1st Meeting, 77th Session of UNHCR Executive Committee

Hello, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Can you please have a seat now? The meeting is going to start in a few minutes. So please take a seat. Thank you. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning. I would now like to start the meeting. So could you please take your seat? Excellencies, distinguished delegates, High Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure and honor to declare open the 77th plenary session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioners Program. A very warm welcome to you all, especially those who have traveled from their capitals to join us today. At the end of 2025, 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as a result of conflict, persecution, and violence. While this represented a decline from the previous year due to an increase in returns in some of the largest displacement situations, the number remains worryingly high, as many of the returns that took place occurred in adverse or fragile circumstances. This scenario, coupled with continuing pressure on the international protection system and persistent funding constraints across the humanitarian sector, presents significant challenges for UNHCR and its partners The role of the Executive Committee in supporting the Office as it responds to these challenges remains essential, and I look forward to the perspectives that delegations will bring to our discussions over the course of this week. Before we begin the formal program, I would like to say how honored I am to serve as Chairperson of the Executive Committee. One of the highlights of my tenure as Chairperson was my mission to Ethiopia, where I saw how refugees' inclusion can be translated into practice with positive outcomes for refugees and host communities alike. I was struck by the commitment and the efforts of the Government of Ethiopia, UNHCR and its partners in this regard. The visit deepened my respect for UNHCR's work and for the dedication, professionalism and humanity of its staff around the world. My visit to Ethiopia also reinforced for me the importance of the work before us, and I look forward to our discussions this week and to working together in support of UNHCR and the people it serves. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, I now invite the Committee to consider the adoption of the agenda as contained in document A/AC.96/77/1. We will begin with the High Commissioner's opening statement under agenda item 2. Elements of his statement were shared with the Executive Committee in September. Under agenda item 3, the general debate will take place over the course of the next few days. Agenda item 4 will permit us to consider the work of the Standing Committee over the past year in the areas of international protection, as well as programme budgets, management, financial control, and administrative oversight. Under agenda item 5, the Committee will review reports relating to programme and administrative oversight and evaluation. The Executive Committee will, under agenda item 6, review the programme budget for 2027 and will then consider the draft General Decision on administrative, financial and programme matters, including approval of the budget. Under agenda item 7, the Committee will be briefed on the consultations with non-governmental organizations held in 2026. And under agenda item 8, the UNHCR Staff Council will make a statement. Agenda item 9 concerns the programme of work of the Standing Committee in 2027, including observer participation for the intersessional period of the 78th session. Under agenda item 10, the Committee will consider the draft provisional agenda for the 78th plenary session of the Executive Committee. Under agenda item 11, the Executive Committee will elect its officers to serve during the next intersession period and until the end of the 78th plenary session. Following the election, the first chairperson-elect will be invited to make a brief statement to the Committee. Following agenda item 12, any other business, the last substantive item is agenda item 13, the adoption of the report of this plenary session. We will then end with closing remarks by the High Commissioner and myself under agenda item 14. Before commenting further on organizational matters, may I consider that the provisional agenda Provisional agenda can be adopted as proposed. I don't see any person wishing to take the floor, so it is so decided. I would now like to say a few words about the speaking arrangements. The list of speakers for the general debate, agenda item 3, was opened on 14th of September and the provisional list was shared with the delegations on the 8th of October. Delegations have received an organization note on speaking arrangements from the Secretariat outlining the procedures for any amendments to the list of speakers and are asked to follow them in order to facilitate the smooth running of the general debate. I wish to kindly remind delegations that requests for changes to speaking arrangements, they must be made in person at the Secretariat desk in the room and not by e-mail or informal channels, please. Should a State organization wish to speak on behalf of a group of State organizations, it should inform the Secretariat well in advance of the relevant agenda item. Delegations are asked to limit their statements to five minutes, please, five minutes, including in the case of a country organization representing a group of countries or organizations. I would like to appeal to everyone to keep their statements to the allotted time to maintain a normal speed when making their statements and to provide an advanced copy to the Secretariat in order to facilitate interpretation. By the way, please keep five minutes. I don't want to intervene with a statement when it is being made. However, if it goes too long, I have to stop it. So please keep the time, five minutes, as much as possible. Now. Now, I would also like to make a few comments on the code of conduct of the session this week. First, I would like to draw your attention to the UNHCR code of conduct, which applies to the prevention of harassment and sexual harassment at UNHCR events. I would be grateful for your adherence in this regard. The code of conduct has been made available on the Executive Committee session webpage. Second, I would like to recall that we are here because of our shared commitment to people who have been forced to flee, I trust that this common purpose will guide us, will guide our discussions throughout the week and enable the committee to engage in a constructive and corporate spirit. With this in mind, I would like to reemphasize the purely and strictly humanitarian and nonpolitical nature of this plenary session. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, I would now like to invite you to view a short film entitled "The World Has Changed, But the Promise Remains." This year, we mark 75 years of the 1951 Refugee Convention. I invite you to watch a short film that reflects on the promise that lies at the heart of refugee protection. Through the voices and experiences of refugees, the film reminds us what commitment to protection means in people's lives and why international solidarity remains essential As we look to the challenges and decisions ahead, let us reflect on what brings us together, what we stand for, and the responsibility we share. So now the time for films.

75 years ago, countries came together around a shared conviction: people forced to flee war and persecution deserve protection. That commitment was the foundation of the 1951 Refugee Convention and remains at the heart of UNHCR's work today. A solemn promise to people seeking safety that they will find refuge and protection.

We explained why we had fled our country.

Because we hungered for freedom.

That promise has saved millions of lives ever since. A commitment safeguarded through wars, through crisis, through changing political tides. And today, our work remains as vital as ever.

The road is very bad, but anyway, we will manage it.

Responding to emergencies, providing life-saving assistance, defending the rights of people forced to flee, and helping them find a way forward. Because everyone deserves the chance to build a life beyond survival. To learn, to work, to contribute.

I want to be a Minister of Education because in my country there are so many children that are suffering.

And when conditions allow and refugees choose to return home, they can do so in safety and dignity.

I am so happy. It's great because I'm back in my country.

Every step towards lasting solutions is made possible when countries and communities stand together. For 75 years, international cooperation has been at the heart of refugee protection.

What common ends could be more natural or satisfying than the alleviation of human suffering, which man has brought unto himself?

Today, as conflicts continue and humanitarian needs grow, your commitment and UNHCR's work matters more than ever. No country should carry the responsibility of protecting refugees alone. The decisions we make together reach far beyond the walls of this room. As we mark the 77th session of UNHCR's Executive Committee, we have a responsibility to take action. to save and transform lives. The world has changed, but the promise remains true. A promise that must be kept for every person forced to flee.

Thank you. Now, I would like to thank all those responsible for creating this film and bringing those humanitarian stories into our meeting room. Let us keep in mind throughout the debate that the forcibly displaced urgently look to governments, UNHCR, and other partners for protection, assistance, and solutions. They are counting on all of us for support. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, it now gives me a great pleasure to invite the High Commissioner to address the committee. High Commissioner.

Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, colleagues, partners and friends. It is my great honor to address the Executive Committee for the first time as High Commissioner for Refugees. Before I begin, allow me to express my deepest solidarity with the people of Panama, Following the powerful earthquake that struck the country last week, our thoughts are with all those who have suffered loss, injury and displacement as a result of that tragedy. We commend the efforts of the Panamanian authorities, local communities and humanitarian partners responding under very difficult circumstances. Excellencies, Nine months into this role, I'm conscious of the history of this office, the trust placed in it, and above all, the people at the heart of our mandate, those forced to leave their homes and communities. I come to this responsibility with a deeply personal perspective. I know what it means to need protection. And I know the difficult decisions governments must take. And I understand how profoundly these decisions can shape people's lives. The pressures are real, so are our responsibilities. These nine months have also shown me the scale of our challenge.

Conflicts.

