Governments and international organizations can't, and shouldn't, try to do it all. Moreover, those of us in government who look at the world with a humanitarian perspective need the NGO community to sustain support for refugees. In the United States, thanks in large part to the work of our advocacy community, I believe our national impulse is still a generous one. And fourth, we ve learned that effective protection requires that we address the security needs of humanitarian workers in the field. This has been a bloody decade for humanitarians.
Security is first and foremost the responsibility of the host nations.
We are aware that some in the NGO community fear that the consultations could result in a weakening of the current protection regime. This is an understandable concern, but one that we believe can be overcome. Let me take just a few minutes to explain how the U.S. intends to approach these discussions. We believe the consultations will lead to a strong reaffirmation by the international community of the relevance, and inviolability, of the Refugee Convention and Protocol. The United States will be among the Convention s strongest defenders, and we are confident that the overwhelming majority of States Parties strongly oppose reopening the Convention for negotiation.