Day: November 1, 2022

Earlier this year, UNHCR announced13 that the number of people forced to flee was estimated to have reached 100 million. Based on more comprehensive statistics compiled at mid-2022, an estimated 103 million people have been forcibly displaced by persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order.14 Compared to the end of 2021, this is an increase of 13.6 million (+15 per cent) – more than the entire populations of Belgium, Burundi or Cuba – and is the largest ever increase between years according to UNHCR’s statistics on forced displacement. The continued increase has led to 1 in 77 people worldwide remaining forcibly displaced in mid-2022, more than twice as many as a decade ago (1 in 167 in 2012). UNHCR’s assessment indicates that forced displacement will continue to rise during the remainder of 2022.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has created the fastest and one of the largest displacements of people since the second world war.16 As the front lines shifted over time, there have been waves of displacements and returns, including pendular movements, but at mid-2022, 6.3 million Ukrainians remained displaced within their country. In the initial days of the war, more than 200,000 refugees a day crossed into neighbouring countries. Some 5.4 million Ukrainian refugees remained displaced at mid-2022, finding protection primarily in nearby European countries that showed an unprecedented solidarity by providing emergency humanitarian support to refugees leaving Ukraine. In Germany, the number of refugees from Ukraine exceeded Syrian refugees for the first time. The global refugee population under UNHCR’s mandate increased by 25 per cent (+5.3 million) in 2022 compared to the previous year, reaching 26.7 million. This is the biggest proportional increase between years since 1979-1980 when millions of Afghans and Ethiopians were forced to flee to neighbouring countries.

While temporary protection was rapidly granted by European Union Member States and several other countries to refugees from Ukraine who had been forced to flee across international borders,17 access to asylum systems continues to be critical for millions of people around the world. In the first six months of 2022, 1.1 million new asylum applications were lodged in 144 different countries. This represents an 89 per cent increase compared to the same period in the previous year, and surpassed the number of applications filed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g. +22 per cent compared to the same period in 2019). More than 2 in 5 applications (41 per cent) were made by nationals of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, notably Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Honduras and Colombia, as conditions in many countries in the region deteriorated during the first six months of 2022. By mid-2022, there were also 5.3 million other people in need of international protection, predominately from Venezuela, an increase of 21 per cent or 935,600 from the end of 2021.

More than 9.6 million new internal displacements were reported by UNHCR in the first six months of the year, more than double the same period in 2021. Most of the new displacements – at least 7 million – were in Ukraine.18 As the war is still ongoing and the situation remains highly volatile with waves of displacement, these estimates should be considered preliminary and likely undercount the reality on the ground. In other countries intensifying violence led to significant displacement.

Despite a ceasefire in March 2022, the Tigray region in Ethiopia saw a further 853,700 new internal displacements, even while nearly 21,300 primarily Somali and South Sudanese refugees also sought safety in the country in the first six months of 2022. In Myanmar, the military takeover in February 2021 continued to ignite violence, with more than half a million new displacements during the first six months of 2022. Other countries reporting significant new internal displacement in 2022 included Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

UNHCR noted that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on opportunities for durable solutions has greatly diminished. Refugee returns, naturalizations and resettlement all increased in the first six months of 2022 compared to the same period in the previous year, also exceeding pre-pandemic levels in the first six months of 2019. Nevertheless, given the sheer volume of new displacements around the world, these solutions continue to remain available to very few people. For example, in each of the previous five years, for every refugee able to return to their home country, which remains the preferred option for most refugees,19 there have been between 2 and 9 times more newly recognized refugees during the same year. In the first six months of 2022, this gap widened further and stood at 1:37 as new displacement grew and the opportunity for refugees to return and rebuild their lives in safety and dignity proved elusive.

Opportunities for local integration and socio-economic inclusion differ substantially between refugee-hosting countries. For refugees from Ukraine, while the potential duration of their stay in European countries remains uncertain, many are seeking to work during their stay, which also benefits their host countries.

Refugees from Ukraine will boost the labour force in Europe by an estimated 0.5 per cent by the end of 2022, notably in Czechia, Poland and Estonia.

The majority of the world’s refugees and internally displaced people originated from 60 fragile states, creating complex challenges.23 Even prior to 2022, fragility in these states had already increased between 2020 and 2021. In 2022, it is estimated that the number of people who are, or who are at high risk of being, acutely food insecure has reached at least 345 million.24 This is an increase of more than 200 million compared to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. Almost a quarter of this increase – 47 million people globally – is as a direct result of the international armed conflict in Ukraine as increasing food, fuel and fertilizer prices, reduces peoples’ access to food. This impact is felt most in countries that were already weakened by violent conflicts – for example in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, nearly 1 million people are projected to face catastrophic food insecurity if no action is taken. This is an increase of more than 10 times compared to five years prior.