Are becoming more protracted. Displacement lasts longer. Resources are shrinking. New emergencies demand immediate action, while millions of people displaced by older crises are still waiting to rebuild their lives. This is a difficult moment for UNSCR. but it is also a reminder of why UNSCR remains relevant, vital, and indispensable. 75 years after the adoption of the Refugee Convention, the responsibilities at the heart of our mandate remains as urgent as ever. People forced to flee need protection. Countries and communities receiving them need support. And refugees need more than survival. They need to recover control over their lives and ultimately find a solution to their displacement. In the last nine months, I have visited 15 UNHCR operations from Chad to Ukraine, Ethiopia to Afghanistan, Syria to the Sahel, Mexico to Venezuela. I've listened to displaced people, host communities, governments, and colleagues. I've met people arriving across borders with almost nothing. I've met refugees who have lived in exile for decades. I've met people making the difficult journey home, determined to begin again. What I have seen has reinforced one conviction: we must protect people when they are forced to flee, but we cannot accept indefinite displacement as their future. Humanitarian assistance saves lives and remains indispensable wherever people need it. But another year of survival in displacement cannot, by itself, be our measure of success. Success must also mean people recovering agency, being able to work, to learn, to support their families, and to make the choices about their future. We must measure success not only by the lives we save, but by the lives people are able to rebuild and lasting solutions they can find. Mr. Chairman, as you mentioned, More than 117 million people have been forced to flee their homes by conflict, violence, persecution and other threats. Behind that figure are painful, tragic human realities. In Sudan, the conflict has displaced millions. On my first mission as High Commissioner, At the border between Sudan and Chad, I met families who have fled the violence in Darfur days earlier. Some had lost parents, others were separated from their children. Crossing that border meant a difference between life and death. In Ukraine, millions remain displaced while the war continues to destroy homes, infrastructure, and lives. I witnessed the devastating human toll firsthand. during my first visit in February. Across the Sahel, violence, insecurity uprooted communities and strained states already confronting poverty and climate shocks. And more than nine years after the mass displacement of 2017, over 1.2 million stateless Rohingya refugees remain in Bangladesh, unable to return safely to Myanmar. For more than half a century, generations of Sahrawi refugees have lived in camps near Tindouf, where our work continues, but where humanitarian conditions are increasingly challenging. In Yemen, the recent escalation has already displaced hundreds of thousands, compounding the immense suffering of millions from years of conflict. Saturday's and last night's deplorable attacks on the airports in Riyadh killed 12 people and injured more than 300. This dangerous escalation must end and every effort must be made to bring this conflict to an end. Across Latin America, violence, insecurity, political instability has led to uprooting communities. The region hosts more than 22 million forcibly displaced people, with 10 million people internally displaced across the region, including more than 7 million in Colombia and 1.4 million in Haiti. These crises are profoundly different, but they reveal the same pattern. Conflicts are producing displacement faster than we are resolving it. Humanitarian organizations are left to manage the consequences. We will continue to protect people, support host communities, and use humanitarian diplomacy to secure access and advance solutions. But humanitarian assistance cannot indefinitely compensate for unresolved wars. Ending them requires political leadership. We need greater investment in conflict prevention, diplomacy, peacebuilding, and development. When openings emerge, they must bring real change, sustained safety, voluntary returns when conditions permit, and the chances to rebuild lives. Peace must be measured not only by agreement signed, but by the lives changed. Until then, Sadly, painfully, people will continue to flee. And when they do, our responsibility is clear. They must be able to find protection. Excellencies, Mr. Chairman, this year marks the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention. 75 years ago, in the aftermath of the Second World War, states made a promise: people fleeing persecution must be able to seek protection, and refugees must not be returned to places where their lives or freedom are threatened. The Convention was not born because protection of refugees was easy. It was born because the world had seen the cost of failing to protect them. That promise has saved generations of lives. Today, it remains as vital as ever. But it is being tested as never before. In discussions with States, refugees, civil societies across the regions, I've heard concerns of States whose asylum systems are under pressure. the frustration of countries hosting refugees for decades without adequate support, and the challenges of mixed movements, dangerous journeys, and the exploitation of people by smugglers and traffickers. I've also heard the fears of refugees themselves as protection space contracts, humanitarian assistance becomes scarcer, and uncertainty grows. Women and girls exposed to violence and exploitation, children losing years of education, and persons with disabilities facing barriers to protection, services, and opportunities. These concerns, Excellencies, colleagues, are real. We should confront them honestly. We need fair and efficient asylum systems. stronger support for host countries, cooperating along the routes and more regular pathways. We must also ensure dignified returns for those not to need international protection following fair procedures and appropriate safeguards. We must safeguard the asylum system against abuse while ensuring access for protection and upholding non-refoulement. None of this requires retreating from the Convention. It requires implementing it better. Perhaps that is the most important message of the 75th anniversary. The principles endure. Our collective efforts to implement them must evolve. We have adapted before. The 1967 protocol removed the convention's temporal limitations and for states parties to the protocol, generally its geographical limitation. When the world changed, states chose to extend protection, not abandon it. 65 years after the 1961 convention on the reduction of statelessness, millions still lack a nationality. Together with the 1954 Convention protecting stateless persons, these instruments give States tools to reform discriminatory laws and prevent childhood statelessness. With political will, people can belong somewhere in law, as well as in life. We do not walk away from a promise because keeping it has become difficult. That is when the promise matters most. Protection is indispensable, but our responsibility does not end with safety. It must also include lasting solutions. For 75 years, Mr. Chairman, UNHCR's mandate has rested on three responsibilities: international protection, life-saving humanitarian assistance, and solutions. All remain indispensable. We must pursue them together from the outset. In 2026, UNHCR has responded to 22 emergency declarations across 18 countries, including 17 newly declared emergencies in 15 countries. From Yemen, To East and Horn of Africa, Sudan, to the Sahel, including Niger, our emergency capacity remained essential. When people are forced to flee, we must be there protecting them, providing essential assistance, and supporting the countries and communities receiving them. But we must ask ourselves an equally important question: What happens after the emergency? Too often, what begins as temporary becomes permanent. A refugee settlement established in an emergency remains decades later. A child born becomes an adult raising children of their own. Programs designed for survival become permanent systems of dependency. We must work toward a future where one generation of refugees is not forced to pass its displacement to the next. This is the ambition behind 50 by 35. By 2035, our vision is to reduce by half the number of refugees in long-term displacement who remain dependent on humanitarian assistance through greater self-reliance and lasting solutions. Today, approximately 14.5 million refugees in such situations in low- and middle-income countries depend on aid for their basic needs. It is an ambitious goal. It needs to be. But let me be clear. 50 by 35 is not a target to reduce humanitarian assistance. It is a commitment to reduce the need for it. We cannot claim success because assistance has been reduced or that the responsibility has been shifted to hosting states. Success must be measured by whether people's lives have actually improved and they have become self-sufficient, contributing members to their communities. For those who continue to need humanitarian support, our responsibility remains. That starts with protection and good policies, legal status, documentation, freedom of movement, education, and the right to work. Governments are already showing what is possible. In Ethiopia, more than 30,000 work permits and authorizations have been issued to refugees. Over 123,000 hold national digital identification, and refugee schools are being progressively integrated into the national system. In Thailand, refugees from Myanmar who spent decades in temporary shelters are gaining access to employment documentation, banking, and services. Uganda continues to promote economic inclusion, while Kenya's Shrika Plan is advancing integration into national systems and local economies. In Mexico, more than 175,000 refugees and asylum seekers have benefited from local integration programs under which refugees have found formal employment with more than 650 companies. Building on this experience, UNHCR is working with the government of Mexico on Mexico Integra. to establish a comprehensive, nationally owned, state-led integration system. These are changes in government policy that give people greater control over the future and reduce dependence on humanitarian assistance. But self-reliance and inclusion is not the same as a durable solution. We must also accelerate and facilitate voluntary returns where conditions permit, complementary pathways and local integration or alternative legal status. For many refugees I have met, going home remains their deepest hope. That hope deserves our support. Crossing a border, however, is not by itself a solution. Without documentation, livelihoods, schools, functioning services, and security return may not be sustainable. I've seen this in Syria, where some 1.8 million refugees from neighboring countries and more than 2 million internally displaced people have returned to their areas of origin since December 2024. I saw the destruction left by years of conflict. but also the determination to rebuild. In Afghanistan, nearly 7 million people have returned from neighboring countries since late 2023, often under difficult circumstances and not always voluntarily. Communities are struggling with poverty, limited services, and notably restrictions placed on women and girls. UNSCR, UNDP and other partners are supporting reintegration, but the scale demands much greater international investment and support. In Venezuela, I met Andruska, who returned from Ecuador with her family. Her determination reflects the hopes of many Venezuelans who wish to return and contribute to their country's future. There are important opportunities to support such voluntary returns, and they must be pursued. In Central African Republic, government leadership and regional cooperation are opening opportunities for thousands of refugees to move towards solutions to return home. In the Great Lake region, renewed cooperation between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is creating opportunities to address long-standing displacement. More than 70,000 Congolese Congolese refugees have returned to the DRC in 2026, while thousands of Rwandans have returned to Rwanda. Through the tripartite mechanism, UNHCR supports voluntary returns and sustained reintegration. These are important opportunities, but return depends on sustained international support. Countries receiving large numbers of returnees need investment in security, housing, services, and livelihoods so that people can rebuild their lives and remain home. Equally, hosting states Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, which host one of the world's largest refugee populations per capita while facing extensive internal displacement in the case of Lebanon and conflict-related damage, also need continued support to extend protection beyond sustainable returns. Excellencies, return is an event. A solution is what comes after. Resettlement will remain an indispensable for refugees whose protection needs cannot be met where they are. Complementary pathways through employment, education, family reunification, and community sponsorship to help refugees find safety and rebuild their lives are also critical. We need countries with established resettlement and complementary pathways to maintain and expand these opportunities. 50 by 35 is now moving from vision to implementation. With changing excellencies how we plan and deliver programs in protracted situations. Country by country, we are aligning our programs with government-led priorities for self-reliance and solutions, engaging development partners earlier. We will soon launch a global strategy for self-reliance and expand refugee access to employment, finance, and entrepreneurship and markets. UNSCR's role is to act as a catalyst, helping partners to connect refugees with markets and value chains, including through policy reforms and area-based investments. We are deepening our engagement with the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and the International Monetary Fund, and other regional development banks to bring displacement more systematically and to development planning and economic and mobilized development financing and investment for refugees and host communities. We will also launch the 50 by 35 accelerator, a dedicated financing window within UNSCR that will provide flexible multi-year resource additional to our existing budget to accelerate opportunities for inclusion, self-reliance and solutions. The Accelerator will support targeted interventions and technical assistance to mobilize large government-led and development investment. I'm grateful to donors like Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom for their continued investment and thought leadership in self-reliance work. The EU and the Mastercard Foundation are both front-runners in supporting the initiative. The Accelerator will build upon these efforts and help take them to scale. Through the Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement with the World Bank, we are strengthening how we measure refugee self-reliance, protection, and solutions, growing on national statistical systems wherever possible to track progress and assess impact. From the outset of an emergency, we should ask not only how we protect and assist people today, but how we will enable them to rebuild their lives tomorrow. This shift from managing displacement indefinitely to changing the conditions that keep people displaced and dependent. Mr. Chairman, Excellencies, none of this can be done by UNHCR alone. It begins with leadership of refugee-hosting countries, but it cannot succeed by taking these countries to do more with less. Inclusion cannot be financed by goodwill alone. Schools need teachers, health systems need capacity, municipalities need infrastructure, economic inclusion requires investments and jobs. This matters particularly because most refugees continue to be hosted by the countries with considerably few resources. Countries representing just 27% of global wealth host 80% of the world's refugees. I want to recognize those countries today. Many have kept their societies and their countries hospitable, accommodating for refugees through successive crises. They have included refugees in schools and hospitals already under pressure. They have provided land, documentation, and access to work. Their leadership must be matched by international support. Achieving this ambition will require sustained cooperation across governments, development institutions, and private sector. Local communities, civil society, and refugee-led organizations are equally important to this effort. Their knowledge, relationships, and leaderships are essential to effective responses, and we must support them through more equitable partnerships and sustained investments in local capacity. Meaningful participation is not meant by how many refugees are in the room, but also by how they can influence what happens in it. Refugees are already doing much of the work supporting their families. Across nine major refugee-hosting countries, refugees meet between 60 and 90 percent of their household needs through their own income, often despite significant restrictions on their ability to work and participate fully in the economy. Education is equally central. Today, ladies and gentlemen, 5.8 million refugee children remain out of school. While access to higher education has increased significantly, the gap between refugee students and their peers remains profound. Education is both protection and agency. A young refugee able to study, develop skills, and enter labor markets has a fundamentally different prospect from one who spends years excluded from opportunity. For girls in particular, remaining in education can also reduce exposure to early marriage, abuse and other protection risks. This is precisely why we are planning to launch the Aiming Higher initiative to give refugee students expanded opportunities to pursue university degrees and other higher education qualifications. Through this initiative, we are bringing together governments, universities, and private sector, and refugee students themselves to expand access to tertiary education. We're building on DAFI scholarships, connecting learning and third country education pathways to give more refugee students the opportunity to fulfill their potential. The Global Compact on Refugees gives us a framework for responsibility sharing. The Global Refugee Forum gives us the mechanisms to translate that responsibility into commitments and action. Many host nations have already made ambitious commitments, opening national systems, expanding rights and opportunities, and developing nationality-led plans for inclusions and solutions. But international support has not always matched their ambitions. The 2025 progress review showed that persistent gap between commitments made by host countries and the financial, material, and technical support provided by the international community. The next Global Refugee Forum in 2027 gives us an important opportunity to close that gap. Between now and then, our emphasis must move from pledging to delivery, implementing commitments already made, matching ambitious host country policies with concrete support. Mr. Chairman, we are asking more of the refugee response at precisely the moment when fewer resources are available to sustain it. As of October 9, We have funds available of 3 billion US dollars, representing 35% of the requirement of the 8.5 billion dollars needed for 2026. Our current forecast for 2027 stands at approximately 2.68 billion dollars. This forecast, we hope, will evolve as additional donor commitments become clear, notably at the UNSCR pledging conference in December. We have reduced costs, tightened financial controls, prioritized activities.

Reduced our footprint, and undertaken one of the most significant workforce adjustments in UNSCR history.

We have a responsibility to make every resource entrusted to us count. But efficiency has limits. There comes a point when greater efficiency cannot compensate for fewer resources. When funding falls below that point, the consequences are not abstract. They are borne by people who depend on it. UNHCR, national and international NGOs, and refugee-led organizations are asked to sustain and often expand their responses while funding shrinks and becomes less predictable. Some are fighting for their own survival. I recognize the budget pressures governments face and our responsibility to use every dime wisely. But there is, again, a difference between doing more with less and being asked to do the impossible. We cannot ask organizations struggling to survive to keep millions of others alive. In Sudan, insufficient funding threatens specialized medical care, legal assistance, and psychological support for more than 50,000 survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.

In Chad.

