ReliefWeb

Our work with refugees and displaced persons

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has significant experience working to meet the humanitarian needs of refugees and displaced persons across their journey, together with the communities that support them, being embedded in local communities National Societies, as auxiliaries to the public authorities in the humanitarian field, stand ready to assist and support States to meet the needs of refugees and displaced persons.

Our approach is based on our Fundamental Principles – in particular the Principle of Humanity – which requires us to bring assistance, without discrimination, to prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found. The IFRC has always promoted an approach based on prioritising the most urgent humanitarian needs. However, our approach is also informed by rights, and we recognize and promote the full observance of the particular rights of refugees.

In 2016 UN Member States across the world adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, containing a new Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), and setting in motion the process towards the adoption of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) in December 2018.

As a global humanitarian network with a presence in 191 countries, the IFRC welcomes the commitments expressed in the GCR. The GCR builds on best practices and contains an ambitious vision: one where the global responsibility of responding to refugee situations is more equitably divided between States and where durable solutions are supported. Where diverse actors – including refugees themselves and the communities which host them – work together in complementary roles to ensure that refugees are safe, better supported, and able to live dignified lives.
It is crucial that States and other stakeholders across the world commit to concrete action capable of turning these global level aspirations into meaningful impact at the national and local levels. Ultimately, the benchmark of success for the GCR will be its ability to catalyse meaningful change in the lives of refugees and the communities which host them. All actors have a role to play in this and the IFRC and its member National Societies stand ready to provide support, in line with our Fundamental Principles. We appreciate the recognition in GCR paragraph 3 of the key role that the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (including National Societies), plays in implementing the GCR, as part of a multi-stakeholder approach.

The IFRC recommends commitment and collective action in the following four areas:

1. Don’t forget the basics: Save lives and meet basic needs
2. Engage and support refugees’ self-reliance and contributions
3. Share responsibility to invest in making the GCR work
4. Support the role and capacities of refugees and local humanitarian actors in implementing the GCR and in service delivery