That is the view of Maya Ameratunga, a New Zealander who is the United Nations High Commission for Refugees representative in Syria.
Ms Ameratunga was commenting in a talk to the University of Otago’s latest annual Foreign Policy School on Saturday.
The three-day school was devoted to ‘‘Open and Closed Borders: The Geopolitics of Migration’’ and ended yesterday.
In the midst of ‘‘destruction and continuing crisis’’ in Syria, there was ‘‘great hope and courage and resilience and inspiration’’, Ms Ameratunga emphasised.
Displaced people were starting to return home and her teams were among the humanitarian agencies that were supporting those people and helping with emergency response.
As ‘‘a small but fair-minded state’’, New Zealand could serve as ‘‘a positive example in upholding our international obligations, both in law and in spirit’’.
New Zealand had played an important role in addressing peace and security issues when it was a member of the Security Council, but there was still a critical need to address the root causes of displacement and to prevent and resolve conflicts.
‘‘Let’s use New Zealand’s respected voice in the international human rights arena to be an important advocate for global standard-setting in protecting the displaced,’’ she said.
‘‘Let’s not be swayed at this critical moment by the politics of fear mongering and self-interest into forgetting compassion through a focus on deterrence, which violates human rights standards and obligations and does nothing to resolve refugee problems.’’
Because New Zealand received only the ‘‘tiniest trickle of asylum seekers’’ and had a modest but successful resettlement programme, it could ‘‘co-operate better with solidarity initiatives and responsibility-sharing’’.
Her talk was on ‘‘The global crisis of refugees and conflict displacement: Challenges, opportunities and responsibility by the international community’’.
Sir Lankan-born, Ms Ameratunga attended Southland Girls’ High School, before gaining degrees in law and languages at Auckland University.