Services for thousands of unaccompanied and separated children and children with specific protection needs are at risk. In Ethiopia, registration has been halted for tens of thousands of refugees from South Sudan and Eritrea, and with hundreds of thousands more awaiting verification and integration into the national identification system. Protection has a flaw. Below it, the system does not simply become smaller. The protection we can provide begins to fail. I am deeply grateful to the governments, institutions, private donors, and individuals who have continued to support UNHCR during an exceptionally difficult year. I want particularly to recognize the European Union, Japan, the Netherlands, which have increased their contributions this year, and Sweden, Norway, and Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, which are not only among our top donors, but they also make an effort to deliver a high proportion of flexible funding. I also want to pay special tribute to the private sector and to the individual peoples across the world whose generosity and commitment to refugees and to our work has remained steadfast. Frankly, extraordinary. Together, they have today become UNSCR's largest source of income and the largest source of earmarked funding. Since I took office, I have been working with our teams to ensure we have the broadest base.

Of support possible for our work.

To be clear, we need a broader base of support. We need funding earlier and more predictably, and we need much flexibility as your systems allow. The answer to shrinking humanitarian resources cannot simply to shrink our ambition in working with and for refugees and solutions. Excellencies, Mr. Chairman, this has already been a period of profound change for our organization. Since 2024, nearly 8,000 colleagues have left UNHCR. Our workforce has fallen from nearly 20,000 to just under 12,000. These are colleagues who have served refugees for years, often in some of the most difficult places in the world, at considerable personal sacrifice. They leave behind expertise and relationships that cannot simply be replaced. I want to acknowledge them and thank them for their service. I also want to recognize the colleagues who remain. They have carried this organization through extraordinary uncertainty and continuing to serve refugees, often with smaller teams and greater responsibilities. Reductions on this scale inevitably have consequences. But despite the contraction, 88% of our workforce remain outside headquarters. 70% of our staff are locally recruited, and approximately 95% of our protection and solutions capacity remains in field operations. We are determined. to preserve these capabilities while ensuring that UNHCR is financially sustainable and aligned with our operational priorities. But this transformation is about more than numbers. It is about what UNHCR does, where we do it, and how we do it. Earlier this year, I commissioned an independent management review undertaken pro bono by Oliver Wyman, Its recommendations, together with extensive consultations across the organisations, have informed a comprehensive review of our capacity operations, regional bureaus and headquarters. I have endorsed its broad principles and recommendations. The first decisions are already being reflected in our 2027 planning, budgets and workforce arrangements. At country level, We have reviewed every UNSCR presence against protection needs, operational risks, and where our direct engagement adds greatest value. The current proposals would bring changes to 31 presences, approximately one quarter of those reviewed.

This will allow us to adopt a lighter.

Models where national institutions and partnerships are strong and delivering, while maintaining more direct engagement where protection needs and operational risks are greatest. The changes are accompanied by appropriate protection safeguards and continued monitoring with flexibility to strengthen presence should circumstances requires it. We are also reviewed representative grades against the scale of displacement, operational resource, workforce size, and organizational complexity and leadership responsibilities. This will reduce the number of D2 representative positions from 12 to 6. At regional level, we are reducing duplication and sharpening the role of bureaus. They will become leaner and more strategic with simpler structures, clearer responsibilities, and stronger focus on oversight and support country operations. At headquarters, we are establishing a leaner and a more focused structure with clearer responsibility and global functions, reducing duplications, and stringer alignment of resources with organizational priorities. This involves streamlining senior level functions and management layers and grades so that the positions and responsibilities can best support delivery on the organisation's objectives. The aim is leaner, less top-heavy headquarters with greater authority and responsibility, closer to our operations and the people we serve. We plan to bring our technology and data capabilities with the use of artificial intelligence into a more coherent enterprise structure while keeping registration and identity management anchored in protection and safeguarding the independence of the data protection function. Our private sector partnership model will become lighter and more locally anchored, with greater emphasis on national partnerships, digital fundraising, and market development. We will continue to review and update, in consultation with you, our workforce financing and fundraising models to ensure they keep pace with the evolving humanitarian sector environment needs and our mandate. This will include increasing flexibility of our workforce model, including the growing number of national association partnerships, the NAPs, and working more closely with corporations, including through a new CEO council and reviewing specialised financing windows and our 6.5 per cent internal support cost, ISC, structure. We will consolidate more transactional functions in finance, human resources, and administration supply through the global shared services, including in Budapest. We are equally elevating our oversight responsibilities by creating a core risk committee made-up of the senior executive committee, reinforcing our approach to enterprise risk management and oversight. This is also part of a wider transformation of the UN and humanitarian system. Through UNAT and the Humanitarian Reset, we are working to reduce duplications, simplify processes, strengthen complementarity, and make better use of our collective resources, including in close partnership with the WFP, UNICEF, IOM, and with strong leadership and coordination role of the ERC. That includes common services, appropriate data, interoperability, and greater cooperation across supply chains. The integrated supply chain initiative is beginning to use existing capacities across agencies with the aim of improving speed, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. The financial shock undoubtedly forced difficult reductions and accelerated change, but the reform cannot be just about cutting costs. It must leave us better and able to fulfil our mandate. There is more work ahead, but the direction is clear. more sustainable, agile and accountable UNHCR with fewer layers, stronger field authority and greater collaboration across the humanitarian system. Our goal is not simply a smaller UNHCR. It is a stronger UNHCR focused on where we add the greatest value and better able to deliver protection, assistance and solutions to refugees and communities that host them. Mr. Chairman, the High Commissioner's dialogue this December and the Global Refugee Forum in 2027 are opportunities to turn our commitments into change. And the people we serve cannot afford another generation of promises without action. Last month at the UN General Assembly, I had a powerful reminder from Syria's Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management, Raed Al-Saleh, a man who himself lived in displacement camps, who today is helping lead efforts to rebuild the infrastructure and services that will allow others to return home. His message was simple. When we speak about refugees and displacement, we should do so with humility. None of us know who may be forced to flee tomorrow or who may be called upon to offer refuge. The direction of displacement changes, the responsibility to protect must not. 75 years from now, another generation will look back at the choices we make today. Will they see a world turned away when responsibilities became difficult, or one that remembered the lessons of its own history? I want to leave you, Excellencies, with the words of someone I met this year in Kabul, a young girl, young Afghan girl, Growing up in a country where at an age when dreams should know no limits, girls are being asked to make theirs smaller. She shared a poem with me, written for another Afghan girl, about education, courage, and hope. She wrote, "Life is not always easy, but your ability and worth are greater than any limitation. Never forget You're not alone. Your voice matters and your dreams are valuable. Her words stayed with me. She should not have to be extraordinary to have what ought to be an ordinary future. To go to school, to make her own choices, to become the person she wants to be. She and millions like her are not asking us to dream for them. They are asking for chances to fulfill their own. Let's make sure that our dedications and decisions and actions are not just words. Give them a chance. The power to do that is all in our hands. History will remember how we choose to use it. Thank you so very much.

I would like to thank the High Commissioner for his statement. It provides important context for our discussions over the days ahead and valuable guidance as we consider the challenges and opportunities facing UNCL and the people it serves. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, let us proceed with agenda item three, the general debate. In addition to having heard from the High Commissioner, delegations have received updates on regional developments and global programs which will help inform our discussion. I trust that these briefings, together with the High Commissioner's statement, will provide a strong basis for deliberations throughout the week. I would also like to remind delegations to limit their statements to five minutes, including statements delivered on behalf of a group of countries and organizations. I will give the floor to the High Commissioner to respond after every 10 or so statements. Should there be requests for right of reply, please note that I will grant two minutes for each right of reply, and I will only be according one statement, only one statement per delegation. I would now like to proceed with the regional groups and call on the first speaker in the list of speakers. I give the floor to Egypt on behalf of the Arab Group, please.

Said Rais.

Mr. Chair, Mr. High Commissioner, the Egyptian delegation is honored to deliver the statement on behalf of the Arab Group. The Arab Group welcomes the first participation of the High Commissioner and the high-ranking officials of the Executive Committee, and we wish them every success in their mandates. Our meetings today coincide with the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Convention on Refugees, and we seize this opportunity to reaffirm our collective responsibility to ensure safety and protection for all those who have been made to flee to seek safety in light of an ever-changing world. Mr. Chair, we meet as geopolitical tensions are increasing, as well as forced displacement in the Arab region. We are cognizant that the HRC does not have a mandate for the OPT, which is part of the mandate of UNRWA, but we express our deep concern regarding the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the West Bank, and our regret when it comes to the actions of the occupying power leading to forced displacement of about 90% of the total population of the Gaza Strip and the woes and suffering of the families there. It is our firm stance to reject any form of forced displacement of the Palestinian people or allow for settlement expansion or annexation. We reaffirm the importance of alleviating any barriers to humanitarian assistance, as well as speeding up the efforts for relief and reconstruction. We also express our deep concern regarding the developments in Yemen after the most recent escalation by the Houthi militia, including the targeting of camps of the displaced, as well as forced internal displacement of about 250,000 people. in addition to the burdens that Yemen has to shoulder in light of the presence of about 4 million internally displaced people, in addition to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and migrants. The Arab Group would like to call for supporting Yemen financially and living up to the obligations and commitments of the refugee conference. In Sudan, there are about 5 million internally displaced peoples, as well as returnees from neighboring countries. as stability is coming back to various regions in the world. We call for further assistance for relief, reconstruction, and building the right conditions for voluntary return. The Arab Group expresses its concern regarding the ongoing presence of about 8 million displaced persons internally, as well as 3 million refugees and asylum seekers who are from Sudan in the neighboring countries, as well as the the difficult security and humanitarian situation in various parts of the country, leading to further displacement. We reaffirm the sovereignty and the unity and territorial unity of Sudan, and we insist on the importance of a peace process that is driven and owned by Sudan and the Sudanese, leading to an independent civilian government. When it comes to Syria, we commend the efforts of the HRC towards the return of Syrians as far as it is a dignified and safe return. And we call upon the international community to further support these efforts to ensure reconstruction and relief efforts in the country, while also providing the necessary financial support to ensure the basic services for Syrian refugees in various countries. We reaffirm the importance of collaborating with all relevant agencies to deliver effective solutions given the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, as well as the importance of providing support for the displaced who were made to leave their homes. Mr. Chair, despite the exacerbating challenges, the budget plan for 2027 has seen a reduction of appropriations for the region. We have grave concern regarding this reduction and its impact on the affected countries and the host communities. We'd like the international community to shoulder its responsibilities in ensuring unearmarked support for countries to help them out in their delivery of their responsibilities as part of a collective responsibility system. We also reaffirmed the importance of the dialogue with the High Commissioner towards finding solutions in a non-selective manner. We support the High Commissioner and the Executive Community, and we support them in the delivery of their mandates and the continuation of their laudable efforts. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Ambassador. Now, I give the forward to the distinct representative of Columbia on behalf of the group of Latin America and Caribbean countries, Gurak.

