INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENT
MYAN facilitates international leadership opportunities for young people. We share our expertise and Australia’s youth settlement approach internationally and engage in regional and international processes and forums.
LATEST INTERNATIONAL WORK
Our National Manager in Geneva for the Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement (ATCR) on June 2022
The Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement (ATCR) event was held this June 2022 in Geneva. MYAN Australia was represented at the event by our National Manager, Rana Ebrahimi. The ATCR allows for open and frank dialogue and strives to produce positive outcomes by forging collaborative approaches to global resettlement. The theme for this year’s ATCR was “Reemerging and Building Globally”, and in this context MYAN contributed to updating the 2019 pledges which include Meaningful Refugee Participation, Resettlement, Complementary pathways, Community Sponsorship, Creating Welcoming Communities with Intentionality, Expanding Solutions which include Internally Displaced Persons and Stateless Persons, Non-discrimination, Inhumane Deportation of Asylum Seekers and Climate-induced displacement .
See the report published by the Refugee Council of Australia for an overview of the event.
MYAN attends International Migration Review Forum at UN Headquarters in New York in 2022
Shannon White, MYAN’s National Policy & Advocacy Lead recently represented MYAN at the inaugural International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Hosted by the President of the United Nations General Assembly, the purpose of the IMRF is to discuss and share progress on the implementation of all aspects of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, including what was agreed to in 2018 as a mechanism for directing global cooperation on improvements to migration management and as it relates to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Global Refugee Forum in Geneva in 2019
MYAN participated in the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva in 2019, as a co-sponsor in the Solutions working group, held a marketplace stall with SSI and the University of Virginia, sharing good practices, and made two pledges:
(i) to continue our work with Amnesty International Australia, RefugePoint, UNHCR and the Australian Government on strengthening the resettlement of unaccompanied and separated children and
(ii) sharing our technical expertise on youth participation, settlement and integration.
UNHCR’s Annual Consultations with NGOs and ATCR
MYAN has also participated in UNHCR’s Annual Consultations with NGOs and Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement (ATCR). In 2019, MYAN’s National Manager, Nadine Liddy, presented on Australia’s Unaccompanied Humanitarian Minor Program on a panel looking at strengthening the resettlement of children and adolescents at risk, including unaccompanied and separated children.
Work with UNHCR
MYAN has also been working with UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva to revise UNHCR’s Resettlement and Integration Handbook, specifically the chapter on Children and Youth. We have undertaken global consultations with refugee young people in resettlement countries to inform this work.
Membership
MYAN is also a member of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) – engaged with the Youth Working Group, the Australia New Zealand Working Group and the Regional Protection Working Group – and a member of the Compact on Young People in Humanitarian Action, supporting the work of Taskforce 2 to strengthen the Compact’s engagement of young people.
INTERNATIONAL POLICY
MYAN has prepared a number of policy documents to strengthen the protection and rights of young asylum seekers and refugees in the global context, including informing the development of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR).
Submission to UNHCR responding to Draft 3 of the Global Compact on Refugees
July 2018
Following months of consultations, UNHCR released the final draft of the Global Compact on Refugees. Throughout the consultation process, the youth agenda has progressed considerably and the final draft now recognized adolescents and youth as a group with specific needs and recognizes them as a stakeholder. MYAN released a short brief on its observations on the final draft following the release of the final version of the Global Compact on Refugees in the autumn of 2018.
Submission to UNHCR responding to Draft 2 of the Global Compact on Refugees
May 2018
MYAN recently released its response to Draft 2 of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). The development of the GCR is an historic moment and MYAN has been engaged in the drafting process, advocating for the inclusion of youth rights in the GCR. We were pleased to see stronger representation of youth needs, rights and capabilities in Draft 2 and believe this could be further strengthened. We have also been involved in the process organised by International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) to provide a joint response from the NGOs to the GCR Draft 2. MYAN congratulates ICVA for giving young people a platform to make presentations on behalf of NGOs. Two members of UNHCR’s Global Youth Advisory Council (GYAC) delivered ICVA’s statements during the last round of formal consultations in Geneva in early May.
Submission to UNHCR responding to Draft 1 of the Global Compact on Refugees
April 2018
MYAN has recently released a response to Draft 1 of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). The creation of the GCR is a critical opportunity for the recognition and inclusion of refugee youth rights and needs in discussions around refugee protection. This would ensure that refugee youth, as a group with distinct rights, needs and capacities, and who make up at least one-third of the global refugee population, are adequately protected and empowered. This reflects and builds on the work of UNHCR and civil society over several years in promoting the rights and needs of refugee youth.
April 2018
MYAN endorsed a position paper from the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action – Recommendations on youth in the Global Compact on Refugees.
This paper calls for recognition of the particular rights, needs and capabilities of young people to be better reflected in the GCR. This includes commitments to facilitating their meaningful engagement in solutions and to youth-specific policy and programming. Following the New York Declaration in 2016, the drafting of the GCR is currently underway, with a series of consultations occurring throughout 2018. The final GCR will be released at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2018. Read more about the GCR here.
2017
A collaboration between MYAN Australia, the RET International, INEE and NRC to strengthen a focus on youth and adolescents in programming. This desk review demonstrates need to put adolescents & youth at the centre of programmatic guidelines.
MYAN made a contribution to the development of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) focusing on appropriate care for children in the context of international migration (developed by an inter-agency working group including UNHCR and UNICEF, Geneva).
December 2017
MYAN prepared this advocacy brief to support the inclusion of youth rights and needs in the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). UNHCR’s Global Youth Advisory Council (GYAC) has provided input and endorsed the brief in December 2017. The GYAC has also prepared a paper presenting recommendations on the GCR. The GYAC paper and MYAN brief are complementary and should be read alongside each other. Read the advocacy brief here.
October 2017
This report to the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (the CERD Committee) examines Australia’s compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The report is intended to inform the Committee’s review of Australia during its 94th session in November 2017. It has been prepared with substantial input by 26 individuals and non-government organisations (NGOs) from across Australia and endorsed by and 53 NGOs. This report seeks to address some of the key concerns and Concluding Observations made by the CERD Committee in its 2010 review of Australia and important issues that have arisen since 2010. Read the report here.
May 2017
MYAN made a contribution to the Australian NGO Coalition Submission to United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Review of Australia Fifth Periodic Report under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
November 2016
This report presents the ideas and recommendations of more than 500 young people from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds who participated in consultations across Australia.
The report is part of a global project that aims to amplify refugee youth voices in decisions that affect them, and contributes to national and international advocacy on issues for refugee and asylum seeking young people.
The full report is available here.
