World Scouting is proud to be an official partner of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), having signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UN refugee agency in 1995, raising the awareness of refugee issues among youth around the world. UNHCR and the Scouts are both committed to promoting peace and self-reliance internationally, qualities that enable working together for the good of refugees.

"If there is one common trait among the tens of millions of refugees that we at the UN refugee agency have helped over the past 55 years, it's the fact that despite losing everything, they never give up hope," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres.

The World Scout Movement has implemented many projects to help refugees in the field. Scouts have helped with vaccination and environmental protection in Tanzania's refugee camps, taught refugee rights to children in Armenia, run workshops and recreational activities to rehabilitate traumatised children in Croatia, distributed peace packs and sorted relief materials for Bosnian refugees in Turkey, and organised activities to help young refugees integrate in France and the Netherlands.

Around the globe, June 20 will be marked by events both diverse and traditional. In Geneva, home of UNHCR and World Scouting, the city's iconic 140-metre-high jet d'eau fountain and public buildings around the country will be bathed in blue (the colour of the UN), and World Refugee Day banners will line the Mont Blanc bridge.

World Scouting, as it enters its second century, will endeavor to continue making a constructive contribution to the refugee issues that grip the world, and help to promote a culture of peace.

Links
For more information regarding UNHCR
and World Refugee Day, please go to :
www.unhcr.org