By Sharon Ashton;
As we elaborate on World Peace Day on September 21, 2022, the number of conflict-affected countries has doubled during the last decade, with women and children disproportionately exposed to deep-rooted discrimination and extreme vulnerability (World Bank 2022).
In 1945, Rotary International, along with forty-one other organizations and delegates from 50 countries ratified the UN Charter to become founding members of this international peace-building organization. The UN Charter mandates the UN and its member states to maintain international peace and security, uphold international law, achieve “higher standards of living” for their citizens, address “economic, social, health, and related problems”, and promote “universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion”.
Of the 50 UN founding countries, two were African; Ethiopia and Liberia. As he did in 1936 in a speech to the League of Nations and in 1963 in his speech to the UN General Assembly, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie stressed that Peace depends on international morality.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia (2006/18), the first elected female head of state in Africa, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 as an inspirational activist for peace and women’s rights. She dedicated her Nobel remarks to her sisters who have suffered the devastation of rape as a weapon of war.
And here we are in 2022, with global forced displacement numbers exceeding 100 million people and the words of Haile Selassie echoing once again 59 years later, those words alone hold no value unless enforced with extreme courage and eternal vigilance.
By the end of 2021, the number of people forced to flee worldwide due to persecution, conflict, violence, and human rights violations climbed to 89.3 million. Of these, 27.1 million are refugees and 53.2 million are internally displaced persons (IDPs). More than 69% of refugees come from just 5 countries: Syrian Arab Republic, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar. The low-income countries of Africa, host more than 27% or +7 million of the world’s refugees, with one fifth of all refugees worldwide hosted in East Africa, predominately in only three countries: Uganda (1.5 million), Sudan (1.1 million) and Ethiopia (821,300). Uganda is the 3rd largest global refugee host after Turkey and Colombia. UNHCR estimates women and children make up about 48% of the refugee population in Africa with sexual violence against women and girls increasing at an alarming rate. The least developed countries of Africa account for less than 3% of global GDP but are responsible for +27% of the world’s refugees. Of the 53.2 million IDPS at the end of 2021, Syria (6.9m), Colombia (6.8m), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5.4m), Yemen (4.3 m), Ethiopia (3.6m), and Afghanistan (3.5m) continued to host the largest IDP populations globally.
In 2022, the global forced displacement numbers will exceed 100 million people, driven by the war in Ukraine and further displacements in Burkina Faso and Myanmar. As of 29 May 2022, 7.1 million Ukrainians had been displaced internally (Source: IOM). Refugees fleeing Ukraine are hosted predominantly by high-income countries in Europe, US, Canada, and Australia under much different conditions than African refugees and IDPS who face dire conditions in the refugee camps, such as food shortages, lack of housing, fatal diseases, and gender-based violence. Global refugee and IDP situations are complex and ever changing. UNHCR data shows that if lasting peace and stability could be achieved, close to 50% of refugees would return home and restart their lives.
Peace is the answer! If children account for 30 per cent of the world’s population, but 41 per cent of all forcibly displaced people, what hope does the world have for peace – this generation and the next will know nothing but conflict, hate and marginalization.
On this World Peace Day, September 21, 2022, whose theme is To End Racism, we must come together to advocate for all those who have been displaced and held in refugee camps, especially the children. We must start with the children!
