International Community Must Reaffirm Commitment to Refugee Protection and Human Rights Amid Global Challenges: UN and Regional Human Rights Experts

GENEVA (12 December 2025) – In commemoration of Human Rights Day, the Platform of Independent Experts on Refugee Rights (PIERR), a group of independent UN and regional human rights experts, marks its second anniversary and calls for renewed global solidarity to uphold the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers.

This year has been marked by unprecedented shifts and tumultuous changes in the multilateral system and alarming threats to the international rule of law. The challenges facing refugees today are complex and interconnected: protracted conflicts, climate-related displacement, racism, xenophobia, and shrinking civic space urgently demand coordinated responses. With over 117 million people forcibly displaced globally, the scale of need is unprecedented. At the same time, funding to ensure critical and lifesaving protection activities is dwindling – creating real challenges to host communities and those supporting them, to respect, protect and fulfill the human rights of refugees. Multilateralism to protect human rights and ensure access to justice and the rule of law, is not optional—it is essential. States, international and regional organizations, civil society, and refugee communities themselves, must harness collective efforts to ensure that commitments translate into concrete action.

In times of uncertainty, solidarity and responsibility-sharing must guide our collective efforts to protect those most at risk—including refugees and asylum-seekers. All stakeholders, such as States, international and regional organizations, civil society, and refugee communities themselves, must join forces to achieve effective protection of refugees’ human rights and stronger support for host communities.

As the PIERR marks the two-year anniversary from its launch at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum (GRF), this is a moment to renew commitments looking forward. The GRF Progress Review, to be held from 15-17 December, offers a critical opportunity to propose how to turn pledges and solidarity into tangible improvements in protecting and promoting the human rights of asylum-seekers and refugees, focusing efforts on areas where needs are most critical.

International Human Rights Day, commemorated on 10 December, reminds us that refugee protection is part and parcel of the broader human rights framework. The rights to life, liberty, dignity, security, and non-discrimination, are not aspirational—they are binding obligations under international law. As we look ahead to 2026, which marks the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, we reaffirm the enduring relevance of this cornerstone instrument and the principle of complementarity between international and regional refugee, human rights and humanitarian law frameworks. Together, these legal frameworks form a comprehensive architecture for safeguarding refugee rights and working toward solutions. Their effectiveness, though, ultimately depends on coordinated implementation, genuine political will and commitment to the rule of law.

The PIERR was established to strengthen the promotion of the human rights of asylum-seekers and refugees, and to support States and stakeholders in implementing obligations as laid out in the relevant international and regional human rights and refugee law frameworks. Over the past two years, we have worked collectively to advance dialogue, provide guidance, and promote complementarity between human rights and refugee protection systems through our joint advocacy and coordination.

At this critical moment, we underscore that collaboration is the path forward. No single actor can meet these challenges alone. The PIERR stands ready to cooperate with States, international and regional bodies, civil society, refugees and host communities, and other stakeholders to strengthen protection systems and help with delivering solutions that respect human rights and human dignity. In a world of uncertainty, we urge States and key stakeholders to focus on our shared humanity—and let that guide us towards a future of hope, solidarity, and shared responsibility.

ENDS   

Siobhán Mullally, PIERR Chair and UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Gehad Madi, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; Matthew Gillett, (Vice-Chair on Communications), UN Working Group on arbitrary detention; Jorge Contesse, Member, UN Committee against Torture; Selma Sassi-Safer, Commissioner and Special Rapporteur on refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and migrants in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights; Andrea Pochak, Commissioner and Rapporteur on Human Mobility of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; and Alan Mitchell, President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.

ABOUT THE PIERR:

The PIERR is currently composed of the mandates of the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the human rights of migrants and on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, the Working Group on arbitrary detention, the UN Committee against Torture, the Special Rapporteur on refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and migrants in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Rapporteurship on Human Mobility of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.

The Platform is supported by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

For more information on the PIERR, please refer to www.pierr.org.