This World Refugee Day let's go beyond labels and recognise our shared humanity.

Premises

• In the name of our Creator who bestowed upon us equal dignity, rights, and duties, and called us to live together as one human family.
• Acknowledging the escalating challenges we face in the world, our common home, often resulting in deepening divisions and conflicts.
• Embracing justice blended with compassion to help prevent cycles of vengeance and harm to others.
• In recognition of the potential within each of us to enrich our human family and ensure its wellbeing.
• Inspired by the lives of our brothers and sisters living on the margins of our societies, including those who have lost their homes, loved ones, and sense of identity, because of war, violence, and natural disasters.

Let's:

1. Overcome fear and reject harmful attitudes.
Let’s acknowledge differences that threaten to become division, and deal with them non-violently in a spirit of respect. Let’s also admit to fear and harmful attitudes, such as superiority and denial, that create and reinforce the labels, stereotypes, and enemy images that separate us. Together, let’s work to overcome these destructive feelings and to decisively reject hate.

2. Foster openness, understanding, and connection.
Let’s strive together for more openness and a deeper understanding and appreciation of what we have in common and what makes us different. Let’s do more to recognise our shared humanity by cultivating connections across diverse backgrounds, traditions, and beliefs.

3. Create safe and shared spaces of belonging in our communities.
Let’s create spaces of encounter where everyone may belong, give and take, and where a stranger can become a friend.

4. Allow everyone to access opportunities to fulfil their human potential.
Let’s ensure that each and every person may enjoy equal opportunities to develop their talents and fulfill their human potential in community, no matter who they are, so that they may actively determine their own future and that of their families.

5. Encourage the participation of all in shaping compassionate and just societies.
Let’s make every effort to amplify the voices and perspectives of those pushed to the margins of society and to learn from them what is needed to foster just and compassionate relationships in our communities. Let’s never forget that in a world so badly in need of healing and renewal, making space for the real participation of those who suffer the terrible impacts of violence is the first step towards justice.

• Download the Manifesto
• Landing page of the Manifesto