SI UN Rep Attends Human Rights Day Celebration

Dora Vrdlovec, SI UN Rep at Vienna, attended a Celebration of Human Rights Day on December 10th - an important date for Soroptimists.

UNIS Vienna, in cooperation with the UNHCR in Austria, invited several school classes in the Vienna International Centre to celebrate the Human Right Day with the program “Speak Up … Stop Discrimination -Human Rights Defenders who work to end discrimination”.

Through the annually produced documentary film “Global view”, the UNHCR showed the tremendous and irreplaceable work of the UNHCR staff members in the refugee Camps in Africa and in many other countries where, due to wars and persecutions, million of people are forced to leave their homes and counties with nothing. If you wish to receive a copy of the video, you will need to contact the UNHCR Office in your country.

Currently there are 43.3 million uprooted people on the run. This figure includes 983,000 asylum-seekers and 27.1 million internally displaced persons. By the end of 2009 UNHCR had identified some 6.6 million stateless persons in 60 counties. Developing counties were host to four-fifths of the world’ refugees.

Pakistan still has the largest number of refugees worldwide (1.7 million), followed by the Islamic Republic of Iran (1.1 million). Afghan and Iraqi refugees accounted for almost half of all refugees under UNHCR responsibility.

Women and girls represented, on average, 49% of persons of concern to UNHCR. This round table was very interesting and many young students took actively part to the discussion.

The words of Ban Ki-moon closed the commemoration:

“It is these human rights defenders to whom we dedicate this year’s observance of Human Rights Day. Defenders are a diverse group. They might be part of a civil society organization, a journalist or even a lone citizen, spurred to action by abuses close to home. But they all share a commitment to expose wrongdoing, protect the most vulnerable and end impunity. They stand up, speak out - and today they tweet - in the name of freedom and human dignity. Human rights defenders play a vital role in the fight against discrimination. They investigate violations and help victims gain justice and support”.

Many thanks to Dora for attending this celebration and commemoration of Human Rights Day!