After two days of summits on migrants and refugees around the U.N. General Assembly, advocacy groups see some positive signs that political momentum is moving to better assist the world’s 65 million displaced. Unfortunately, for now, signs are all they see; concrete actions and real policy shifts are still promises, and some are already being broken.
The United Nations Summit on Migrants and Refugees’ “New York Declaration,” adopted by the General Assembly on Monday, contains mostly pre-agreed language. Many countries are already failing to uphold many of the principles it lists, such as respect for international humanitarian law.
“Unfortunately a lot of what’s in there was already agreed upon, and it’s just not happening in practice,” said Kate Phillips-Barrasso, director of policy and advocacy for the International Rescue Committee.