Agree to Differ

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UNHCR’s cooperation with

faith-based organizations

José Riera, Special Adviser and Marie-Claude Poirier, Assistant Research Officer,

Division of International Protection, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

he United Nations is an eminently secular organi-

zation. Since its creation in 1950, the Office of the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR) has engaged with faith-based organizations, faith

communities and faith leaders in carrying out its work.

This partnership has proven its value over the years and

yielded substantial protection and other benefits for persons

of concern to UNHCR (refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless

persons, the internally displaced and others of concern).

UNHCR recently embarked on a ‘journey of mutual discovery’

with faith-based organizations by exploring the role of faith

in humanitarian responses. In December 2012, the fifth High

Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges explored

‘Faith and Protection’. The dialogue assembled over 400

representatives of faith-based organizations, faith leaders and

other partners for a two-day discussion in Geneva on partner-

ship with faith-based actors.

This was the first formal multi-faith dialogue UNHCR ever

engaged in and it explored the common values underpinning

the notion of refugee protection in all of the world’s major

religions. It also fostered deeper appreciation for and under-

standing of the role religion and spirituality plays in the lives

of those UNHCR serves. Participants further recognized the

importance of UNHCR’s existing and potential partnerships

with faith-based organizations, especially to improve the

protection of persons of concern to UNHCR. Participants

strongly reaffirmed the key principles underpinning humani-

tarian work

and acknowledged the need to respond to

humanitarian situations according to these principles.

At the close of the event, High Commissioner António

Guterres underscored “the valuable contributions that faith

organizations and communities make to the protection of

refugees and the displaced.” He highlighted a number of

concrete suggestions for follow-up, which included a call to

develop guidance on ‘faith literacy’ for UNHCR staff.

Image: UNHCR/A. Zevenbergen

In 2011, the church in Mayen Abun offered shelter to a few hundred internally displaced persons during the night

gree

iffer