Canada’s Global Refugee Policy: Opportunities for Leadership /

Given that these opportunities coincide with a need for substantial reform of the UN’s refugee system and Canada’s desire to re-engage with the United Nations System, the paper argues that the Government of Canada should prioritise three areas of leadership in the next two years: sharing its model for private sponsorship of refugee resettlement; championing the implementation of the new Comprehens [...] Established in 1979 in the midst of the flight of some 3 million refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the PSR program allows community groups to assume many of the financial and other obligations associated with the admission of resettled refugees to Canada, while the government retains responsibility for determining eligibility and admissibility, especially on security and medical grounds. [...] In turn, the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees outlines the rules for the new regime, including a definition of who may benefit from refugee status and the rights that should be extended to refugees, including a prohibition on forcible return, and guarantees of freedom of movement and the right to seek employment. [...] In the words of one veteran observer of global refugee politics, “the game-changing global deal that the summit was intended to forge now appears to be dead in the water.” Despite the many limitations of the draft Declaration, it contains a number of provisions that could have a positive impact on protection and solutions for refugees. [...] In the context of refugees, the draft Declaration affirms the 1951 Convention as the “foundation of the international refugee protection regime” (4.2) and highlights “the centrality of international cooperation in the refugee protection regime” (4.5).