PAGE 11 Global Refugee Forum Legal Community Core Group Partnership with UNHCR UNHCR is the UN body mandated to ensure the international protection of refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs), stateless persons, and other displaced persons around the world. Given this, as well as its role in cohosting the GRF - where the Pledge was born - and its global presence and ability to identify unmet legal needs within displaced communities, UNHCR partnered with the Core Group to support the Pledge’s implementation throughout 2020, including: Partnering with Core Group members to develop a "Menu of Pro Bono Options" and other tools to support law firms, NGOs and other relevant actors to envision and categorize the types of pro bono assistance that could be available under © UNHCR/Jeoffrey Guillemard the Pledge. Through their UNHCR regional and country operations, and in coordination with relevant local partners, utilizing the Menu of Pro Bono Options and other tools to map the legal needs of refugees and others forcibly displaced. Supporting the matching of the legal needs identified with pro bono assistance provided by private sector signatories to the Pledge. Partnering with the Core Group and Trust Law to co-organize an Asia Pro Bono Roundtable, which led to RLOs and NGOs pitching 15 pro bono projects, resulting in 22 new partnerships being formed between local and international law firms, in-house counsel, and civil society actors. Engaging with private sector firms that had joined the Pledge on pro bono projects to provide legal assistance, representation or research in areas identified by UNHCR operations, such as child protection (e.g. Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand), livelihoods (e.g. China), IDPs (e.g. Mozambique), and statelessness (e.g. Central Asia). Projects with a global scope included reviewing and summarizing of cases for UNHCR’s Refworld database and research on access to remote legal assistance and representation in refugee and/or stateless status determination procedures. Brian Barbour ©©UNHCR