During the inaugural meeting of the UNHCR and Religions for Peace Multi-Religious Council of Leaders on April 13, 2021, religious leaders representing the world’s diverse faith traditions committed to work together to address the root causes of forced displacement and help those forced to flee by promoting peacebuilding, conflict prevention, inclusion and social cohesion in their countries and regions.

The Multi-Religious Council of Leaders comprises more than 20 religious and spiritual leaders and was born out of the need to enlist the help of faith leaders and communities in tackling the root causes of global forced displacement.

The Multi-Religious Council of Leaders was established by UNHCR in cooperation with Religions for Peace , a long-time UNHCR partner providing inter-religious solidarity and support to refugee and migrant communities.

Since its founding in 1970, Religions for Peace Interreligious Councils in more than 90 countries and 6 regions have devoted significant financial and human resources to serving, together, the myriad needs of migrants, refugees, and forcibly displaced peoples around the world). Religious organisations are the original caretakers from, and of, communities in every corner of the world. But when they work together, no one will be left behind. This is what Religions for Peace offers to all our partners.

And, in honor of World Refugee Day, we're delighted to share a series of reports by faith communities caring for refugees and displaced peoples around the world.

In gratitude and service,

Dr. Azza Karam
Secretary General

We, Rissho Kosei-Kai (RKK) members, commit to the "Donate A Meal" movement in which we skip a meal several times a month to experience hunger and use the money to support various humanitarian and social activities, trying to share the sufferings of close and distant neighbors from disasters, conflicts, and poverty. We have been supporting for the refugees and displaced people of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Myanmar and etc. in collaboration with our partners.

In the late 1970s following the Vietnam war, the refugees from Indochinese countries so-called “boat people” arrived in Japan. Then Japan did not settle the legal system to receive the refugees and even it did not join in the International Convention on the status of Refugees yet. On the emergent request of UN and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, RKK started to accommodate them at two Dharma centers. For 18 years it has accommodated 476 refugees.

Religions for Peace Japan (RfP Japan) has been also engaged in supporting for refugees since 1970s. Near the border between Cambodia and Thailand, RfP Japan operated several refugee camps. When I visited Cambodia some years ago, I was welcomed by a tour guide at the airport of Phnom Penh. On the last day of the travel, when we were heading for the airport, he started to share with us that he was raised up at one of the refugee camps of Religions for Peace Japan. He ran out of his town in Cambodia, and on the way lost his parents and other family members. He told us that he never forgot the name of RfP and sung a song which was made by the refugees at the camps to express the gratitude to RfP.

Currently, Religions for Peace Japan is engaged in the reception of Syrian refugee students since 2017 with Japan Association for Refugees. RfP Japan supports not only for their lives, but also for their settling down in residence and schools. The number of refugees accepted in Japan is extremely small. It has been pointed out that the amendment to the Immigration Control Act, including criminal penalties, does not meet international human rights standards. We expect that UNHCR’s advice and recommendations will affect the decision of the Japanese government.

Youth for Peace (YfP), as a youth founded and led network, gathering young people of various religious traditions from Caritas Bosne i Hercegovine (BIH), but also from the region always grounds its work in multi-faith approach. Our work is mostly directed at young people, where we build capacities of youth for peaceful living together with “different and other."

Following the migrant crisis and Balkans route becoming a very important on the path of people on the move, we have decided to create projects and initiatives connected to this topic as well. Until now YfP has partnered with Caritas Bosne i Hercegovine (BIH) and various other organizations and participates in the project “Service for social animation for migrant” in the camp Ušivak. This project provides services for migrants in this camp like different kinds of workshops and place to meet. This social cafe was opened thanks to the donation of Pope Frances.

Another project Youth for Peace is conducting is called Beyond and this project deals with topics of racism, nationalism, xenophobia and migrations on European level. The project began in December 2019, but due to COVID 19 was postponed until August this year. This project is implemented with partners from Serbia, Kosovo, Hungary and Italy and it will consist of four youth exchanges, several local activities and a social media campaign aimed at raising awareness about migrations, but also about changing identities in European context.

Hereby I commit myself to actively participate in our Council and bring youth voice to our work. It's important that together we appeal to people of faith and encourage them to rethink their approach to people on the move, to start raising awareness about how migrations affect people, to start volunteering within their communities, to start speaking out for those who are voiceless. Our Council has the unique multi-faith, multinational and multi-stakeholder advantage that needs to be utilized. The help of UNHCR and Religions for Peace is crucial in spreading our message, but also in mobilizing communities and governments worldwide.

