Podcasts about international rescue committee uk

“It was thanks to this country that lots of those rights and protections that exist for refugees are in place … but now… you get that sense in lots of parts of the world, frankly, that the UK isn't playing the active role that it has played historically.” The International Rescue Committee is a global organisation that helps people affected by humanitarian crises. The IRC supports people who have been caught in conflict and been forced to flee their homes, enabling them to survive, recover and rebuild their lives. Founded at the call of Albert Einstein in 1933, the IRC today works in over 40 crisis-affected countries, as well as with communities across Europe and the Americas. Laura Kyrke-Smith is the Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee in the UK. We talk about the current global context for refugees - 108 million people forcibly displaced around the world. Contrary to popular opinion, the vast majority of these displaced people are not in the wealthy countries in the Global North, but are either within their own country or within a neighbouring country, often also a low and middle income country. We discuss the UK's Illegal Migration Bill, which seeks to remove the right to asylum - a stance that is in stark contrast to Britain's position back in 1951, as one of the original drafters of the Refugee Convention. And how today, Britain's standing on the international humanitarian stage is sadly not, what it once was. Recorded June 2023.

Jeremy Greenstock is the Chairman of the strategic advisory company, Gatehouse Advisory Partners, established in September 2010, and Chairman of Lambert Energy Advisory, the oil and gas specialists, since January 2012. Born in 1943, Sir Jeremy was educated at Harrow School and Worcester College, Oxford. His principal career was with the British Diplomatic Service, ending his career as UK Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York (1998-2003) and then, after a suspension of his retirement, as the UK Special Envoy for Iraq (September 2003-March 2004). After three years as an Assistant Master at Eton College, he joined the Diplomatic Service in 1969. The two themes of his career were the Middle East and US/Western European Relations. He studied Arabic at the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies, Lebanon (1970-72) and went on to serve in Dubai and Saudi Arabia in the early 1970s and mid 1980s respectively. From 1974-1978 he was Private Secretary to Ambassadors Peter Ramsbotham and Peter Jay in the British Embassy in Washington, starting a total of ten years spent in Washington and New York on US and Transatlantic business. After a spell as Political Counsellor in Paris (1987-90), Sir Jeremy came back to London as Director for Western and Southern Europe, the foundation for a number of years’ work on the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy and in particular on the Balkans, Cyprus and Gibraltar. He returned to Washington as Minister (Deputy Ambassador) in 1994-95, and was then brought back to London as Director General for Eastern Europe and the Middle East (1995) and then Political Director (1996-98). After chairing the European Union’s Political Committee during the UK Presidency in the first half of 1998, he moved to New York as UK Ambassador to the UN in July 1998. As the UK’s Representative on the Security Council up to July 2003, he worked extensively on matters of peace and security in Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and South Asia, but particularly on Iraq. He chaired the Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee from October 2001 to April 2003. Sir Jeremy left government service in March 2004, after seven interesting months in Baghdad. He became Director of the Ditchley Foundation, the conference centre in Oxfordshire promoting transatlantic dialogue, in August 2004, a position he left in August 2010. He was also a Special Adviser to the BP Group from 2004 to 2010, a Non-Executive Director of De La Rue from 2005 to 2013, a Governor of the London Business School from 2005 to 2008 and Chairman of the UN Association in the UK from 2011 to 2016. He now works concurrently as a Member of the Chatham House Council, as a Special Adviser to the NGO Forward Thinking, as a policy adviser to the International Rescue Committee (UK) and as co-Chair of the European Eminent Persons Group on Middle East issues.

In this first podcast from the International Rescue Committee UK, we explore unique artefacts from the British Museum, ranging from cooking pots to amulets, hailing from distant locations such as Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and Greece. The stories that accompany them will delve into one of the greatest challenges the world faces today; the global refugee crisis. Music: Creative Commons: "Snow Drop" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

The doctrine of the international community's responsibility to protect the citizens of a country whose government has failed them has strengthened the presumption in favour of international intervention for humanitarian reasons. Sir John Holmes asks: 'When can international intervention be justified and effective?'Since the Rwandan genocide, the development of the doctrine of the international community's 'responsibility to protect' the citizens of a country whose government has failed them has strengthened the presumption in favour of international intervention for humanitarian reasons. At the same time the problems and failures in Iraq and Afghanistan have strengthened the arguments against such intervention. Both sides have seen in the case of Libya, while Syria has left everyone cautious but frustrated. Where does the debate now stand, and in what circumstances can intervention be both in accordance with international law, and successful?Sir John Holmes GCVO, KBE, CMG is the Director of the Ditchley Foundation and co-chair of the International Rescue Committee UK. He is the former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. A career diplomat, he has served the British government for more than thirty years and has extensive experience on conflict. Having worked on the Lebanon and Middle East peace processes, he was awarded a knighthood in 1998 primarily for his role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process and the Good Friday Agreement. He served as Private Secretary (Overseas Affairs) to John Major before becoming Principal Private Secretary to Tony Blair in 1997.

The doctrine of the international community's responsibility to protect the citizens of a country whose government has failed them has strengthened the presumption in favour of international intervention for humanitarian reasons. Sir John Holmes asks: 'When can international intervention be justified and effective?'Since the Rwandan genocide, the development of the doctrine of the international community's 'responsibility to protect' the citizens of a country whose government has failed them has strengthened the presumption in favour of international intervention for humanitarian reasons. At the same time the problems and failures in Iraq and Afghanistan have strengthened the arguments against such intervention. Both sides have seen in the case of Libya, while Syria has left everyone cautious but frustrated. Where does the debate now stand, and in what circumstances can intervention be both in accordance with international law, and successful?Sir John Holmes GCVO, KBE, CMG is the Director of the Ditchley Foundation and co-chair of the International Rescue Committee UK. He is the former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. A career diplomat, he has served the British government for more than thirty years and has extensive experience on conflict. Having worked on the Lebanon and Middle East peace processes, he was awarded a knighthood in 1998 primarily for his role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process and the Good Friday Agreement. He served as Private Secretary (Overseas Affairs) to John Major before becoming Principal Private Secretary to Tony Blair in 1997.