g) Encourages States and UNHCR to address mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in
their response to the pandemic by promoting availability of emergency mental health and psychosocial
support to persons of concern to UNHCR, as well as host communities; and encourages further
strengthening of such measures, including through international support;
h) Encourages UNHCR and its partners to continue to ensure that experiences and lessons
learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as from other public health emergencies, inform and
strengthen planning, preparedness and responses to such emergencies, including with respect to
mental health and psychosocial support;
International cooperation and burden- and responsibility-sharing
i) Appreciates the continued hospitality and refugee inclusive public health responses of host
countries and generosity of donors in responding to the protection needs of persons of concern to
UNHCR during the COVID-19 pandemic; underlines the centrality of international cooperation to the
refugee protection and durable solutions regime, and reiterates its commitment to international
solidarity and equitable burden- and responsibility-sharing;
j) Calls upon States and other partners to urgently support funding, the equitable distribution
of safe and effective diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines and further explore innovative financing
mechanisms aimed at ensuring affordable, timely, equitable and universal access to, and the fair
distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for all, including persons of concern to UNHCR and host
communities;
Limitations on entry and movement and access to asylum
k) Welcomes steps taken by States to ensure that measures taken to limit entry at borders in
connection with public health emergencies are temporary, non-discriminatory, necessary, proportionate
and reasonable in the circumstances, and are applied in a manner which safeguards public health, while
respecting the right to seek and enjoy asylum and the principle of non-refoulement, and complying with
applicable obligations under international law, including international refugee law;
l) Welcomes adaptive measures taken by States and UNHCR to ensure continued access to
and operation of asylum and statelessness determination procedures, registration and issuance of
documentation and other relevant processes for persons of concern, including use of technology for
remote interviewing and the extension of timelines for birth registration and validity of nationality and
residency documentation, and encourages other States, UNHCR and partners to continue to support
States in this area as needed;
m) Notes the importance of ensuring that any restrictions of movement for persons of concern
for the purposes of protecting public health are non-discriminatory, provided by law, necessary,
reasonable in the circumstances and otherwise consistent with international law, and welcomes the use
of alternatives to detention that ensure compliance with public health measures;
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