*
In countries
where people have to flee their homes because of persecution and violence, political
solutions must be found, peace and tolerance restored, so that refugees can return
home. In my experience, going home is the deepest wish of most refugees.
~ Angelina Jolie
“Refugees have done more for
my heart and my spirit than I can ever express in words.” ~ Angelina
Jolie | |
"Refugees
have done more for my heart and my spirit than I can ever express in words."
~ Angelina Jolie The
exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass ... What
is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice.
The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image
of helplessness. ~ Mary McCarthy
|
*
I
wish to call on you to join hands in the building of a world in which less people
will be forced to flee, and in which refugees are protected until they can safely
return home one day. -- Sadako
Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 1990-2000 | "Refugee
problems may often seem intractable but they are not insoluble. In our experience
there are two basic prerequisites for solution: the political will of leaders
to tackle the causes and to settle for peace, and international determination
to push for peace and then to consolidate it. Consolidating peace means helping
societies emerging from war to reintegrate refugees in safety and dignity, to
rebuild their institutions - including in the field of justice and human rights
- and to resume their economic development." -- Sadako
Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 1990-2000
*
We
are all part of the human family and we should be about doing what all good families
do - caring for our less fortunate brothers and sisters.
- Dan O'Neill,
Founder, Mercy Corps | |
"There are no refugees, no displaced persons here, ... They are our guests and
we treat them as such." ~ Mike Turner quotes
*
To
all the survivors out there, I want them to know that we are stronger and more
resilient than we ever knew. We survived, that should be enough but it isn't.
We must work hard to become whole again, to fill our soul with love and inspiration,
to live the life that was intended for us before it was disrupted by war and horrors,
and help rebuild a world that is better than the one we had just left.
- Loung Ung
| |
'Refugees
are defined as persons who are outside their country and cannot return owing to
a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality,
political opinion or membership of a particular social group.' ~ United Nations,
1951
|
Today, I wish that the millions
of displaced people would be able to return with the necessary conditions of safety
and dignity, that people in exile could return to their home-country as the intelligence
is needed, that cruelty, political killings, poverty and hunger cease. I wish
that our people recover their dignity, truth is revealed and justice exists.
-- Alirio Uribe Muñoz |
Refugee
Day - June 20
Portraits
for illustration purposes - no endorsement implied. Thanks
to Anukul Gurung for the fairy image of Emily Thanks to Fletcher Grayson/Gray
Media for creating The Emily Fund logo |