World Refugee Day

One of the main purposes of the United Nations is to encourage solidarity between the different countries of the world and to bring these nations together to defend against common threats to mankind.  To that end, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 55/76 on December 4, 2000.  The resolution marked that 2001 was the 50^th Anniversary of the first convention relating to the Status of Refugees.  The UN and the Organization of African Unity agreed to have International Refugee day on June 20 to bring attention to the plight of refugees around the world, the majority of which are in Africa. 

In 1951, a Convention was held relating to the Status of Refugees.  At that convention, a document was created defining who is a refugee, their legal rights and the obligations of the State that take them in.  For more than fifty years, the UNHCR has dealt with refugee problems around the world.

For many years individual nations held their own Refugee day as they each saw fit.  For each nation, the problems of refugees were different depending on geography, climate and economics.  For the African Nations, many of these problems are similar and under the leadership of the Organization  of African Unity, now African Union, several African Nations held concurrent Refugee Days to bring further light to this humanitarian problem.

The UN High Commissioner of Refugees oversees World Refugee Day. On June 20 of every year, people around the world gather to honor the courage and spirit of the men, women and children who were forced to leave their homes and celebrate the contributions the refugees make in their adopted homes and their original homelands.

Large organizations dedicated to the advancement of mankind like Amnesty International also get involved by organizing protests against imprisoning refugees, produce films and documentaries about the lives those have sought asylum in the West and recognize the contributions made, organize letter and petition drives to governments for the ethical treatment of refugees. The largest part of World Refugee Day is bring awareness to the problems of refugees, the problems in the lands they left and how the world can help.

World Refugee Day is simply a day where the world brings the problems and lives of those who have been displaced into the light. While there is little that each individual can do to combat this human rights problem, together, the world can make a difference and bring the refugees of the world home.