Multistakeholder Pledge: Cartagena+40 – Chile Declaration and Plan of Action

Objective

To adopt a new ten-year strategic action plan (Chile Declaration and Action Plan 2024-2034) as a coordinated framework for strengthening the protection and solutions response for asylum seekers, refugees, displaced persons, and stateless persons in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Key outcomes

In 2024 the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees celebrates its 40th anniversary. As it has become a tradition, this will be an opportunity to debate the current challenges and strategic priority areas for intervention on protection and solutions for refugees, other forcibly displaced and stateless persons in Latin America and the Caribbean. This milestone marks a new step in the periodic process of review, adaptation and update of what has become the Cartagena Process, which takes place every 10 years; this time known as Cartagena+40. As in the past, the adoption of a new roadmap to strengthen protection and solutions is expected to take place at the end of this consultative process.

Commitments included in this multi-stakeholder pledge will contribute to:

• strengthening the fairness, efficiency and integrity of national asylum systems; preventing statelessness;
• increasing resettlement opportunities and family reunification;
• enhancing financial and political support for voluntary sustainable return and reintegration;
• expanding opportunities for integration;
• promoting employment, livelihoods, entrepreneurship, and inclusion in national social protection systems;
• implementing protection systems for displacement caused by natural disasters, among others.

Background

The Cartagena+40 multi-stakeholder pledge is a concrete application of the Global Compact for Refugees in the Americas, as it encourages regional cooperation among Latin American and Caribbean countries for greater solidarity and responsibility sharing in matters of prevention, protection and durable solutions.

In 1984, the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees was adopted, marking a new milestone in the generous tradition of solidarity, asylum, and cooperation in Latin America. It constituted an innovative and flexible framework to strategically address the legal and humanitarian issues facing the region in terms of international protection. It recommended the adoption of a broadened definition of refugees, extending protection to individuals forced to flee under circumstances other than those addressed by the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

Following this Declaration, Latin America established the tradition of commemorating it every ten years, initiating the "Cartagena Process." Thus, in 1994, the San José Declaration on Refugees and Displaced Persons was adopted in Costa Rica, which analyzed the importance of the Cartagena Declaration as a protection tool and the need to address the situation of internally displaced persons. In 2004, the Declaration and Plan of Action of Mexico to Strengthen the International Protection of Refugees in Latin America was adopted. This initiative was updated by including a ten-year Regional Action Plan that introduced pioneering programs in protection and lasting solutions, such as solidarity borders, solidarity resettlement, and solidarity cities.

In 2014, for the 30th commemoration (Cartagena+30), the Brazil Declaration and Plan of Action was adopted, with the participation for the first time of states and territories from the Caribbean. The Plan of Action, as a ten-year roadmap, put into practice the principles of solidarity, international cooperation, and shared responsibility, later included in the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees. It included statelessness as a new area of protection along with quality asylum and comprehensive and sustainable solutions, and it set strategies for the Caribbean and Northern Central America, facing the complex scenarios they were encountering.

In 2023, Cartagena+30 came to an end, concluding the decade of implementation of the Brazil Plan of Action (PAB). UNHCR, in compliance with the mandate of the States, together with Brazil, which has led the process since 2014, delivered a Final Implementation Report of the Brazil Plan of Action in 2023.

During 2024, and as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees (C+40), Chile is leading the process towards the adoption of the Chile Declaration and Plan of Action in December 2024. Thus, ensuring continuity to the innovative and flexible framework set to strategically address the region's legal and humanitarian response related to international protection and solutions.

Pledge description

Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and other stakeholders are invited to join in the commitment to work together towards adopting a regional strategic action plan for the protection and solutions for asylum seekers, refugees, displaced and stateless persons within the commemorations of the 40th anniversary of the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees. This plan will establish new areas of common interest for a coordinated response in a spirit of solidarity and shared responsibility as enshrined in the Global Compact on Refugees, incorporating the priority pillars of said Compact.

Other stakeholders, are invited to pledge to contribute to the reflections and consultations in 2024 that will lead to the adoption, by the States of Latin America and the Caribbean, of a regional strategic action plan for the protection and solutions for asylum seekers, refugees, displaced persons, and stateless persons in the region within the framework of commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees of 1984.

Commitments made against the Cartagena+40 multi-stakeholder pledge should focus on actions to implement innovative solutions to emerging issues: mainstreaming best practices, commissioning "future" thematic studies, cooperation plans with development actors, linking to the global alliance to reduce statelessness and leveraging tools from the Global Refugee Forum.

Additionally, States from Latin America and the Caribbean are invited to link all pledges submitted for the 2023 GRF, to the Cartagena+40 Multistakeholder pledge, as they include actions related to protection and solutions for asylum seekers, refugees, displaced persons and stateless persons in the region.

The future Chile Declaration and Plan of Action will be a regional expression of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). In the inclusive spirit of the Global Compact on Refugees relevant stakeholders are called to play an important role in the implementation of the Compact, and therefore of Cartagena+40. Efforts will also be made to establish a mechanism that allows for follow-up of the Plan for the next decade, favoring the coordination of other subregional and thematic forums in the region.

Leadership

• Government of Chile

Supported by UNHCR.

Contact details / Contacto

C+40 Secretariat: [email protected]

Calendar

The Cartagena+40 Process can be broken down into different phases:

1. The launch of the process, which occurred during the Second Global Refugee Forum held in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 2023.
2. Three regional preparatory consultations among state representatives, to be supported by specialized institutions, as well as civil society, refugee led organizations, academia, representatives from local governments, and the private sector.
   1. April 2024: First State Consultations, “Protection and assistance for persons in situations of human mobility and statelessness”, Mexico
   2. May 2024: Second State Consultations, “Comprehensive Solutions Strategy: humanitarian assistance, socioeconomic inclusion, resettlement and complementary pathways; and voluntary repatriation”, Brazil
   3. June 2024: Third State “Consultations on Displacement caused by Disasters”, Colombia
3. September through November 2024: Negotiation of the content, scope, and text of the Chile Declaration and Action Plan among the participating states of the Cartagena+40 Process.
4. December 2024: High-Level (Ministerial) event to adopt the Chile Declaration and Action Plan of 2024, Santiago, Chile.