National #Jewish orgs urge world leaders to stand up for #refugees in advance of the #UNGA & #UN4RefugeesMigrants. https://t.co/HTLHowVMIb
— HIAS (@HIASrefugees) September 18, 2016
HIAS: Jewish Statement on Historic Refugee Summits
On September 19, 2016, world leaders will convene at the UN General Assembly for the sole purpose of addressing the large-scale displacement of millions of people around the world. Never has there been such a high level gathering to address refugees. The following day, President Obama will convene dozens of countries with the goal of increasing resettlement, providing more humanitarian assistance, and securing access to school and work for refugees. Guided by our history and rooted in our deep Jewish tradition of “welcoming the stranger,” we urge all officials participating to ensure that this historic opportunity will not be squandered, and that these summits will mark the beginning of a new era of international responsibility sharing for refugees.
Not since World War II has the world seen a humanitarian crisis on the scale that we face today. In 1951, the international community adopted the Refugee Convention to respond to the needs of the millions of displaced persons after World War II, many of them Jewish refugees who survived the Holocaust. Today’s international refugee protection framework, built over decades on the foundation of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, was meant to ensure that never again will any government be permitted to prevent a persecuted person from seeking and finding asylum. 65 years later, the American Jewish community still stands firmly with refugees.
Today, however, the international community and its member states are failing refugees. Humanitarian aid is falling far short of the needs in countries of first asylum. Resettlement is being underused as a durable solution and is barely used at all to quickly rescue refugees who face immediate harm. These factors have contributed to unprecedented numbers of refugees taking their lives into their own hands to flee a second, third, or fourth time. Refugees struggle to survive, most for decades or even generations, with limited to no access to school and virtually no right to work. Cooperation among states on welcoming and protecting refugees has been eclipsed by their collaboration on enforcement, deterrence, detention, and more fortified borders. Many countries are spending more resources than ever on creating obstacles—with brick and barbed wire, as well as with technology, paper, and regulations—which prevent persecuted people from seeking asylum.
We urge those participating in the September meetings to jointly assert that no country will return a refugee to persecution or create barriers to people seeking asylum. We need world leaders to ensure that their laws and policies will uphold refugees’ right to work and pursue an education. We need leaders of developed countries to better support host countries and commit to doing much more for refugees in countries of first asylum. And we call on resettlement countries and countries that could develop the capacity to resettle refugees but are not yet doing so to consider favorably the recommendation of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UNHCR that they collectively act “to meet the annual resettlement needs identified by UNHCR, or at least 10 percent of the total refugee population”—so as to ensure that resettlement once again plays a strategic role as a durable solution for the protection of refugees.
Now is the time to recommit to the ideals and promises the world made in the Refugee Convention following the worst refugee crisis the world had seen, until now. We call on world leaders presented with this historic opportunity to ensure that every refugee who seeks protection will find it, that every refugee will be able to access a timely durable solution, and that the human rights of every refugee and migrant will be respected. We call on national leaders to do so through recommitting to the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol within their own countries, at their own borders, as well as through international responsibility sharing.
We call on world leaders to keep their doors open to refugees and to work with international organizations and civil society to come up with new, creative approaches to address large-scale displacement in the 21st century. Together, we can build on the foundation of the Refugee Convention, maximize the human potential of all people who have been displaced, and work to create a more just and compassionate world.
Signed:
AJC’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
Anti-Defamation League
The Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies
Central Conference of American Rabbis
HIAS
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
National Council of Jewish Women
Rabbinical Assembly
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College/Jewish Reconstructionist Communities
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Union for Reform Judaism
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Uri L’Tzedek
Women of Reform Judaism
