The origin and theme of World Refugee Day

World Refugee Day is held on June 20 every year. It is a commemorative day designated by the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR. At first, it was a unique anniversary in Africa. It was originally called "African Refugee Day" because Africa has always been a region that tolerates and shelters the largest number of refugees. Now, let me tell you about it!

Origin

With the joint promotion of the United Nations Refugee Agency established in 1950 and the United Nations Refugee Convention promulgated in 1951, The world refugee protection system was established. This system was designed to deal with the impact of population movements caused by World War II and its aftermath, and to encourage countries to take in refugees by advocating for their rights.

The "Protocol" introduced in 1967 further supplemented the "United Nations Refugee Convention". At the same time, the protection systems successively established in several regions around the world also strongly promoted the implementation of the "Convention".

On June 20, 1974, the African continent adopted a convention on African refugees and decided to designate this day every year as "African Refugee Day". In order to draw wider attention to the refugee issue from the international community.

On December 4, 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 55/76. In this resolution, the General Assembly noted that 2001 was the fiftieth anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and The African Union of the Organization of African Unity has agreed that International Refugee Day and African Refugee Day on June 20 can be held on the same day. The General Assembly therefore decided to designate June 20 as "World Refugee Day" starting from 2001.

Theme

The theme of World Refugee Day in 2001: "Respect", which is also the first "World Refugee Day".

The theme of World Refugee Day 2002: "Giving priority to solving the problems of female refugees".

The theme of World Refugee Day 2003: "Refugee Youth".

The theme of World Refugee Day 2004: "I want a home: to start life again in safety and dignity".

The theme of World Refugee Day 2005: "Courage".

The theme of World Refugee Day 2006: "Hope".

Theme for World Refugee Day 2007: There is no designated theme by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The theme of World Refugee Day 2008: "Protection".

The theme of World Refugee Day 2009: "Living people, living needs".

The theme of World Refugee Day 2010: "Homeland".

The theme of World Refugee Day 2011: "One homeless family is one too many" and "One refugee deprived of hope is one too many".

The theme of World Refugee Day 2012: "Refugees have no choice, you do"

The theme of World Refugee Day 2013: "Take one minute to support a refugee family."

Purpose

The refugee problem has always been a serious problem for the international community. In order to ensure the basic rights of refugees and to resolve refugee status issues through international cooperation, as early as 1951, the United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons adopted the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Due to disasters, wars, ethnic and racial disputes, etc., the refugee problem has become increasingly serious. Especially in the ten years from 1993 to 2003, more than 80 wars or conflicts broke out around the world, resulting in large-scale refugee flows. The number of refugees has always reached more than 20 million, reaching 27.42 million in 1994. Among them, women and children account for 80% of the total number of refugees. The increasingly serious refugee problem has attracted great attention from the international community. Since 2001, June 20th has been designated as "World Refugee Day" every year. The United Nations hopes to draw people's attention to the refugee issue and to understand and respect the contributions refugees make to society.

The theme of the first "World Refugee Day" in 2001 was "Respect", which means respecting the existence of refugees as human beings.