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.

Defining "Refugee"

The 1951 Refugee Convention defines who qualifies as a refugee and what rights and obligations a refugee has under international law. A "refugee" is defined as an individual who fears persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, or status as part of defined social or political group. Gender, age, and sexual orientation are not specifically mentioned but their omissions do not preclude members of those groups from qualifying as refugees under the category of "social group." In 1979 and 1985, the UNHCR issued documents providing further guidance on the interpretation of the definition of refugee to mean persons of "similar backgrounds" and "social status" or "who face harsh or inhuman treatment due to their having transgressed the social mores of the society in which they live."

For more information on who qualifies as a refugee and what causes a termination or denial of eligibility, read last year's blog: World Refugee Day 2005.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)

People forced from their homes due to civil strife, environmental disaster, or human rights abuses cannot receive international legal protections as refugees while still residing in their native countries. The status of "refugee" only applies to persons living outside their countries of origin. Currently, neither the United Nations nor the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has a clear mandate to aid "internally displaced persons" (IDPs). In 2006, an estimated 6.6 million people worldwide live as IDPs. They lack the international legal protections granted to "refugees." The United Nations, when it does intervene to provide aid, focuses primarily on the IDPs in Africa.

UN World Food Programme - Feeding Refugees and IDPs

The United Nations World Food Programme, the world's largest humanitarian agency, feeds both refugees and IDPs. Like UNICEF, WFP receives no dues or a portion of the UN assessed contributions and relies solely on voluntarily contributions from governments, corporations, and individuals. The United States is the largest financial donor to the agency, contributing US $1.2 billion in 2005, a record amount. This year, WFP will feed 90 million people in 80 countries this year. The agency is struggling to meet increased demand, particularly for humanitarian emergencies arising from civil wars and natural disasters. For refugees in Somalia and Sudan, limited food rations were reduced last year an additional 20%. Also at risk were the more than 17 million schoolchildren who rely on the agency for a daily meal at school. The agency is appealing for additional contributions from very UN member state -- 191 countries -- to assist with emergency operations in 2006. Currently, WFP seeks additional emergency funds to feed 3.5 million drought victims in Kenya, 2.9 million in Niger, 2.7 million IDPs in war-torn Sudan, and 225,000 in Nepal.

UN General Assembly Resolution

• World Refugee Day, Resolution 55/76

International Treaties and Declarations

• United Nations Refugee Convention (28 July 1951)
• Protocol to United Nations Refugee Convention (New York Protocol) (1967)
• Constitution of the International Refugee Organization (20 August 1948)
• Organisation of African Unity Convention on Refugees (10 September 1969)
• European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950)
• Cartagena Declaration on Refugees (22 November 1984) (Spanish)
• San Jose Declaration on Refugees and Displaced Persons (7 December 1994)
• Mexico Declaration on Refugees (16 November 2004)

International Treaties - Civilians in Conflict

• Geneva Convention, Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (21 October 1950)

International Treaties - Human Trafficking, Prostitution, Discrimination

• Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women of Full Age (1933)
• Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (25 July 1951)
• Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children (1921)
• Protocol to Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic (12 November 1947)
• Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979)

International Treaties - Children in Conflict

• Convention on the Rights of the Child (2 countries signed, 192 ratified)
• Protocol: Rights of the child in armed conflict (117 countries signed, 88 ratified)
• Protocol: Rights of the child on sale, prostitution, porn (110 countries signed, 87 ratified)
• Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children (1921)
• Protocol to Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children (12 November 1947)

UN Programs and Agencies

• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
• UNICEF
• UNHCR Women's Rights
• United Nations Inter-agency Network on Women Equality

Organizations (NGOs)

• U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
• International Organization for Migration (IOM)
• International Rescue Committee (IRC)
• European Council on Refugees and Exiles
• British Refugee Council
• International Federation of Red Cross
• Refugees International
• Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children
• USA for UNHCR
• InterAction

Institutes

• Project on Internally Displaced Persons The Brookings Institution, USA
• Institute for the Study of International Migration Georgetown University, USA
• Centre for the Study of Forced Migration University of Dar Es-Salaam, Tanzania
• Centre for Refugee Studies York, Canada

Employment Opportunities in Refugee and Humanitarian Aid

• International Rescue Committee - Positions Worldwide
• European Council on Refugees and Exiles - Internships and Vacancies

Volunteer Opportunities in Refugee and Humanitarian Aid

• International Federation of Red Cross
• Ghana, Budumburam Refugee Camp
• Ghana, Refugee Law Project

Donate to Organizations Providing Aid to Refugees

• Unite for Sight
• United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
• UNICEF