Thank you very much, President. Colombia has the honor to make this statement on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean Group, GRULAC. The group thanks the High Commissioner and UNHCR staff, especially those that work in the field, for their commitment in a year that was marked by severe financial constraints. We recognize the support provided by HCR in the face of the different humanitarian situations in our region, including the earthquakes in Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Peru, extreme weather events in the Caribbean and Central America, and the agency response to situations of internal displacement, including the humanitarian and protection crisis in Haiti. We highlight your recent visit to our region, where you, Mr. High Commissioner, you are able to see firsthand the solidarity of our countries and the commitment we have to offer in terms of lasting solutions. We appreciate the consultations held this year on the organization's corporate priorities, budget reform of its operating model, and the consequences of the current financial crisis. We reiterate the importance of these consultations in order to ensure that they take place in a timely manner and prior decisions affecting operational presence, staffing, or resource allocations, the Executive Committee and its Standing Committee must remain the central platforms for collectively reviewing these decisions and their impact on protection. Mr. President, our region continues to respond to the situation in our region in solidarity. The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean host millions of refugees, asylum seekers, displaced persons, stateless persons, and other persons. in need of international protection. We have established mechanisms for regularization, complementary protection and inclusion, and we're making progress in the implementation of the Chile Plan of Action. However, these efforts need to be accompanied by strengthened international cooperation, a more equitable distribution of resources and responsibilities. By 2027, UNHCR projects that the total number of forcibly displaced and stateless people in the Americas will increase by 4% to approximately reach the figure of 24.5 million. However, the proposed budget for the region would be reduced by about 32% to approximately 485 million US dollars. That is the largest percentage reduction of any region. This trend is particularly worrying in the context where needs continue to increase while the resources available to respond are decreasing. We share the concern that was raised by the ACABQ about the disproportional impact of the cuts on field operations while management administration costs increase. This is particularly relevant for the Americas, where posts decreased by 41%, which means less presence on the ground, less protection capacity, less accompanying to states, and the loss of institutional knowledge and regional experience. The region requires robust operations with sufficient capacities to support national asylum systems, promote effective access to international protection and respect for the principle of non-refoulement, respond to new displacements, prevent and reduce statelessness, accompany voluntary returns in safety and dignity, and move towards durable solutions. We therefore encourage UNHCR to prioritize the preservation of its essential protection capacities and presence on the ground, as well as to assess and communicate transparently the impact of cuts on the various operations, ensuring that efficiency measures do not disproportionately shift their costs to host countries or to people in need of protection. We also reiterate the call to broaden flexible and and to diversify the donor base. In this regard, we appreciate the consultations that are necessary to be carried out with member states in order to advance in the definition of mechanisms, actions necessary for the implementation of the 50 by 35 vision, keeping international protection and durable solutions at the center of its implementation. GRULAC also wishes to reiterate its concern about the continued underrepresentation of Latin American and Caribbean nationals in UNHCR senior posts and decision-making spaces, particularly in the context of ongoing process of restructuring and reduction of the workforce. It is essential that these processes do not deepen existing geographical imbalances and that decisions on appointments, retention, and abolition of posts incorporate the principle of equitable geographical representation. We appreciate the updated information that UNHCR publishes on its website on staff, and we urge specific and verifiable measures to correct the underrepresentation of our region, especially at senior levels. The extensive experience of professionals in Latin America and the Caribbean in areas of protection solutions, internal displacements, and responses to mixed movements must be adequately reflected in the direction and senior posts of the organization. Mr. President, Latin America and the Caribbean will continue to defend multilateralism, international protection, and solidarity. along the entire route of displacement, and we urge all States to accompany and support UNHCR in the context of the 75th anniversary of the Convention. We do hope that this commitment will be accompanied by adequate resources and effective presence on the ground, representative governance processes, and a more equitable distribution of responsibilities. Gulak reiterates its readiness to continue to work constructively with the High Commissioner, UNHCR, and all member states. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Let me state one more time, the speaking time is five minutes. Now, I would like to give the floor to Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Please.

Thank you, Chairperson, High Commissioner, Excellencies, distinguished delegates. Pakistan is delivering this statement on behalf of the OIC in Geneva. The OIC appreciates the High Commissioner for his leadership of UNHCR during these exceptionally challenging times and reiterates its support for UNHCR's important mandate. The scale and complexity of forced displacement globally is not just deeply worrying, it is alarming. Protracted and emerging conflicts, geopolitical tensions, and erosion of respect for international law and norms, among other factors, continue to drive displacement, testing multilateralism and international cooperation like never before. Environmental challenges and impacts of climate change are adding to the severity of displacement crises. The human suffering resulting from displacement challenges, as documented by UNHCR and the wider UN systems reports, is unprecedented, including in situations of foreign occupation, and consequences for peace, stability and development are catastrophic. Some regions are more affected than others. The IC condemns the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homeland and calls upon the international community to support efforts for the establishment of a sovereign, independent, contiguous Palestinian state on the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital, and that two-state solution is the only viable solution to reach peace and stability in the region for all. Chairperson, while millions displaced around the world are in need of humanitarian assistance, the gap between needs and available resources is widening. UNHCR's budgetary trends over the past few years are not encouraging, nor is the reported suspension or decline in third country resettlement programs and complementary pathways. Low and middle income countries, including the OIC member states, which hold 68% of the world's refugees, continue to shoulder a disproportionate share of the responsibility. often at a huge socioeconomic and financial cost to their own societies, own peoples and national systems, sometimes for decades. This is not sustainable. It is imperative to strengthen meaningful international cooperation based on the principle of burden and responsibility sharing, taking into account different capacities, circumstances and challenges faced by host countries. Words and commitments must be matched by practical actions at all levels. UNHCR should also make every possible effort to strengthen and scale up its response to support the people of Syria and Lebanon. On Sudan, while the OIC welcomes the return of more than 5.4 million people to their areas of origin and to Sudan, the OIC calls for increased and long-term development support to sustain these returns. The OIC also reaffirms its support for the unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Sudan. Expressing deep concern over the deteriorating plight and continued persecution of the Rohingyas, we call upon the international community to create conditions for the safe and voluntary return of all forcibly displaced. The OIC Chairperson would like to emphasize five broader priorities. First, the international community must intensify efforts to address the root causes of displacement including by investing more and meaningfully in preventing and peacefully resolving conflicts and addressing other underlying factors of forced displacement, including foreign occupation, economic inequalities, and impacts of climate change. Second, we call for more and practical support for and solidarity with refugee transit and host countries. Third, international efforts must be redoubled to advance durable solutions to displacement, including dignified and safe return of displaced people, as well as expanded access to third country resettlements. Such ongoing efforts must be facilitated by sustainable reintegration and meaningful international support to countries of origin, including in Afghanistan. Fourth, the international community must provide adequate, predictable, timely, and flexible resources to UNHCR. Fifth, Relevant reform and efficiency efforts, including those under the UN80 and the humanitarian reset, should strengthen UNHCR's ability to deliver on its mandate more effectively and efficiently. It is equally important to ensure equitable geographical representation in the staff composition of UNHCR. In concluding, Chairperson, the OIC takes note of the High Commissioner's 50 by 35 vision and hopes that it would promote durable solutions to displacement in a manner that does not place additional burden on host communities and countries. I thank you.

Thank you very much. Now I give the floor to the distinguished representative of the European Union on behalf of its member states, please.

Chair, I have the honor to speak on behalf of the EU and its member states. High Commissioner, we recognize your leadership as you take forward UNHCR through a period of significant change. We reaffirm our strong support for UNHCR's core protection mandate and the centrality of protection. Dedicated protection expertise and capacity, including on addressing the impact of sexual and gender-based and on disability inclusion, must be preserved. to the current restructuring. We stand with UNHCR personnel facing these changes and commend their continued dedication, in particular those who risk their lives to deliver protection and assistance. 75 years on, the Refugee Convention remains the cornerstone of international refugee protection. The EU and its Member States reaffirm their unwavering commitment to the Convention and to UNHCR as its guardian, and we look forward to the High Commissioner's dialogue on protection in December has an opportunity to strengthen its effective implementation and contribute towards making asylum systems work better in the current context. We commend the generosity of countries and communities. We will continue shouldering our responsibilities globally, supporting other host countries, promoting durable and stable solutions and self-reliance. EU Member States host millions of refugees and other persons in need of international protection from countries across all regions in the world, including those fleeing Russia's illegal, unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine. 4.4 million Ukrainians have benefited from access to accommodation, education, employment, health care and social protection. At the same time, we continue to play a leading role in supporting humanitarian and longer-term responses, from Sudan to Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Myanmar and beyond. We also continue to offer safe and legal pathways with the first-ever Union Resettlement Plan now being rolled out. Amid continued financial shortfalls and the ongoing restructuring of UNHCR, the EU and its Member States remain stable, reliable and strategic partners to UNHCR, having collectively allocated around $1.2 billion in 2025. We appreciate the transparency shown in the consultations on the new strategic directions and the hybrid budget model. We welcome the 5 by 35 vision. We hope that together these advances will bring greater clarity on how UNHCR is prioritizing available funding while ensuring appropriate consultation with its implementing partners right from the start. We look forward to receive further updates on how these changes will be operationalized across staffing and country level operations and how progress will be measured. The 50 by 35 vision cannot, however, be achieved by UNHCR alone. It requires an enabling environment underpinned by strong engagements with host governments, IFIs, and the private sector, and the wider UN development system. Today's mixed movements are increasingly complex, with persons fleeing persecution often traveling alongside others moving for different reasons. Along these routes, many face serious risks, including loss of life, trafficking, and exploitation by transnational criminal networks. A route-based approach can help address these challenges by identifying vulnerabilities early, strengthening cooperation among relevant UN agencies and partners, and ensuring coordinated responses, including the timely identification of those in need of international protection. The EU and its Member States condemn any attempts to instrumentalize migrants and asylum seekers for political motives by orchestrating their flow across EU external borders. The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, as part of our comprehensive approach, balances solidarity and responsibility between EU Member States. It provides more efficient, safe, predictable procedures and stronger safeguards for persons with specific needs and in vulnerable situations. These efforts complement our bilateral and regional partnerships, supporting a comprehensive, rights-based, whole-of-route approach, as also reflected in the Pact for the Mediterranean. We invite UNHCR to play a leading role in advancing the humanitarian reset, ensuring its restructuring aligns with UNHCR processes and fosters close cooperation with IOM, including through a One UN approach. Finally, we urge stronger internal controls, audit and investigative functions, despite your budget constraints. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Now I give the floor to the distinguished representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on behalf of the African Group.