Locally, both Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (GNNSJ) and the Nishkam Group have been very active in collaborative work around cohesion, resilience building and generally trying to create a better society for refugees, migrant communities and ‘new-arrivals’. As the Nishkam Centre in Birmingham is located within an inner-city deprived area, many of our services attract migrant communities and new arrivals. We work within our networks to actively participate in and promote collaboration across faiths and all sections of the community to create and enhance ‘neighbourliness and welcome’, ultimately targeting cohesiveness and peace building.

The Nishkam Centre was privileged to host one of the first events in the city to welcome Syrian families into Birmingham under The Syrian Resettlement Scheme (circa 2016-17). By involving local faith communities, we are able to break down barriers and help create further harmony.

As part of the Nishkam Groups passion to create fairer and cohesive societies there are initiatives and movements being championed and supported on a local, national and international level:

• Collaboration with the University of Birmingham, to support research into religion and civil society to give gravitas to the herculean role played by civil society and faith communities.

• Collaboration with the University of Birmingham on the global initiative of the Museum of World’s Religions. This is an innovative and aspirational project helping to harmonise and share the rich legacies, traditions and core understandings of faith communities, promoting understanding of the values and underlying principles of faith.

• The Nishkam School Trust has embedded values-based education in to all their schools and nurseries. This initiative of values based education has also been adopted through the Standing Advisory Committee on Religious Education (SACRE) as part of the national RE syllabus via the ‘24 Spiritual and Morale dispositions’.

• The International Peace Charter for Forgiveness and Reconciliation, was adopted by the 10th World Assembly of Religions for Peace (RfP) International in Lindau, Germany (August 2019).

During the Global Refugee Forum in 2019, Adyan Foundation made a series of commitments, alongside other faith-based organisations towards the overall refugee response. We will mention below few examples of each commitment and the work Adyan has done amid the COVID-19 pandemic, while being as concise as possible:

The pledge first mentions that religious leaders need to contribute, given their social and religious responsibility, to an honest description of the asylum situation in Lebanon and build their narratives on human dignity and other common humanitarian factors.

During the past two years, Adyan has been working on developing and implementing the concept of Religious Social Responsibility which is primarily based on two main pillars:

The Importance of consolidating religious discourse with action on the ground; meaning going out of “confessionalism” to work for the common good.

The necessity for international organisations and governments to realize the importance of faith-based organisations and faith leaders in responding to many situations including asylum and refugees.

In March 2019, Adyan launched the Forum for Religious Social Responsibility which joins around 100 religious leaders (males and females), educators, and media activists from all over Lebanon to:

• To disseminate an inclusive, non-divisive narrative based on the common values of diversity, solidarity, and human dignity online and through their respective institutions.
• To counter-act hate speech and violent extremism which has been on the rise lately – especially towards refugees in Lebanon and abroad.

Many members of the forum, who are non-Lebanese themselves, have been advocating for the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers in Lebanon through Adyan’s support. As mentioned before, the forum aims to consolidate narratives with action; this is why members are encouraged to implement their own social initiatives/projects that aim to support members of their communities – including refugees, of course.

This is why during the past year and a half, all throughout the pandemic, we have had a number of members who have been vocal regarding the deteriorating situation of refugees in Lebanon, trying to implement initiatives to support them, within the framework of the Forum: after-school support, training centres to teach young people basic and entrepreneurial skills, initiatives on oral history, awareness campaigns on the situation of refugee camps, and so on.

We at the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society (SABS) partner with both civic and faith-based organisations to promote, secure and uphold the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. In particular we partner with two organisations;

The first is a civic organisation, the Scottish Refugee Council , an independent national human rights charity with extensive experience in working with refugees across Scotland. Our vision together is that women, children and men are protected, find safety and support, have their human rights and dignity respected and are able to achieve their full potential.

The second organisation is a multi faith-based organisation, the Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees hosted by the Church of Scotland. With them we seek to co-ordinate and promote action by faith communities in Scotland to support asylum seekers and refugees, and work with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Interfaith groups.

Combined activities include:

Upholding Rights: Providing a range of direct services to refugees and asylum seekers living in Scotland, including Integration Service with focus on housing advice to new refugees; Destitution Services preventing homelessness of refugees; Family Key-Work, supporting families in the asylum process; Resettlement Services in different Local Authorities, provision of Free Helpline and online interactive information sessions on housing and employment.

