility more generally) around the globe and cynically in response to the number of would be asylum seekers that arrived on Europe's shores over the past three years. This paper seeks to engage with what the global compacts should seek to achieve in relation to smuggling and trafficking and whether there is room for cautious optimism in what might be achieved by the compacts in relation to the protection of smuggled migrants and trafficked persons. In so doing, it focuses on the potential of the compacts within the existing framework of the UN protocols against human smuggling and human trafficking.

Strengthening the Global Refugee Protection System: Recommendations for the Global Compact on Refugees

On September 19, 2016, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. This document launched a two-year process to develop a Global Compact on Responsibility Sharing on Refugees (“Global Compact on Refugees”) and a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. With a record 65 million displaced persons in the world, the global community must come together to fashion a stronger protection regime for persons on the move. This paper outlines broad themes and specific recommendations that the Global Compact on Refugees should adopt on how to strengthen the global refugee protection system. The recommendations fall into several categories: (1) responsibility sharing for the protection of refugees; (2) filling in protection gaps; (3) balancing and replacing deterrence strategies with protection solutions; (4) refugee resettlement; and (5) building refugee self-sufficiency. Some of the key recommendations include:the development of a responsibility-sharing formula to respond to large movements of refugees;the development of an early warning system to identify and respond to nations in crisis;the adoption of principles included in the Nansen and Migrants in Countries of Crisis initiatives;the use of temporary protection measures to protect populations that flee natural disaster;the adoption of model processes that ensure safe and voluntary return;cooperation between destination and transit countries to expand refugee protections;the provision of asylum and due process protections at borders;the use of development assistance to ensure the self-sufficiency of refugees;the adoption of a goal to resettle 10 percent of the global refugee population each year;the establishment of a refugee matching system between refugees and resettlement countries; andthe adoption of coherent strategies, involving all sectors, to address large movements of refugees.This paper draws heavily, albeit not exclusively, from a series of papers published as a special collection in the Journal on Migration and Human Security[1] on strengthening the global system of refugee protection.[1] Rethinking the Global Refugee Protection System, Journal on Migration and Human Security, Center for Migration Studies, 2016-2017. See http://cmsny.org/cms_research/refugeeproject/.

Strengthening the Global Refugee Protection System: Recommendations for the Global Compact on Refugees

On September 19, 2016, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. This document launched a two-year process to develop a Global Compact on Responsibility Sharing on Refugees (“Global Compact on Refugees”) and a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. With a record 65 million displaced persons in the world, the global community must come together to fashion a stronger protection regime for persons on the move. This paper outlines broad themes and specific recommendations that the Global Compact on Refugees should adopt on how to strengthen the global refugee protection system. The recommendations fall into several categories: (1) responsibility sharing for the protection of refugees; (2) filling in protection gaps; (3) balancing and replacing deterrence strategies with protection solutions; (4) refugee resettlement; and (5) building refugee self-sufficiency. Some of the key recommendations include: • the development of a responsibility-sharing formula to respond to large movements of refugees; • the development of an early warning system to identify and respond to nations in crisis; • the adoption of principles included in the Nansen and Migrants in Countries of Crisis initiatives; • the use of temporary protection measures to protect populations that flee natural disaster; • the adoption of model processes that ensure safe and voluntary return; • cooperation between destination and transit countries to expand refugee protections; • the provision of asylum and due process protections at borders; • the use of development assistance to ensure the self-sufficiency of refugees; • the adoption of a goal to resettle 10 percent of the global refugee population each year; • the establishment of a refugee matching system between refugees and resettlement countries; and • the adoption of coherent strategies, involving all sectors, to address large movements of refugees. This paper draws heavily, albeit not exclusively, from a series of papers published as a special collection in the Journal on Migration and Human Security1 on strengthening the global system of refugee protection.