Pretoria - World leaders at the United Nations have adopted the New York Declaration, which expresses the political will to protect the rights of refuges and migrants.
At the opening of the UN General Assembly's first-ever summit on refugees and migrants, world leaders, including President Jacob Zuma, adopted the landmark declaration, which contains bold commitments.
The commitments pave the way to negotiations aimed at an international conference and the adoption of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration in 2018.
The New York Declaration, adopted on Monday, also commits to:
- Protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants, regardless of status. This includes the rights of women and girls and promoting their full, equal and meaningful participation in finding solutions;
- Ensure that all refugee and migrant children are receiving education within a few months of arrival;
- Prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence;
- Support countries that are rescuing, receiving and hosting large numbers of refugees and migrants;
- Work towards ending the practice of detaining children for the purposes of determining their migration status;
- Find new homes for all refugees identified by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees as needing resettlement;
- Expand the opportunities for refugees to relocate to other countries through, for example, labour mobility or education schemes, and
- Strengthen the global governance of migration by bringing the International Organisation for Migration into the UN system.
Addressing the summit, President Jacob Zuma welcomed the declaration, saying it will help alleviate the plight of refugees and migrants and pave the way for equitable burden-sharing among states.
The President recognised that the large movements of refugees and migrants present unique challenges to affected states.
“Our common humanity requires that we respect each person's human dignity in equal measure. No instance should enjoy more attention and concern than the other,” he said.
In order to adequately address the forcible displacement of people, President Zuma told the summit that it needs to address the root causes of this phenomenon.
“Underdevelopment is a key driver of the displacement of people and in turn can lead to armed conflict. A concerted global effort to address the questions of underdevelopment and armed conflict should therefore be a central focus of all member states,” President Zuma said.
The African continent is no stranger to the challenges that the movement of refugees and migrants bring. President Zuma said the African Union aspires, under its Agenda 2063, to silence all guns by 2020.
“There cannot be economic prosperity and sustainable development without peace on the continent,” he said, stressing that South Africa has dedicated itself to this crucial aspiration.
The outgoing UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, congratulated the member states for the adopting the declaration, saying the “summit represents a breakthrough in collective efforts to address the challenges of human mobility”.
He said the adoption of the New York Declaration will mean that “more children can attend school; more workers can securely seek jobs abroad, instead of being at the mercy of criminal smugglers and more people will have real choices about whether to move once conflict ends… at home”.
Today will be the opening of the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly under the theme, ‘The Sustainable Development Goals: A universal push to transform our world’.
More than 140 Heads of State will descend on New York this week for the annual gathering.
President Zuma will participate in high-level meetings on the margins of the general debate. He is also expected to attend a high-level commission on health employment and economic growth, as well as an event to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the Open Government Partnership. – SAnews.gov.za