Mr. President, High Commissioner, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my honor to make this statement on behalf of the African Group. President, The group would like to wish a warm welcome to Mr. Baham Sali, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and thank him for his first statement before the committee. We assure him of our availability and preparedness to work together in a spirit of dialogue and trust. We also thank the UNHCR for efforts made to support the protection of refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced persons. within their own country, IDPs, as well as stateless persons in a particularly challenging international context. President, the African Group would like to share its grave concern, given the persistence and multiplication of conflicts in a context of geopolitical fragmentation. More than 129 million people are today displaced by force, while the resources dedicated to their protection are reducing all the time in Africa, prolonged conflicts, new crises, instability, natural disasters, the effects of climate change, and socioeconomic challenges represent a major trigger of massed population displacement. As recalled by the High Commissioner, forced displacement is first and foremost the result of failures in peace and political solutions. The group calls on the international community to step up its efforts to prevent external interference and to allow prevention and conflict resolution to progress, which are the only things allowing us to address the underlying causes of displacement. The African Group draws particular attention to the major displacement crises impacting the African continent, and also to the humanitarian ramifications, as well as economic and security ramifications for neighboring countries, which are significant. These crises continue to bring major pressure to bear on national institutions and host communities. while international support remains far below the scale required. The Group is particularly concerned by the humanitarian and displacement crisis currently ongoing in Sudan and by its major regional repercussions. At the same time, it is happy to see an unprecedented level of voluntary return of more than 5 million refugees and IDPs into their regions of origin. This demonstrates an improvement in security and stability in the majority of regions across the country. The group highlights that these returns must be supported by urgent and lasting international support to support rapid reconstruction and reestablishment of essential services, as well as the putting in place of means of subsistence and lasting reintegration in order to avoid new displacements. The group also reaffirms its support for the integrity, sovereignty, and the unity of Sudan. and the preservation of the cohesion of the institutions of state and, in addition, the protection of that state from all external interference. The Group also greets the adoption in March 2026 of the Global Roadmap for Solutions for Burundi, as well as the progress made towards the repatriation of Central African refugees. We encourage all state partners to honour their commitments. We also underscore the importance of not forgetting other African crises, particularly that in the east of the DRC and the Sahel. President, the African Group highlights that Africa continues to host a significant tranche of those people displaced across the world, despite its limited financial and human resources, while also confronting massive internal displacement. We would like to pay homage to the generosity of host countries and communities, and we call for international support to meet this challenge, in particular through the provision of flexible, forecastable, multiannual and sustainable funding that is aligned with national priorities. That reality must be fully taken into account. in the organization of international funding mechanisms and be manifested through equitable and concrete burden sharing as well as responsibility sharing. The group notes with concern that the funding crisis continues to compromise the protection, registration or protection registration, the protection of children and the prevention of gender-based violence. It's particularly alarmed by the closing of safe spaces for women and girls, including in a number of African countries, as well as a deficit in funding for child protection. The African group takes due note of the 50 by 35 vision presented by the High Commissioner, which aims to cut in half the number of refugees in a situation of extended displacement who depend on humanitarian assistance. The group highlights that any strategy aimed at reducing long-term displacement and dependence on humanitarian aid must be drawn up in close consultation with concerned States. It must also respect national priorities and be founded on appropriate, adequate and forecastable resources. These efforts must not trigger a premature withdrawal of humanitarian assistance or transfer of financial and operational responsibilities to host and countries and countries of origin which are already overburdened. The group reaffirms the importance of continuing all lasting solutions, including voluntary repatriation and rehabilitation. It also particularly highlights the importance of increasing international investment in voluntary return, lasting long-term reintegration, rapid re-establishment of infrastructures, and indeed, core services in countries of origin. These investments are essential to consolidate return, avoid new displacement, and reduce humanitarian dependence in the long term. The group also would like to highlight its serious concern given the decline or ongoing suspension of rehabilitation programs in third countries and additional admission routes. It calls on states to develop these areas, demonstrating concrete burden and responsibility sharing. President, the African Group notes the interim reforms undertaken by UNHCR so that it might become a more agile, efficient organization that is nearer to the ground, and the alignment with the UNHAT initiative, as well as the reorientation of humanitarian action. It pays homage to the commitment by UNHCR staff, particularly those recruited locally and national partners, in a context where we have significant staff reduction. It calls for those reforms to conserve operational capacity in Africa and avoid any new disproportionate reduction to the budget allocated to the continent, as well as to foster flexible finance and strengthening of local partnerships. It calls for the importance of a more equitable geographic representation within UNHCR, including at the higher levels of management. On the subjects of the Global Refugee Forum 2027, the group asks that the commitments of the Global Compact on Refugees be manifested in concrete results for refugees and host communities, and stands ready to contribute to that actively. By way of conclusion, the African group reaffirms that A response to forced displacement must rest on solidarity, shared burdens and responsibilities, the respect for international law and the search for sustainable solutions in a context of growing needs and dropping resources. We call for a renewed mobilization of the international community to support host countries, strengthen international protection systems, to invest in sustainable solutions, and to address the underlying causes of displacement. The group reiterates its full-throated support to UNHCR's mandate. and calls on donors to maintain and diversify their contributions to support refugees, IDPs and stateless persons in Africa. It commits to continuing a constructive dialogue with the Office of the High Commissioner, Member States and all partners. International solidarity must not be an acute response to crises, but a lasting commitment. rooted in a genuinely shared responsibility. Thank you very much, President.

Thank you very much, Vice Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo. Now, I would like to give the floor to Uganda on behalf of the 2023 Global Refugee Forum co-hosts and co-conveners.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also make the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention. We do so at the moment when the principle it embodied under acute strain. Refugees protection, international solidarity, and material cooperation are being tested by increasingly complex and protected crisis. as well as growing pressure on host countries in an uncertain funding environment. In this context, the Global Compact on Refugees is not simply a process, it is the international community's agreed framework. for turning responsibility sharing into practical support for the refugees, host communities, and the countries that welcome them at the Global Refugees Forum 2023. Convenant and co-hosts, Colombia, France, Japan, Jordan, Switzerland, Uganda, and UNHCR will reaffirm the importance of this framework and the need to use it with renewed purpose. The CRF affords a powerful platform for collective action that drives policy shifts, resources, mobilization, and new partnerships. Therefore, sustaining this platform through active pledges matching is how we turn our shared solidarity into lasting, tangible impact. By the measures of success is not the number of pledges made. It is whether they improve the lives of refugees and host communities, strengthening national system, expand inclusion and self-reliance, and open pathway to solution. Existing solution initiative such as Ethiopia, Makutane and Kenyan Sincara plan demonstrate how the GCR can support nationally led approaches and contribute to the 50 by 35 vision of UNRCR mandate operations. We must build on these examples and move from mobilization to sustain delivery. pledges are not an end in themselves. They must be matched with adequate resources, translated into implementation, and assessed by results they deliver for displaced persons and host communities. Looking ahead on the next Global Refugees Forum in 2027, we call on all stakeholders to use the coming period to sharpen priorities, demonstrate results, and prepare commitment that respond to the social of today's displacement challenges. In particular, we call for collective action to deliver on existing pledges and communicate clearly the changes they are making for refugees, stateless persons, host communities, and host countries. Support host countries' leadership through predictable financial, technical, and material cooperation that responds to the identified needs. bringing together all relevant actors around shared outcomes linked to GCR objectives and the 50 by 35 vision, including by matching host countries' pledges with concrete offers to support. Promote particular and leadership of refugee statement, persons and host communities in the design, implementation, and monitoring of policies and pledges that affect their lives. Engage actively in the preparation for the 2027 Global Refugees Forum, including by taking stock of progress, identifying priorities, and shaping communities and that ambitious, realistic, and grounded in the needs of refugees, stateless persons, host communities, and host countries. As convenant and co-hosts, we remain committed to the working with all stakeholders to carry this agenda forward. The road to the 2027 Global Refugees Forum should be used to show that the CGCR is not only a statement of solidarity, but a vehicle for concrete progress in the lives of the people and the countries affected by displacement. We therefore call for renewed political leadership, practical cooperation, and sustainable engagement to ensure that the Global Compact on Refugees countries is delivered where it matters most for refugees, host communities, and the country that stand with them. We thank you for your continued solidarity and commitment. I thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much, Mr. Minister. Now, I would like to give the floor to Switzerland as our host, please.

Chairperson, High Commissioner, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. Switzerland would like to begin by paying homage to the women and men who are bringing UNHCR's mandate to life. Their commitment, their expertise and their presence among displaced persons represent the genuine backbone of this organization. We also thank colleagues who recently have been obliged to leave, particularly locally recruited staff, whose contribution warrants our full recognition. Chairperson, financial and operational constraints are imposing difficult choices today. In those choices, the fundamental mandate of protection of UNHCR must remain our guiding light. Preserving access to asylum, defending the principle of non-refoulement, and protecting the rights of those under UNHCR's mandate remain essential. From the onset of a crisis, the search for a lasting solution must guide the action with IDPs, authorities and host communities, rapidly mobilizing development partners. Protection, emergency response and solutions must all be mutually reinforcing. Protection is a shared responsibility. Host countries, whose solidarity we recognize, cannot bear the burden alone. The recent report from UNHCR entitled Protection Eroded: The Human Cost of Underfunding reminds us of a simple reality: behind each cut program can be found people whose security rights and prospects have been weakened. Switzerland calls on donors to maintain and where possible step up their contributions. While placing the emphasis on predictable, flexible and sustainable funding in a context of limited resources, this flexibility is essential to better respond to urgent needs. While we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Convention, we must reaffirm the strength of the international protection framework. UNHCR's role in promoting and supervising its implementation must be conserved and strengthened. Defending protection also requires that we combat disinformation and hate speech. Switzerland supports UNHCR's efforts to promote the integrity of information and strengthen protection in digital spaces. As UNHCR host country, Switzerland is well aware of its particular responsibility. Geneva remains a unique dialogue for space between states, international organizations, civil society, and concerned individuals. The forthcoming High Commissioner's Dialogue in December should help us to transform this dialogue into concrete outcome. Chair, Switzerland encourages UNHCR to play an active role in humanitarian reset and the UNHCR reforms. We must streamline coordination mechanisms, reduce overlaps, and clarify responsibilities, with a view to dedicating more time and resources to those that we serve. This transformation must rest on principles of subsidiarity and international action must strengthen national and local capacity. We must complement their action. Localization isn't just a question of efficiency. It is a precondition for the sustainability of our responses. This requires genuine participation by local stakeholders and place person headed organisations, as well as better access to funding and genuinely equitable partnerships. These actors should be understood to be whole, full throated partners. It is only thus that we can build more efficient, more sustainable and responses that are closer to concerned individuals in line with your 50 by 35 vision. In a context characterized by growing needs and resources under pressure, Switzerland will continue to support a UNHCR which is strong, faithful to its protection mandate, and capable of mobilizing lasting solutions with all of its partners. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Ambassador. Now, I would like to give the floor to Hori Ichi, please.

Mr. Chair, High Commissioner, Excellencies, distinguished delegates. At the outset, I would like to thank the High Commissioner for his leadership and engagement during his first year in office, and to acknowledge the commitment of the UNHCR staff, often facing on the ground dangers and hardships in assisting those who have been forced to flee. This Executive Committee takes place once again under dire circumstances, with over 117 million forcibly displaced. That is one in every 70 people. Among them, there are many children, including those unaccompanied or separated from their family, women and girls exposed to violence and exploitation, and religious and ethnic minorities persecuted for their faith or identity. Refugees are at the center of today's tragedies. The scale of their suffering, whether from the conflict in Ukraine or in many other parts of the world, including the Sahel, Sudan and South Sudan, Cabo Delgado in Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar, highlights the urgent need for a collective response driven by our shared humanity, solidarity and responsibility. Mr. Chair, protection is not an end in itself, but rather an essential interim measure until more permanent solutions can be implemented. Therefore, it is concerning that the tragic scale of displacement is becoming increasingly greater than the number of solutions being achieved. In this regard, the Holy See welcomes the emphasis on finding solutions and promoting the self-reliance of refugees and agrees that displacement should never become permanent. The passing of time does not make a refugee crisis more tolerable. Like all human beings, refugees have skills and aspirations, and they should be given the opportunity to contribute to their host communities through access to healthcare, education, decent work and legal status. These elements are essential to achieving a standard of living that enables full physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development of the person. They allow individuals to become the true protagonists of their own destiny, fostering their integral human development without being kept in a state of dependence or excluded from access to necessary resources. Among the durable solutions, voluntary repatriation remains the preferable choice for many. Fortunately, the situation in some countries has improved enough to allow refugees to begin returning home. However, what makes all the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful return lies in how people return home and whether they are able to do so safely and with adequate follow-up assistance, including provisions for settling property questions and land rights. To make that work properly, predictable and guaranteed funding from international partners is essential. Mr. Chair, history offers evidence not only of human violence, but testifies moral progress and humanity's capacity to establish institutions that safeguard life. Among the most significant of these developments was the adoption 75 years ago, in the wake of the immense suffering and massive destruction caused by World War II, of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. The Convention laid down basic minimum standards for the treatment of refugees and enshrines noble principles such as the right to seek asylum, the prohibition of refoulement, and the recognition that every refugee is a person endowed with inherent dignity. Asylum remains among the finest gestures that humanity has to offer those who are persecuted. It is also the concretization of one of humanity's most ancient and shared aspects of compassion. That is why upholding these protections is not only a legal obligation, but also a moral imperative. Therefore, it is particularly concerning that all of the aforementioned noble goals are increasingly being called into question, including through policies and practices that undermine their original purpose. Pope Leo XIV expresses the hope that the spirit which inspired the drafting of this important international instrument may also continue to enlighten the consciences of national leaders today. No one can turn a blind eye to those who are seeking protection and safety. The challenge that all countries face today is in working together to find solutions that meet both the legitimate needs of their citizens and their obligations to refugees in a way that does not undermine international solidarity. This is a moral, legal and political challenge that must be addressed collectively. Mr. Chair, it is not enough to consider the consequences of forced displacement. The underlying issues must also be addressed. Promoting dialogue at every level to tackle forced displacement and its root causes is essential for preventing and resolving divisions and crises. Ultimately, the most comprehensive and effective way to realize the aspiration of every refugee and to achieve durable solutions is to ensure the rights of all to live in their countries of origin in dignity, peace and security. At a time when financial difficulties are jeopardizing vital assistance to refugees, may our decisions be guided by fraternity, solidarity and collective responsibility. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. Now, I wish to give the floor to Lesotho, please.

