20 June 2018 (UN Women)* — Right now, nearly 66 million people around the world are displaced from their homes due to conflict, persecution and natural disasters.
Pasca Kole, a refugee woman from South Sudan, with her daughter whom she gave birth to shortly after arriving in Pagirinya Settlement in Uganda. Photo: UN Women/Aidah Nanyonjo
We need to break away from traditional response strategies that are no longer adequate to support the reality facing refugees today. The average length of displacement is now 17 years or more, which means that those affected will spend a significant portion of their lives as refugees.
By UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi*
20 June 2018 (UNHCR)* — Today, World Refugee Day, is a time for solidarity with refugees – and with the communities that welcome them. As conflicts emerge, recur, persist and deepen, 68.5 million people are uprooted around the world. Nine out of 10 are in their own countries or countries next door, and the impact is massive – on refugees themselves, and on the communities that open their doors to them.
HC World Refugee Day video statement
Now, more than ever, taking care of refugees must be a global – and shared – responsibility. It’s time to do things differently.
The effects of conflict-related sexual violence echo across generations, in the form of trauma, stigma, and unwanted pregnancy, on 19 June 2018 said the UN chief, describing the scourge as “a threat to our collective security” and “a stain on our common humanity.”
UNICEF/Donna DeCesare | This 15-year-old was one of Colombia’s child soldiers – some 30 per cent of whom are girls, often sexually abused.
“Children conceived through wartime rape often strugglewith issues of identity and belonging for decades after the guns have fallen silent,” explained Guterres.
Separating children from their families is in no-one’s best interest – the head of UN Children’s Fund UNICEF said on 19 June 2018 – pointing to “heartbreaking” stories of infants who have been reportedly removed from their parents after entering the US from Mexico illegally.
UNHCR/Markel Redondo | Genesis Cerrato, 16, with her one-year-old son. Along with her whole family, she fled Honduras escaping violence in her home country.
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In an appeal to the US regarding its recent policy change cracking down on migration at the border with Mexico, Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement that children who were in need of international protection “have the right to be protected…and be with their families”.
In response to the withdrawal of the United States on 19 June 2018 from the United Nations body which is designed to promote and protect human rights around the globe, Secretary-General António Guterres said that he would have “much preferred” the US remain.
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UN Photo/Elma Okic | A wide view of the Human Rights Council.
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In a statement issued by Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric, the UN chief said that the Geneva-based Human Rights Council was a part of the UN’s overall “Human Rights architecture”, which “plays a very important role in the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.”
A woman cradles her child in Kavimvira transit centre in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s South Kivu Province. She is among hundreds of vulnerable Burundian refugees actively seeking safety there. | Source: UN
19 June 2018 (United Nations)* — Every minute 20 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror.
There are several types of forcibly displaced persons:
Refugees
A refugee is someone who fled his or her home and country owing to “a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”, according to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. Many refugees are in exile to escape the effects of natural or human-made disasters.
20 June 2018 (United Nations)* — What would you do if you were forced to leave your home?
Secretary-General, then High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres and Humanitarian Envoy for Kuwait Abdullah Al-Matouq (left) visit an Informal Settlement for Syrian refugees near Ghaziye, southern Lebanon. UNHCR / I. Prickett Secretary-General’s Message
Today, more than 68 million people around the world are refugees or internally displaced as a result of conflict or persecution. That is equivalent to the population of the world’s 20th largest country.
Last year, someone was displaced every two seconds. Mostly, in poorer countries.
As part of his final global update, the United Nations human rights chief on 18 June 2018 voiced his deep concern over recently-adopted United States border protection policies that have seen hundreds of migrant children forcibly separated from their parents.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré | Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
“In the past six weeks, nearly two thousand children have been forcibly separatedfrom their parents,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in his opening remarks to the 38th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva – the last session before his four-year term expires in August.
Government representatives are meeting at United Nations Headquarters to review global action to address the illegal flow of revolvers, pistols, assault rifles, machine guns and other similar weapons.
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas | The “Non-Violence” (or “Knotted Gun”) sculpture by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd on display at the UN Visitors’ Plaza.
These small arms and light weapons, which end up on battlefields or urban streets and elsewhere, are a big problem for the world, according to the UN body that has organized the two-week conference, which opened in New York on 18 June 2018.
The UN health agency has for the first time, tagged compulsive video gaming as a mental health condition in its updated classification manual, released on 18 June 2018.
UN News/Elizabeth Scaffidi | A young woman plays a video game on her phone.
“For gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the behavior pattern must be of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and would normally have been evident for at least 12 months,” said the World Health Organization (WHO).
