A subject book exhibition “Assistance to refugees: international and national experience” timed to World Refugee Day runs at reading room 207 from 10 June to 5 July.

This Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 4 December, 2000, (resolution 55/76) and since 2001 it has been observed annually on 20 June. Proclamation of this Day is homage to the strength of mind and the courage of million people who have overcome incredible troubles to restart their lives and to become citizens in spite of difficult and unusual circumstances.

World Refugee Day is the opportunity to attract the world community’s attention to millions of refugees the world over and to their daily wants: from water supply to granting of asylum. Assistance to refugees begins with knowing the fact that they have left their home under compulsion. The Convention on Refugee Status (1951) defines the refugee as a person outside of their citizenship country or common residence in view of reasonable apprehension of harm or persecution on the basis of their race, belief, citizenship, belonging to a particular social group or political convictions.

At present about 20 million refugees and 25 million internally displaced persons are registered the world over. The international community consolidates their efforts for refugee relief. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) established in 1950 is actually the central international agency making efforts to solve this problem. Its major task is to provide international refugee protection, including to grant asylum and to fight extradition to a country where they are threatened with repressions.

The offered subject exhibition acquaints readers with the activity of international non-governmental and human rights organizations in the field of refugees protection and refugees adaptation and integration in host countries. Documents on the status of refugees, the UNHCR activities and the Belarusian internal and foreign policy in the sphere of assistance to refugees are on display.

The exhibition includes the subject sections as follow:

The status of refugees in the world;
Refugees in the modern international law;
The role of the UNHCR in refugees rights protection;
International cooperation and the policy of refugees assistance;
The system of refugees protection in the Republic of Belarus.

The exposition comprises about 100 documents of international organizations (UNO, UNESCO, the European Union, the Council of Europe) in Russian, French and English: books, brochures, periodicals, mimeographed documents.

The exhibition is designed for political scientists, lawyers, sociologists, representatives of legislative and executive bodies, university professors and researchers, and also for everyone who is interested in the issues of refugees, migration and refuge.

Useful links

UNO system