Cate Blanchett and Angelina Jolie appeal for refugee protections as UN convention turns 75
Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie and Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally were among public figures who on Tuesday called for refugee protections to be upheld as the United Nations decried mounting pressure on asylum systems.
Legal safeguards for refugees are enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, drafted in the aftermath of World War II, which displaced tens of millions of people. But while most people still support the principle of safe refuge, many governments are tightening border controls amid near-record displacement worldwide as conflicts proliferate.
The United Nations’ refugee agency issued a statement of support for the convention, called “The Promise”, signed by dozens of celebrities, athletes, business leaders and faith leaders.
High Commissioner Barham Salih, a former Iraqi president and refugee, said the convention had saved millions of lives.
“The fundamental promise of this convention remains most vital for humanity and I do believe we need to keep that promise alive,” he said on the sidelines of a meeting on refugee protections at the UN in Geneva.
Actors Ben Stiller, Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Erivo and Riz Ahmed were among the signatories, along with Africa’s first female president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, and basketball star Wenyen Gabriel.
Gabriel, a former refugee whose family fled civil war in southern Sudan in the 1990s and was later resettled in the United States, told the UN meeting he was “living proof that when you give refugees a chance they will make something of it”.