UNHCR holds awareness raising event on UN Day

Manama, Oct. 24 (BNA): On 24th October every year, the UN Day marks the anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Charter in 1945. With the ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, the United Nations officially came into being. 24th October has been celebrated as the United Nations Day since 1948. †On this occasion, the Regional Representation of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in the GCC countries (UNHCR), in collaboration with the United Nations Resident Coordinator†s Office (RCO) in the Kingdom of Bahrain, and with support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom (MoFA), has organized for the first time an awareness booth in City Centre Bahrain Mall in Manama on 24 and 25 October 2019. The event aims to raise awareness about the plight of over 70.8 million persons, who were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of armed conflicts, human rights violations, and persecution. HE Mr. Amin El Sharkawi, The UN Resident Coordinator in Bahrain, praised UNHCR†s activity. UNHCR is a signatory, among other UN agencies and programmes, of the Strategic Partnership Framework Agreement (SPF) between the United Nations and the Government of Bahrain, an agreement that reflects on the joint commitment to help Bahrain achieve its national vision and sustainable development goals. One of Bahrain†s recent pioneer initiatives include Promoting the Culture of Peace with Love and Conscience, a call that could address the issue of conflicts in the long-term. The UNHCR Regional Representation in the GCC, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and headed by the Regional Representative HE Mr. Khaled Khalifa, is a non-resident agency in the Kingdom of Bahrain, working closely with MoFA and RCO. The GCC countries remain a key partner of UNHCR. UNHCR has been working in the GCC for more than 30 years, largely focusing on mobilizing resources to address the global needs of forcibly displaced persons. UNHCR is primarily mandated to provide international protection to refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, stateless people, and returnees around the world by providing humanitarian assistance and advocating and coordinating efforts for guaranteeing their basic fundamental rights in cooperation with the respective states and entities.