Mr. Chairperson, Mr. High Commissioner, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the government and the people of the Kingdom of Lesotho, I extend warm greetings to the distinguished to this distinguished gathering. Lesotho aligns itself with the statement delivered on behalf of the African group. We extend our warm congratulations to his Excellency on assuming office as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We also commend UNHCR staff and partners for their dedication to protecting refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and others forced to flee, often in difficult circumstances. Mr. Chairperson, conflict, persecution, natural disaster, and climate change continue to force people from their homes. These challenges remind us that refugee protection is a shared responsibility. The burden should not fall too heavily on countries or communities already facing limited resources. Lesotho reaffirms its commitment to international refugee protection, including the principle that no person should be returned to a place where their life or freedom would be at risk. As a least developed and landlocked country, Lesotho faces financial and institutional constraints. Nevertheless, our commitment to protecting those seeking refuge remains firm and guided by our Refugee Act of 1983 and relevant international and regional frameworks. We call for stronger national cooperation with UNHCR in refugee status determination, secure case management, documentation, and training of responsible officials. These practical measures can strengthen protection, fairness, and accountability. Mr. Chairperson, Lesotho supports efforts to advance inclusion, self-reliance, and durable solutions. Such efforts must be backed by predictable and sustained financing, particularly for countries with limited resources. Promoting self-reliance should not mean withdrawing essential assistance from refugees and host communities are adequately supported. We advocate for voluntary return in safety and dignity, local integration where appropriate, and resettlement for those who need it. We also emphasize the prevention of statelessness through birth registration, civil registration, and access to legal identity. The growing link between displacement, climate change and natural disaster call for stronger regional cooperation, preparedness and resilience. Lesotho encourages practical partnerships among African states, UNHCR and development partners. Mr. Chairperson, Lesotho emphasizes the importance of accountability, efficiency, and institutional effectiveness within UNHCR. Reforms should improve protection outcomes while preserving its essential mandate, expertise, and operational capacity, particularly in Africa. We also encourage equitable geographical representation, including at senior management level, and meaningful consultations with Member States. As we look towards the 2027 Global Refugee Forum, Lesotho calls for international commitments to translate into meaningful action. We stand ready to work with UNHCR, the African Union the African Union, Member States and partners to strengthen protection systems and advance lasting solutions. Behind every refugee statistic is a human life, a family, a hope for a safer future. Our shared responsibility is not only to offer protection, but also to preserve dignity, restore hope, and create opportunities for those forced to flee. The Kingdom of Lesotho remains committed to playing its part in this shared humanitarian responsibility. I thank you.

Thank you very much, Minister. Now, I would like to give the floor to South Africa, please.

Chairperson, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, South Africa aligns itself with the statement of the African Group. We also congratulate the High Commissioner on his appointment and look forward to strengthening our partnership with the UNHCR as we mark the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention. Chairperson, South Africa faces immense pressure on its asylum system. We follow a local integration approach under which refugees and asylum seekers live within communities and have access to certain national systems, subject to applicable laws and administrative requirements. We implement this approach amid difficult socio-economic conditions, including unemployment, poverty and significant pressure on public services. Decades of accumulated asylum appeals and limited capacity have aggravated these challenges. We cannot ignore the growing strain on social cohesion. In particular, we must never underestimate the importance of generating the economic growth required to support citizens, refugees and to sustain public support for protection systems. But neither can we allow these challenges to undermine our commitment to protecting those genuinely in need. That is why South Africa is taking responsibility by investing in fundamental reform. We are overhauling our migration and refugee protection system through digital transformation, replacing vulnerable paper-based processes with secure, efficient, and accountable digital systems. Our electronic travel authorization system demonstrates this transformation in action, using biometrics and machine learning to combat fraud, strengthen controls, and reduce opportunities for corruption. We are applying the same determination to reforming our asylum system. Working with the UNHCR, we have launched a dedicated surge initiative to address the long-standing asylum appeals backlog. The Department of Home Affairs has committed more than 14 million rand annually over two years to strengthen capacity. Through an innovative partnership with the Pretoria Bar Association, we have appointed 40 additional advocates to help adjudicate outstanding appeals, with further expansion now underway in Cape Town. and we are delivering results. Our active appeals caseload has declined from 79,000 to just over 70,000, while more than 19,000 cases, representing 14.2% of the historical backlog, have been removed. This demonstrates what national investment, institutional reform, and international cooperation can achieve. And next month, we will roll out the first phase of a groundbreaking new digitalized system to manage asylum applications. Through reforms at our Department of Home Affairs, South Africa is also taking decisive action to ensure that each and every one of our own citizens are documented. By the end of this administration, we will complete a nationwide campaign to provide birth registration and identity documents to every single citizen for the first time in the history of our country. Chairperson, we undertake these reforms amid a global humanitarian funding crisis. South Africa is investing its own resources, modernising its own institutions and delivering measurable progress. However, countries like ours cannot be expected to shoulder growing responsibilities for refugee protection without meaningful international support. Refugee protection requires shared accountability, sustained cooperation, and predictable financing. Countries of origin must also do their part to address the causes of displacement and create conditions for safe, voluntary, and sustainable returns. South Africa is indeed taking concrete steps to meet our responsibilities. But one country cannot bear the burden of an entire region alone. We therefore call on the international community to demonstrate the same commitment by now stepping up to deepen cooperation for a responsibility that all countries share. I thank you.

Thank you very much, Minister. Now I would like to give the floor to the High Commissioner for responses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And I will try to respond to every single statement that was made, and I'm very grateful for the contributions and interventions. I thank you, Egypt, for your statement on behalf of the Arab League. And I welcome your call for relief, reconstruction, and support to refugee-hosting states as well as countries of origin to enable safe and dignified returns. Reconstruction and relief efforts in countries of origin to make returns sustainable is indeed critical. And thank you also to the Arab group for support of these global responsibility-sharing efforts. I want to thank Colombia for the statement presented on behalf of GRULAC, and I acknowledge GRULAC's concern regarding the impact of budget and staffing reductions on UNSCR's field presence and protection capacity in the Americas. Undoubtedly, needs in the Americas remain substantial, as I indeed saw them firsthand recently, and we will ensure that Available resources are used strategically to sustain protection and solution gains, including on strengthened national asylum systems and efforts to advance solutions in partnership with the governments and other actors. We will also continue to consult with Member States transparently on the implementation of the reforms, including its operational and staffing implications. I have also noted the call for more equitable geographical representation at senior levels, which remains on our agenda. I thank you, Pakistan, for your statement on behalf of OIC. I appreciate your call for strengthened and meaningful international cooperation, including to enable sustained, voluntary and dignified returns. I've noted and fully agree with your five priorities, including the need to prioritize addressing the root causes of displacement, expanded solutions, practical support for refugee hosting states, the provisions of adequate and predictable resources, and work towards relevant and efficient reforms. Thank you for the EU's continued strong support for UNHCR protection mandate and for refugees inclusion and self-reliance and very much welcome also your generous offer of safe and legal pathways through the Union's Resettlement Plan 2026-2027. Thank you for leading on this and for your critical financial support to our work. I also share your emphasis on strong partnerships, coordinated route-based approaches and close cooperations across the UN system, including with IOM and other partners under the UN 80 and humanitarian reset. Let me also stress that I remain committed to transparent implementation of our reforms, to remain engaged with in communicating on the impact, including on our operational and staffing. And I'm also committed to seeing a robust oversight, including through the set risk committee I mentioned in my statement, to give greater systematic follow-up on the important work of the independent audit, investigation and protection from sexual exploitations, abuse and harassment. And thank you, DRC, for your statement on behalf of the Africa group. I appreciate your focus on preventing and conflict prevention, and to address the underlying causes of displacement. I also recognize that international support remains far below the required needs to support hosting states, and echo your call for greater responsibility sharing, including reconstruction and lasting integration support in countries of origin. Indeed, funding crisis does impact protection. especially for refugee women and girls in African countries and elsewhere for that matter. Thank you for flagging this concern, including the need for pledges from GRF to be implemented, especially on funding support. And thank you, Uganda, for your statement on behalf of the co-hosts and co-conveners of the Global Refugee Forum. and for your strong words on the importance of the Global Compact on Refugees, as well as the criticality of the Global Refugee Forum. Implementation of the pledges is very key indeed, and the national leadership for policy shifts is important. Your call for collective action to deliver on pledges and communicate changes and impact on refugees would indeed be critical. The GRF is around the corner and we need collectively to double our efforts to show meaningful impact and results. Thank you, Switzerland, for your strong statement and for the invaluable support also as our host. Geneva holds a unique space for dialogue, as you have flagged, including the planned dialogue for the end of this year. Thank you also for flagging our recent report on the human cost of underfunding, noting the weakening of protection and calling for increased funding, especially predictable, flexible, and sustained funding. Archbishop Gallagher, thank you. for celebrating such a moving mass last night. And thank you for having us join you. And thank you for the Holy See statement, which recognizes that passing of time does not make a refugee crisis more tolerable. I echo His Holiness Pope Leo's call that no one can turn a blind eye to those seeking protection and safety. And I agree that the challenge can be met by working together to find solutions that address both the legitimate needs of citizens and states' obligations to protect those forced to flee. Thank you also for reiterating the importance of finding solutions, particularly enabling voluntary repatriation in a manner that focuses also on how and to what.

People are returning and the need for guaranteed, predictable funding to make those sustainable.

I share Lesotho's call for Africa's generosity towards displaced populations to be matched by the predictable, flexible and sustained international support alongside stronger efforts to prevent conflict and pursue political solutions. I've noted your request for support in strengthening your national asylum systems, including documentation, case management and refugee status determination, and we are committed to doing so. We will also ensure that management review proposals are implemented transparently and in consultation with Member States, staff and partners, as you've asked. And we are very conscious of the need for reforms preserving UNHCR's mandate, especially essentially expertise and operational capacity, including in Africa. Thank you, South Africa, for your important statement, including from your much appreciated comment of the very real challenges you are faced with and that they will not undermine your commitment to protecting those who are genuinely in need of protection.

This is a very important statement.

The Refugee Convention is meant for people who genuinely need protection, and we are partners in making sure that the asylum system is strengthened, including in the digitalization of the process, and appreciate the important advances made there. These are important to make ensure that the system is seen fair, proper, effective, and is protected also from abuse and manipulation.

Once again, thank you, South Africa, for that important statement.

Thank you very much, High Commissioner, for comprehensive responses. Now I will go back to the list of speakers and give the floor to Turkmenistan, please.

