GLOBAL* CRISES GLOSSES : CROWNING COMPREHENSION

I BEGAN my humanitarian career more than 40 years ago in refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border.

In the years since,  I have worked in refugee crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Great Lakes region of Africa, with Palestinian refugees and many others.

I have seen terrible suffering, but there was always a bulwark against inhumanity; the aid workers on the front lines, and the international consensus to support and protect those in need.

My time at the U.N. High Commission for Refugees is ending as the reaches its 75th anniversary. Next July, the Refugee Convention itself will also turn 75. 

Its critics say that this cornerstone of international law is no longer suited to a world of mass travel and multiple conflicts. WRONG.

Flexible, pragmatic and widely applicable, it is entirely suited to such a world - it's the legal translation of human obligation to protect people fleeing persecution, violence and war, enshrined for centuries in all cultural traditions.

TODAY, some 117 million people have been forced to flee their homes, either to safer parts of their own country or across the international border.

The tools to help them survive, rebuild and eventually return home already exist. But they require time, cooperation, trust and a desire to invest in peace rather than war.

The World Students Society thanks Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.