By Emma Farge
GENEVA, July 28 (Reuters) - Actors Angelina Jolie and Cate Blanchett and Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally were among public figures who on Tuesday called for refugee protections to be upheld as the United Nations decried mounting pressure on asylum systems.
Legal safeguards for refugees are enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, drafted in the aftermath of World War Two, which displaced tens of millions of people.
But while most people still support the principle of safe refuge, many governments are tightening border controls amid near-record displacement worldwide as conflicts proliferate.
The U.N. refugee agency issued a statement of support for the convention, called "The Promise", signed by dozens of celebrities, athletes, business leaders and faith leaders.
High Commissioner Barham Salih, a former Iraqi president and refugee, said the convention had saved millions of lives.
"The fundamental promise of this convention remains most vital for humanity and I do believe we need to keep that promise alive," he said on the sidelines of a meeting on refugee protections at the U.N. in Geneva.
Actors Ben Stiller, Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Erivo and Riz Ahmed were among the signatories, along with Africa's first female president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, and basketball star Wenyen Gabriel.
Gabriel, a former refugee whose family fled civil war in southern Sudan in the 1990s and was later resettled in the United States, told the U.N. meeting he was "living proof that when you give refugees a chance they will make something of it".
"We cannot turn away, we cannot turn our backs on people," said Gabriel, a newly appointed UNHCR goodwill ambassador.
Compounding the challenges facing refugees, the United States — formerly the top donor to the U.N. refugee agency, which oversees implementation of the convention — has recently considered severing ties with the organisation, Reuters reported. However, Salih said on Tuesday he was hopeful of an ongoing partnership.
The convention and its 1967 protocol have been ratified by 149 states, making them among the most widely supported international legal frameworks.
But rights groups are concerned about growing asylum curbs, such as the European Union's plans for detention centres abroad and U.S. President Donald Trump's restrictions on refugee programmes that allowed refugees like Gabriel to move to the United States.
"We're seeing a real series of efforts on the part of governments to employ tactics with the thought of getting out of the obligations under the convention," said Michael Bochenek, senior counsel at Human Rights Watch.
Stricter measures come at a time of financial pressure on the U.N. refugee agency whose available funding fell roughly 30% in 2025 amid donor cuts, Reuters reported. The agency has laid off thousands of workers and announced further cuts this year.
"Given the scale of displacement around the world we need to have more support from the international community," Salih said on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Ros Russell and Cynthia Osterman)