Distinguished President, distinguished High Commissioner, distinguished delegates, I'd like to greet all of the participants to the 77th session of ExCom. I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to take the floor and participate in the work of the forum, and I'd like to congratulate Mr. Marham Saleh on his election to the post of High Commissioner and wish him full success in his work. Distinguished participants, the current session is taking place during a special year. 75 years ago, the Refugee Status Convention was adopted. This most important document laid the foundations for international protection and continues to play a key role in providing assistance to people. those people who left their homes, and also strengthening global cooperation. Turkmenistan, as a party to the Convention, gives special importance to human rights and strict compliance with our international obligations as a key precondition to ensure peace and stability. In this respect, of special importance is the initiative of His Excellency the President of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimuhamedov, that was presented to the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, related to the declaration of 2028 as the year of international law. This initiative is aimed at strengthening the primacy of the rule of law and increasing the effectiveness of compliance by states with their international obligations. Distinguished participants, international protection should be based on the principles of humanity, responsibility, and trust. This approach is clearly seen in the steadfast work carried out by Turkmenistan to eradicate statelessness. In 2024, our country, in close cooperation with UNHCR, completed its work related to known cases of statelessness. in our country, and we became one of the first countries in the world to reach that result. During the implementation of this policy, more than 32,000 persons obtained Turkmen citizenship, and more than 5,000 people received residence permits. As part of this work, the decree of the distinguished President, Mr. Berdymukhammedov, that was signed on the eve of the 35th anniversary of our independence, in line with which 146 foreign nationals received residence permit, and they became full-fledged participants in our society, receiving a robust legal status that guarantees all rights and freedoms. Our country believes that these results are our foundation for further action. It is important not to permit any new cases of statelessness and ensure that the status of each person is reaffirmed. As part of preventive measures and fully in line with the strategy of digital transformation being promoted by OHCR until 2026, Turkmenistan has reached a significantly new qualitative step in managing migration flows using our renewed legislation as of 1 October of this year, we have introduced in our country the single e-visa system. And a few months earlier, online registration of foreign nationals and stateless persons was introduced. We're adapting our steps to the digital agenda of OHCHR, and as a result, we minimized paper turnover and removed administrative barriers. Establishing a transparent electronic format guarantees that any person arriving in our country immediately falls within the legal sphere of the state, and this ensures legal protection, removes any risks of losing any legal status, and is a robust technological shield that prevents statelessness. Also, Turkmenistan is actively participating in the Global Alliance on Eradication of Statelessness, considering this to be a very useful platform to exchange experience and find practical solutions. Distinguished High Commissioners, distinguished participants, Turkmenistan highly appreciates the contribution of OHC of UNHCR in the protection of refugees and stateless persons, and we express our gratitude for the fruitful cooperation and support of our humanitarian initiatives. Our country reaffirms its commitment to continue to support the efforts of international community in the name of peace, humanity, and general well-being. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Minister. Now, I would like to give the floor to Chad, please.

Chairperson, High Commissioner, Your Excellencies, State Party representatives, ladies and gentlemen. Allow me to begin by congratulating the Bureau of the Executive Committee and by conveying to the High Commissioner, Mr. Barrem Sali, the warm congratulations of the Republic of Chad in taking up his role. I'd also like to recognize the visit to the east of Chad made by him and the meeting he held with the President of the Republic of Chad. This presence, which took place just after he took up his role, constitutes for us a very strong signal regarding the importance he places on the protection of refugees and the host communities. Chairperson, as of the 30th of September 2026, Our country is hosting more than 1.5 million refugees. The situation continues to evolve rapidly. Since halfway through September, over 400 people a day are crossing our eastern border. They are fleeing fighting, bombing, and drone attacks in Sudan. At the same time, the regional response plan, which is mobilizing $1.6 billion, was only funded to a degree of 18% by the end of September. These figures represent a simple reality. Humanitarian pressure is growing while resources are dropping. Given this situation, the government of Chad has a clear choice. It has to find lasting solutions and make these a priority to allow refugees, returnees, and IDPs, as well as host communities, to live independently in dignity and security. This choice lies fully in line with the vision of the President of the Republic in the third stage of the programme entitled Promoting a State Rooted in Solidarity for All. Chairperson, With the Law on Asylum of 2023, refugees in our country have a new national identification number, which allows them to have access to services, banking and employment. It progressively incorporates schools, health centres and our single social register, whose ambition in time will be to cover 4.4 million people. We are also in the process of recognising and appreciating skills of refugees, be they doctors, lawyers, teachers or professionals from other sectors, and developing shared infrastructures and services with host communities. This policy of inclusion is supported by the strengthening of our national instrument, entitled National Solidarity Fund. which is mobilising nearly 800 million CFA francs per month to support the most vulnerable people and establishes a national agency dedicated to the rights of those living with disabilities. Our forthcoming reform relates to coordination. The memorandum signed on 2 September 2026 with the humanitarian team in the country, will progressively commit to, as of January 2027, establishing coordinated humanitarian assistance. with state infrastructure and institutions, with streamlined and more simple coordination closer to the local areas it's required. At the same time, Chad is strengthening its own efforts, particularly through the National Food Security Office, whose budget has been doubled, as well as increasing resources allocated to health, generally improving access of populations and refugee communities, as well as host communities to essential services, ladies and gentlemen. Solidarity to refugees cannot be disconnected from solidarity to host communities. In the east of Chad, host populations are sharing their lands, their water sources, their schools, their health centres and their means of subsistence with populations whose numbers continue to increase. We must therefore invest in host territories, we must strengthen social infrastructure, water access, public services, means of subsistence, young people's employment and local capacity. This is how we will conserve social cohesion and we will make hosting a factor for resilience and peace. The Government also is pursuing the redistribution of refugees away from vulnerable border zones. Since April 2023, 679,156 refugees have been relocated, with significant acceleration of this operation in 2026. Our ambition is to progressively move from an emergency-based focus towards a focus, or an approach rather, based on independence, resilience, and lasting solutions. This ambition, which is supported by the High Commissioner, aims to cut in half by 2035 the number of refugees in a situation of extended displacement and to bring down by millions people who are dependent on humanitarian aid. To do this, we need, first of all, a predictable, increased, and multi-annual investment, which will support assistance and capacities in the state. Where the state can last in a more sustainable fashion, the response is more effective, less costly, and more easy to make long-term. Secondly, we call for genuinely shared responsibilities through voluntary repatriations. when the conditions are met for this. Thirdly, we call on the international community to keep the Sudanese crisis at the highest level in its agenda because, and we need to be clear about this, peace in Sudan remains the most lasting solution to this crisis. I repeat, peace in Sudan is the most sustainable solution for this crisis, Your Excellencies. Chad will continue to open its doors. It will continue to respect its international commitments. It will continue to protect those people who seek shelter on its territory. But Chad cannot bear this responsibility alone, a responsibility that has become regional and international. And we call for the international community to support Chad and play its part. Together, we can host and provide resilience, solidarity, investment in peace, and move from emergency response to lasting solutions for refugees and host communities. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Minister. Now, I would like to give the floor to Cameroon, please.

President, Mr. High Commissioner, Excellencies. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished participants, Cameroon aligns itself fully with a statement made by the DRC on behalf of the African group. Mr. High Commissioner, the delegation of Cameroon would like to warmly congratulate you on your leadership, your commitment, and your vision related to this humanitarian cause. and we will provide you full support in your important work. President, we're meeting today when the needs and pressure on humanitarian work at a very high level in general and in our region and in our country in particular. And we see that humanitarian crises are spreading throughout the world. But at the same time, donors are reducing drastically assistance provided to refugees. That has led to additional financial pressures on host countries like Cameroon, a country that demonstrates a real will to provide support to these refugees that are vulnerable individuals in dire situations. President, I'd like to refer to what the President of Cameroon said in New York during the special summit on refugees. And I quote, "The question of refugees, and we know about this, is one of the major challenges of our centuries, and I will not refer to statistics that show that it's a very serious problem. In the face of the scale of this humanitarian tragedy that involves our collective consciousness, we have a historic responsibility, that is, to act. And our country has done just that. Cameroon has a tradition of hospitality and solidarity and is host country due to its stability and also presents a refuge to different populations end of quote now in Cameroon there about 500 refugees and 20 Asylum Seekers coming mostly from neighboring countries during the previous form in 2023 the Cameroon took a specific commitment to implement the Global Compact on Refugees, especially the issues related to sharing burdens and responsibilities. And Cameroon reaffirms its commitment to continue these efforts while calling for greater international solidarity to support host countries. Mr. President, despite the multiple challenges that I just referred to, Cameroon fully assumes its responsibilities as a host country. I would like to thank, on behalf of this excellency, the president of the country, thank the support provided by OHCHR to refugees in Cameroon. I also praise and welcome the recent mission carried out by Deputy High Commissioner to Cameroon. And I'm also very pleased with the effective work of the regional bureau in Cameroon. And we need to continue strengthening these offices. Mr. President, the lasting solutions that we apply to humanitarian situations is based on voluntary returns in condition of safety and dignity. We have signed agreements with Niger and OHCR, and also with HCR. And now, finally, the support, financial support of international donors should be opened and it should not be hidden in a safe box. This will freeze assistance to refugees and the world will be responsible for the crime of not providing assistance to persons in danger, something that we should avoid.

That the checkbook for refugee assistance must be kept on the table close to a pen. ready to be signed whenever humanitarian emergencies crop up. It should no longer be kept in a safe because if the keys are lost, assistance to refugees could be frozen or delayed. This would be disastrous as the world would be guilty of the crime of failing to assist persons in danger, something we must avoid here and now. Thanks for your kind attention.

