June 14-16th
This year’s Annual Consultations with NGOs focused on continued development of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework. The CRRF calls for greater support to refugees and the countries that host them by involving multiple agencies and partners working in a joined up way to facilitate acceptance, protection, integration and where possible and appropriate resettlement or return.
Various speeches and discussions referenced the role of faith leaders and communities as agents to enable refugees to become included in society and build new lives as well as receiving acceptance by host communities. However questions still remain as to how this would be facilitated or case studies of where it had been utilized in practice in the Global South.
JLI Member Atallah Fitzgibbon, Islamic Relief Worldwide & a representative from WCC spoke alongside social media spokespeople at a side event on xenophobia about the role of faith leaders in providing leadership in tackling xenophobia. Yasmina Filali from the Orient-Occident Foundation in Morocco also talked about the role of cultural encounters as a way of breaking down barriers and prejudice.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/WbBW_jxffEo
See UNHCR Website for