Refugees

Refugee: Definition

Refugees are people who left their homeland because they fear that they will lose their lives or their freedom if they stay. People become refugees because one or more of their basic human rights has been violated or threatened.
International law defines a "refugee" as a person who has fled from and/or cannot return to his/her country due to a well- founded fear of persecution, including war or civil conflict.

A Person is a Refugee if...

Refugees have to be outside of their country of origin;
Their reason of flight has to be a fear of persecution;
The fear of persecution has to be well-founded, i.e. that have to have experienced persecution or be likely to experience it if they return;
The persecution has to result from one or more of the five grounds listed in the definition;
They have to be unwilling or unable to seek the protection of their country

Who Protects Refugees?

UNHCR
Protecting refuges is the core mandate of UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)
Website: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
Who do they help?
They help Asylum-Seekers, Children, Men, Internationally Displaced People, Older People, People with Disabilities, Refugees, Returnees, Stateless People, Women.
Where are they involved?
Africa, Americas, Asia and Pacific, Europe, Middle East and North Africa.

What are human rights?

Human rights are the rights and freedom that we all have.

·         Some human rights are based on our physical needs

The right to life. To food. To shelter.

·         Other human rights to protect us.

The right to be free from torture, cruel treatment and abuse.

·         Human rights are also there to ensure we develop to our fullest potential.

The right to education. To work. To participate in your community.

Everybody has human rights. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from, what language you speak or what religion you belong to. You have a duty to respect the rights of others, just as they have the duty to respect yours.

Nobody can take your rights away!

Human rights are based on the values of:

·         Dignity

·         Justice

·         Respect

·         Equality

Human rights were officially recognised as values by the world when the United Natios was set up.

What is the United Nations?

·         The United Nations (UN) is an international organisation that was established in 1945, the year the Second World War ended.

·         Its founders hoped it would be able to prevent catastrophes like the Holocaust from happening in the future.

·         So promoting human rights became an aim of the UN, along with maintaining international peace and reducing poverty.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the most famous human rights agreements in the world. It contains 30 rights. They are;

Who wrote the UDHR?

The People who wrote the UDHR came from: Australia, Chile, China, France, Lebanon, the former Soviet Union, the UK and the US.