Linked events
Linked events
Browse all linked events by day
Select a day to find information on linked events. Linked events cover various topics related to the four Global Compact on Refugees objectives, which are listed here:
GCR objectives
1️⃣ Ease the pressure on host countries
2️⃣ Enhance refugee self-reliance
3️⃣ Expand access to third-country solutions
4️⃣ Support conditions in countries of origin for returns in safety and dignity
Tuesday 9 December
ℹ️ Linked events are listed in chronological order.
Korea Refugee Forum
- 🕖 Time: 09:00-18:00 Korea Standard Time (UTC+9)
🌍 Venue: Grand Hall (1F), Sahyang Convergence Gymnasium, Seoul National University of Education
In the lead-up to the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review 2025, UNHCR Korea is co-hosting the Korea Refugee Forum with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, the Korea Refugee Rights Network, and the Korea Refugee Research Network. This national platform will unite government, civil society, academia, the private sector—and refugees themselves—to advance dialogue, strengthen policy frameworks, and foster social cohesion. By showcasing refugee contributions and promoting inclusive partnerships, the Forum aims to galvanize domestic action and feed into global discussions through progress reviews and new pledges to the GRF.
Protection and stabilization in the Americas: bridging asylum, safe returns, and community inclusion
- 🕖 Time: 15:00-16:30 - Panama time
🌍 Venue: Virtual
This virtual session, hosted by Costa Rica, will showcase how the Americas are adapting protection and stabilization measures to a rapidly evolving displacement landscape. Bringing together governments, civil society, and regional actors, the discussion will highlight innovative approaches to asylum, transfer arrangements, safe and dignified returns, and inclusion strategies. With countries of origin, transit, destination, and return converging in one region, the event offers lessons on partnership-driven solutions and rights-based programs that strengthen resilience and integration.
Thursday 11 December
ℹ️ Linked events are listed in chronological order.
From protection risks to solutions: The role of youth in the prevention and mitigation of violence and peace building in Latin America and the Caribbean
- 🕖 Time: 14:00 - Panama time
🌍 Venue: Virtual
This virtual session will spotlight the role of young people in Latin America and the Caribbean as key actors in shaping solutions and driving stabilization in displacement contexts. Hosted by the Regional Network of Youth on the Move (REJUMOVI), the discussion will address protection risks such as forced recruitment, showcase youth-led peacebuilding initiatives, and issue a call to action for States to create spaces for participation and empowerment. The event reinforces pledges on meaningful participation, youth, and peacebuilding, and aligns with SDG targets on education, equality, decent work, and climate action.
Monday 15 December
ℹ️ Linked events are listed in chronological order.
Through thick and thin: supporting the champions of refugee inclusion
- 🕖 Time: 8:00-9:30
🌍 Venue: By invitation only
This event will showcase donor commitments to advancing refugee inclusion and explore modalities for further support. It will highlight policy progress in countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya, present concrete donor instruments deployed by the Netherlands and other partners, and facilitate dialogue between donors and host countries on future collaboration. The discussion will also examine the role of the UN system and international financial institutions in sustaining inclusion efforts, promoting transparency and accountability in the follow-up to pledges under the Global Compact on Refugees.
Amplifying voices, advancing disability inclusion: the launch of the Global Network of Refugees with Disabilities
- 🕖 Time: 8:15-9:30
🌍 Venue: By invitation only
This event marks the official launch of the Global Network of Refugees with Disabilities and provides a unique opportunity to engage and exchange with organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), especially those led by forcibly displaced and stateless persons. The discussions will focus on the critical importance of disability inclusion in humanitarian contexts and how to better address the persistent gap in representation, leadership, and support for forcibly displaced and stateless persons with disabilities.
