This study examines how the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), adopted in 2018 as a non-binding framework, has been able to institutionalize multi-stakeholder participation and shape a new form of global refugee governance within an international refug...
This study examines how the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), adopted in 2018 as a non-binding framework, has been able to institutionalize multi-stakeholder participation and shape a new form of global refugee governance within an international refugee regime long dominated by state sovereignty and interests. In particular, the GCR incorporates the participation of diverse actors, including states, international organizations, and civil society, into a formal governance framework and advances a whole-of-society approach aimed at more inclusive and accountable global governance. This raises an important analytical puzzle as to how non-binding global governance arrangements can operate beyond symbolic declarations through coordination among multiple actors. Against this backdrop, the study analyzes how such governance changes became possible by focusing on interactions among states, UNHCR, and NGOs during the formation of the GCR. Empirically, it examines successive draft texts and five rounds of formal consultations between the 2016 New York Declaration and the adoption of the GCR in 2018, interpreting these processes through the application of the orchestration model of international institutions. The findings show that while states sought to preserve the non-binding character of the framework, UNHCR operated both as an agent of states and as an orchestrator, mobilizing NGOs as intermediaries to institutionalize non-state participation. NGOs, in turn, functioned as norm entrepreneurs, strengthening accountability and coordination within global refugee governance.