OXHRF Refugee week events

(c) UNHCR

Basma El Doukhi (DEP 2019-20) reports on World Refugee Day and Refugee Week:

UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report for 2020 showed that forced displacement is now affecting more than one per cent of humanity – 1 in every 97 people – and with fewer and fewer of those who flee being able to return home. The report, which was published two days ahead of 20 June World Refugee Day, shows that an unprecedented 79.5 million were displaced as of the end of 2019.

 

“We are witnessing a changed reality in that forced displacement nowadays is not only vastly more widespread but is simply no longer a short-term and temporary phenomenon,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “People cannot be expected to live in a state of upheaval for years on end, without a chance of going home, nor a hope of building a future where they are. We need a fundamentally new and more accepting attitude towards all who flee, coupled with a much more determined drive to unlock conflicts that go on for years and that are at the root of such immense suffering.”

Voices of the 18th OxHRF: ‘Gaza seen through the eyes of its children’

EL Laskar writes:

In our last blog, to commemorate Victory in Europe day, we shared snippets from the memoir of Mrs Prince who had been a child of war in Britain during the Second World War. We were thankful to have her story included in our exhibition this year. There were striking similarities in her story with some of the experiences of children in war zones today - abandonment, scarcity of resources, loss of loved ones, fear of being bombed and having a war zone as a playground.

As we mentioned in our last blog Rights of Children can often be overlooked and with approximately 415 million children growing up in war zones, global society needs to continue to invest in the protection and welfare of these children.