The Global Compact on refugees: limits and contribution to the development of international refugee law

Abstract

The Global Compact on Refugees approved in 2018 aims to improve the response of the international community to large displacement of refugees and protracted refugee situations. The need for an equitable distribution of the burden and responsibility on refugees, present in the work of UNHCR for years lacked, however, explicit normative support. Despite an extensive state practice of according protection to individuals not covered by the refugee definition of the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol, including large-scale displacements of refugees, positions assumed by the States prevented to recognize the existence of a customary norm. The adoption of the Global Compact provided an opportunity to fill these gaps. The political climate surrounding the negotiations and the adoption of the Pact, however, did not enable the adoption of an ambitious text. Several elements were excluded from the Pact during the negotiations. In the end, burden sharing and responsibility sharing were at the core of the Pact which devised novel mechanisms aimed to change the way that the international community respond to the situations of the refugees.

The Global Compact on Refugees approved in 2018 aims to improve the response of the international community to large displacement of refugees and protracted refugee situations. The need for an equitable distribution of the burden and responsibility on refugees, present in the work of UNHCR for years lacked, however, explicit normative support. Despite an extensive state practice of according protection to individuals not covered by the refugee definition of the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol, including large-scale displacements of refugees, positions assumed by the States prevented to recognize the existence of a customary norm. The adoption of the Global Compact provided an opportunity to fill these gaps. The political climate surrounding the negotiations and the adoption of the Pact, however, did not enable the adoption of an ambitious text. Several elements were excluded from the Pact during the negotiations. In the end, burden sharing and responsibility sharing were at the core of the Pact which devised novel mechanisms aimed to change the way that the international community respond to the situations of the refugees.