Accountability and the Global Refugee System

Made in collaboration with NYU Center on International Cooperation.

The current refugee regime suffers from an acute accountability deficit. Some states behave badly. They commit systemic and gross human rights violations, they provoke internal conflict and civil war, and they cause mass exoduses. Meanwhile, the UNHCR and humanitarian organizations are left to pick up the pieces, while donor states often make pledges to support efforts, but fail woefully to deliver on their commitments.

And the system is hardly accountable to host countries or to refugees. And the costs of the deficit are enormous: Millions have been forced to flee their homes; the responsibility for caring for them has fallen to a few states; and an ugly, toxic anti-refugee sentiment has gained traction in many corners of the world.

This December, governments from around the world will meet in Geneva for the inaugural Global Refugee Forum. The GRF will take place on the first anniversary of the adoption of the Global Compact on Refugees, a non-binding agreement that, among other things, articulates a vision of greater responsibility sharing within the global refugee system.

The Forum is a welcome first step in the quest for greater accountability in the global refugee system. But it is not enough. True accountability will require going beyond efforts to operationalize the Compact. True accountability will require deeper structural and institutional change.

The purpose of this policy brief is to highlight three areas where the global refugee system can be made to be more accountable: 1) Establishing a peer review mechanism on responsibility sharing; 2) Involving the IMF and WTO in efforts to support host states; and 3) Strengthening existing mechanisms and developing new ones for tackling impunity for leaders who cause mass displacement.