Until Everyone Is Safe: RCSEE marks World Refugee Day in Montenegro through dialogue, legal education and solidarity

Podgorica, Montenegro, 20-22 June 2026

UNHCR’s Representation for Central and South-East Europe (RCSEE) marked World Refugee Day 2026 in Montenegro through a series of activities in Podgorica, bringing together the diplomatic community, students, institutions and partners around one shared message: Until Everyone Is Safe.

At the centre of this year’s commemoration was a briefing for the diplomatic community at the UN Eco Building, co-hosted by the UN Resident Coordinator in Montenegro, Caroline Tissot, and UNHCR’s Representative for Central and South-East Europe, Nicole Epting.

Participants discussed how global displacement trends are reflected in the Western Balkans, before turning to Montenegro’s key protection priorities. The event was held in a year of particular significance: 2026 marks 75 years of UNHCR’s work in support of refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless persons and all those forced to flee, grounded in the principles of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Opening the briefing, Caroline Tissot underlined that World Refugee Day is not only a moment to recognize the courage and resilience of people forced to flee, but also a reminder of shared responsibility.

“World Refugee Day reminds us that protecting people forced to flee is a shared responsibility. It also reaffirms a principle at the heart of the United Nations: that no one should be left behind,” said Caroline Tissot, UN Resident Coordinator in Montenegro. 

She also stressed that refugee protection is closely linked to sustainable development and Montenegro’s wider reform path. Refugees, asylum-seekers and other displaced people must be included in education, healthcare, decent work and opportunities to contribute to society if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved.

Presenting global protection trends, Nicole Epting recalled that forced displacement remains extraordinarily high. At the end of 2025, 117.8 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide, including 41.6 million refugees and almost 9 million asylum-seekers awaiting decisions on their claims. She noted that the first decline in global forced displacement in a decade gives cautious reason for hope, but not complacency: many returns took place in fragile conditions, seven in ten refugees remain in protracted displacement, and most continue to be hosted by low- and middle-income countries. Against this backdrop, she underlined that protection needs remain acute and that solutions must be pursued with renewed determination.

“Seventy-five years after UNHCR was established, the need for refugee protection remains as urgent as ever. The global figures remind us that protection cannot stop at safety from immediate danger. It must also mean access to rights, inclusion, self-reliance and real opportunities for people forced to flee to rebuild their lives in dignity,” said Nicole Epting, UNHCR Representative for Central and South-East Europe.

Participants also had the opportunity to learn how global displacement trends are linked to the Western Balkans, a region that continues to be affected by major crises, including Ukraine and Sudan, and continues to serve as an important mixed-movement route towards Western Europe. For UNHCR, the trends underline the need to view movements along the route not only through a migration-management lens, but also through a protection lens.

The discussion then turned to Montenegro’s protection priorities, including the asylum system, refugees from Ukraine under temporary protection, statelessness, access to rights, and reforms linked to Montenegro’s EU accession process.

World Refugee Day activities also took place at the Faculty of Law of the University of Montenegro, where UNHCR marked the successful completion of the 20th annual Legal Clinic on Refugee Law and awarded certificates to this year’s students.

UNHCR has cooperated with the Faculty of Law since 2007 through annual legal clinics on refugee law and statelessness. This year 90 students successfully completed the course, which included theoretical lectures, field visits and moot court sessions based on hypothetical refugee status determination cases, giving students the opportunity to step into the roles of legal professionals working on asylum claims.

Addressing the students, Nicole Epting stressed that refugee law is not only a technical field, but also a human one.

““You have learned why it matters that a person fleeing persecution or war can seek safety; that children can obtain documents; that families can access rights; and that the promises written in law are respected in practice,” said Nicole Epting, UNHCR Representative for Central and South-East Europe.  

She encouraged students to carry the lessons of the Legal Clinic into their future careers, reminding them that “the strength of a legal system is often measured by how it treats those who are most vulnerable, least visible, and most in need of its protection.”

As part of World Refugee Day commemorations, the Millennium Bridge in Podgorica was illuminated in blue on 20 and 21 June, in cooperation with the Capital City of Podgorica. The illumination sent a visible message of solidarity from the heart of the capital city to people forced to flee war, violence and persecution. UNHCR and partners also shared World Refugee Day messages through media interviews.

Together, the activities in Montenegro reflected the core message of World Refugee Day 2026: protection must remain non-negotiable, inclusion must be made practical, and solutions must be pursued with determination.

Until everyone is safe.