June 20th 2025
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (The UN Refugee Agency – UNHCR) declared a special day for refugees 24 years ago, fifty years after the adoption of the Convention on the Status of Refugees. Thus, every year on June 20, we recall collectively the reasons why we must pay special attention to people who are forced to leave their homes and homeland.
Today we are not only talking about numbers, statistics, and distant crises. We are talking about people – mothers, fathers, children – who had to leave their homes because peace was no longer an option. Refugees are not just recipients of aid. They are people with knowledge, experiences, and stories that enrich society.
When we talk about intercultural dialogue in the context of refugees, it is important to listen without prejudice, understand without judgment, and collaborate without fear.
Each of us can help prevent discrimination – with words that support and with actions that open doors. In everyday conversations, in employment, in schools, on the street. Respect is not a matter of large campaigns, but of small decisions every day.
We do not achieve peace in this world with fences and walls, but with commitments – for justice, education, cooperation. Only long-term peace will create the conditions in which people will no longer be forced to flee.
Let our response to suffering be solidarity. Let our response to refugees be peace.
Our Association is actively engaged in the issue of refugeehood. Among other things, we collaborated with the association ADRA Slovenia on the project BODE – No Barriers to Equality, where we focused on advocating for the rights of migrants and refugees in Slovenia.
As part of the BODE+ project, in collaboration with Infokolpa and KD Gmajna, we welcomed New faces of Slovenia on our site and social media channels over the past year. Interview pieces, in which migrants from various cultural backgrounds present themselves, give a voice to foreigners on their path to integration and empower them for further challenges in Slovenia.
