Browse by Theme: Refugees

Human Rights Day happens 10 December every year to commemorate the day in 1948 that governments of the world adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the United Nations. Human Rights Day also marks the end of the yearly 16 Days of Activism on Violence Against Women and Girls, which is an important moment in which activists around the world mobilise to raise awareness on women’s rights issues.

There is an irony to current thinking on the private sector and peacebuilding.

During her maiden speech at the United Nations General Assembly last month, Prime Minister Theresa May launched a global campaign to end modern slavery (which she previously described as “the great human rights issue of our time”) and called upon other world leaders to join her in this endeavour. Yet every day young girls fleeing from conflict and violence fall prey to human trafficking rings and the UK is standing idly by.

We all agree that the numbers are staggering: according to the UNHCR, on average, 24 people were forced to flee each minute in 2015, four times more than a decade earlier. At the last count, Greece alone was home to 57,000 displaced people, 40 per cent of them children. But on what to do and who should do it is where agreement ends and polemics begin.

Over 40 grassroots women-led civil society organisations, human rights and humanitarian agencies have today launched a new Joint Statement on Women and Girls outlining 10 recommendations for next week’s global refugee and migrant Summits – and beyond. So what do we know about the likely Summit outcomes from a gender perspective?

Chloe Day, Programme Manager for CARE International’s refugee response in Turkey, explains how a language and environment of fear around the refugee crisis is undermining our humanity.

When I read the news about Jo Cox last week, something inside me broke. I don’t know exactly why and I don’t know what it was but I don’t think it was my heart.

CARE International UK's CEO Laurie Lee and Senior Policy Advisor Howard Mollett outline recommendations from CARE towards the Global Summits on Refugees launched on World Refugee Day.