15 Dec 2025
Ukraine: People in Kherson suffer from drones, bombardment,…
About the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review
Following the adoption of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) in 2018 to enhance conditions for refugees through increased international cooperation, the Global Refugee Forum (GRF) is held every four years (2019, 2023, 2027) in Geneva – the world’s largest international gathering on refugees. It brings together UN Member States, NGOs, refugee-led organizations (RLOs) and other actors to take action towards the goals of the GCR, pledge contributions, and discuss solutions to challenges facing refugees and their host communities.
DRC is playing a key role at this year’s GRF Progress Review, and the mid-term stock take comes at a critical time for the sector. DRC is engaging through a series of pledges, most actively on refugee Youth, Self-Reliance, and Legal Community. DRC will co-host several side events to foster momentum on upholding rights and sustaining progress. Today, DRC Secretary-General Charlotte Slente will speak at the opening session “Guiding Refugee Responses in a Changing World”.
DRC’s key ongoing GRF pledges
Pledges and contributions are commitments by States, organizations, businesses, academics and refugees themselves that advance the objectives of the GCR. DRC currently has fourteen active GRF pledges – both individual and multi-stakeholder.
Over the coming days, DRC’s engagement at the GRF Progress Review will focus on three of these pledge areas:
i. Young people in displacement taking the lead
Since 2019, DRC has committed to supporting meaningful participation of young people in processes that concern them. Together with the Danish MFA and six other NGO's, DRC have been pushing for young people's voices to be heard, for them to have a seat at the decision-making table, through the multistakeholder pledge: Young People - The World’s Biggest Opportunity. The largest generation of young people in history need to be included in the fight to make conditions better for their communities, climate and future.
DRC is also instrumental to the multistakeholder pledges by the Compact for Youth in Humanitarian Action. Through these Pledges, DRC aims to address systemic barriers to participation and decision-making for young people within its organizations, and to ensure the engagement of young, displaced people in humanitarian action across displacement contexts. GRF 2025 will be a landmark of shifting power towards youth leadership. To this end, DRC is also coordinating a side-event “Voices Forward” in the R-Space with refugee youth-led organizations.
ii. Supporting access to rights through legal aid for refugees
The Multi-Stakeholder Global Legal Community Pledge aims to increase access to legal services and legal empowerment by building a connected global legal community which centers the legal rights, skills, knowledge, and needs of refugees and other displaced people. The pledge joins together more than 125 legal actors, including refugee-led organisations, NGOs, INGOs, law firms and other private legal actors, and states. DRC is part of the Core Group that supports the coordination, sustainability, and monitoring of the implementation of the Pledge. DRC will also be co-hosting a GRF side-event with ICVA, Human Rights First and a range of other actors on the important call-to-action to uphold the Refugee Convention towards its 75th Anniversary in 2026.
iii. Enhancing refugee self-reliance
As a member of the Poverty Alleviation Coalition, DRC is one of the technical conveners of the Global Multi-Stakeholder Pledge on Economic Inclusion and Social Protection, which aims to advance self-reliance through the economic inclusion and social protection of refugees, other forcibly displaced and stateless people, and host communities.
In these challenging times for the international refugee system, it is imperative to recognize the protracted nature of displacement and to continue investing in the second key objective of the Global Compact on Refugees, to ‘enhance refugee self-reliance’. Combined with short-term emergency assistance, holistic self-reliance programming remains a priority to ensure displaced populations can live in dignity and pursue a durable solution.
The way forward: international solidarity on refugee protection
The Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) provides a framework for international cooperation on achieving sustainable solutions to refugee situations, setting up a global structure of responsibility sharing and support. The Global Refugee Forum (GRF) and its periodic reviews track progress, hold actors accountable to their commitments, and lay the ground for the way forward.
The endurance of global protection systems for refugee rights is more urgent than ever. 2025 has seen funding in freefall, and refugee protection norms face mounting challenges, with governments pursuing increasingly hostile policies towards those who flee across borders.
This year, DRC is continuing to throw its weight behind the GCR’s collective mission and aligning its voice with the global call for action – with the safety and dignity of all those displaced at the center. As major donors step back, now is the time for the international community to step up.