From the ground up: regional perspectives on advancing the Global Compact on Refugees
- 🕖 Time: 12:00-13:00
🌍 Venue: 9th Floor Open Space, DCAF - Maison de la Paix, Chemin Eugène-Rigot 2E, Geneva (access via visitor entrance of Pétale 5)
This event brings the findings of regional roundtables in East Africa, MENA, and Asia Pacific to the global stage. Organized by refugee-led organizations, community-based groups, and international partners, the discussion will tackle barriers to meaningful refugee leadership and present practical recommendations for localized, sustainable responses. Through an interactive roundtable and panel, participants will explore how international stakeholders can strengthen support for locally led approaches, informing pathways and commitments toward the Global Refugee Forum in 2027.
R-SPACE
- 🕖 Time: 12:00 - 19:00
🌍 Venue: Petit Salon and Grand Salon, Geneva
R-Space is an independent, refugee-led forum running in parallel with the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review 2025 in Geneva. It provides a platform for refugee-led organizations and allies, including civil society, states, academia, and donors, to share community-driven solutions and influence global discussions on the Global Compact on Refugees. Building on its success at the 2023 GRF, where over 40 panels and events showcased meaningful participation, R-Space demonstrates the value of institutionalizing spaces that amplify refugee leadership and inclusive dialogue.
Commemorating 10 years of the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda: reflecting on legal, normative and policy developments for people displaced across borders in the context of disasters and climate change
- 🕖 Time: 12:30 – 13:45
🌍 Venue: Room Vevey, CCV Conference Center (opposite CICG)
This event marks the 10th anniversary of the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda and UNHCR’s 75th anniversary, using the GRF Progress Review 2025 as an opportunity to assess progress in protecting people displaced across borders due to disasters and climate change. It will highlight achievements, lessons learned, and the urgent need to strengthen international protection standards, as climate-related risks increasingly intersect with displacement. The discussion will also advance the GRF Multistakeholder Pledge on Climate Action, promoting inclusive approaches for refugees, forcibly displaced, and stateless persons.
To register, please reach out to [email protected].
Find more information about the event here.
Shared responsibility in action: the contribution of civil society and refugee-led organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean to the implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees
- 🕖 Time: 16:00-17:30
🌍 Venue: TBC / Hybrid
This event will promote regional shared responsibility and multi-stakeholder partnerships to advance refugee inclusion and social cohesion in Latin America and the Caribbean. It will strengthen political dialogue between States and civil society, highlight the cultural, academic, and community contributions of refugees and displaced persons, and address current challenges to human rights. The discussion will also explore sustainable partnerships and financing mechanisms to ensure continuity of inclusion and protection programs across the region.
From commitments to action: advancing child rights and expanding access to family reunification
- 🕖 Time: 18:30-20:00
🌍 Venue: Geneva Graduate Institute
A pre-event apero will be hosted from 17:45 to 18:30.
This hybrid event, co-hosted by Global Family Reunification Network (FRUN), the Initiative for Child Rights in the Global Compacts, and the Geneva Graduate Institute's Centre for Conflict, Peace and Development (CCDP), Global Migration Centre (GMC) and Migration Initiative, will foster dialogue between research, policy, and practice to advance child rights and protection. It will showcase good practices and initiatives delivering on Multistakeholder Pledges for Family Reunification and Child Rights, featuring representatives from States, UN entities, and civil society. This event is designed to engage diverse stakeholders and expand the reach of the GRF Progress Review, facilitating dialogue, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration among diverse stakeholders engaged in global refugee responses and child rights.
Tuesday 16 December
ℹ️ Linked events are listed in chronological order.
The right to participate: launch of an independent declaration on meaningful participation
- 🕖 Time: 7:00-8:30 CEST
🌍 Venue: Grand Salon Room, Impact Hub, Rue Fendt 1, 1201 Geneva (same as R-SPACE)
This event will launch the independent declaration on the right to participate, led by a global coalition of refugee and legal experts. It is a call to action to move meaningful refugee participation from rhetoric to reality, ensuring displaced and stateless voices are central to decisions that shape their protection and human rights.
