Pretoria - The Department of Home Affairs and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will commemorate World Refugee Day (WRD) on Friday.
The event will be held under the theme ‘Share your Refugee Story – Celebrating 20 Years of Freedom and Democracy’.
The partnership between the Department of Home Affairs and the UNHCR dates back to 1993 following the signing of a watershed Memorandum of Understanding aimed at formalising the refugee system in the country, in keeping with international law.
Since then, South Africa has entered into several international agreements relating to the protection of refugees and asylum seekers. The most notable is the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.
On 4 December 2000, the General Assembly of the UN adopted a resolution declaring 20 June World Refugee Day to mark the 50th Anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.
World Refugee Day is celebrated annually to honour the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homes under threats of persecution, conflict and violence.
On this day, the international community seeks to draw attention to the plight of refugees and celebrate their courage and resilience.
The UNHCR’s global campaign for 2014 -- in partnership with the Department of Home Affairs and other stakeholders -- emphasises the impact of war and individual persecution on families, and places individual refugee family stories at the centre of all WRD activities.
The campaign includes all forcibly displaced populations and keeps the message of survival, finding hope and building a better future at the heart of communications.
Home Affairs Director-General Mkuseli Apleni and the UNHCR Regional Representative for Southern Africa, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, will address the main event.
They will be supported by acting Tshwane mayor Terence Mashego.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CORMSA) will deliver messages of support during the event. – SAnews.gov.za
