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Not to be confused with Global Compact for Migration or United Nations Global Compact.

The Global Compact on Refugees (GCR; French: Pacte mondial pour les réfugiés) is an intergovernmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, that aims to strengthen the international response to large movements of refugees and protracted refugee situations.

The Compact on Refugees was formally endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly on 17 December 2018. The majority States, 181, voted in favor of adopting the compact, with the United States and Hungary opposing the move. The Dominican Republic, Eritrea and Libya abstained.

As the Compact is not an international treaty, it will be non-binding under international law.

The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants gave UNHCR the task of building upon the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), contained in Annex I of the New York Declaration, to develop a ‘global compact on refugees’. The New York Declaration has also set in motion a separate, ongoing process for a Global Compact for Migration, to which UNHCR is actively contributing.

The Compact on Refugees builds upon, not replaces, the existing international legal system for refugees – including the 1951 Refugee Convention and other international legal instruments on refugee, human rights and humanitarian law.

The Refugee Convention focuses on rights of refugees and obligations of States, but it does not deal with international cooperation writ large. And that’s what the global compact seeks to address. The 1951 Refugee Convention does not specify how you share the burden and responsibility, and that’s what the global compact does. It responds to one of the major gaps the UNO have faced for decades.

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
It’s a part of the UN Resolution A/Res/70/1 Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September2015.

Large movements of refugees and migrants
Large movements of refugees and migrants have political, economic, social, developmental, humanitarian and human rights ramifications, which cross all borders. These are global phenomena that call for global approaches and global solutions. No one State can manage such movements on its own. Neighbouring or transit countries, mostly developing countries, are disproportionately affected. Their capacities have been severely stretched in many cases, affecting their own social and economic cohesion and development. In addition, protracted refugee crises are now commonplace, with long-term repercussions for those involved and for their host countries and communities. Greater international cooperation is needed to assist host countries and communities.

In 2015, their number surpassed 244 million, growing at a rate faster than the world’s population. However, there are roughly 65 million forcibly displaced persons, including over 21 million refugees, 3 million asylum seekers and over 40 million internally displaced persons. Though their treatment is governed by separate legal frameworks, refugees and migrants have the same universal human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Refugees and migrants are entitled to the same universal human rights and fundamental freedoms, which must be respected, protected and fulfilled at all times. However, migrants and refugees are distinct groups governed by separate legal frameworks. Only refugees are entitled to the specific international protection as defined by international refugee law.

New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants
On September 19, 2016, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. The New York Declaration reaffirms the importance of the international refugee regime and contains a wide range of commitments by Member States to strengthen and enhance mechanisms to protect people on the move. It has paved the way for the adoption of two new global compacts in 2018: a global compact on refugees and a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.
 * Annex I Comprehensive refugee response framework (Global Compact on Refugees)
 * Annex II Towards a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration

The New York Declaration sets out the key elements of a Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) to be applied to large-scale movements of refugees and protracted refugee situations. The CRRF focuses on the importance of supporting those countries and communities that host large number of refugees, promoting the inclusion of refugees in host communities, ensuring the involvement of development actors from an early stage, and developing a ‘whole-of-society’ approach to refugee responses.

Guiding principles
The global compact emanates from fundamental principles of humanity and international solidarity, and seeks to operationalize the principles of burden- and responsibility-sharing to better protect and assist refugees and support host countries and communities. The global compact is entirely non-political in nature, including in its implementation, and is in line with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. It is grounded in the international refugee protection regime, centred on the cardinal principle of non-refoulement, and at the core of which is the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. Some regions have also adopted specific instruments which apply to their own respective contexts. The global compact is guided by relevant international human rights instruments, international humanitarian law, as well as other international instruments as applicable. 6 It is complemented by instruments for the protection of stateless persons, where applicable.

Objectives
The objectives of the global compact as a whole are to: The global compact will seek to achieve these four interlinked and interdependent objectives through the mobilization of political will, a broadened base of support, and arrangements that facilitate more equitable, sustained and predictable contributions among States and other relevant stakeholders.
 * 1) ease pressures on host countries;
 * 2) enhance refugee self-reliance;
 * 3) expand access to third country solutions; and
 * 4) support conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity.

Global Refugee Forum
A periodic Global Refugee Forum, at ministerial level, will be convened for all United Nations Member States, together with relevant stakeholders, to announce concrete pledges and contributions towards the objectives of the global compact, as set out in para 7, and to consider opportunities, challenges and ways in which burden- and responsibility-sharing can be enhanced. The first Forum will be convened in 2019. Subsequent Forums will be convened every four years, unless otherwise agreed by the General Assembly, in order to ensure sustained momentum and political will. Forums will be co-convened and co-hosted by one or more State(s) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, with an invitation to the United Nations Secretary-General to participate. Forums would, in principle, take place in Geneva to facilitate the participation of all States. In the years in which Forums take place, there will be no High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges.

Difference between migrants and refugees in the two UN-backed compacts
UN News has put together this guide to explain the key difference between migrant and refugee status, and the differences between the two UN-backed compacts. The terms refugee and migrant have been used interchangeably to describe the millions of people worldwide that are either fleeing conflict or seeking better living conditions. As the United Nations sets out to secure global compacts to better protect them, it’s critical to understand the differences between the two. The New York Declaration gave birth to two compacts: one on refugees and one on migrants, Global Compact for Migration. Although both are groups of people who live outside of their countries of origin, there are crucial distinctions between the terms “refugee” and “migrant."
 * Refugees are persons who are outside their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order and, as a result, require international protection. The refugee definition can be found in the 1951 Refugee Convention and regional refugee instruments, as well as the Statute of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
 * While there is no formal legal definition of an international migrant, most experts agree that an international migrant is someone who changes his or her country of usual residence, irrespective of the reason for migration or legal status. Generally, a distinction is made between short-term or temporary migration, covering movements with a duration between three and 12 months, and long-term or permanent migration, referring to a change of country of residence for a duration of one year or more.

Definition of refugee in the 1951 Convention
Article 1 of the Convention, as amended by the 1967 Protocol, defines a refugee as this: "A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."

Several groups have built upon the 1951 Convention to create a more objective definition. While their terms differ from those of the 1951 Convention, the Convention has significantly shaped the new, more objective definitions. They include the 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa by the Organisation of African Unity (since 2002 African Union) and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, while non-binding, also sets out regional standards for refugees in Central America, Mexico and Panama.