Peace & Displacement in the Digital Age: Addressing Causes & Paving the Way for Voluntary Dignified Return Leveraging the Global Compact on Refugees

Over the past decade, the number of refugees and displaced people has roughly doubled to reach 120 million in 2024, driven by the expansion of armed conflict and a growing disregard for human rights and humanitarian law. During this time, the world has developed new tools for responding to the rise in forced displacement. In December 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) with the goal of mobilizing the "whole of society" to better coordinate responses to the growing complexity of forced displacement. 

This event will focus on Objective 4 of the GCR – Support conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity – with the goal of reaffirming the importance of achieving peace in situations of forced displacement and ensuring that return is voluntary, dignified and sustainable, and rooted in the human rights of displaced people. Representatives from Member States, the United Nations, civil society, and refugee-led organizations will speak on several multi-stakeholder pledges at the Global Refugee Forum 2023 – the world’s largest gathering on refugee matters co-hosted by UNHCR and Switzerland. These include pledges in the areas of Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention; Housing, Land, and Property; and Digital Protection/Information Integrity. 

This event demonstrates how the Global Compact on Refugees enables partnerships and multilateralism across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus to comprehensively address the root causes of displacement. The examples shared will touch on the rights of minorities, inclusive institutions, and the power of narratives, new technologies, and information integrity to shape and ensure peace.