Thank you very much, Mr. Minister. Now I would like to give the floor to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Chairperson, ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to take the floor on behalf of the Government of the DRC on the occasion of the 77th session of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR. This meeting allows me to pay homage to the courage and resilience of millions of people forced to leave their countries or their places of residence in violent and challenging conditions. On behalf of our government, which it is my honour to represent, allow me to congratulate His Excellency Mr. Barham Salih for his designation at the head of the UNHCR and to greet the relevance of the vision that he laid out in his opening statement, highlighting the protection of people, lasting solutions, and international solidarity at the heart of our collective response. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, last year, from this podium, my government called your attention to the security and humanitarian situation which is so concerning that it is confronting. To date, this situation remains particularly concerning in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu. this follows confrontations between the armed forces of the DRC and the Rwandan Army offering or organizing terrorist cells under M23. These confrontations have led to forced displacement of populations both within and without the country's borders. On the 31st of August 2026, statistics suggested that six million 100,000 IDPs and 1 million 200,000 refugees were living in various African countries. In addition, the DRC is hosting 601,000 asylum seekers and refugees, principally coming from the bordering countries. I would highlight the key role played by the host communities in hospitality towards refugee communities where they are established because more than 70% of those refugees are living in host families with an impact on the socio and economic stage as well as the environmental stage. Thanks to concerted efforts to recover peace and security in certain return areas, the government of the DRC organized, in collaboration with UNHCR, tripartite meetings with Zambia, Burundi, Tanzania, the Central African Republic, and Rwanda, as we seek lasting solutions. Aside from these countries, the government of the DRC is planning to organize tripartite meetings with the DRC, Angola, South Africa and Uganda. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, on the subject of the commitments undertaken by the DRC in the context of the Global Compact on Refugees in December 2023, my government has made progress, in particular in establishing refugee status formalizing the simplified streamlined process of signing a ministerial decree, the participation to all activities on the support platform to the connection to the situations connected to the crisis in the Central African Republic, tripartite meetings, draft accessions to the treaty to combat statelessness, and the signing of regulatory bills of law, as well as the inclusion of refugees in the national supply system and the provision of services to those people. The government will continue to ensure access to asylum in line with Law 021/2002 relating to refugee status in the DRC, as well as to ensure voluntary repatriation in conditions of dignity and safety. Furthermore, in terms of the return of thousands of refugees coming from Burundi, Angola and South Africa, as well as Zambia, the DRC requests support from the international community in order to ensure the ongoing voluntary repatriation program, as well as reintegration and ongoing support to host communities. To date, more than 74,000 voluntary repatriations have been welcomed in different return areas. Peace and security constitute the guiding lights of all voluntary return process. It's imperative that the international community supports the efforts made by the government of the DRC with a view to restoring lasting peace and security across the region. It's in that light that a peace agreement was signed on the 27th of June 2025 between the DRC and the Republic of Rwanda. Furthermore, the Doha Framework Agreement was signed on the 15th of November 2025 between the government of the DRC and the FCM 23. Ladies and gentlemen, Chair, in full respect for its commitments, the DRC is today confronting an historic opportunity, two processes supported by international frameworks may open the route to sustainable solutions for the Rwandan people returning to the territory, be they refugees or FDLR combatants wanting to hand over their weapons. In the context of the Washington Agreement, the government has undertaken a disarmament, demobilization, and containment process for FDLR combatants based on awareness raising and supporting and prioritizing peaceful, voluntary disarmament. Following the protocol that was published in July 2026, three organizations, affiliated organizations, the CNED, the Buong FLN and the FPP Abajui Rowanga, as well as the Hut Uanana, signed up to that process at the end of August 2026. The roadmap and the indicative calendar, as well as the operational plan and the terms of reference for the monitoring committee have now been finalized. A containment site has been also identified and confirmed. I would highlight that this process lends no immunity to beneficiaries, and it is strictly subject to principles of non-impunity. This is added to the tripartite mechanism underway between the DRC, Rwanda, and the UNHCR. This remains the appropriate framework for guiding voluntary return of refugees between the two countries. This was reaffirmed in Addis Ababa in June 2026, and this mechanism must continue to ensure safe, dignified, and voluntary return. These two processes must go forward in parallel and in a coordinated fashion. both conserving their own mandates, their own procedures, and their own guarantees. Refugees will not be thus confused with combatants, and the protection and requirements of each individual must be examined on a case-by-case basis. We therefore call on UNHCR and all of our international partners to support this initiative in full respect for their respective mandates. and in particular contributing to protection guarantees, process monitoring and the search for lasting solutions, as well as the reintegration of stateless persons and the support for host communities. This mobilization is essential to ensure that these two paths become credible, lasting solutions in full respect for human dignity. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Vice Prime Minister. Now, I would like to give the floor to Djibouti, please.

Thank you

very much, President. Mr. High Commissioner, distinguished heads of delegation, ladies and gentlemen. gives me great pleasure to take the floor on behalf of the government of the Republic of Djibouti here in this Assembly at a time when humanitarian challenges have reached unprecedented levels. At the outset, I would like to warmly congratulate His Excellency, Mr. Brahimi, on his election to head the work of the UN High Commission for Refugees. Djibouti reaffirms its ongoing commitment in support of UNHCR, the United Nations, and all our humanitarian partners. Mr. High Commissioner, you're assuming a responsibility during a time that is marked by a very worrying paradox. Forced displacements are on the rise, while resources devoted to protection are being reduced. And this is not an abstraction. It is something that is lived. It is something that is measured and is being felt in host countries like my country, the Republic of Djibouti, that is exposed to this challenge. From the very first day of our independence, Djibouti made the choice of humanity. We've opened our borders, our institutions, our schools, and our health centers. And this choice is even more remarkable because it was taken despite limited resources that are provided to us by international donors. Mr. President, Djibouti has made significant achievements during the previous year. demonstrating that Djibouti is not simply a host country. It is a country that assumes its responsibilities, that protects, that includes, and that builds. And I would like to highlight the most important achievements. The single inclusion policy in the entire region, guaranteeing refugees access to education, health, water, sanitation, and employment, a strengthened national protection system with the National Office for Assistance to Refugees and Disaster Victims as our central actor, and an exemplary management of refugee flows from Yemen with the mobilization of local authorities, HCR, IOM, Red Cross, and our other partners. Mr. President, since 10 September 2026, Djibouti is facing a new humanitarian emergency and new flows of refugees from Yemen. A total number of 3,903 have crossed the seas in dramatic conditions to reach the northern coast of our country. And the village of Markazi in Obok is where 9,200 refugees are. There is a very vulnerable population, children, women, and older persons. And this sudden arrival has placed extreme pressure on our host capacities on registration, housing, water, sanitation, health, and protection of of refugees, something that has already been undermined by the lack of relevant resources from our usual partners. To this, we must add a migration crisis that has intensified dangerously in connection with instability in certain parts of Africa. Each week, groups of persons cross the seas or the desert, risking their lives. many of them die. Once again, it is children, women, and vulnerable persons that our security forces are rescuing every day. This combination creates an unprecedented pressure on host capacities, our infrastructures, essential services, and our mechanisms for protection. Ladies and gentlemen, this situation requires sustainable international solidarity, multi-year financing, investments in national systems, and durable solutions to make it possible for populations to have a better life. Before this August Assembly, the Republic of Djibouti reaffirms its commitment to protect all of those who seek refuge in our territory, because protection of refugees is a collective responsibility that requires immediate and lasting solidarity. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Minister. Now, I would like to give the floor to Mali, please.

Thank you very much. Chairperson of the Executive Committee, High Commissioner, Ministers, State member delegation members, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to begin by conveying my warm congratulations to the Chair of this 77th session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme. I'd also like to convey my warm congratulations to the High Commissioner for his election at the head of UNHCR and wish him all the very best in his role. In so doing, I assure him of our preparedness, readiness, and support in his mission. We align ourselves fully with the statement made by the African Group. I'd like to also underscore the profound gratitude of our authorities and the entire Malian population to the High Commissioner and his entire team for the tireless efforts made to support people in a situation of forced displacement. and the humanitarian actions carried out in Mali. I'd also like to thank the High Commissioner for his official visit to Bamako and within the country. This visit was very greatly appreciated by the government authorities and all stakeholders. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, for some years now, our country has been developing in a particularly difficult regional context. Security and humanitarian crisis continue to impact our populations and trigger movements within the country as well as to neighboring countries, in particular Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mauritania. At the same time, Mali continues to host refugees, coming from a number of countries across the region. As of the 30th of September 2026, data management and statistics officers had recorded 322,584 refugees and asylum seekers, as well as 343,091 Malian refugees in countries hosting them, 90,648 repatriated people and 414,524 IDPs, as well as 875,681 returnees. My country would like to recognize the progress made, in particular, the law relating to statelessness and the National Commission on Statelessness established in 2024, as well as the procedure guide for eligibility for statelessness status. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, in the context of its asylum policy, our government has continued its efforts to strengthen refugee protection, as supported by UNHCR. In February 2020, prima facie refugee status was given to citizens from Burkina Faso and Niger. This has allowed us to adopt a rapid response to their protection needs. These needs are nonetheless extremely high while resources are dropping and Mali is resolutely committed to seeking local solutions to respond to humanitarian requirements. Nonetheless, in the context of bilateral and multilateral cooperation, Mali requires lasting commitment from its partners, including UNHCR. The High Commissioner's recent visit to Mali allowed us to better understand the realities and challenges the government is confronting. Our priorities particularly include strengthening our asylum system, improving protection and documentation, and promoting sustainable solutions, allowing refugees, repatriated people, and IDPs to progressively strengthen their independence. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to give you my assurances that the Malian authorities will continue to play a constructive role to allow UNHCR to fully play out its mandate in line with principles guiding our actions that are well established. We will spare no effort in ensuring security and core services are upheld. Given the security situation in the Sahel, my country would like to recognize the international community's contribution and express its gratitude, while also calling on it to strengthen and step up its support in the reconstruction and post-crisis phase. To conclude, I'd like to reiterate to the High Commissioner our sincere thanks for all actions undertaken, particularly those to support the Sahel populations and the Sahel Alliance, in particular Mali. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr Minister. Now, I would like to give the floor to the High Commissioner for responses.

Thank you, Mr Chairman.

Let me start by thanking Turkmenistan's statement and for highlighting the importance of the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention. And I do particularly welcome Turkmenistan's strong commitment to addressing statelessness, including the resolution of all known cases on its territory and granting citizenship and residence to thousands of people assigned by the president of Turkmenistan. And this continued engagement on the Global Alliance to End Statelessness, this is highly, highly appreciated. And your leadership in this field is truly valued and recognized. Thank you, Your Excellency, Minister Zahra, for your statement and for having received me so warmly

as I took office as High Commissioner.

That was a very important visit for me, and I have noted the continued arrivals you are receiving and share your concern over the limited funding coming through this emergency. Your President's leadership on pursuing an inclusive agenda for refugees is truly noteworthy, and your recognition of the value and contribution of refugees is also highly appreciated. Needless to say, I also support fully your three calls, including on predictable funding. And I'm fully heartened to hear that you say so clearly that you will continue to keep your borders open to refugees fleeing devastation and death, and to meet your obligations under international law. And this international community has heard you, and I do believe that we must commit to stand by you. Thank you, Cameroon, for your words of support and also for your continued support for refugees despite diminishing resources. As indeed your President highlighted, the question of refugees is one of the major challenges and we collectively do have a historical responsibility to act. Thank you to your country for having done that and for recognizing our support, also for asking that checkbooks should not be kept too far from depend when humanitarian crisis hits. Global responsibility sharing is more important than ever. I recognize the Democratic Republic's of Congo for the statement and for highlighting the unfortunately precarious security situation in the region, hoping that peace will prevail, restraint will prevail, and for your efforts in responding effectively. I have noted with appreciation the fact that 70% of refugees live with families in hosting communities, a symbol of generosity we are seeing across Africa. Your efforts to pursue durable solutions, including through The tripartite meetings facilitated by UNHCR is welcome and we hope can be further pursued. We also welcome the work carried out under the Washington Accords and we are committed to do our part in supporting the voluntary and safe repatriation under the tripartite agreement with the support of the international community. Thank you, Djibouti, for your statement and importantly for highlighting your welcomed approach. including your policies on inclusion on international systems for refugees, the strengthening of your national protection systems through ONARRS, and your highly appreciated efforts now to receive Yemeni refugees in this emergency. I recognize that this adds onto the challenges you have been facing with the regular migration, and I thank you for remaining true to the refugee protection principles through this emergency. I'm confident that your call for responsibility sharing is being heard. Thank you to the government of Mali for hosting me during my recent mission. It was quite an informative and important visit for me. I welcome the emphasis on strengthening the asylum system, protection and documentation, advancing durable solutions and greater self-reliance, and very much appreciate the call for sustained international support in the face of growing needs and declining resources. I also note with appreciation your progress on statelessness, including the adoption of the legislation on the status of stateless persons and the establishment of a national commission on statelessness. UNHCR remains committed to supporting these efforts and our partnership with Mali. Thank you again.

Thank you very much, High Commissioner, for your response. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, we have reached the end of the speaker list for this morning. As you know, we will reconvene at 3 o'clock sharp, at which time we will continue the general debate. I would like to request delegations to please be punctual in order to make the best use of our limited time. Before we adjourn, the meeting I will pass the floor to the secretary for some announcements

thank you chairperson excellencies distinguished delegates I am pleased to invite you to visit the made 51 installation in the Sal de papadu This year's installation features the Made51 Giving Tree, alongside items handcrafted by refugee artisans. The installation showcases how partnerships through Made51 can contribute to refugee self-reliance and sustainable livelihoods, while providing tangible ways for Member States and partners to demonstrate solidarity with refugees. I also wish to inform you that the side event on 50 by 35, sustaining the evidence for action, will take place at 1:30 p.m. in Concordia Room 1, located on level 2 below us. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your announcements. Now, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. Thank you so much.