Helping put refugee
and host community perspectives
at the heart of program and policy
decisions that affect their lives.
Refugees and the communities that host them can and must play a central role in the decisions that affect their lives. In 2018, as world leaders come together to agree the Global Compact on Refugees, the opportunity to build a new approach that puts the people most affected by displacement at the heart of policy making must not be lost. Together, we have the chance to play an active part in policy making to build a better, fairer system that reflects the needs of those it is built for.
Too often the voices of refugee and host communities are underrepresented in the debates that shape their lives. The International Refugee Congress brought together refugee and civil society groups from the countries that host the majority of the world’s refugees so that together we develop solutions to the shared challenges we face.
The Congress addressed how we can:
- Enable people to access the asylum process and their legal rights
- Support people to access basic services
- Develop sustainable and durable policy and program options
- Address challenges faced by women refugees
- Ensure that refugees and host communities are able to participate in making decisions which affect their lives.
The International Refugee Congress was held on 10-11 May 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey.
You can access the communiqué here in English, Turkish and Arabic.
Find out more about the International Refugee Congress.
Learn more about the consultation process which led up to the International Refugee Congress.
of the world’s refugees are hosted in low and middle income countries, while the world’s six wealthiest countries host less than 9%
of organisations at 2016 High Level Meeting on Refugees and Migrants came from the top 5 refugee hosting countries
of those consulted before the International Refugee Congress cited access to services to meet essential needs as a main priority
