Critical time to welcome refugees, says UN rights expert
World Refugee Day
20 June
2018
Critical time to welcome refugees, says UN rights expert
GENEVA (19 June 2018) – The world must act now to help those forced to leave their homes by overwhelming circumstances says a UN rights expert. In a statement to mark World Refugee Day, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes, is urging people to support action to help refugees, including education, shelter and training for work:
“Every minute, 20 people from different geographical, racial, linguistic and religious backgrounds are forced to leave their homes by hatred or conflict. Most of them come from minorities and are vulnerable and marginalised.
On World Refugee Day we focus on the respect and deference owed to the strength, resilience and courage shown by each refugee during her or his individual journey. We must now act on our common feelings of empathy and solidarity and do everything in our power to unite humanity against hatred and conflict.
Human dignity can be attained by respecting our neighbours including the minorities among us. To attain human dignity, by all and for all, ongoing commitment by governments towards the respect of human rights is fundamental.
The recent rise in tragedies across the globe has increased refugee populations, which has subsequently led to polarised ideologies around the world. As such, it is a critical time to welcome refugees with deference and a time for us to unite in diversity. We must all acknowledge the dignity of refugees and their human rights.
In June 2016, the UN Refugee Agency launched the #WithRefugees petition that pursues commitment by governments to education for refugee children, safe shelter for refugee families, and the freedom for refugees to contribute to their society by working or developing new skills.
I invite you to take action by joining nearly two million other people who have already signed the #WithRefugees petition to support this initiative, along with refugees around the world.”
ENDS
Mr. Fernand de
Varennes was appointed as UN Special
Rapporteur on minority
issues by the Human Rights Council in June 2017.
He is tasked by the UN Human Rights Council, to promote the
implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons
Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic
Minorities, among other things.
The
Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special
Procedures of the Human Rights Council.
Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts
in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the
Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring
mechanisms that address either specific country situations
or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special
Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not
UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They
are independent from any government or organization and
serve in their individual
capacity.