Responsibility Allocation and UN GCR Implementation

The effectiveness of the UN Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) depends on increased cooperation among various parties for the protection of refugees. One interest the EU pursues through its collaboration with third states such as Turkey, Tunisia, Serbia and Niger, and with international organisations such as UNHCR and IOM, is that of collectivised migration control. However such collaboration could lead to excessive complexity, making it difficult to discern the extent of each party’s involvement and to attribute responsibility for wrongful acts. Where collaboration rests on informal arrangements, attributing responsibility becomes more challenging. Reduced accountability may be one of the reasons for engaging in such conduct. However, when the EU collaborates through third parties, progressive developments in the law of international responsibility increase the likelihood of the risk of encountering arguments on responsibility attribution that were previously inaccessible. It is these risks that the present report seeks to identify.