UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Expected Council Action
In April, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi will brief the Security Council. The briefing will focus on challenges related to forced displacement across the globe. The session is expected to be interactive, with the High Commissioner responding to observations and questions from members during the session. This type of interactivity is atypical for a public briefing, although a similar format is used when the heads of military and police components of peace operations brief the Council.
No outcome is expected.
Background and Key Recent Developments
By the end of 2023, the most recent year for which the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has complete data, UNHCR estimated that the number of people forcibly displaced across the globe was 117.3 million, a figure that includes refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), and others in need of international protection.
The magnitude of this crisis continues to grow. Through 2023, the number of people forcibly displaced increased every year over the previous 12 years. By May 2024, UNHCR stated that over 120 million people were forcibly displaced as a consequence of “persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations”. This is more than double the figure of nearly 60 million people forcibly displaced a decade ago.
Over the past three decades, the Security Council has paid more attention to the links between displacement and threats to international peace and security. Although the Council has yet to adopt a stand-alone resolution on displaced persons in armed conflict, it has highlighted this issue in several outcomes, including resolutions 1265, 1674 and 2417:
- Resolution 1265 stressed the particular vulnerability of IDPs and refugees in conflict situations.
- Resolution 1674 recalled the prohibition against the forcible displacement of civilians in conflict, urged the international community to provide support and assistance to enable states to fulfil their responsibilities regarding the protection of refugees and reaffirmed the need to maintain the security and civilian character of refugee and IDP camps.
- Resolution 2417 stressed the link between conflict-related food insecurity and forced displacement.
Furthermore, the Council commonly refers to displacement in country-specific situations, although the emphasis and prominence given to the issue vary depending on the context.
The High Commissioner for Refugees has briefed the Council several times about specific country situations on the Council’s agenda, such as the Sahel in December 2012, Syria in December 2015, and Myanmar in February 2018. In May 2023, the High Commissioner also briefed Council members during “any other business” on the influx of refugees into Sudan’s neighbouring countries, presenting an overview of this displacement’s potential impact on regional stability.
In addition to country-specific briefings, the Council typically receives an annual briefing under the agenda item “Briefing by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees”, which allows for a general update from the High Commissioner on refugees in various settings on the Council’s agenda. It is in this context that Grandi is providing this month’s briefing to the Council.
Grandi’s most recent briefing to the Security Council took place on 30 May 2024. During this briefing, he underscored the lack of compliance with international humanitarian law by parties to conflicts across the globe, with the “brutal conduct of hostilities” compelling civilians “to flee in terror”. In this context, he referred to displacement crises caused by conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Gaza, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine.
Approximately 73 percent of forcibly displaced persons come from five countries—Afghanistan, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela—which have been a focus of the Council’s work in recent years. High numbers of forcibly displaced also continue to be a feature of several other conflicts on the Council’s agenda, such as those in the DRC, South Sudan, Myanmar and several situations in the Middle East.
Key Issues and Options
Key issues for the Council include how to:
- Address the root causes of displacement in various conflicts;
- Compel member states to uphold international humanitarian law and international human rights law in response to displacement crises;
- Promote unhindered humanitarian access to forcibly displaced populations;
- Address the differential effects of displacement on men, women and children; and
- Encourage member states to provide greater financial support to mitigate the dire humanitarian effects of forced displacement, especially given the financial crisis facing UNHCR.
Council members may use the opportunity to elicit information from Grandi on country-specific situations and how member states can better advance principled, safe, voluntary, dignified and informed refugee returns. Some members may also suggest ways to protect IDPs and refugees from sexual/gender-based violence, abuse, and exploitation.
In the future, the Council could consider pursuing a stand-alone resolution or presidential statement on displaced persons in armed conflict to provide more consistent and comprehensive guidance to member states on this issue, including on the facilitation of durable solutions for the voluntary, safe and dignified return of IDPs and refugees and their local integration or resettlement.
Council members could also consider convening private meetings or informal interactive dialogues to discuss the many challenges related to displacement in country-specific situations. Unlike closed consultations, these meeting formats allow for the participation of non-Council member states. As a result, they could enable a frank exchange of ideas among Council members and affected countries that may be conducive to strategic thinking and problem-solving with regard to particular displacement crises.
Council Dynamics
The Council is generally united in its support for UNHCR and the work of the High Commissioner. It appears, however, that political sensitivities in the Council over issues such as Gaza, Ukraine and migration to Europe across the Mediterranean have affected Council deliberations on the issue of displacement, with mutual recriminations exchanged by members over the causes of such crises and the factors that exacerbate them.
Several Council members have highlighted the connection between climate change and displacement. In this regard, France, Guyana, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia noted this linkage during the High Commissioner’s 30 May 2024 briefing.
| Security Council Resolutions | |
| 24 May 2018S/RES/2417 | This was a resolution on the link between armed conflict and food insecurity. It strongly condemned the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, as well as the unlawful denial of humanitarian access. |
| 28 April 2006S/RES/1674 | This resolution was on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, expressed grave concern at the illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons, and the use of such weapons on civilians affected by armed conflict. The Council emphasised the need to end impunity and drew attention to the range of justice mechanisms to be considered, including national, international and mixed criminal courts and tribunals. |
| 17 September 1999S/RES/1265 | This was the Council’s first thematic resolution on protection of civilians in armed conflict, condemning targeting of civilians, calling for respect for international humanitarian, refugee and human rights law and expressing willingness to take measures to ensure compliance and to consider how peacekeeping mandates might better address the negative impact of conflict on civilians. |
| Security Council Meeting Records | |
| 30 May 2024S/PV.9641 | This was a briefing to the Security Council by the High Commissioner for Refugees. |
