At High-level Week of the UN General Assembly, Islamic Relief has joined with 20 faith-based organisations to call on governments to protect the rights of displaced people and uphold the Refugee Convention, as it marks its 75th anniversary year.
As faith-based organizations, we are deeply concerned by ongoing human rights violations experienced by refugees, asylum seekers, and other forcibly displaced people. Across the world, people fleeing persecution face barriers to accessing protection, are denied the right to seek asylum, subjected to refoulement, detained arbitrarily, separated from their families, and exposed to exploitation and abuse. At the same time, increasing militarization and military spending are not making the world more peaceful, but diverting resources away from efforts to protect human rights, prevent displacement and support durable solutions for those forced to flee.
Whether displaced across borders or within their own countries, recognized as refugees or still seeking protection, all people possess human rights by virtue of being human. Human rights are inalienable and grounded in inherent human dignity – they do not depend on nationality, legal status or where a person happens to be.
The UN Charter recognizes respect for human rights as essential to peace and security. Human rights not only protect individuals; they create the conditions for peaceful societies and international cooperation. Refugee protection, grounded in international law and supported through principled multilateral action, safeguards the rights of those forced to flee violence and persecution while promoting shared responsibility among States.
The international refugee protection regime, including the 1951 Refugee Convention and broader international human rights law, are rooted in principles that can be traced back throughout history. Across major cultures and religious traditions—from Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity, to philosophical traditions in ancient Babylon, China, India, Rome, Classical Greece and others—we find shared ethical principles about how humans should treat one another, especially those who are vulnerable, displaced, or seeking refuge. These principles reflect enduring values of human dignity, compassion, hospitality, and solidarity, which later found expression in contemporary human rights and refugee law.
Rejecting the rights of refugees and asylum seekers would therefore reject not only the international legal framework established in the aftermath of devastating conflicts, but also our shared moral foundations and common humanity. Faith-based organizations accompanying displaced communities every day witness how weakening protection systems and undermining human rights inevitably lead to greater suffering, insecurity, and loss of life.
In this 75th anniversary year, we call on all faith-based organisations to join us in upholding the Refugee Convention and urge all States to reaffirm their commitment to the Refugee Convention and other international human rights instruments, ensuring that dignity, solidarity, protection, and responsibility-sharing remain at the center of responses to forced displacement, upholding the rights of refugees towards a more just, peaceful, and humane world.
