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STORY: UNHCR / GRANDI EXECUTIVE COMMITEE
TRT: 06:13
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 06 OCTOBER 2025, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Various shots, Palis des Nations, Assembly Hall
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“The atrocities perpetrated in Gaza and the West Bank, in Ukraine, Sudan or Myanmar, are evidence of the deliberate abandonment of norms in the name of violent power, conducted with complete impunity by states and non-state entities alike. People killed while waiting in line to receive food. Civilians massacred in camps where they fled for safety. Hospitals and schools destroyed. A record number of aid workers killed. Parties to conflict do not even pretend anymore to abide by international humanitarian law or by any set of rules. Instead, war and indiscriminate violence are portrayed as justifiable so long as military means are achieved and norms be damned.”
3. Med shot, Grandi speaking
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“No human cost is too high. No image of death or destruction too shocking. Let there be no mistake, the daily repetition of atrocities is intended to numb our conscience, to make us feel powerless. But we are not. Our power is to maintain moral clarity and reaffirm fundamental humanitarian values, protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure. Ensuring access to affected populations. Securing the unimpeded provision of humanitarian aid. But we also have a duty to address the consequences of this violence. Forced displacement is one. And that is why UNHCR exists to protect refugees and find solutions to their plight. That is our mission. The mandate you gave us 75 years ago. Still very relevant today. Perhaps more relevant than ever before.”
5. Various shots, Grandi speaking
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“The international asylum framework is intended for people who flee war, violence, discrimination and persecution, and who need protection. This means that, by definition, those who do not fall within that category can be returned to their countries or, subject to mutual agreements, to other countries in a dignified manner, of course.”
7. Various shots, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“UNHCR has recognized early, well before this year's financial crisis, that humanitarian financing alone has become unsustainable. With the acceleration of new humanitarian emergencies, it is clear that neither attention nor resources can be sustained long enough to meet the needs of millions who have been displaced for years, sometimes generations. We must reimagine what a sustainable humanitarian response to displacement should look like. As a result, In the last few years, there has been a deliberate move away from pure humanitarian responses towards more sustainable models centred around refugee self-reliance and support to host communities. It is no longer tenable to perpetuate a system that treats displaced people and their hosts differently, that excludes one group at the expense of another, that maintains inefficient and unsustainable parallel systems.”
9. Various shots, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“I can assure you that we are responding and preparing by ensuring maximum effectiveness in all areas of our work, but this cannot hide the fact that the impact of cuts has been devastating. No country, no sector, no partner has been spared. Critical programs and life-saving activities had to be stopped. Gender-based violence prevention work stopped. Psychosocial support to survivors of torture stopped. Schools were closed. Food assistance decreased. Cash grants cut. Resettlement ground to a halt. Funds to help reduce statelessness further reduced. I could go on and on. This is what happens when you slash funding by over a billion dollars in a matter of weeks.”
11. Various shots, delegates
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“We must remain engaged. That is the value of humanitarian diplomacy, to chip away at conflict, one meal at a time. One family at a time. One refugee at a time. One of the greatest privileges to work with UNHCR is to straddle the boundaries between aid and diplomacy. To help refugees and in so doing, help open doors to peace when peace seems impossible. This is why we can say that peace, against all odds, is possible in more situations than we sometimes imagine.”
13. Various shots, delegates
High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi today (6 Oct) said, “atrocities perpetrated in Gaza and the West Bank, in Ukraine, Sudan or Myanmar, are evidence of the deliberate abandonment of norms in the name of violent power, conducted with complete impunity by states and non-state entities alike.”
Delivering his opening statement at the 76th session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme in Geneva, Grandi said, “parties to conflict do not even pretend anymore to abide by international humanitarian law or by any set of rules. Instead, war and indiscriminate violence are portrayed as justifiable so long as military means are achieved and norms be damned.”
He said, “no human cost is too high. No image of death or destruction too shocking. Let there be no mistake, the daily repetition of atrocities is intended to numb our conscience, to make us feel powerless. But we are not.”
The High Commissioner said, “UNHCR exists to protect refugees and find solutions to their plight. That is our mission. The mandate you gave us 75 years ago. Still very relevant today. Perhaps more relevant than ever before.”
Grandi told the meeting that “humanitarian financing alone has become unsustainable” and that “neither attention nor resources can be sustained long enough to meet the needs of millions who have been displaced for years, sometimes generations.”
He said, “we must reimagine what a sustainable humanitarian response to displacement should look like. As a result, In the last few years, there has been a deliberate move away from pure humanitarian responses towards more sustainable models centred around refugee self-reliance and support to host communities. It is no longer tenable to perpetuate a system that treats displaced people and their hosts differently, that excludes one group at the expense of another, that maintains inefficient and unsustainable parallel systems.”
The High Commissioner said, “we are responding and preparing by ensuring maximum effectiveness in all areas of our work, but this cannot hide the fact that the impact of cuts has been devastating. No country, no sector, no partner has been spared. Critical programs and life-saving activities had to be stopped. Gender-based violence prevention work stopped. Psychosocial support to survivors of torture stopped. Schools were closed. Food assistance decreased. Cash grants cut. Resettlement ground to a halt. Funds to help reduce statelessness further reduced. I could go on and on. This is what happens when you slash funding by over a billion dollars in a matter of weeks.”
He said, “we must remain engaged. That is the value of humanitarian diplomacy, to chip away at conflict, one meal at a time. One family at a time. One refugee at a time. One of the greatest privileges to work with UNHCR is to straddle the boundaries between aid and diplomacy. To help refugees and in so doing, help open doors to peace when peace seems impossible. This is why we can say that peace, against all odds, is possible in more situations than we sometimes imagine.”
The 76th session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme (ExCom) is being held from October 6 to October 10, 2025, in Geneva, Switzerland.
