International Law Blog Postings

Today, 20 June 2006, marks the sixth annual commemoration of World Refugee Day. This year's theme is "Keeping the Flame of Hope Alive" for 20.8 million people who hold tenuously to a hope for peace and a better future. Since last year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that an additional two million became asylum seekers and refugees, most of them women and children. For them, home is a place where they cannot return - at least not today. Equally, this day honors the staff and volunteers who provide services, aid, and comfort to the world's refugees and asylum seekers. Providing a ray of hope this past year, Afghanistan became the 143rd party, without declarations or reservations, to the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol. Continue Reading