UN High Commissioner for Refugees

As of the end of June 2023, 110 million people had been forcibly displaced worldwide—the highest levels of displacement on record—due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, and events seriously disturbing public order, such as economic collapse. Of this ever-increasing group, around 40 million are refugees, 62.1 million are internally displaced persons, and another 6.08 million constitute asylum seekers. Many of them originate from the same few nations with ongoing political instabilities and violent conflicts, such as Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Venezuela. Yet, as these conflicts have dragged on, the refugee situation has seemingly only worsened.

The focus of the UNHCR is thus to analyze the continued and increased internal displacement in vulnerable regions and address the needs of refugees and host nations alike. 

Examples of topics in this committee may include the rise in displaced persons and refugees in light of COVID-19 and climate change. Indeed, widespread sickness, floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes have significantly increased internal and cross-border migration, with 84% of refugees and asylum seekers in 2022 having fled from countries highly vulnerable to climate change. The focus of this committee would be to evaluate how these events have critically limited refugees’ opportunities for resettlement and return to their home nations, determine potential paths forward, and discuss the appropriate extent of and measures for international and regional assistance during crises. 

Another topic of interest would be addressing the health, shelter, and education concerns of displaced persons in host nations. Notably, the strain of refugees on European housing markets have led hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians to be forcibly transferred to Russia, and a similar number of Rwandan, Burundian, Centrafricain, and South Sudanese refugees remain stranded outside refugee camps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Thus, this committee would aim to identify challenges in accessing shelter and aid; consider implementation of sustainable policy and protection frameworks against refugee trafficking, violence, and discrimination; and discuss increasing funding for regional camps, essential health services, and training/education programs.