OMNI
United Nations WORLD REFUGEE DAY NEWSLETTER #11, June 20, 2022.
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2022/06/omni-united-nations-world-refugee-day.html
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a CULTURE OF PEACE, JUSTICE, and ECOLOGY
(OMNI Newsletter #1 June 20, 2008; #2 Dec. 4, 2011; #3 June 20, 2012; #4, June 20, 2014; #5, June 20, 2015; #6 June 20, 2017; #7, June 20, 2018; #8, June 20, 2019; #9, June 20, 2020; #10, June 20, 2021).
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UN World Refugee Day is held every year on June 20, a special day when the world takes time to recognize the desperate needs and the resilience of forcibly displaced people, and to plan ways to help them.
A time too to celebrate the UN for its idealism, compassion, and practical work.
USA for UNHCR – Donate to UNHCR Today – Ukraine Emergency
Ad·https://give.unrefugees.org/ukraine/donate
Resilient families in Ukraine are fighting for survival. You can help: donate today. Displaced people in Ukraine are devastated and afraid. Your love will restore hope. BBB Accredited.
Funds Needed to Aid Families Will You make an Emergency Gift?
People in Yemen Face Hunger & Violence. Learn How You Can Help.
World Refugee Day is June 20 – World Refugee Day
Ad·https://www.womenforwomen.org/
Women refugees endure the deepest injustices. Learn how we support them. How can you…
UNHCR New Refugee Report – UNHCR World Refugee Day Report
Ad·https://www.hias.org/hias/unhcr
Conflict, persecution, human rights abuses, and climate change displaced millions in 2021.
World Refugee Day NPO – When Is World Refugee Day – icfdn.org
Ad·https://www.icfdn.org/world/refugeeday (619) 336-2250
Immigrant families are being separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. Help today. Together…
World Refugee Day 2022 Feedback
World Refugee Day – UNHCR
https://www.unhcr.org › en-us › world-refugee-day
World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on June 20 and celebrates …
Live blog 2022: World Refugee Day events held as … – UNHCR
https://www.unhcr.org › en-us › news › stories › 2022
16 hours ago — Every World Refugee Day, 20 June, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, joins millions of others around the world in honoring those who have fled …
World Refugee Day | United Nations
https://www.un.org › observances › refugee-day
World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on June 20 and celebrates the …
Event: World Refugee Day 2022 | SDG Knowledge Hub | IISD
https://sdg.iisd.org › events › world-refugee-day-2022
World Refugee Day honors the strength and courage of refugees and encourages public awareness and support of the refugees, people who have had to flee their …
Live blog 2022: World Refugee Day events held as displacement tops 100 million
High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi’s message on World Refugee Day, 20 June 2022
World Refugee Day 2022: History, significance and theme
June 20th marks World Refugee Day 2022 under theme of …
World Refugee Day 2022 | UNHCR
YouTube · GKToday World Refugee Day – June 20, 2022 … Each June 20, the globe comes together to honor World Refugee Day. The United Nations General Assembly launched the holiday …
World Refugee Day 2022 – Awareness Days Events Calendar …
https://www.awarenessdays.com › awareness-days-calendar
World Refugee Day is held on June 20th. This is an annual event, held on the same date each year. World Refugee Day honours the strength and courage of …
World Refugee Day 2022 – The Council of Europe
https://www.coe.int › Home › Newsroom
Each year on 20 June, the world celebrates Refugee Day and the Intercultural Cities Network campaign together to help focus attention on those who are fleeing …
World Refugee Day: This Year’S Theme Is ‘Right To Seek Safety’ https://www.cnbctv18.com › world
— The number is expected to grow as geopolitical conflicts in Africa and Europe displace countless others. To spread awareness about the issues …
Food crisis could drive record displacements higher. UN WIRE (6-17-22).
Human rights abuses, persecution, violence and war drove a record 89.3 million people to flee their homes in 2021, and with at least 12 million displaced so far this year by the Ukraine war alone, more than 100 million people are currently displaced by conflict, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees warns. Food shortages driven by such factors as disruptions to Ukrainian exports and drought in Africa’s Sahel region could further increase the number of people displaced from their homes, says UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi.
Full Story: Voice of America (6/16), The Associated Press (6/16), TeleSurTV (Venezuela) (6/16)
I recommend Todd Miller, an excellent writer.
TODD MILLER’s BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security (City Lights, 2014).
Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World. (Verso, 2017).
Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (City Lights, 2019).
Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders City Lights, 2021. His latest book provides an attractive narrative introduction to US Border Patrol Nation.
“Border Militarization in a Warming World” By Todd Miller. From the Book: Asylum for Sale (2022).
“The Border-Industrial Complex in the Biden Era: Robotic Dogs and Autonomous Surveillance Towers Are the New Wall.” TomDispatch (5-5-22). https://tomdispatch.com/the-border-industrial-complex-in-the-biden-era/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=a37b00bd52-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_07_13_02_04_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1e41682ade-a37b00bd52-309346777#more
ROBIN AURA KANEGIS. “As Global Horror Unfolds in Ukraine, Why Is War Still Legal?” March 26, 2022.
