World Refugee Day

June 20^th is World Refugee Day.  This is the explanation of the day from the UN website:

“For years, many countries and regions have been holding their own Refugee Days and even Weeks. One of the most widespread is Africa Refugee Day, which is celebrated on 20 June in several countries.

The UN General Assembly, on 4 December 2000, adopted resolution 55/76 where it noted that 2001 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and that the Organization of African Unity (OAU) had agreed to have International Refugee Day coincide with Africa Refugee Day on 20 June.

The General Assembly therefore decided that, from 2001, 20 June would be celebrated as World Refugee Day.

This year the UN refugee agency, in its 60th year, will mark World Refugee Day with a rich and varied programme of events in locations worldwide and the launch of a new global awareness campaign. UNHCR will start rolling out the multimedia "One" campaign next week. Over the next six months it will increase awareness about the forcibly displaced and stateless by telling their powerful personal stories. The campaign will carry the message that "One Refugee Without Hope is too Many." Every day, millions of refugees face murder, rape and terror. We believe even 1 is too many.”

This is a link to the Secretary-General’s message for today.

Here are some statistics from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) concerning OMB’s focus countries:

In Burma (Myanmar) the “total population of concern” is 859,403.

In Sudan it’s 1,958,524.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2,366,035.

The UNHCR’s total population of concern for all countries is 33,924,475. Almost 34,000,000 people. This is a link to a page where you can look at statistics that you have an interest in.  There are documents that break down refugees by country of origin, country that they’ve fled to, numbers of IDPs (internally displaced persons), asylum seekers, stateless persons, etc.

Take a minute to call or email your legislators and tell them that one refugee without hope is too many.  You’re aware of the problem, now let’s make sure our politicians are!