The International Club kicked off its Inter-Cultural Week early with a guest lecture by Thomas Albrecht, Deputy Representative at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regional office in Washington, DC.
Though Inter-Cultural Week does not officially begin until Feb. 27, students assembled in Anderson Feb. 8 to hear Albrecht speak about the history of the UNHCR and the challenges facing the organization and international refugees today.
"Who knows a refugee?" Albrecht asked the audience as he began his lecture, titled "UNHCR's Fifty Years on the Humanitarian Frontlines." Only a few hands were raised in response.
"Well," Albrecht said, "let me try and introduce you to some."
He then screened a video set to Aretha Franklin's song "Respect." The two-minute clip featured a personal appearance by Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and other former refugees, including a rapper, a journalist and a sex therapist.
Albrecht then summarized the history of the UNCHR and the humanitarian struggle to provide for refugees. International attention toward refugees began, he said, when the first High Commissioner for Refugees position was created by the League of Nations, the U.N.'s predecessor, more than 70 years ago.
After World War II, the U.N. created the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to address the issue of exile in Europe.
Albrecht argued that refugee crises have changed face over the years. "The situation worsened dramatically in the following two decades as Cold War rivalries were played out in a polarized and heavily armed Third World," he said.
After the Cold War, conflicts changed in nature. According to Albrecht, "wars increasingly became more internal struggles among ethnic, social, political groupings of the same state...There are the new types of conflicts and of refugee crises that prevail today."
Albrecht cited three issues that must be addressed in the future by the UNHCR, governments, and private citizens. He highlighted "promoting coexistence and reconciliation" as one great challenge.
"Contemporary conflicts are mostly internal," he said. "When fighting ends and repatriation becomes possible, refugees very often return to live with the very people they fought against."
This situation creates new dangers for the refugees. Reconstruction in these situations, Albrecht said, is "more than just rebuilding houses, roads, factories and basic services - it also means rebuilding communities and restoring the complex web of social, economic and physiological relations."
Many times, refugees cannot return to their homes and instead must settle in other countries.
Albrecht's second challenge for the future was "confronting rising intolerance" in the communities and countries where refugees might repatriate.
"Preserving asylum means challenging the notion that refugees and asylum seekers are the agents of insecurity or terrorism rather than its victims," he said.
The last of the issues Albrecht mentioned was "preserving asylum in complex population flows."
He said that refugees are often confused with migrants during the immigration process.
UNHCR is currently working to better differentiate between the two groups in the border process.
Albrecht spoke about some of the opportunities available for students within the UNHCR. "We have more of an opportunity these days to bring new blood into the organization," he said.
Albrecht ended his lecture by reminding the audience that refugees deserve respect and humanitarian attention.
The lecture was co-sponsored by the International Center, the International Relations Department, the Institute for Global Leadership, the University College of Citizenship and Public Service and Pangea.
