A girl looks over the Umm Rakouba refugee camp for people who fled the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, in Qadarif, eastern Sudan, December 2020. (AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty)

🌐 Global Compact on Refugees: is the world making progress or dangerously off track? As government officials, NGOs and activists prepare to meet in Geneva this week to take stock of the international community’s progress towards supporting refugees and the communities that host them, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has warned that much more needs to be done. The first High-Level Officials meeting (HLOM) convened by UNHCR aims to assess the progress towards the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) agreed in 2018 and assess the challenges that have got in the way – not least the Covid-19 pandemic. We spoke to UNHCR’s senior policy adviser to hear what’s on the agenda.

Maryam Amarkhail, in traditional Kochi style , (on the left) with two Kochi children. (Photo: Maryam Amarkhail)

📚 Activist creates classrooms on the move for Afghan nomads. For centuries, the Kochis have been on the move, following the seasons with their livestock in tow across Afghanistan. The pastoral nomads from the Pashtun community have historically kept to themselves. Maryiam Amarkhail, a Kochi activist and journalist, wants to use education to bring new opportunities for the women and children of her community. Geneva Solutions

John Grova (left) and Gerald Pachoud (right)

🌉 How to mind the gap and bridge it: business and human rights after 10 years. Ten years after the adoption of a UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, challenges still remain when it comes to putting them into practice and ensuring people affected are able to access remedial action, write two advisers to the framework, Gerald Pachoud and John Grova.

📌 13-17 December | Geneva Forum. Researchers, teachers, NGOs, policymakers and businesses will gather at Palais des Nations for a week of workshops and meetings to work on solutions on areas ranging from sustainable tourism, to the rights of nature, to cryptocurrencies, to conflict resolution.

📌 13-17 December | Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons – Sixth Review Conference. This conference is seen as a crucial moment for countries to discuss the role the CCW has played in minimising suffering in armed conflict and to make sure it remains fit for purpose. It is also seen as a key deadline for adopting a mandate to negotiate a legally binding instrument to regulate lethal autonomous weapons. Read Geneva Solutions’ recent story describing what’s at stake.