Media Advisory: Oxfam and refugee partners at the Global Refugee Forum 2023 focusing on rights, climate and responsibility sharing

Oxfam leaders, experts, and refugee partners will be at the Global Refugee Forum taking place 13-15 December 2023 in Geneva. They will speak to a range of issues including meaningful participation of refugees, shifting funding and power to refugee-led organizations, gender inequality, responsibility sharing, and the growing climate-fuelled forced displacement.  

Oxfam has recently published a number of papers around those issues, including “Between empathy and rejection” which looks at xenophobia and discrimination towards migrants from Venezuela in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, “Oxfam’s engagement with refugee-led organizations in West Nile”, and a joint statement urging leaders to bridge the responsibility gap for hosting and protection of refugees in East Africa. 

As a global organization fighting injustice and inequality, and working closely with refugee activists and organizations, Oxfam will be pushing world leaders to make bold commitments and follow up with concrete, urgent action to the pledges they made to those forced to flee and the communities hosting them. Oxfam will be calling on leaders of rich nations to honor their Global Compact on Refugees obligations, by sharing equal responsibility for welcoming and protecting refugees, scaling up funding to refugee and host communities, and ensuring refugee-led organizations are at the heart of decisions that affect them. 

Oxfam and our partners spokespeople available in Geneva: 

• Fati Nzi-Hassane Oxfam in Africa Director (English, French, Hausa) 

• Mathew Truscott Head of Geneva Office, Oxfam (English) 

• Meryem Aslan Human Mobility Lead, Oxfam (English, Turkish) 

• Nafissa Amadou Seyni Member of İnternational Migrant Women Solidarity. (English, French, Turkish) 

Fati Nzi-Hassane, Oxfam in Africa Director, said: 

“At the Global Refugee Forum this year, the stakes couldn’t be higher as we take stock of the progress made over the past four years. The number of people forcibly displaced around the world, due to rising conflict, persecution, and climate change, has grown by over 35% - from 79.5 million to 108 million. And yet, they continue to be left out of decisions that affect them. This week we must genuinely begin to shift power toward them. Rich nations must firmly commit to step up their efforts beyond symbolic gestures and rhetoric, by shouldering more responsibility in welcoming and protecting refugees, and by tackling root causes of conflict and climate change”. 

Oxfam together with the Global Refugee-Led Network and international agencies is organizing two linked events:  

Events organised by Oxfam: 

1. Bridging the Gap between Climate Action and Forced Displacement: Connecting COP28 and the Global Refugee Forum 

Date and Time: 12th December, 16:30 - 18:00 CET 

Location: Centre International de Conférences - CICG, Geneva 

2. Shifting power, decision-making and funding: Refugee leadership in humanitarian responses.   

Date and Time: 12th December, 17:00 –18:30 CET (90 mins)  

Location: Impact Hub, Geneva