Evidence for action: advancing refugee inclusion into national health systems
- 🕖 Time: 8:00-9:30
🌍 Venue: MBT04, UNHCR Headquarters, Geneva
This event will present findings from UNHCR–Queen Margaret University’s multi-country research on refugee inclusion in national health systems and launch new policy briefs. It will convene policymakers, UN agencies, development banks, civil society, and academia to discuss practical lessons and pathways for equitable health access and inclusive health systems for refugees and host communities. The event also follows up on the GCR pledge by QMU and partners to advance refugee inclusion in health systems through research, advocacy, and education.
Catalysing change together: a dialogue between donors and local actors on advancing localization
- 🕖 Time: 8:00-9:30
🌍 Venue: By invite only
This event, co-convened by Bondeko, ICVA, IFRC, and UNHCR, will provide a platform for dialogue between donors and local actors, including organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless persons. It will address local priorities, challenges in accessing funding, and tensions between global policy commitments and operational realities, while exploring practical and policy shifts to advance inclusive, accountable, locally led action. The discussion will focus on equitable partnerships, sustainable financing, and institutional capacity strengthening in line with the GRF localization pledge and Grand Bargain commitments.
This event is by invitation only. For more information, please contact the following email address: [email protected].
Solutions to statelessness: multistakeholder action to achieve equal nationality rights for all
- 🕖 Time: 8:00-9:45
🌍 Venue: UNHCR Headquarters, Geneva / Hybrid
Interpretation in Arabic and French will be available.
Reflecting on progress on the Multistakeholder Pledge on Statelessness, the event will focus on joint action to end statelessness and discriminatory nationality laws; recent momentum for solutions; further steps needed to realize the SDGs and GCR objectives; and the role of impacted activists, civil society, states, and UN agencies to achieve equal nationality rights for all. The event will feature impacted activists and representatives of champion states and UN agencies.
Registrations for this event have now closed.
Read more about the Solutions to statelessness event.
Promoting resilience: women-led pathways to protection, localization and inclusion
- 🕖 Time: 8:30-9:45
🌍 Venue: Salle Vevey, CCV, Rue de Varembé 9-11, Geneva
This event, co-convened by UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and Girls, UN Women, Women’s Refugee Commission, ITU, and Women-Led Organizations (WLOs), will spotlight women-led approaches to protection, inclusion, and durable solutions that advance the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) objectives. The panel discussion will show why long-term, flexible investment in WLOs/WRLOs is critical for sustaining community resilience, preventing and responding to GBV, and enabling socio-economic inclusion. It will also highlight the need for greater access to humanitarian funding for WLOs/WRLOs in crises, including through country-based pooled funds, by reducing systemic barriers and strengthening capacities. Finally, the discussion will explore how digital tools and inclusive technologies can expand women’s leadership and access to coordination, education, and livelihoods—while addressing technology-facilitated GBV.
Read more about the event here. For more information, please contact the following email address [email protected]
R-SPACE
- 🕖 Time: 9:30 - 19:00
🌍 Venue: Petit Salon and Grand Salon, Geneva
R-Space is an independent, refugee-led forum running in parallel with the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review 2025 in Geneva. It provides a platform for refugee-led organizations and allies, including civil society, states, academia, and donors, to share community-driven solutions and influence global discussions on the Global Compact on Refugees. Building on its success at the 2023 GRF, where over 40 panels and events showcased meaningful participation, R-Space demonstrates the value of institutionalizing spaces that amplify refugee leadership and inclusive dialogue.
Addressing women’s and girls’ right to health in humanitarian and refugee contexts: overcoming barriers to ensure data-driven responses
- 🕖 Time: 13:00-14:00
🌍 Venue: Palais des Nations, Geneva
Beyond refugee camps: advancing freedom of movement and self-reliance for refugees in East Africa
- 🕖 Time: 13:00-14:30 CET (15:00-16:30 EAT)
🌍 Venue: Humanitarian Hub, 5th floor, La Voie-Creuse 16, 1202 Geneva / Hybrid
This event will convene refugee leaders, policymakers, and development actors to explore how freedom of movement and self-reliance, two core pillars of the Global Compact on Refugees, can be accelerated through evidence-based dialogue and innovative practices. The session will showcase lived experiences and policy solutions addressing movement restrictions, highlight promising approaches that foster inclusion within national systems, and generate actionable recommendations for the GRF ecosystem. Participants will leave with insights on aligning domestic frameworks with GCR objectives and strengthening partnerships to advance durable solutions.
