'The global refugee crisis and what to do about it' with Rt Hon David Miliband

Past Event

Date
22 February 2017, 6:00pm - 7:30pm

Location
The Sheldonian
Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3AZ

Adobe Stock Lydia Geissler migration
© AdobeStock/Lydia Geissler

Registration for this event (and the waiting list) is now full - but the lecture will be live-streamed at the following link - https://livestream.com/oxuni/global-refugee-crisis

At a time of heightened political tension and policy confusion about the refugee crisis, this lecture will explore why record numbers of people are fleeing their homes; what conditions they are living in; and what should be done to help them.

Rt Hon David Miliband will make the case that support for refugees is a global public good, which requires reform of international policy. He will also argue that winning the argument for supporting refugees is vital to the moral standing of western societies which constructed the international order after World War 2.


About the speaker

David Miliband is the President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. He oversees the agency’s relief and development operations in over 30 countries, its refugee resettlement and assistance programs throughout the United States and the IRC’s advocacy efforts in Washington and other capitals on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable people.

Miliband had a distinguished political career in the United Kingdom over 15 years. From 2007 to 2010, he served as the youngest Foreign Secretary in three decades, driving advancements in human rights and representing the United Kingdom throughout the world. As Secretary of State for the Environment in 2005/6 he pioneered the world’s first legally binding emissions reduction requirements. His accomplishments have earned him a reputation, in former President Bill Clinton's words, as "one of the ablest, most creative public servants of our time".

Earlier Miliband was Minister for Schools (2002–2004); and Head of Downing Street’s Number 10 Policy Unit (1997–2001). He has also been a Member of Parliament representing South Shields. He was Co-Chair of the Global Ocean Commission from 2012 – 2016.

Miliband graduated from Oxford University in 1987 with a first class degree in philosophy, politics and economics, and received his master’s degree in political science in 1989 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which he attended as a Kennedy Scholar.

Miliband’s parents were refugees from Belgium and Poland to the UK in the 1940s. As the son of refugees, he brings a personal commitment to the IRC's work.