The UN refugee chief on Monday said violence has become the defining feature of today’s world, criticizing the UN Security Council for failing to prevent and stop wars.
“This is a season of war. This is a time of crisis. From Sudan to Ukraine, from the Sahel to Myanmar, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Haiti, violence has become the defining currency of our age,” Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), told the Security Council.
“Preventing and stopping war — upholding peace and security — that is the Security Council’s mandate. That is your primary responsibility. And one that-you will forgive me for again saying it — this body has chronically failed to live up to. But please do not resign yourselves to the defeat of diplomacy,” he said.
Grandi said the norms of international humanitarian law are being cast aside as easily as “the thousands of lives destroyed in the pursuit of supremacy.”
On Gaza, which Israel has cut off from humanitarian aid for nearly two months, Grandi said that while the UNHCR is not part of the UN response there, “the situation of civilians there, which we thought could not get worse, is reaching new levels of desperation by the day.”
He also addressed the situation in Syria, saying “for the first time in decades, there is a spark of hope, including for the millions of Syrians who remain displaced today, 4.5 million of them refugees in neighboring countries.”
“Whether they will stay in Syria or, tragically, move again-including to Europe and beyond-depends of course on the authorities, but also-very much-on your willingness to take risks,” he said, calling on council members to ease sanctions, support early recovery, and create conditions for basic services like security, water, and electricity.
‘FATAL CONSEQUENCES’
Grandi warned of dwindling humanitarian aid, saying “aid is stability” and that freezing or cutting aid budgets “is already having fatal consequences on millions of lives.”
At the end of the council session, Grandi again addressed the body and raised the alarm about declining funding for humanitarian operations.
“I cannot emphasize more how dramatic the situation is in this very moment,” he said, warning that the UNHCR is leading “an internal effort which may conclude with the retrenchment of my organization to up to one-third of its capacity.”
“If the current trend continues in terms of freeze, in terms of cuts that unfortunately, many donor countries have announced, the humanitarian system will be gravely retrenched,” he said.
“We will not be able to do more with less. But as I have said many times, we will do less with less. We are already doing less with less,” Grandi added, noting that UNHCR education and healthcare programs have already been cut.
“You have been the refugee. You have welcomed those who sought refuge,” he said. “Now you sit at this table, with the responsibility to end war, to bring peace. You must succeed.”