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Refugee Week takes place on the 20th of June each year. It is regularly used as a platform for holding hundreds of arts, cultural and educational events.
Refugee Week events are often intended to celebrate the contribution of refugees to the United Kingdom and encourage a better understanding between communities. [1]
Refugee Week always takes place in the week closest to World Refugee Day (20 June). The dates for 2009–2012 and for 2019 and 2023 are as follows:
In future years, Refugee Week will be celebrated as follows:
Events during Refugee Week are usually organised by different charities, local governments, homes, refugee community organisations, schools, faith groups, arts organisations, day centres and umbrella networks. [4]
A multi-agency organisation called the Refugee Week partnership leads on unifying the events.
Events organised during Refugee Week are held independently from the Refugee Week partnerships and are not obliged to follow the suggested direction of the partnership.
Events include the annual Umbrella Parade and the Celebrating Sanctuary Festival in London. 2011 will also see a "100% British created by refugees" campaign to celebrate the contribution of refugees to British society, as well as a Simple Acts campaign which encourages people do a least one simple action in order to make a big change to the way refugees are perceived in the UK.
The strategic direction of Refugee Week is organised by the Refugee Week partnership, which is a multi-agency project, with representatives from the partner agencies forming the UK Steering and Operation Groups. The partner agencies of the Refugee Week partnership currently include Amnesty International UK, British Red Cross, the Children's Society, Freedom from Torture, the Home Office, Oxfam, Refugee Action, Refugee Council, Save the Children Fund UK, Scottish Refugee Council, Student Action for Refugees, UNHCR, and the Welsh Refugee Council.
The Refugee Week partnerships' slogan is Different Pasts, Shared Future.
The Refugee Week partnership encourages event organisers to organise events around the idea that Refugee Week is a space of encounters between different communities and an opportunity to use more creative ways to bring refugee experiences closer to wider audiences.
The week also features an online broadcast by Refugee Week Radio [5] with content produced by groups such as Refugee Radio and the British Red Cross.
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UNITED for Intercultural Action is a European network against nationalism, racism, fascism and in support of migrants and refugees, in which over 560 organisations from 48 European countries cooperate. UNITED was founded in 1992 and provides a forum for active solidarity and cooperation between a wide variety of organisations in Europe and their activists across European borders.
Loughborough Students' Union is the students' union serving members from Loughborough University, Loughborough College and the RNIB College Loughborough.
World Refugee Day is an international day organised every year on 20 June by the United Nations. It is designed to celebrate and honour refugees from around the world. The day was first established on 20 June 2001, in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
Christian Aid Week is an annual door-to-door fundraising drive by the charity Christian Aid. The drive is held each year in Britain during the second week of May, when thousands of volunteers post red collection envelopes to households around the country. Held each year since 1957 the event celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007, making it Britain's longest running fundraising week.
The Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) was established in 1982, as part of the University of Oxford's Department of International Development, in order to promote the understanding of the causes and consequences of forced migration and to improve the lives of some of the world's most marginalised people. Its philosophy is to "combine world-class academic research with a commitment to improving the lives and situations for some of the world's most disadvantaged people".
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The International Military Sports Council (IMSC) or Conseil International du Sport Militaire (CISM), is an international sports association, established in 1948 and headquartered in Brussels. It is the world's second-largest multi-discipline sports organisation, after the International Olympic Committee, holding more than 20 competitions annually. Under its auspices, soldiers who may previously have met on the battlefield compete on the sports playing field. CISM organises various sporting events, including the Military World Games and World Military Championships, for the armed forces of 140 member countries. The aim of CISM is to promote sport activity and physical education between armed forces as a means to foster world peace. The motto of CISM is "Friendship through Sport" and is based on three pillars of sport, education and solidarity.
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City Sikhs is a nonprofit organisation, and a registered charity which describes itself as "A voice for progressive Sikhs". It promotes networking, education and volunteering amongst Sikh professionals and provides a platform for engagement with the British Sikh community.
The Jewish Council for Racial Equality, or HIAS+JCORE is a Jewish organization that attempts to provide a Jewish voice on race and asylum issues in the UK.
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Afghanistan and Central Asian Association (ACAA) is a charitable incorporated organisation that supports London's refugee community and the Afghan diaspora in the United Kingdom. The organisation also campaigns for human rights, democracy and the fair treatment of refugees in Afghanistan and around the world. The charity has a dual mission of supporting the successful integration of refugees into Britain through grassroots service provision and of advocating for the promotion of human rights and fair treatment of refugees globally through hosting events and international conferences. The ACAA is the only London-based charity supporting Afghan and Central Asian migrants that has a community centre, running a variety of services, such as ESOL classes and a legal aid clinic, to help refugees integrate as well as hosting regular cultural events and international conferences to raise awareness of the plight of refugees. In 2018 the ACAA was awarded the Queens Award for Voluntary Service. and in 2019 won the Refugee Support Service of the Year Award.
