WORLD REFUGEE DAY 2024: ‘FOR A WORLD WHERE REFUGEES ARE WELCOMED’

Thu 20 June 2024:

World Refugee Day is observed on June 20 to respect and honour the courage and resilience of refugees across the globe. The United Nations designated the day to celebrate the strength and courage of people forced to flee their homes and countries to escape conflict or persecution. World Refugee Day is also a day to build empathy and understanding of their plight and to recognize their efforts in rebuilding their lives. The day recognises the rights, needs and dreams of refugees.

The theme of World Refugee Day 2024 is ‘For a World Where Refugees Are Welcomed.’

1) Who is a refugee?

A person forced to flee his or her country following persecution, war or violence is a refugee. According to the United Nations people who fled their homes and countries due to “a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion” is a refugee.

The focus for this year is “solidarity with refugees”, whether through welcoming and including them in our communities, advocating for policies that protect and support them, or working towards solutions to their plight.

New data revealed the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has risen to an unprecedented 120 million, World Refugee Day offers a chance to show our support for those whose lives have been uprooted by conflict and persecution.

History of World Refugee Day

The first ever World Refugee Day was celebrated on 20 June 2001 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. The day was earlier recognized as Africa Refugee Day and later in December 2000, the United Nations General Assembly officially declared it as an International Day for Refugees. World Refugee Day is an important day to reflect on the plight of refugees worldwide and to renew the commitment to finding lasting solutions to this pressing issue.

Significance of World Refugee Day

According to un.org, “Refugees are among the most vulnerable people in the world. The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol help protect them. They are the only global legal instruments explicitly covering the most important aspects of a refugee’s life. According to their provisions, refugees deserve, as a minimum, the same standards of treatment enjoyed by other foreign nationals in a given country and, in many cases, the same treatment as nationals.”

The significance of World Refugee Day is to highlight the hardships and challenges faced by Refugees all across the globe, and suggest measures to solve them. The day is observed to appreciate the resilience, courage and strength of refugees to build a bright future.

Refugees need our solidarity now.

Solidarity means supporting their health needs through local, national, regional, and global efforts. It involves listening to their health needs, easing their access to health care with applicable policies, collaborating with relevant partners, and finding solutions to ensure universal health coverage.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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