Countries around the world have acted swiftly, efficiently and with compassion to help those displaced by the war in Ukraine. In fact, this type of response should be the standard. The international community must demonstrate solidarity to all people forced to flee, or who are stateless, as well as lend support to the countries that welcome them.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Delegates voiced sharp differences today about the work of the Human Rights Council as the General Assembly took up the intergovernmental body’s annual report. While some praised its efforts over the past year to curb human rights violations through the creation of special mechanisms and emergency sessions, other delegates said the Geneva-based intergovernmental body applies double standards that ignore their impact on developing countries.

Presenting the report of the Council’s activities from 1 October 2021 to 7 October 2022, its President, Federico Villegas (Argentina) said that amid an increasingly complex geopolitical context “the Council has continued to come together to address a multitude of recurrent as well as emerging human rights issues and respond to urgent situations, and I must say that I am proud what we have achieved collectively,” he said. Over the course of its three regular sessions, the Council adopted 100 resolutions, President’s statements and decisions and 67 of these were adopted without a vote.

The Council also held three special sessions and two urgent debates to address human rights situations needing urgent attention, he said, including a session in November 2021 on Sudan and another in December 2021 on Ethiopia. In March of this year, following an urgent debate on the human rights situation in Ukraine stemming from the Russian Federation aggression, the Council decided to establish the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine. It also appointed a new Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation to monitor information from all relevant stakeholders, including Russian civil society both inside and outside the country. Detailing other action, he said the Council established a group of three human rights experts mandated to conduct thorough, independent investigations into all alleged human rights violations and abuses committed in Nicaragua since April 2018.

General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi (Hungary) said the world’s contemporary crises make the Council’s work even more urgent to meet the goals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet events on the ground have significantly eroded public trust that the body’s actions will lead to better outcomes for the people and the planet. “It is high time for us to change this experience,” he said, prodding it to take swift action to promote the protection of human rights.

Speakers voiced concern about a myriad of human rights situations from the Chinese Government’s campaign against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and abuses by the military in Myanmar to the war in the Ukraine and Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land. Some called for action to address Islamophobia, with Pakistan’s representative stressing it has been mainstreamed in the political discourse of certain political parties and Governments.

Venezuela’s delegate, speaking on behalf of the Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations, expressed concern about the proliferation of mechanisms and procedures which pretend to make “impartial” assessments of the human rights situations in certain States. Most lack the due consent and participation of the State in question and base their reports on secondary, tertiary and other sources, which are partial or lack credibility, he said.

Echoing that concern, Gerardo Peñalver Portal, Cuba’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, said selectivity, punitive practices and double standards contribute to the manipulation of human rights against the South, which leads to distrust in the Council. The protection of all human rights should be based on universality, objectivity and non-discrimination, he said, stressing that there are human rights violations in developed countries.

On that point, the speaker for the Russian Federation said that under pressure from Western States, the Council adopted a whole host of flagrantly politicized resolutions over the last year including one on the human rights situation in his country. It is increasingly clear that the West wants to transform the Council into a “so-called closed club of supposed real democracies”, who establish rules for the rest of the world, violations of which will be harshly punished.

Countering that view, the United States delegate said such resolutions are intended to protect human rights globally. She said the devastating impact of the Russian Federation’s unjust war against Ukraine led her Government to work with Ukraine and other cross-border groups to set up the Commission on Inquiry on Ukraine.

The speaker for Ukraine, stressing the critical importance of investigating abuses in order to prevent impunity, said the Commission of Inquiry has found reasonable grounds to believe there have been many violations of humanitarian law, including war crimes. Accountability is needed and she called on all partners to bring all perpetrators to justice.

The European Union’s delegate, in its capacity as observer, was among delegates voicing support for the many resolutions that had created various special mechanisms. He said success must be measured not only by ending, but by preventing, human rights violations and holding perpetrators accountable, stressing the need to help the persecuted in Iran and the persecuted Uyghurs and to improve the situation of Afghan women and girls.

While supportive of the Council’s ability to respond swiftly to several emerging human rights challenges, such as in Ukraine and Afghanistan, the representative of Switzerland said he regretted the Council did not hold a debate on the situation in Xinjiang in China, which constitutes crimes against humanity. He endorsed the creation of a new mechanism to address the situation in Yemen.

Speaking on behalf of a Group of States, Yemen’s delegate said ongoing international support for the national mechanism in his country, including through substantive capacity-building and technical assistance, helps the Yemeni people. It ensures human rights monitoring, investigation and accountability. He condemned the Houthi movement’s decision to deny the National Commission of Inquiry formal access to the areas they control.

Also speaking today were representative of Finland (on behalf of the Nordic countries), Maldives, Argentina, Honduras, Qatar, Namibia, Georgia, Liechtenstein, China, Croatia, Kuwait, Portugal, Egypt, Malaysia, Poland, Algeria, Mexico, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, India, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Syria, Chile, South Africa, Morocco, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Romania.

Source: UN General Assembly

Between January and September 2022, some 26,500 refugees and migrants were estimated to have transited through the Western Balkans as part of mixed movements, (14% more than last year at the same period). Given the nature of movement of these persons, including as a result of pushbacks and/or reverse flow, UNHCR’s uses data on arrivals to estimate how many persons are a part of mixed movements (MMs) in a given time period.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees