World Refugee Day is held every year on June 20.
Francisco Cruz
Owner, Francisco Filipe Cruz - Cultural Marketing. Cultural Sponsorship
It is a special day when the world takes time to recognize the resilience of forcibly displaced people throughout the world.
Worldwide displacement hits all-time high as war and persecution increase
Wars, conflict and persecution have forced more people than at any other time since records began to flee their homes and seek refuge and safety elsewhere, according to a new report from the UN refugee agency.
UNHCR's annual Global Trends Report: World at War, released on Thursday (June 18), said that worldwide displacement was at the highest level ever recorded. It said the number of people forcibly displaced at the end of 2014 had risen to a staggering 59.5 million compared to 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5 million a decade ago.
The increase represents the biggest leap ever seen in a single year. Moreover, the report said the situation was likely to worsen still further.
Globally, one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum. If this were the population of a country, it would be the world's 24th biggest.
UNHCR warns of dangerous new era in worldwide displacement as report shows almost 60 million people forced to flee their homes
A UNHCR report, released today, shows that worldwide displacement from wars, conflict, and persecution is at the highest levels we have recorded, and accelerating fast.
Read more: https://www.unhcr.org/558193896.html
"We are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres.
Since early 2011, the main reason for the acceleration has been the war in Syria, now the world's single-largest driver of displacement. Every day last year on average 42,500 people became refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced, a four-fold increase in just four years.
"It is terrifying that on the one hand there is more and more impunity for those starting conflicts, and on the other there is seeming utter inability of the international community to work together to stop wars and build and preserve peace," Guterres added.
The UNHCR report detailed how in region after region, the number of refugees and internally displaced people is on the rise. In the past five years, at least 15 conflicts have erupted or reignited: eight in Africa (C?te d'Ivoire, Central African Republic, Libya, Mali, northeastern Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and this year in Burundi); three in the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, and Yemen); one in Europe (Ukraine) and three in Asia (Kyrgyzstan, and in several areas of Myanmar and Pakistan).
"Few of these crises have been resolved and most still generate new displacement," the report noted, adding that in 2014 only 126,800 refugees were able to return to their home countries -- the lowest number in 31 years.
Meanwhile, decades-old instability and conflict in Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere means that millions of people remain on the move or – as is increasingly common – stranded for years on the edge of society as long-term internally displaced or refugees.
One of the most recent and highly visible consequences of the world's conflicts and the terrible suffering they cause has been the dramatic growth in the numbers of refugees seeking safety through dangerous sea journeys, including on the Mediterranean, in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, and in Southeast Asia.
Half of all refugees are children
The Global Trends report detailed that in 2014 alone 13.9 million people became newly displaced – four times the number of the previous year. Worldwide there were 19.5 million refugees (up from 16.7 million in 2013), 38.2 million were displaced inside their own countries (up from 33.3 million in 2013), and 1.8 million people were awaiting the outcome of claims for asylum (against 1.2 million in 2013).
Most alarmingly, however, it showed that over half the world's refugees are children.
"With huge shortages of funding and wide gaps in the global regime for protecting victims of war, people in need of compassion, aid and refuge are being abandoned," warned Guterres. "For an age of unprecedented mass displacement, we need an unprecedented humanitarian response and a renewed global commitment to tolerance and protection for people fleeing conflict and persecution."
Syria is the world's biggest producer of both internally displaced people (7.6 million) and refugees (3.88 million at the end of 2014). Afghanistan (2.59 million) and Somalia (1.1 million) are the next biggest refugee source countries.
Almost nine out of every 10 refugees (86 per cent) are in regions and countries considered economically less developed.
Europe (up 51%)
Conflict in Ukraine, a record 219,000 Mediterranean crossings, and the large number of Syrian refugees in Turkey – which in 2014 became the world's top refugee-hosting nation with 1.59 million Syrian refugees at year's end – brought increased public attention, both positive and negative, to questions to do with refugees.
In the EU, the biggest volume of asylum applications was in Germany and Sweden. Overall, forced displacement numbers in Europe totalled 6.7 million at the end of the year, compared to 4.4 million at the end of 2013, and with the largest proportion of this being Syrians in Turkey and Ukrainians in the Russian Federation.
Middle East and North Africa (up 19%)
Syria's ongoing war, with 7.6 million people displaced internally, and 3.88 million people displaced into the surrounding region and beyond as refugees, has alone made the Middle East the world's largest producer and host of forced displacement. Adding to the high totals from Syria was a new displacement of least 2.6 million people in Iraq and 309,000 newly displaced in Libya.
Sub-Saharan Africa (Up 17%)
Africa's numerous conflicts, including in Central African Republic, South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere, together produced immense forced displacement totals in 2014, on a scale only marginally lower than in the Middle East.
In all, sub-Saharan Africa saw 3.7 million refugees and 11.4 million internally displaced people, 4.5 million of whom were newly displaced in 2014. The 17 per cent overall increase excludes Nigeria, as methodology for counting internal displacement changed during 2014 and it could not be reliably calculated. Ethiopia replaced Kenya as the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa and the fifth largest worldwide.
Asia (up 31%)
Long one of the world's major displacement producing regions, the number of refugees and internally displaced people in Asia grew by 31 per cent in 2014 to 9 million people. Continuing displacement was also seen in and from Myanmar in 2014, including of Rohingya from Rakhine state and in the Kachin and Northern Shan regions. Iran and Pakistan remained two of the world's top four refugee hosting countries.
Americas (up 12%)
The Americas also saw a rise in forced displacement. The number of Colombian refugees dropped by 36,300 to 360,300 over the year, although mainly because of a revision in the numbers of refugees reported by Venezuela. Colombia continued, nonetheless to have one of the world's largest internally displaced populations, reported at 6 million people and with 137,000 Colombians being newly displaced during the year. With more people fleeing gang violence or other forms of persecution in Central America, the United States saw 36,800 more asylum claims than in 2013, representing growth of 44 per cent.
The full Global Trends report with this information and more, and including data on individual countries, demographics, numbers of people returning to their countries, and available estimates of stateless population is available athttps://unhcr.org/556725e69.html.
https://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
20 June 2015 - World Refugee Day Live 2015 in Florence.
World Refugee Day Live 2015 in Florence.
The World Refugee Day Live is a big event aimed to raise awareness about the conditions of more than 50 million people around the world, forced to flee due to war, discrimination and human rights violations.
The concert is organized by UNHCR and will take place on June 20, 2015 at the Hippodrome of Visarno in Florence. The entrance fee is 10€ and each ticket will guarantee a month of drinking water for a refugee who lives in emergency and needs humanitarian assistance. You can buy the ticket on presale on boxofficetoscana.it (10€), mailticket (10€) and ticketone (10.61€).
On stage, famous Italian singers like Elisa, Pelù, the Bandabardo, Brunori SAS, Francesco Pannofino, Enrico Ruggeri and many other Tuscan artists, like Virginiana Miller Street Clerks, Cecco and Cipo, Appino, Gatti Mézzi, Francesco Guasti, Dimartino, Diodato and Naomi Berrill. The event features also DJ sets with Jaka and Ghiaccioli e Branzini, and Sandro Joyeux with his Mediterranean music. All artists and guests will participate for free, without perceiving any payment for their performances.
The World Refugee Day Live is an opportunity to get in touch with the stories of the refugees and asylum seekers, to listen to their stories thanks to videos and performances, from 3pm until midnight. On the occasion, there will also be the preview of the documentary “Torn,” a journey with the Syrian artists and refugees in Jordan and Lebanon by Alessandro Gassman.
Waiting to see you there wink emoticon. Check all the info on the Official website
https://www.turismo.intoscana.it/allthingstuscany/aroundtuscany/world-refugee-day-live/
Will you be in Tuscany on June 20, 2015?
The World Refugee Day Live is a big UNHCR Italiaevent aimed to raise awareness about the conditions of more than 50 million people around the world.
The #WRDLive concert will take place on June 20 in Florence and you can win a ticket (offered by us) simply sharing a selfie, in which you’re offering a glass of water, in the comments below!
More details here: https://bit.ly/HowToWinWRDLive
Ode to Joy The Anthem of the European Union and Concil of Europe.
"Ode to Joy" (German original title: "Ode an die Freude") is the anthem of the European Union and theCouncil of Europe; both of which refer to it as the European Anthem due to the Council's intention that, as a semi-modern composition with amythological flair, it does represent Europe as a whole, rather than any organisation. It is based on the final movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony composed in 1823, and is played on official occasions by both organisations.
Friedrich Schiller wrote the poem An die Freude (To Joy) in 1785 as a "celebration of the brotherhood of man". In later life, the poet was contemptuous of this popularity and dismissed the poem as typical of "the bad taste of the age" in which it had been written. After Schiller's death, the poem provided the words for the choral movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
In 1971 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europedecided to propose adopting the prelude to the Ode To Joyfrom Beethoven's 9th Symphony as the European anthem, taking up a suggestion made by Count Richard Nikolaus von Coudenhove-Kalergi in 1955. Beethoven was generally seen as the natural choice for a European anthem. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe officially announced the European Anthem on 19 January 1972 at Strasbourg: the prelude to "The Ode to Joy", 4th movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th symphony. In 1974 the same piece of music was adopted as the National Anthem of Rhodesia.
Conductor Herbert von Karajan was asked to write three instrumental arrangements – for solo piano, for wind instruments and for symphony orchestra and he conducted the performance used to make the official recording.
Ode to Joy original lyrics
"Ode an die Freude"German lyrics by Friedrich Schiller
Freude sch?ner G?tterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Wem der gro?e Wurf gelungen,
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein;
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
Mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!
Freude trinken alle Wesen
An den Brüsten der Natur;
Alle Guten, alle B?sen
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
und der Cherub steht vor Gott.
Froh,
wie seine Sonnen fliegen
Durch des Himmels pr?cht'gen Plan,
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,
Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Diesen Ku? der ganzen Welt!
Brüder, über'm Sternenzelt
Mu? ein lieber Vater wohnen.
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?
Ahnest du den Sch?pfer, Welt?
Such' ihn über'm Sternenzelt!
über Sternen mu? er wohnen.
"Ode to Joy"Translation in English
Joy, bright spark of divinity,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire-inspired we tread,
Thy Heavenly, thy sanctuary.
Thy magic power re-unites
All that custom has divided,
All men become brothers
Under the sway of thy gentle wings.
Whoever has created
An abiding friendship,
Or has won a true and loving wife,
Join in our song of praise,
Yes, all who can call at least one soul
Theirs upon this earth;
But any who cannot must creep tearfully
Away from our circle.
All creatures drink of joy
At nature's breast.
Just and unjust
Alike taste of her gift;
She gave us kisses and the fruit of the vine,
A tried friend to the end.
Even the worm can feel contentment,
And the cherub stands before God!
Gladly,
As His heavenly bodies fly
On their courses through the heavens,
Thus, brothers, you should run your race,
As a hero going to conquest.
You millions, I embrace you.
This kiss is for all the world!
Brothers, above the starry canopy
There must dwell a loving Father.
Do you fall in worship, you millions?
World, do you know your creator?
Seek him in the heavens;
Above the stars must He dwell.
"ODE TO JOY" Beethoven 9th Symphony ''Choral'' - Movement IV
HERBERT VON KARAJAN, Conductor
FRANZ GRUNDHEBER, Baritone (vocal)
LELLA CUBERLI, Soprano
HELMUTH FROSCHAUER, Chorus Master
VINSON COLE, Tenor
HELGA MULLER MOLINARI, Alto (vocal)
WEINER SINGVEREIN, Chorus
BERLIN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA