United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees closing remarks to the 77th session of the Executive Committee

Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, colleagues, partners and friends,

As we conclude this session of the Executive Committee, thank you for the seriousness of your engagement, the frankness of our exchanges, and your continued commitment to international refugee protection.

I have been deeply gratified by what I have heard this week.

There have been differences of view, and there have been serious questions. And there should be.

But overwhelmingly, I have heard strong support for UNHCR and its mandate, for the Refugee Convention and the international protection system it anchors, and for keeping refugees, protection and solutions at the centre of our collective efforts.

At this juncture in history, that matters enormously.

With the international system under pressure, protection being tested and humanitarian resources shrinking, I do not take that support for granted.

It gives us confidence. It motivates us. But it also brings responsibility.

We must be worthy of that support. We must act faithfully and confidently in accordance with our mandate, protect its integrity, use our resources responsibly, and remain focused on the people we serve.

Mr. Chairman,

I want to thank you personally for your leadership, your leadership of the Bureau, your engagement and commitment, that have been greatly appreciated. As this is the last ExCom at which you will serve in this capacity, I particularly want to recognize your personal contribution and commitment to the cause of refugees. Given this commitment, I am sure our paths will cross again.

I also want to recognize the Vice-Chairs, Ambassador Deka and Ambassador Endren, for their work throughout this session, and also our excellent Rapporteur, Laura Blanco of Colombia.

And I welcome Ambassador Daka as Chair of the Bureau, and also Ambassador Ayşe Sözen Usluer from Türkiye, Ambassador de Souza from Brazil, and Counsellor Khan from Pakistan as Rapporteur. I wish you success, and I commit to working very closely with you in the year ahead.

I also want to thank Switzerland, our host country, not only for hosting this very important meeting, but for its longstanding partnership with UNHCR and its support for the international refugee protection system.

Mr. Chairman,

At my first Executive Committee as High Commissioner, I came determined to set out a clear direction for UNHCR.

I leave this Executive Committee meeting with an even greater appreciation of the responsibilities we share.

I have heard from countries hosting millions of refugees, often for decades, while struggling to meet the needs of their own citizens.

From governments confronting difficult questions about asylum, mixed movements and the integrity of their protection systems.

From donors asking legitimate questions about effectiveness and accountability.

And from countries seeking to create the conditions that will allow their people to return home.

The perspectives differ. But there is common ground.

We cannot accept indefinite displacement as the future of millions of people.

We cannot expect refugee-hosting countries to carry responsibilities that belong to the international community as a whole.

And we cannot ask humanitarian organizations to meet growing needs with diminishing resources without acknowledging the consequences.

Our task is not to choose between the legitimate responsibilities of States and the rights of refugees. It is to find practical ways to uphold both.

That is particularly important as we mark the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention.

States have a legitimate responsibility to manage their borders, maintain confidence in asylum systems and ensure that protection reaches those who genuinely need it.

A credible asylum system must be both effective and fair. It must protect those who genuinely need protection while maintaining the integrity of the system itself. It must be preserved and protected, including from abuse.

A number of you reinforced that point and asked for support in strengthening national asylum systems. This will remain an important priority for UNHCR globally, including as part of our route-based approach to complex movements. We will need the support of the donor community to sustain this important work.

As I said at the beginning of this week, the principles endure. Our collective effort to implement them must evolve. To implement better and more effectively.

Mr. Chairman,

That same principle guides the 50by35 vision.

I have been encouraged by the support for its direction and by your serious questions about its implementation.

The ambition is clear: accelerate durable solutions, particularly voluntary return when conditions permit; strengthen self-reliance for refugees in protracted displacement; and prevent today’s emergencies from becoming tomorrow’s protracted crises.

50by35 is not a target to reduce humanitarian assistance.

It is a commitment to reduce the need for it.

Nor is it about transferring responsibility to refugee-hosting countries. Their leadership must be matched by genuine international responsibility-sharing.

We must strengthen national systems, bring development investment into displacement situations earlier, and work differently with partners who may be better placed to lead.

But transitions must be carefully managed.

We cannot withdraw humanitarian support today on the assumption that development investment will arrive tomorrow.

And resettlement remains indispensable. Complementary pathways must expand opportunities, not replace protection-based resettlement.

With 50by35, we must measure success not only by how effectively we sustain responses, but by how effectively we change them.

You have rightly asked for greater clarity on what this vision will mean in practice. We need to become more granular, and we will.

We are working with the World Bank and other development actors on a set of “in-focus” countries, where operational roadmaps will be developed in the coming months. We hope these can also serve as platforms around which other development and humanitarian partners can also coalesce.

Our efforts are not limited to these countries. We will continue to work with governments and other actors wherever there is an opportunity to accelerate progress to this target.

So the question is not simply what we will stop doing. It is what we will do differently.

How do we make the right shift towards government-led and government-supported approaches without shifting burdens inappropriately? How do we build more sustainable responses, backed by predictable and sustained financing, in the true spirit of international responsibility-sharing? And how do we do so with the urgency that the situation demands?

For the first time, we have set ourselves a measurable target. That matters. It allows us to assess progress, adjust our programmes as we learn, and hold ourselves mutually accountable. I underline that we have set ourselves a specific, quantifiable target against which we can assess progress.

We will have another opportunity to discuss this at the Protection Dialogue in December, when our operational planning will have advanced further.

Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates,

We are pursuing this ambition in an exceptionally difficult financial environment.

I am deeply grateful to governments that have sustained or increased their contributions, particularly those providing flexible and unearmarked funding. I also recognize countries whose contributions represent a significant commitment relative to their resources, as well as the extraordinary generosity of private donors and individuals.

To all the States supporting UNHCR at this difficult moment: thank you.
We need others to join you.

For our part, we will continue making difficult choices, improving efficiency and ensuring that every resource entrusted to us is used responsibly.

But, as I said on the first day of the Executive Committee, efficiency also has limits.

Below a certain point, the protection we can provide begins to fail.

That is not an institutional argument. It is a reality felt by refugees, host countries and the organizations working alongside them.

Let me also pay tribute to our NGO partners, particularly national, local and refugee-led organizations.

We cannot speak about localisation while transferring responsibility and risk without the resources to carry them.

Excellencies,

Several delegations have asked pointed questions about our administrative costs, the size and structure of Headquarters and the Regional Bureaux, our country footprint, and whether we are doing enough to improve efficiency.

These are fair questions.

What I have presented this week together with my colleagues is the beginning, not the end, of our reform.

We are examining where decisions can move closer to the field, where management layers and processes can be simplified, and where functions can be delivered more efficiently through shared services and partnerships, within the UN system, UN80 and the humanitarian reset, but also within our own orgenization.

The aim is a more flexible and agile delivery model, adapted to different operational contexts rather than applying one model everywhere.

Technology will also help to change the way we work, not simply digitise how we work today. We are looking at how digital tools, data, automation and artificial intelligence can reduce administrative burdens and better support our operations.

Our objective is not simply a smaller UNHCR. It is a more flexible, efficient and accountable UNHCR, fit for the realities we face and better able to deliver its mandate.

Accountability must remain central.

Greater delegation requires clear accountability. Simplification requires appropriate safeguards. Efficiency must never weaken integrity or independent oversight.

These are not obstacles to reform. They are what make reform credible

You have affirmed the need to maintain robust oversight and auditing systems within UNHCR. I commit to you that we will do so, because that is central to the way that we manage and we operate, and I welcome the affirmation in that regard.

Several Member States have also highlighted the need for greater geographical diversity, particularly at senior levels. I acknowledge that concern. We need to do more.

As we reshape UNHCR’s leadership and workforce, we must address this deliberately and make tangible progress towards an organization that better reflects its international character.

But structures and systems are only part of the organization.

UNHCR, above all, is its people.

This has been an extraordinarily difficult period for our colleagues.

Many have left after years, sometimes decades, of dedicated service. Those who remain have faced uncertainty, smaller teams, heavier responsibilities and extraordinarily demanding conditions.

There have been difficult decisions, disagreements and legitimate questions about the course of reform.

We should not minimise any of that.

But through it all, our colleagues have kept going.

Receiving refugees at borders. Protecting children. Supporting survivors. Working with governments. Negotiating access. Helping families return home.

Doing the quiet, daily work through which our mandate becomes real.

To colleagues in the field, in Regional Bureaux and at Headquarters, I say: you have my and our senior leadership’s profound appreciation.

I have seen your professionalism, your resilience and your commitment to the people we serve. And I do acknowledge and appreciate the sentiments and the support that we have heard throughout this week to our colleagues and staff from this audience.

This organization, Excellencies, has been tested, and its people have risen to that test.

UNHCR’s strength has always rested in its presence where protection is needed most. As we reform, we must preserve that capacity.

I agree with those of you who have stated that a leaner organization must not mean a more distant one.

I want particularly to thank my senior leadership. This has not been an easy period in which to lead.

We have had to make difficult decisions, sometimes with imperfect choices before us, while responding to emergencies and keeping the organization focused on its mandate.

