First Global Refugee Forum, 17 and 18 December 2019, Palais des Nations, Geneva

6 Sep 2019

To News Editors & Correspondents: the following information is by way of background.

On 17 and 18 December 2019, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and the Government of Switzerland will jointly host in Geneva a world meeting on refugees, the first-ever Global Refugee Forum (GRF). The two-day global conference is the first gathering at the Ministerial level to follow up on the practical implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees, affirmed at the UN in New York in December 2018.

More than 70 million people today are forcibly displaced by violence and persecution around the world. The aim of the Global Refugee Forum is to accelerate actions by governments, the private sector, international institutions and organisations, the non-governmental sector, and civil society in implementing the new Global Compact on Refugees. The Global Refugee Forum is meant to generate impactful commitments and other pledges from these actors, geared towards making tangible, long-term policy and practice shifts to improve the lives of refugees and host communities worldwide.

The contributions that will be made at the Forum are expected to take numerous forms including, for example, financial, material, and technical assistance; resettlement places and complementary safe and legal pathways for admission of refugees; and other actions, such as legal and policy changes to enable greater refugee inclusion in national systems through a whole of society approach.

The Forum will bring together leaders and influential figures from all of these areas. In addition to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, the Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres is expected to attend. The participation of Heads of State/Government for co-convening countries will be confirmed closer to the event.

The Global Refugee Forum will also be an occasion for the international community to showcase and exchange good practices at national, regional or global levels.

The first Global Refugee Forum will focus on six thematic areas: arrangements for burden and responsibility-sharing, education, jobs and livelihoods, energy and infrastructure, solutions, and protection capacity.

Accreditation and registration

Journalists interested in attending the Global Refugee Forum (excepting existing accredited correspondents at the Palais des Nations) will need to apply for accreditation from the offices of the United Nations Information Service at Geneva. To do so they must complete an Indico registration form and attaching a number of mandatory documents, including a letter of assignment and a national press card.

As the accreditation process can take some time, it is strongly recommended that interested journalists apply for accreditation as soon as possible and ideally well before the end of November.

Subject to numbers of those interested, a Press Center facility will be available at the Palais des Nations. The location of this Press Center and other details will be posted on this webpage.

Further advisories on technical and logistical arrangements will follow in due course.

For more information please contact: