UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih told the UN Security Council on 26 September that the most enduring answer to forced displacement is peace — not better-managed refugee camps or more efficient humanitarian operations. Delivering his first briefing as high commissioner, Salih called on Council members to deploy their unique political authority to end conflicts and sustain peace processes.

The Scale of the Crisis

Salih placed the crisis in stark numerical terms: more than 117 million people have currently been forced from their homes by conflict, violence, persecution, and other threats to their safety. He described forced displacement as 'not only a humanitarian challenge' but 'fundamentally a challenge to international peace and security.'

'Displacement is rapidly outpacing solutions. Conflicts are multiplying. Many are becoming more protracted. Political solutions remain elusive,' Salih said, warning that millions who fled what they hoped was a temporary crisis now find themselves displaced for years — sometimes across generations.

What Success Cannot Look Like

Salih was pointed in defining the limits of humanitarian work. 'Success cannot be that we become better at keeping people alive through another year of war. It cannot be that a refugee camp established in response to an emergency is still there 50 years later. And it cannot be that children inherit displacement from their parents,' he said. 'Success must ultimately mean creating the conditions in which people no longer need us.'

The remarks signal a deliberate reframing: the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is not to make displacement sustainable but to make it unnecessary.

The Refugee Convention at 75

Salih noted that the 1951 Refugee Convention — now 75 years old — established a promise to protect people when peace fails. He argued the international community's collective ambition must go further: preventing displacement where possible, resolving it where it has already occurred, and enabling people to rebuild their lives in safety and dignity. 'Ultimately, the most durable solution to forced displacement is peace,' he said.

What Salih Asked of the Security Council

Addressing the UN Security Council — which the UN Charter entrusts with primary responsibility for international peace and security — Salih set out five concrete asks. He urged the Council to use its political influence to end conflicts and sustain peace processes, to protect civilians and uphold international humanitarian law, to preserve asylum and uphold the principle of non-refoulement, to invest in solutions from the outset rather than as an afterthought, and to support refugee-hosting countries and countries of return.

'For the millions of people forced from their homes — and the millions more who should never have to flee — I urge this great council to use that responsibility,' he said.

Humanitarian Work Cannot Substitute for Political Will

Salih acknowledged that humanitarian organisations deal daily with the consequences of conflict — protecting those who flee, supporting host countries and communities, and working to help people find pathways out of displacement. But he drew a clear boundary: 'Humanitarians cannot create peace.' The responsibility for that, he stressed, lies with political actors, and most directly with the fifteen members of the Security Council. His address signals that UNHCR under his leadership intends to push the political track harder than its predecessor did.