As a former President of Iraq, Barham Salih may be best known as a statesman. However, many have rated his powers of intellect as well as ability to persuade. This puts him in the category of potentials or hopefuls for change as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the office of which he has just been appointed to.
As he begins his role in the new year, he will face an epic challenge. The untold damage of human movement is reckoning with our ability to cope in modern ways. We cannot revert to human instincts as way to control or moderate people’s wishes. It must be done as a conscious effort.
However, this is not the UN’s strong point at present. It has on record failed at this endeavour. It has employed some of the wrong staff members, backed some of the wrong causes, and said some of the wrong things. This has resulted in flows of people that shouldn’t exist. It’s now urgent to correct the matter.
