«Quotes from the U.N. and other Officials»

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.

(UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 1990-2000)

Sadako Ogata

World Refugee Day is an important opportunity to remind us about the ongoing plight of millions of refugees around the world.

Robert Alan Silvestein

I urge you to celebrate the extraordinary courage and contributions of refugees past and present.

Kofi Annan

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

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 Munoz

We call on the international community to share equitably the responsibility for protecting, assisting and hosting refugees in accordance with principles of international solidarity and human rights.

Widad Akreyi

Thus, on this World Refugee Day, let us take time to recognize and draw inspiration from these ordinary people who have shown such extraordinary courage – the world’s millions of refugees and displaced.

(U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees)

Antonio Guterres

There are many challenges facing the international community today but few, in my mind, are more pressing than those of finding humanitarian solutions to refugee problems. We talk of regional conflicts, of economic and social crises, of political instability, of abuses of human rights, of racism, religious intolerance, inequalities between rich and poor, hunger, over-population, under-development and. I could go on and on. Each and every one of these impediments to humanity’s pursuit of well-being are also among the root causes of refugee problems.

(UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 1978-1985)

Poul Hartling

While every refugee’s story is different and their anguish personal, they all share a common thread of uncommon courage – the courage not only to survive, but to persevere and rebuild their shattered lives.

(U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees)

Antonio Guterres

A lasting solution, the possibility to begin a new life, is the only dignified solution for the refugee himself.

(UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 1978-1985)

Poul Hartling

Displaced societies are of value. Their issues are our issues.

Cynthia Basinet

There are no refugees, no displaced persons here, ... They are our guests and we treat them as such.

Mike Turner

...in the midst of migrants in search of a better life there are people in need of protection: refugees and asylum-seekers, women and children victims of trafficking...Many move simply to avoid dying of hunger. When leaving is not an option but a necessity, this is more than poverty.

Antonio Guterres

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.

(UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 1990-2000)

Sadako Ogata

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.

(Founder, Mercy Corps)

Dan O’Neill