Refugee Week 2023

Published: 19th May 2023

Refugee Week, 19–25 June 2023

People become refugees all over the world for many different reasons, and they come from many different backgrounds. Refugees have been a continuous feature of human societies for thousands of years. How long people remain as a refugee can be days, weeks or a lifetime – what unites them is that they have been forced physically, politically or environmentally from their original home.

In the 20th century the political motivations and the impact of fighting resulted in the creation of many more refugees and stateless citizens. The post-war international community was determined to protect refugees as they built a new global society. To support those who had been driven to become refugees the Refugee Convention of 1951 was accepted by the international community. The United Nations through the Convention defined a refugee and provided them with legal protection, while the UNHCR became the UN Refugee Agency and has acted on their behalf ever since.

Despite legal recognitions and international treaties innocent people continue to become refugees every day and many members of the global community continue to dispute their status and deny them full protection in all areas of the law. 

Many refugees receive extremely bad press and there is much that has been reported in recent times about them that is politically motivated and consistently incorrect.

The purpose of Refugee Week is to highlight the plight of refugees living in the world today and in the past; to debunk and challenge some of the political myths and to remind us that for every generic title of ‘refugee’ there is a human story with a tale that needs to be told.

The HA has drawn together some articles and resources that explore the historical experiences of refugees, their status and their experiences.   

General resources

Primary resources

Secondary resources