On the eve of the UN Summit on Refugees and Migrants taking place today in New York, and tomorrow’s Obama-led Leaders' Summit, Alexander Betts yesterday wrote an opinion piece in The Observer. Here he writes that this should be the time “when the world comes together to update a broken system that is struggling to meet contemporary displacement challenges.” However, this, he argues, is unlikely due to “inter-agency turf wars and government foot-dragging.”
He highlights how such high-profile meetings “have become irresponsibly removed from the real challenges on the ground” and “have largely bypassed the biggest and most urgent questions relating to institutional reform.” He states that while it is widely acknowledged that the system is broken and outdated, there is “no appetite to fix it.”
However, there may, he concludes, still be hope: “In order to save face, the UN conveners will now use 19 September to launch an ongoing two-year intergovernmental process. At the margins of the formal meetings, governments, businesses and civil society have mobilised to launch a range of exciting initiatives. These pathways may still leave the door ajar for meaningful change.”
Read the full article here >>
