High Commissioner’s speech marking the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention

Excellencies, distinguished guests, friends, colleagues,

It's truly an honour for me to be here as High Commissioner for Refugees, commemorating the 75^th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

It's also an honour for me to welcome Mr Mascioli, the State Secretary for Migration of Switzerland, and also State Councillor Fontanet, representing our gracious hosts the Canton of Geneva and who also represents the great City of Geneva. I want also to recognize and welcome my colleague and my friend, former High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, together with so many of you here.

Seventy-five years ago, in the aftermath of the Second World War, in this city and in this very building, nations of the world came together around a simple but profound idea: that no person forced to flee persecution, violence or war should ever be without protection; that human dignity does not stop at a border; and that the international community has a shared responsibility to protect the vulnerable.

That promise became the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Born from humanity's darkest chapter, the Refugee Convention became one of the defining achievements of the post-war international order.

For three-quarters of a century, it has saved countless lives and offered sanctuary to those who had nowhere else to turn to.

Its legacy is not found in treaties or archives. It is measured in human lives: families reunited, children educated, communities rebuilt, and futures restored.

Today, seventy-five years later, we gather to renew that promise. At a time of record displacement, increasingly complex and protracted conflicts, and when instability touches almost every region of the world, the principles enshrined in this Convention provide for both a moral compass but also a practical framework for action.

Yet we gather at a time of increasingly politicized debates about refugees and asylum.

Too often, people forced to flee become scapegoats for wider social, economic and political anxieties. Too often, refugees are portrayed as burdens or threats rather than as fellow human beings.

We must have the courage to confront such narratives.

Not because the challenges facing host nations are not real - they are real, indeed. Many countries and communities are carrying enormous responsibilities and deserve much greater international support.

The Refugee Convention reminds us a deeper truth: refugees are first and foremost fellow human beings. Mothers and fathers protecting their children; young people pursuing an education; workers, entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers, community leaders whose lives have been disrupted by circumstances beyond their control, but whose talents, ambitions and potential remain intact.

I know this not only as the High Commissioner for Refugees. I know it because I was a refugee myself. And I know it from personal experience what protection means, and what opportunity means.

Protection helped save my life, and opportunity enabled me to pursue an education and rebuild my life. I knew when I left home - forced to flee home - the anxiety of leaving what was so familiar, leaving my community and my friends and family. But it was this Convention, the very principles of protection and opportunity, that allowed me and so many others like me to pursue a life.

We really need to emphasize that we need to see people beyond the label of refugees. And we need to see human beings with potential.

They also affirm an important and powerful message: refugees should never be defined by the moment they flee home, but by what they can become when given a chance to rebuild their lives.

And there is another truth we often forget.

Most refugees want to go home; they do not want to be refugees forever.

They want to return home, to the places where they grew up, where their memories were formed, and to the homeland they still call home.

There is a beautiful Kurdish saying that captures that perfectly. It says: "Paris is sugar, but home is sweeter." So homes are truly sweet.

Refugees are not the cause of displacement. They are a consequence of it.

Displacement, we have to admit and recognize, often reflects the international community's failure to resolve conflict and sustain peace.

Too often, we mobilize only after people have fled. Too rarely do we invest enough diplomatic energy and political will to prevent the crises that force people to flee in the first place.

Humanitarian action saves lives.

Protection saves lives.

But only peace addresses the root causes of displacement.

When conflict erupts, women and girls often bear the heaviest burden.

They face heightened risks of violence, exploitation, and abuse. They are often left to carry families and communities through the most difficult of circumstances. Yet time and again, they demonstrate extraordinary leadership and courage.

Their protection, empowerment, and inclusion must remain at the centre of everything we do.

Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

As we honour the legacy of the Refugee Convention, we must also look to the future.

The Convention is clear in tasking UNHCR with protecting refugees and delivering life-saving assistance, but also obliges us to help refugees with solutions.

Protection must always remain our foundation. But we must place an equally strong emphasis on advancing durable solutions as the Convention demands.

We must move from managing displacement indefinitely to resolving it, collectively.

This conviction is at the heart of UNHCR's 50 by 35 vision: to help millions of displaced people access solutions, reducing by half the number of refugees trapped in long-term displacement and reliant on humanitarian assistance by 2035.

Solutions that help refugees to move beyond survival to rebuild their lives - through voluntary return, local integration - are important milestones for achieving solutions and moving beyond humanitarian assistance.

Seventy-five years ago, the world made a promise.

Today, our responsibility is to keep that promise alive. "The Promise" - a renewed commitment to the values that inspired this Convention.

To affirm our shared humanity.

To recognize our shared responsibility.

To stand with our fellow human beings who are forced to flee. To stand with refugees.

And to ensure that this remarkable promise continues to protect people in need of protection.

That is the legacy of the Refugee Convention. That is what UNHCR - with your help - is committed to delivering on.

Thank you.