Call for Increased Humanitarian Assistance for Refugees and Displaced Persons

By invitation of the G7 Chair, the Foreign Ministers of the G7 including the High Representative of the EU, together with Foreign Ministers of Austria, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates as well as the heads of the UN, UNHCR, OCHA, UNRWA and WFP met on 29 September 2015 in New York in response to the dramatic global increase of people being displaced and seeking refuge.

The world is faced with the highest number of displaced persons since the Second World War. Financial requirements for humanitarian assistance in 2015 are at a record high of almost 20 billion USD. However, the resources available for humanitarian assistance are not sufficient.

The scope and scale of the humanitarian crisis have stretched the global response capability far beyond its normal limits. More funds are urgently needed to alleviate suffering and protect those seeking freedom from persecution, hunger, oppression and war. All members of the international community must answer the cries of those in desperate need and our common call to conscience.

The participants of the G7 Outreach event:

• urgently call on all members of the international community to scale up their humanitarian assistance to meet the dramatically increased humanitarian need of those displaced and those hosting them. Participants of the G7 Outreach event announce that they have committed over 1.8 billion USD in additional support to refugees and displaced persons,
• confirm that respect of international law and humanitarian principles to provide assistance to people in need is more important than ever in times of escalating crises, and that refugees and displaced persons must be treated with dignity in accordance with respective protection regimes,
• support the initiatives of the UN Secretary-General aimed at closer coordination and more effective assistance, such as the High-Level Side Event on migration and refugee movements and the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing and call on participants and panel members to make bold recommendations to increase effectiveness of assistance,
• emphasise that addressing the root causes of displacement requires increased and more coordinated effort on the part of the international community, in particular when tackling the most pressing political crises.

The call demonstrates the commitment of the participants and that of the international community to support refugees and displaced persons as well as their hosts in the run-up to the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016.