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UNRWA
Press Release
World leaders pay tribute
To the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
On its sixtieth anniversary
UNRWA, New York, 18 September 2009
Photo credit: UN Photo/Jenny Rockett
United Nations, 18 September 2009: The United Nations
Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, has announced a week-long series of
events beginning in New York next week to mark the 60th anniversary of
its creation. These include the unveiling of a commemorative banner that
will adorn the façade of the iconic UN General Assembly building by the
President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Deputy
Secretary General, Asha-Rose Migiro.
The centrepiece of the week is a Ministerial Level Event on September 24
at which governments will pledge support for UNRWA and pay tribute to
six decades of achievement and service to the world’s largest and
longest standing refugee population and to the Palestine refugees
themselves.
In addition, there will be academic conferences at Columbia University
and the Princeton Club on UNRWA’s humanitarian role in current peace
efforts and an assessment of the Agency’s contribution to human capital
in the Middle East.
The Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, commended UNRWA as a “symbol of the
international community’s determination to end the state of limbo the
Palestine refugees endure”, and praised the Agency’s staff for its
“dedication and courage”. He is expected to warn of “painful” cuts in
UNRWA services and call on the General Assembly to “look again” at its
responsibilities and put the Agency on a firm financial foundation.
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Looking forward to the High Level Event, UNRWA Commissioner-General,
Karen AbuZayd said, “This is an occasion for reflection on why after
sixty years of exile and dispossession, millions of Palestine refugees
remains stateless. With increasing talk about an emerging peace deal,
let us all recommit ourselves to finding a peaceful solution in which
the tragic situation of the refugees will be resolved”. “This week is
also an opportunity for UNRWA to tell the world about its achievements.
The war in Gaza and our continued presence side by side with the people
there may have raised some headlines. During this coming week we want to
remind the world of the less-publicised work we do day in and day out
for a refugee population larger than the populations of over a third of
the UN’s member states,” said AbuZayd. “That is UNRWA’s lasting
contribution to peace”. |
Photo credit: UN Photo/Jenny Rockett
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UNRWA has published a commemorative book in which nearly one hundred
statesmen and women pay tribute to its work. President Mahmoud Abbas
praises the Agency for its role as a “stabilizing force” and commends
UNRWA for “ameliorating the plight of the Palestine refugees by giving
them “protection, hope and a sense of human dignity”. The US Secretary
of State, Hilary Rodham Clinton, gives her support to the Agency, which
has been confronting “difficult and challenging circumstances”, working
“tirelessly … to ensure the dignity and human development of those they
serve”. Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan says, “We owe so
much to UNRWA. Their selflessness and perseverance in the face of
indescribable adversity have kept Palestine refugees alive for sixty
years: healing their wounds, sustaining their bodies, nourishing their
minds and giving them hope in their darkest hours”.
UNRWA provides education to half a million children in approximately 650
schools across the Middle East and maintains 138 health centres in Gaza,
the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. In addition, it runs extensive
relief, social services and microfinance programmes in the region.
Ends
MEDIA ARRANGEMENTS
For media enquiries or interviews with UNRWA’s Commissioner-General,
please contact:
Chris Gunness, UNRWA Spokesperson: (+972) 542 402 659
Michael Balz, UNRWA Public Information Officer: (+1) 646 522 5693
Shymaa El-Ansary, UN Department of Public Information (+1) 917
367 2753, e-mail: el-ansarys@un.org
Journalists without UN accreditation who wish to attend the event
should follow the instructions for obtaining accreditation at:
www.un.org/media/accreditation
For more information, please also visit:
www.un.org/unrwa/newyork |
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