High-Commissioner, Excellencies,
Esteemed Colleagues and partners,
Thank you, High Commissioner and congratulations for the organisation of the second Global Refugee Forum
I am honoured to address this Forum on behalf of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
Our Organisation, which brings together 46 European states representing over 700 million people, defends and promotes democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Next year, it will celebrate its 75th anniversary.
The Council of Europe has a long-standing cooperation with UNHCR. We are working together in multiple fields with a common objective: the effective implementation of our human rights standards in an increasingly challenging environment.
It is in this spirit that the Council of Europe engaged in 2019, during the first Global Refugee Forum, to actively contribute to achieving the goals of the Global Compact on Refugees, notably by addressing statelessness through multiple activities in the past years.
I am pleased to announce that the Council of Europe is ready to multiply its efforts.
We put forward a new pledge to address the statelessness of children and their access to nationality.
We also join the following multistakeholder pledges:
- Gender equality and protection from gender-based violence;
- Achieving inclusion in national health systems and fostering mental health and psychosocial wellbeing;
- Localisation - cities - a call to local action for migrants and refugees.
The activities of the Council of Europe Action Plan on Protecting Vulnerable Persons in the context of Migration and Asylum will also continue to contribute to reach the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees.
High-Commissioner, Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At their fourth Summit in Reykjavík, in May this year, Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe member states reaffirmed their commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights. This Convention, together with the Geneva Convention continue to be the guiding principle for protecting the human rights of refugees in Europe.
Thank you!
