The text of the following statement was released by the Government of the United States of America and the Governments of Australia, Canada, Spain, Italy, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, as well as the European Commission, on the occasion of the second ministerial meeting of the Resettlement Diplomacy Network.
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We – the ministerial representatives from the Governments of the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, as well as the Commissioner for International Partnerships of the European Commission – gathered today under the chairmanship of the U.S. Secretary of State to reaffirm shared dedication to the RDN as a key forum for collaboration on refugee resettlement and protection pathways.
We value the RDN’s high-level strategic engagement to strengthen global resettlement infrastructure, enhance international solidarity, and save lives through effective protection pathways. As the number of people on the move rises across the world, affecting the capacity of states and international organizations, ensuring there are safe and legal routes to international protection when needed, in line with the capacity of states to absorb arrivals, is essential.
In today’s meeting, we reflected on the RDN’s achievements, including activation of the Emergency Coordination Platform, known as the “Red Phone”. Launched at the inaugural ministerial meeting, the Red Phone has already been an important and useful tool for advocacy, reporting, and exchanging best practices. The Red Phone has proven essential in facilitating rapid coordination on protection pathways in emerging crises and situations of shared concern, such as those in Afghanistan, Libya, and Gaza. We collectively recognize the value of the RDN, including as a useful rapid information-sharing platform, ensuring timely joint action on issues of collective concern.
Building on the successful Emergency Coordination Platform and an internal mapping of how RDN member states have been responding to various recent emergencies, today we have committed to explore further opportunities to deepen our collaboration in responding to emergencies that cause mass displacement. This will include exploration of a shared platform to communicate essential information, including good practices, about available protection pathways in response to future emergencies. We will also explore ways to further collaborate on a voluntary basis on referrals for resettlement and protection pathways.
We reiterate our intention to work together to address global challenges, including to respond to growing protection needs. We look forward to continued opportunities to elevate the role of resettlement and protection pathways as durable solutions through multilateral fora, including building on the important work of the G7 under the current Italian Presidency.
We also intend to work with international organizations and other stakeholders to make safe pathways more efficient and effective.
Looking ahead, we will explore collective diplomatic action to improve and strengthen global resettlement and unlock bottlenecks that may hinder the availability of regular pathways for those in need of protection. We reiterate our commitment to providing practical, regular and safe solutions to challenges presented by displacement.
With more than 120 million people forcibly displaced globally, strengthening global cooperation on effective upstream interventions and safe and lawful protection pathways is not just a humanitarian imperative, but also a strategic necessity to uphold global and regional stability and reassert a collective commitment to human rights. Together, we will continue to strive for a more coordinated and effective response to the challenges of displacement worldwide.
We also welcome the presence of the representative of the Government of Germany and the Government of Brazil and their continued participation in the network.
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