The Scottish Refugee Council also delivers the Scottish Guardianship in partnership with Aberlour Child Care Trust , which gives us insight into the experiences of separated children who are seeking asylum and who frequently have survived trafficked exploitation.

Influencing Policy: We champion the rights of refugees and advocate for fair and just policies and practice, ensuring those seeking protection have a platform to raise their own voices. We are committed to challenging inequalities in the asylum system and in wider society, to ensure that everyone in need of refugee protection has fair and equal access to protection and is able to rebuild their lives with dignity.

Three projects which we are currently championing are promote housing, education and are currently lobbying for fair medical access for refugees.

Through SFAR, faiths are committed in sharing of common values of human dignity and protection, we want to write a story of hospitality and welcome, of dignity and love, of peace and justice. Our vision is that Scotland is a safe place where refugees and asylum seekers feel welcomed and included and faith groups have played an integral part in enabling this.

Since 2015 we have been active in areas of promoting and delivering refugee integration programmes, supporting campaigning calls for changes to the UK asylum system, engaging in work around resettlement programmes and raising awareness about the ongoing international situation facing people forced to leave their home. A project we have been proud of is the New Scots Holiday, a holiday programme for refugees hosted by the SFAR where in its first holiday, 6 Syrian families were taken to the Isles of Skye. This was particularly important for both the host communities and refugees to get to know one another, learn about each other and bridge gaps that may have existed.

The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) continues to make efforts to care for migrants and refugees. The Resolutions by the Plenary Session of the Bishops in February 2019, indicate that the Bishops’ Conference recognizes that refugees and migrants are present in every Diocese in the three countries that form the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (South Africa, Botswana and Eswatini). The Bishops decided that a coordinated response for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees within the 29 territories of the Conference is necessary. There is a need to establish a migrant office/desk in every Diocese of the SACBC’s territory as a matter of priority.

The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference is a member organisation of the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (IMBISA). The body comprises of 9 member countries; Angola - Botswana - Eswatini - Lesotho - Mozambique - Namibia - São Tomé and Príncipe - South Africa and Zimbabwe.

We are also a member of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) whose mission is “to promote its role as a sign and instrument of salvation, to build the Church as the family of God in Africa and to preserve and promote the communion, collaboration and common action of the Catholic Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Islands.”

In my capacity as the Liaison Bishop for migrants and refugees within the Conference, I continually encourage the concerted effort to work together with other religious leaders to assist migrants and refugees. For example, in Aliwal North our church is part of the Fraternity of Ministers. Together we networked with the Department of Home Affairs and Department of Social Development for the plight of undocumented children who were out of school. Our efforts resulted in the Centre for Child Law taking the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape to court in December 2019. The Court ruled that according to the Section 29 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa “the right to education extends to everyone within the boundaries of South Africa; the nationality or immigration status is immaterial.” As we speak, all the children are in school. The Fraternity of Ministers continues to assist the migrant families to obtain proper documentation to curb statelessness.

As the Home Affairs centres remain closed, the government of South Africa introduced the online process for renewal of asylum seekers and refugees permits from April 2021. The Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees in the Catholic Archdiocese of Durban established a Help Desk in consultation with the Department of Home Affairs. The Help Desk is a free service where asylum seekers and refugees are assisted to renew their Permits. The Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees Department in the Archdiocese of Johannesburg continually provide meals and other basic needs to the distressed families of migrants and refugees. They are educating migrants to apply for proper documentation and regularise their stay in South Africa. They also offer skills training courses to empower their service users to integrate within Johannesburg.

In Eswatini, Caritas Eswatini which is the arm of the church, is an implementing partner of the UNHCR working under the coordination of the Ministry of Home Affairs for refugee assistance and integration projects. Project Activities include: Health assistance where they partner with Public Health institutions to increase access of refugees to Health Care and Education: They support refugee children to enroll in public schools and pay for their tuition fees and uniforms.

In Botswana, Francis Town, the church is actively working in two camps where they offer psychosocial assistance to migrants and refugees. We have an empowerment skills program to assist women and their children. The church works in partnership with the UNHCR and other religious leaders to advocate for migrants and refugees.

Our Pastoral efforts emphasise the importance of creating safe environment for the refugees and migrants to share their own experiences among themselves and with the host communities. We recognize the importance that they should be allowed to communicate their experiences with the governments and the donor communities. Refugees and migrants continually express their longing to be recognized as human beings who add value to society.

