A Civil Society's response to the UN Secretary-General's report on the World Humanitarian Summit

The highly important World Humanitarian Summit is taking place in Istanbul 23 and 24 May. As described by UN News, heads and senior leaders of states, international agencies and civil society organisations from around the world will be gathering to formalise commitments that they have worked on in a two-year process launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (the SG).  
 
Recently, the SG issued his report for the Summit.  Among other things, it strongly emphasises “core responsibility” for improving humanitarian action regarding migrants, refugees and displaced persons, with particular attention to women and children. Civil society colleagues in the NGO Committee on Migration in New York have prepared a 3-page statement with analysis and recommendations specifically on those parts of the Secretary-General’s report. Please note that the numbers in parentheses refer to sections of the UNSG’s report.
 
In response to many requests and together with ICMC and the MADE (Migration and Development) Civil Society Network, the NGO Committee invited civil society organisations to “sign-on” to the statement (as is, without any changes to text). 
 
The strategy is to send it to governments by mid-April to influence their decisions and commitments at the WHS and beyond.
 
You will see that the statement applauds many items in the SG's report, such as the numerous references to migrants and refugees, and the call to better address the causes of displacement, including long-standing inequalities, xenophobia, closed borders, and ecological disasters. The statement also makes some strong recommendations, such as developing a framework for predictable responsibility sharing to address major movements of refugees, expressly including all forced migrants, and that this be taken forward before, during, and after the High-level Meeting on Refugees and Migrants, at the UN General Assembly 19 September.

Edit: We are happy about the 79 signatures! Thanks to all participants.

Photo © European Union/ECHO