Why is there no serious movement to abolish war?
Would you be able to attack and take over your neighbor’s home over a boundary line dispute? Could you legally threaten their safety, no matter how angry you were? The answer is a resounding no. Then why is it that when a conflict transcends national boundaries, we have no clear and immediate recourse against aggression other than threatening or carrying out more violence in return?
We have been conditioned to accept international violence—essentially mass murder in the name of states’ goals.
Our societies—local, national, and global—choose the behaviors we normalize. We have set murder and theft outside moral bounds in most societal contexts. So why do our moral codes end at state boundaries? Why is there no serious movement to abolish war?
The system of international law has been undermined at every turn to protect the ability of strong countries to do what they please. The United Nations has been kept weak, with the system of Security Council vetoes for the five permanent members making a farce of the idea of global accountability. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an opt-in situation, applying only to those countries that have accepted the jurisdiction of the court—and neither Russia nor the United States have opted in. Most cases listed on the ICC docket target African or Middle Eastern officials, putting a fine point on who the court is and is not meant to scrutinize for crimes of aggression, war crimes, genocide, or crimes against humanity. This week’s preliminary decision of the UN International Court of Justice ordering Russia to “suspend” military operations in Ukraine has been met with a shrug from Russia, which simply asserted that the court lacked jurisdiction.
The destructive impact of war is not new. Major and minor conflicts rage across the globe today, largely outside western headlines and sympathies. In the Sahel, Yemen, Afghanistan, and the list goes on—hundreds of thousands of people have been murdered and millions have had their lives destroyed by violent conflict, with zero recourse. The scale of global attention which the war in Ukraine has received makes evident the deep racism and Islamophobia at play in shaping whose lives may be acceptably threatened by war.
But because major powers across the world are paying attention, the attack on Ukraine also offers an inflection point: should it be legal to attack our neighbor’s home and try to occupy it? If not, isn’t it time to abolish war?
We have been conditioned to accept international violence—essentially mass murder in the name of states’ goals. While on the surface societies have moved beyond feudal systems with war lords vying for territory, today we have terrible weaponry that could destroy the whole of humanity many times over with the click of a button. The fate of the world lies on a tenuous global “gentleman’s” agreement that we probably wouldn’t click that button—but the threat of annihilation still hangs over us, with no real recourse at the global level. The only system of accountability we have invested in is the ability to annihilate others just as many times as they could annihilate us. But why is it still legal for states to compel their citizens to use violence at all?
While a world without war may seem unthinkable in our current political context, we sell ourselves short if we refuse to imagine it and demand it.
We need systems of accountability and legal recourse that allow us to nonviolently address conflicts that transcend national boundaries. It is time to make international laws universal and binding—no matter how powerful and influential a country violating those laws might be—and to invest in developing tools and methods for peacebuilding that have the same level of authority and resources that we have invested for generations in war-making. It is time to invest in research and development for means to interrupt violence without more violence. For examples of how non-violent responses can succeed even in cases of asymmetrical power, we can look to the practices of non-violent, civilian-based defense that have been successful in conflicts across the globe.
[Instead of choosing war, choose peace.]
While a global shift in approach will raise many questions—what enforcement will look like, how disarmament could happen on a global scale, and what international bodies could equitably provide this type of governance—the potential benefits are enormous. We could make serious investments in systems of restorative justice of the sort that could infuse all of our conversations about accountability and justice. Without spending a trillion dollars annually across the globe on militaries, we could take some amazing steps forward in healing our planet and communities—and addressing some of the underlying issues that drive violent conflict in the first place.
While a world without war may seem unthinkable in our current political context, we sell ourselves short if we refuse to imagine it and demand it. It is unthinkable that more than 1900 civilians and an untold number of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers have already died in Ukraine. It is unthinkable that more than 900,000 people have been killed in the U.S.-led “war on terror.” But this is the reality and will continue to be if we fail to envision and invest in alternate paths.
Ultimately, human history is one of trial, error, and evolution. Evolution starts with summoning the imagination to envision a better way and making a decision to change. Isn’t it time for us to evolve beyond war?
Participants of a demonstration protest against the war and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in front of the Federal Chancellery on February 25, 2022 in Berlin, Germany. One hand holds a sign with the inscription “No War.” (Photo: Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“I wonder how the foreign policies of the United States would look if we wiped out the national boundaries of the world, at least in our minds, and thought of all children everywhere as our own.” Howard Zinn
CONTENTS 2021 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/06/united-nations-world-refugee-day.html
UNHCR: UN World Refugee Day 2021
UUSC Supports Refugees
UN Wire on Global Displacement
UN: Drought in North and South America
Book: Giles Slade, American Exodus
Audubon: Climate Action Guide: Is Your Town Ready?
Border Walls
Sheridan, “Immigrant Day of Resilience”
END UN WORLD REFUGEE DAY NEWSLETTER #11, June 20, 2022.
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