“So long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist…none of us can truly rest.”
Nelson Mandela
Gillian Triggs, former President of the Human Rights Commission in Australia and now the UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, recently delivered the fourth annual Nelson Mandela Human Rights Lecture.
This year is the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This critical document has inspired the entire body of international commitments to protect people around the world.
Gillian argued that we desperately need pilot programs to identify the most urgent needs of refugees who are on route to another country and to provide accurate information about regular, safe and legal pathways. People on the move often lack access to basic services and don’t possess formal documentation or visas. They are especially vulnerable to detention, trafficking, and gender-based violence – especially women and children.
In June, the UN Refugee Agency released its Global Trends report observing that by the end of 2022 over 108.4 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced, including a record number of 36 million refugees.
The Universal Declaration recognises two crucial rights: to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution (article 14) and the right to a nationality (article 15). Australia contravenes article 14 with its refugee policy, as do most countries around the world today, while millions of people are on the move fleeing war and persecution. There is much debate and anguish about how to manage the flows of people, particularly from North Africa into Europe. There are no easy solutions and no one country can solve this issue. It needs a co-ordinated global response and I fear that is going to be difficult.
Gillian argues that the 1951 convention remains viable as an effective legal foundation for refugee protection, but there are many who believe the Convention, and indeed the United Nations, is “no longer fit for purpose”.
There is a Global Refugee Forum in December 2023 that she is confident will show how the international community has been willing to shoulder a share of the burden for those displaced and to find long term solutions. I hope we see this, but I have my doubts.
Gillian Triggs has risen on the international stage taking this key position at the UNHCR. I was privileged to interview her at the Ubud Readers and Writers Festival several years ago when she had released her book Speaking Up. It provides valuable insights into her time in leadership roles in Australia and the political pressure to which she was subjected. I still highly recommend the book.
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