Press Conference by Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

 

Launching Book Project to Support Creating Libraries in Refugee Camps

 

Announcing the launch of a book project that aimed to help establish libraries in refugee camps, a human rights activist and a United Nations refugee agency official said this afternoon that literature and education were critical for giving hope to children in dire straits.

“This is an initiative that we welcome because it will focus not on the usual priority areas, such as security issues, but on the education of the refugee kids,” said Udo Janz, Director of the Executive Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in New York, announcing the publication of What You Wish For, a collection for young readers of short stories and poetry by best-selling authors.  The proceeds will support the agency in developing libraries in Eastern Chad, where an estimated 285,000 Sudanese refugees live.

“People need aspirations even in the most difficult and dire circumstances,” added John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project that works to end genocide and crimes against humanity.  “Yes, we need to get them emergency supplies, but we also need to lift them up,” he said, stressing the importance of not only education, but also the kind of imagination that is spurred by literature, which could give hope and motivation to refugee children.  “Having the opportunity to go into a little room and be able to go off into other worlds is terribly important,” he said.

The book launch for the collection, which included the work of such popular authors as R.L. Stine, Jean DuPrau and Meg Cabot, was planned for 3 p.m. at Headquarters, was set to include nine of the 18 contributors and would be co-hosted by the United Nations Office for Partnerships, UNHCR and the Book Wish Foundation, a public charity created to provide reading aid for people in crisis that had organized the What You Wish For initiative.

Mr. Prendergast said that his involvement in refugee education came about when he had visited camps in Darfur with Nation Basketball Association star Tracy McGrady and was struck that young people were begging for education, in the absence of which they saw no future.  In discussions, he noted, aspirations of those youth were not terribly dissimilar to those children had when he was growing up in Indiana — policeman, politician, teacher or doctor.  “Those dreams can be snuffed out, though, in the absence of any support system.”

In response to those expressed needs, he decided to establish an initiative that got young people in the United States engaged with education of young people in the camps in Chad, raising money and getting to know the refugee children via video blogging, a system for which was being set up at the moment.

Mr. Janz noted that, while 88 per cent of children in refugee camps were enrolled in primary schools, only two per cent attended secondary school.  For that reason, the initiatives of Mr. Prendergast and the Book Wish foundation could make a difference “in a sector that was not always seen as a priority”, he said.  Of the $161 million budgeted for Chad, $12 million was slated for education, and that funding could be slashed if there was a shortfall in donations.  The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was key partner for providing resources, while UNHCR was lead agency in protection, shelter and camp management for both refugees and internally displaced persons.

In answer to audience questions, Book Wish Foundation staff said that none of the stories in the What You Wish For collection were written by refugees, but camp youth were being encouraged to enter drawing and essay competitions, and to get connected with school children in the United States.

Asked whether conditions had been improved by the operations of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) so that the refugees and internally displaced persons could return, Mr. Prendergast said that the fears of those persons of being attacked on the way home or driven out again by militias were not imaginary.  Until there was a comprehensive peace agreement that included security arrangements, a large-scale return could not be encouraged.

To questions concerning migrants leaving the Horn of Africa by sea, Mr. Janz said such dangerous journeys were increasing, with some 60,000 arrivals on the Yemeni coast already in 2011.  Despite the danger, the migrants saw no hope of a future in Somalia and other areas.  The refugee situation in Yemen was now being dwarfed by the displacement of Yemenis, however, due to the current political crisis.

Mr. Prendergast, asked about the weak response by United Nations peacekeepers and others to alleged war crimes by the Sudanese Government in areas bordering South Sudan, as well as cooperation of United Nations personnel with the Governor of South Kordofan, who had been indicted by International Criminal Court, said that there had been indeed a “confused response” to the evidence of crimes.  He would continue to push for peacekeeping operations to take stronger positions and embark on more thorough investigations in South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Abyei.  “When you acquiesce in the face of these atrocities, you’re going to get more atrocities,” he said.

He urged that blame not be put on the United Nations, however, saying that Member States had to show political will for the Organization to act.  Countries that claimed to care about the refugees had to give the Organization enough support and pressure for action.  People on the ground who dealt with the Governor of South Kordofan were just trying to do their jobs in protection and relief.  It was not their responsibility to arrest him.  Again, the responsibility fell on Member States who signed onto the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

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For information media • not an official record