The United States has historically been a global leader in refugee protection, whether through assistance overseas or accepting refugees for resettlement. In recent years, however, tightening security regimes have weakened the commitment of the United States and other industrialized countries to refugee rights. What is the current global situation for refugees and internally displaced people, and how can their plight be ameliorated in the current global political environment?

To discuss these issues and more, we are pleased to welcome Joel Charny, Vice President for Policy at Refugees International. To attend, please register by responding to events@ypfp.org with your name and affiliation.

Joel R. Charny

Joel R. Charny is Vice President for Policy of Refugees International. He is responsible for overseeing the policy and advocacy program of the organization. In his tenure with Refugees International he has conducted humanitarian assessment missions to Pakistan in the aftermath of 9/11, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, the Central African Republic, the Chinese border with North Korea, and Indonesia and Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the tsunami. He is Co-Chair of the Protection Working Group of InterAction.

Mr. Charny joined Refugees International in July 2000 after working for four years in Cambodia as Deputy Program Manager with the CARERE project of the United Nations Development Program. Prior to working for the UNDP in Cambodia, Mr. Charny spent sixteen years with Oxfam America, a relief and development organization based in Boston. He first worked inside Cambodia during the famine emergency there in 1980 and went on to manage the agency's work in Southeast Asia and the wider Asia region. In 1989 he became Overseas Director and in 1994 Policy Director.

Mr. Charny is the author of Acts of Betrayal: The Challenge of Protecting North Korean Refugees in China, published by Refugees International in 2005. He is also the author of articles on humanitarian issues in volumes published by Kumerian Press and the Brookings Institution, as well as articles for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Economist, The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor and Forced Migration Review. He has a Masters degree in international education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.