Hillary Clinton urges better global policies on asylum
This week, more than 140 nation states gathered in Geneva at a special meeting held by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to mark 60 years of the UN Refugee Convention, and 50 years of the Convention on Statelessness.
The meeting came at the end of a year of events to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Convention, which included the UK-wide festival of Refugee Week in June, and the release of our own short film, Courage, made by six refugees living in Scotland.
Chance to improve asylum policy and support for refugees
For the UNHCR, the meeting was a vital opportunity to call for improvements in support across the world for people who are displaced or stateless.
Since the UN Refugee Convention was created in 1951, after the horrors of the Second World War, millions more people have fled their homes due to war and persecution – and it is more important than ever that signatory countries continue to do their duty to provide protection for those who need it.
Hillary Clinton calls for better treatment of asylum seekers
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the meeting this Wednesday, 7 December. She said: ‘The conventions we celebrate today laid a marker for human compassion on a global scale… Since the Refugee Convention was adopted in 1951, the scale of the challenge has expanded in ways no one could have foreseen.
‘We—the governments, multilateral institutions and other global partners gathered here—have come to realise that this challenge demands us to respond. We must create effective, forward-looking policies, rather than purely reactive responses.
‘That means, in some cases, training immigration judges or border guards on how to treat asylum seekers with efficiency and compassion, or making counseling services available to refugees who are also victims of gender-based violence.
Better services for refugee women and children
‘It means providing civic education to young people so they might learn democratic practices, and helping to better protect girls, women, and children, who are particularly vulnerable to violence, sexual exploitation and other abuse during times of crisis and upheaval.’
Here at Scottish Refugee Council we urge the UK Government to uphold its commitment to the UN Refugee Convention, and improve its own policy on asylum to ensure dignity, compassion and human rights are at its heart. At our recent conference, ‘Raising Refugee Women’s Voices’, we also heard from many asylum-seeking women about how systems here in the UK need to improve to take account of those most vulnerable.
We hope the 60th anniversary celebrations have a lasting, and positive, effect on the lives of refugees around the world – and here in Scotland.
Read more on the UNHCR website
