123 7 Governance of Refugee Protection: Challenges in Europe and Beyond N. Ela Gökalp-Aras, Eva (Evangelia) Papatzani, Zeynep Şahin Mencütek, Nadina Leivaditi, and Electra Petracou Introduction At least 79.5 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. These include 26 million refugees, 45 million internally displaced people, and 4 million asylum seekers, with 2019 marking a record high (UNHCR 2020a). The history of the regime and governance of refugee pro- tection has been mixed, recording both successes and setbacks. The refugee regime has succeeded in extending international protection to millions of refugees when their home states have been unable or unwilling to do so. Despite this considerable achievement, it has, in some instances, failed to solve serious refugee protection problems and offer durable solutions for many of the world’s refugees. In 2021, the 1951 Refugee Convention 1 celebrates its 70 th anniversary. How- ever, it has been highly criticized for being outdated, non-responsive to par- ticular kinds of displacement, and unable to address international responsi- bility-sharing. In response to new needs and existing problems and to attain better global governance of refugee protection, the United Nations (UN) adopted the Global Compact on Refugees or GCR (UNHCR 2018). 2 The GCR represents ‘the political will and ambition of the international commu- nity as a whole for strengthened cooperation and solidarity with refugees and affected host countries’ (UNHCR 2020b). However, it is far from providing an effective mechanism for refugee protection. On the other hand, following the Syrian mass migration in 2011, the lack of political will and solidarity-based responses by most European Union (EU) member states (MS) and the absence of safe reception conditions and refu- 1 The 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol is available on the UNHCR web- site. Retrieved 5 January 2021 from https://www.unhcr.org/about-us/background/ 4ec262df9/1951-convention-relating-status-refugees-its-1967-protocol.html. 2 The full text of the GCR: https://www.unhcr.org/gcr/GCR_English.pdf.
Governance of Refugee Protection: Challenges in Europe and Beyond
Jul 10, 2023
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