The church in different places works in partnership with other faith based organisations, civil, and social organisations, to assist the migrants and refugees to feel welcomed. We strongly believe that it is working together that our efforts can build a safe and welcoming environment for migrants and refugees.

We hope that governments will include migrants and refugees in their vaccination rollout, “no one should be left behind.” The religious leaders and civil servant organisations have to relentlessly campaign for migrants and refugees to have job opportunities, housing and education for their children.

I served for 6 years as the chairperson for the women of faith network with Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) and thus, participated in the women and youth programs on peace building, health and psycho social support. The Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) had a peace building program for the refugee and host youths in Rwamwanje refugee settlement in Kiryandongo. I was invited to train the youth on learning to live together; we used the ethics education and the interreligious dialogue approach. I trained two groups of youths, the refugees and host youths, both of which faced their own challenges.

I learned that transformative peace-building needs to be scaled up in all refugee settlements. It's vital to add psycho social support especially trauma healing as a program. A clear referral pathway needs to be created within the settlement and women need to be trained in psycho social support. Spaces or platforms need to be established for regular meeting with different age groups, in order to share, learn, unlearn and build back better .

We created a dialogue that led to a solution for a problem that was occurring in Al-Khansa village and its surroundings, where frequent thefts of homes and livelihoods of only Christian people occurred, in addition to being a sectarian dimension that threatens civil peace and makes the region vulnerable to conflicts between all parties. These frequent thefts took on a sectarian and religious dimension.

We invited a group of influential religious leaders in the region from all sects, in addition to the both villages leaders and some officials from different sects to a meeting aimed at clarifying the problem, containing it and consulting to find appropriate solutions, to prevent the aggravation of matters and restrain any negative contact could lead to a sectarian conflict that threatens the region that for a long time was considered as a symbol and model for civil peace and coexistence between different religions and sects.

Some attendants participated in this meeting by speaking on theft incidents of their homes & livelihoods, they spoke about the extent of the threats pose to the civil peace in the community which it was a model to be emulated in peace and intimacy.

The others proposed to address the conditions of persons who commit theft by dialogue, understanding their needs, helping to solve their problems, and supporting them frequently with basic needs (assistance, job…) to avoid theft incidents then remove the causes that lead to such harmful practices to the families and community.

Then lastly to communicate with the authorities concerned to resolve the issue in serious means if the dialogue does not lead to a result.

It is said, Guests are like God. God will come as a guest. If we treat them like God then God is going to bless us. In the form of refugees God is coming to us.

We pray for peace, stability and progress for the whole world. As one of the co-presidents of Religions Peace, I am committed to tackling forced displacement and promoting peaceful coexistence in Nigeria and in the world.

Refugees, similarly to my people, were forced to leave their homes and now hope to find peace again. We should welcome our neighbours, as the only solution to wars and suffering is to live and work together as one.

We should try to invest in education to prevent the increase of violence and exploitation against migrants and refugees, particularly against women and girls. Mexico welcomes refugees and refugee children from Latin and Central America. Violence has increased in the past years because these people are not taken care of by the government. Many displaced people stay in Mexico, so we should invest in education for all these migrants and refugees, so that they can build better futures.

We need to say ‘humanity first’, loudly and clearly. We have to raise our religious voices together. The job of religious leaders is to act together and to act globally. We must work collectively to change one heart at a time.

As a member of the Multi-Religious Council of Leaders, I commit to promote the idea of “We are One, We are World” to create solidarity, loving, kindness, and to prevent polarization and discrimination among refugees, Internally Displaced Persons and stateless people. We belong to the same family, which is a family of humanity.

There is no violence in religion (Islam), we do reject any violence, because a call to change requires dignified discussion. The Prophet Muhammad has told us that we must not fight each other regardless of our differences. Religious leaders have a common duty to guide their communities to welcome their neighbours, to build and maintain peace.

This year’s theme for World Refugee Day is together we heal, learn and shine. Refugees lose a lot but never their human rights, so let’s work together for inclusive societies to ensure that refugees have a seat at decision making tables. Let’s nurture healing, learning and shining communities.

Islam calls upon us to support and stand by refugees. Prophet Mohammed helped and stood by those who sought his refuge until their rights and homes were returned. Islam has many provisions for the well-treatment, backing, and hosting of refugees.