On 27 October, the Graduate Institute welcomed The Elders, an independent group of global leaders who work together for peace and human rights, for a public debate on the Syrian refugee crisis.
The event, moderated by Graduate Institute Assistant Professor Melanie Kolbe, featured the participation of former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, human rights defender Hina Jilani and International Organization for Migration Director-General William Swing. Among those in attendance were former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, former UN special representative to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, former Irish President Mary Robinson and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo.
The event highlighted the need for courageous policy responses to what William Swing called an “unprecedented era” of migration due to population growth, humanitarian disasters, conflicts, climate change and globalisation. Hila Jilani explained how in Pakistan, millions of people wish to move abroad because of ongoing conflict and the natural aspiration to seek a better life for their families.
High Commissioner Zeid reminded politicians of their responsibility not to stigmatise refugees and migrants, saying that “disgraceful, avoidable human suffering is being generated… If we don’t accept this is a collective responsibility, we strip ourselves of our collective conscience”. Gro Harlem Brundtland reiterated this point, saying “too many leaders are not only shy when it comes to making this case to their people, they fundamentally lack the courage to do so.”
Kofi Annan focused on the armed conflict at the root cause of the Syrian migrant crisis, saying that armed opposition groups would need to be part of any peace deal, and calling on the "governments who are funding the war", to work together to bring this about.
"Eventually you will deal with them (the armed groups), you will talk to them, but you have to organize it in such a way that those who are pulling the strings, that those who have influence on them, that those who have funded the war, will come together to say ‘this is it, we’re not going to fund it any more’."