Participants attending online can access the event via this Teams link.
Climate displacement and climate action
- 🕖 Time: 13:30-15:00
🌍 Venue: Rue de Varembé 1, Geneva - meeting room on the ground floor
This event will feature a video screening and panel discussion on the difficult choices faced by communities at high risk of climate-induced displacement, deciding whether, when, and how to relocate as living conditions become increasingly untenable. The panel will examine the challenges of displacement, highlight the needs of affected populations, explore actions to build resilience, and discuss the responsibilities of key actors in addressing these impacts.
From access to transformation: 15by30 pledge on higher education and skills for self-reliance
- 🕖 Time: 14:30-18:00
🌍 Venue: InterContinental, Geneva
This event, supporting the 15by30 multistakeholder pledge on higher education and skills for self-reliance, will bring together leaders from universities, humanitarian and private sectors, governments, and refugee-led organizations to explore how higher education can drive transformative change for displaced learners. Co-created with the pledge on shifting power and localization of research, the session will introduce the Each One Take One global solidarity movement and showcase innovative partnerships such as the Global University Academy. Through interactive discussions, it will highlight commitments, share good practices, and drive new pledges to position higher education and skills at the center of sustainable, inclusive responses to forced displacement.
Learn more about the event here.
Multi-stakeholder action on local solutions
- 🕖 Time: 15:00-17:00
🌍 Venue: Room VIII, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Regular pathways and refugee protection: exploring the connections
- 🕖 Time: 17:00-18:30
🌍 Venue: Rue Varembe 1, meeting room on the ground floor, Geneva
This linked event will reflect on the added value and potential of different regular pathways, spanning from education pathways to labour-mobility programme, that can advance refugee protection and inclusion. In this context, it is also important to recognise the role of humanitarian corridors, which can provide safe and legal routes for people in need of protection. While the new EU Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Framework Regulation can support regular migration pathways, it is crucial, during implementation, to continue centring human rights in the discourse on labour mobility and skills development. This ensures that these pathways address the needs and realities of migrants and refugees.
For more information, please contact, Floriana Polito: [email protected] | Oumou Diallo: [email protected]
EiE Hub end-of-the-year reception
- 🕖 Time: 17:30-19:00
🌍 Venue: Global Hub for Education in Emergencies - Rue de Varembé 7, Geneva (7th floor)
This end-of-year gathering, organized by the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies (EiE Hub), will bring together members and partners during the GRF Progress Review 2025 to reflect on challenges faced in 2025, such as the evolving funding landscape—while celebrating key achievements and looking ahead to opportunities in 2026. The event will spotlight progress on refugee education pledges, emphasize equity and the critical role of teachers, and foster dialogue on transitioning refugee education into national systems. It will also provide space for networking and reaffirming collaboration among EiE stakeholders.
The world through our eyes – a feminist map of displacement
- 🕖 Time: 17:30 - 19:00 CEST
🌍 Venue: Hotel Intercontinental, Ballroom BC
Reception afterwards at Hotel InterContinental.
This interactive linked event highlights the transformative potential of global movements of solidarity and showcases women’s leadership in advancing refugee self-reliance. It builds on the joint pledge of the Action Network on Forced Displacement, BMZ, and WPHF under the Gender Equality & GBV multi-stakeholder pledge. Through an interactive visual mapping of stories, displaced women and queer leaders will take participants on a journey through their regions – revealing both the distinct realities of displacement and the global patterns of solidarity that connect them. Member states will share calls for solidarity as refugee-hosting countries.