I am grateful to my colleagues for their counsel, their candour, their professionalism and their willingness to carry responsibility through this period of change.

I really also thank the Global Staff Council for its constructive engagement and frank dialogue. We have not agreed on everything. But we share a concern for UNHCR’s future and, above all, for our ability to protect refugees.

Because reform, Excellencies, is ultimately not about structures and organigrams.

It is about our ability to deliver on our mandate. To protect. To respond. To find solutions. And to be present where refugees need us.

I also acknowledge the courage of colleagues and humanitarian partners working in some of the world’s most dangerous environments.

Humanitarian workers must never become targets.

Respect for humanitarians, international humanitarian law, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and the protection of humanitarian personnel are really fundamental.

Mr. Chairman,

Let me also thank you and the Executive Committee for the support for our 2027 budget. We took good note of the concerns and priorities, including insertions about transparency and accountability, that were raised. We will continue to work with you in a transparent, open manner as we proceed after this Executive Committee and into the next year.

Our Strategic Directions for 2027–2031 will bring these strands together around four mutually reinforcing priorities:

Protection.
Solutions.
Emergencies.
Self-reliance.

Once again, our goal is a stronger, sustainable and field-focused UNHCR.

And as we look towards the Global Refugee Forum in 2027, one message from this week deserves particular emphasis:

International responsibility-sharing must be measured by what we deliver, not simply by what we pledge.

Many refugee-hosting countries have already made ambitious commitments. Our task is to match them with concrete support and deliver on commitments already made.

Refugees themselves must be part of that work.

They must not simply be the people for whom commitments are made. They must also help shape them.

Excellencies,

There is one final reality that we must not lose sight of, and it was extensively discussed during this week.

Lasting solutions ultimately depend on peace.

Humanitarian assistance cannot indefinitely substitute for political action to resolve the conflicts and crises that force people from their homes.

UNHCR can help translate political opportunities into lasting solutions.

We’ve seen opportunities in Syria, Venezuela, the Great Lakes region and elsewhere. We must seize them.

But where progress remains elusive, refugee situations must not disappear from international attention.

Nearly 1.2 million Rohingya refugees remain in Bangladesh. I am deeply grateful to Bangladesh for the extraordinary responsibility it continues to carry.

Humanitarian assistance remains indispensable. But it cannot resolve the crisis.

The ultimate solution, as I said earlier, lies in Myanmar, where conditions must allow Rohingya to return voluntarily, safely and with dignity, with fundamental rights and a pathway to citizenship.

Until then, protection and international support must continue.

For Sahrawi refugees who have spent generations in camps near Tindouf, humanitarian assistance is equally indispensable.

But it cannot be the limit of our collective ambition.

No refugee situation should become permanent simply because the world has grown accustomed to it.

Where opportunities for return emerge, refugees must be able to make free and informed choices, in safety and in dignity.

Where they cannot return, protection must continue while other solutions are pursued.

At the beginning of this week, Mr. Chairman, I asked us to measure success not only by the lives we save, but by the lives people are able to rebuild.

After listening to you this week, Excellencies, I am more convinced of that direction, not less.

Because behind every discussion we have had about budgets, reforms, protection and solutions are people waiting for our decisions to make a difference.

A child who has known only displacement, but still imagines a future. A family that wants the chance to stand on its own feet. Someone who fled home in fear, hoping one day to return safely and with dignity.

These are not extraordinary ambitions. They are ordinary human hopes. And they are why our work matters.

Excellencies,

I leave this Executive Committee gratified by the support you have expressed for the Refugee Convention, for UNHCR and its mandate, and above all for refugees themselves.

I do not take that support for granted.

For UNHCR, it brings a clear responsibility: to change where we need to change, to use our resources more efficiently, remain close to the field, and fulfil our mandate with confidence and integrity.

For all of us, it means ensuring that refugee-hosting countries do not carry this responsibility alone, and that another generation is not left waiting for its life to begin again.

So let me end with gratitude.

To Member States, refugee-hosting countries, and our donors and partners: thank you.

And to my UNHCR colleagues, particularly those working far from their homes, often in hardship and danger: you have my profound appreciation. You give life to this mandate every day.

There will be difficult choices ahead. But the message I take from this week is clear:

The mandate matters. Protection matters. Solutions matter.

And ultimately, what matters is the person forced to flee.

Whether she is protected. Whether he can rebuild. Whether a child born in exile can inherit something more than displacement.

This is the measure of our work, and that is the responsibility I accept as High Commissioner.

And it is a responsibility we will carry together.

Thank you.