PHL Ambassador Highlights ASEAN’s Proactive Approach in Addressing Disaster Displacements 

Ambassador Evan P. Garcia, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the UN and other International Organizations in Geneva, chairs a session on how best practices of regional institutions can contribute in the comprehensive refugee responses discourse. The session was held in Geneva on 15 November 2017.

24 November 2017 GENEVA – As a region that is vulnerable and exposed to natural disasters, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) takes a proactive approach in addressing disaster displacement. This was what Ambassador Evan P. Garcia, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, shared during a discussion on best practices/elements governments and stakeholders may find in regional institutions like the ASEAN that could be included in the development of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR).

In the Philippines’ capacity as chair of the ASEAN this year, Ambassador Garcia co-chaired, with Mr. Volker Türk, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, a panel session that discussed how regional institutions can contribute to comprehensive refugee responses at the global level. The panel was held on at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on November 15.

Ambassador Garcia cited ASEAN’s primordial and historic concern on disaster displacements given its vulnerability to natural disasters, underlining that the region has the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER), which sets out the rules and policies on ASEAN’s disaster responses to institutional-building to enhance the capacity of national agencies forged to handle and prepare for natural disasters.

Ambassador Garcia also informed the meeting that, during the 31st ASEAN Summit in Manila on 14 November 2017, one of the landmark achievements is also the signing of the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, which is a historic milestone to strengthen social protection, access to justice, humane and fair treatment, and access to health services of the region’s migrant workers.

Thematic discussion 5 had the following panelists: Mr. Olayemi Olatunde Olawale, Program Officer for Humanitarian Affairs who talked of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); Mr. Olabisi Dare, Head of the Humanitarian Affairs, Refugees and Displaced Persons Division of the African Union (AU); Mr. Luis Ernesto Vargas Silva, Commissioner and Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants, Inter-American Commission for Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS); H.E. Mr. Hasan Kleib, Ambassador and Permanent Representative, Indonesia who discussed the Bali process; and, Ms. Enas El Fergany, Director, Refugees, Expatriates and Migration Department of the League of Arab States (LAS).

The thematic discussions are part of the process to consolidate the perspectives of UN Member States and other stakeholders in the consideration of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), and specifically its “programme of action” (PoA). The first formal consultations on the GCR will begin in early 2018. END

For more information, visit www.genevapm.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/genevapcg.

Ambassador Garcia (2nd from left) with the other officials who were at the Thematic Discussion 5: (from left) Ms. Enas El Fergany, Director, Refugees, Expatriates and Migration Department of the League of Arab States; Mr. Volker Turk, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection; Her Excellency Ms. Suraya Dalil Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the UN and other IOs and chair of the UNHCR Executive Committee Bureau; Kelly T. Clements, UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner; and, Ms. Ellen Hansen, Senior Policy Adviser to the Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at UNHCR Headquarters.