Register for in-person participation by reaching out to [email protected].
Wednesday 17 December
ℹ️ Linked events are listed in chronological order.
City leadership for refugee socio-economic inclusion: rethinking roles and responsibilities for urban refugee protection
- 🕖 Time: 7:30-9:00
🌍 Venue: Global Cities Hub, Villa Rigot, Av. de la Paix 9, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
This event, aligned with the 2025 humanitarian reset and the upcoming Global Refugee Forum, spotlights innovations from refugee-hosting cities such as Nairobi and another municipality (TBC). Refugee champions working within local authorities will share experiences, framed by a broader discussion on how cities worldwide can foster socio-economic and spatial inclusion for displaced populations. The session will explore the roles and responsibilities of local, national, and international actors in ensuring towns and cities remain safe, welcoming, and productive spaces for refugees.
Upholding the Refugee Convention: a multistakeholder call to action
- 🕖 Time: 8:00-9:45
🌍 Venue: Varembé Conference Centre, Geneva Meeting Room
Faith, displacement & localisation: humanitarian agendas and action
- 🕖 Time: 8:45-10:15
🌍 Venue: Rue Varembe 1, Geneva - meeting room on the ground floor
Faith-based organizations occupy a unique space in the humanitarian landscape, combining deep local roots with international structures that provide support and capacity-building. This event examines the challenges these organizations face in fitting into current humanitarian frameworks, where local actors are often classified as international due to their affiliations, despite having autonomous governance, local fundraising, and legal recognition. The discussion will highlight the strong commitment of faith-based organizations to localization and explore how their dual identity can be better integrated into humanitarian systems.
Dialogue on digital inclusion and refugee empowerment
- 🕖 Time: 9:00-11:30
🌍 Venue: International Trade Centre (ITC), Rue de Montbrillant 54, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland (Room 5 or 6)
R-SPACE
- 🕖 Time: 9:30 - 16:30
🌍 Venue: Petit Salon and Grand Salon, Geneva
R-Space is an independent, refugee-led forum running in parallel with the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review 2025 in Geneva. It provides a platform for refugee-led organizations and allies, including civil society, states, academia, and donors, to share community-driven solutions and influence global discussions on the Global Compact on Refugees. Building on its success at the 2023 GRF, where over 40 panels and events showcased meaningful participation, R-Space demonstrates the value of institutionalizing spaces that amplify refugee leadership and inclusive dialogue.
Teachers at the frontline: voices from refugee settings on progress, challenges, and the path forward for GRF pledges
- 🕖 Time: 10:00 CET
🌍 Venue: Humanitarian Hub, Geneva
As we review progress toward the educational aims of the Global Compact on Refugees and the implementation of pledges, the voices of teachers are essential. This event provides a platform for refugee educators to share insights on achievements, challenges, and risks, particularly as funding for teachers in Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises faces growing strain. The session will amplify teachers’ lived realities, highlight their role as frontline changemakers, and underscore the urgent need for sustainable financing for education and the education workforce in crisis settings.
Friday 19 December
ℹ️ Linked events are listed in chronological order.
Cultural heritage and the importance of identity and community for displaced people
- 🕖 Time: 10:00 EST; 16:00 CEST
🌍 Venue: Zoom
The event will focus on the role of culture and heritage in the lives of those displaced by conflict, economic, and or climate disaster, and will address several of the objectives of the framework for the Global Compact on Refugees, including self-reliance, community building, and reclaiming identity. The event will feature a “fireside chat” with Sara Green, Founder and Executive Director, Art for Refugees in Transition, A.R.T., and Founder and Chair of the UNESCO Working Group on Conflict and Displacement, and Wael Haffar Habbal, a refugee from Syria, currently living in the United States.
Linked events hosted by stakeholders are independently organized and UNHCR is not responsible for their content.
View the full programme overview
The GRF Progress Review 2025 Official Programme includes the plenary session, parallel high-level events and linked events. View the full programme overview for details on the plenary session and parallel high-level events.