UN: High time world spoke up for rights of Palestinian refugees

The rights and dignity of Palestinians will only be realized when the world wakes up to the need for a lasting political solution for the problem of the Palestinian refugees, Commissioner General of the UN Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, Pierre Krähenbühl said.

Speaking to the UN radio at the end of the World Humanitarian Summit held in Istanbul earlier this week, Pierre Krähenbühl said working out the refugees’ plight is one of Palestinians’ most urgent needs.

The UN commissioner sounded the alarm over the tragic situation endured by Palestinian refugee students enrolled at UNRWA schools. Citing a Palestinian female student named Batoul, Pierre Krähenbühl drew the audience’s attention to how she was forced to flee to Lebanon from war-torn Syria to pursue her studies at the Ein Helwa refugee camp.

The commissioner quoted one of the UNRWA students as asking him: “Would you work for our future and rights as seriously as you would do for your children’s?

This is the message I would like to send to the world.” The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is a relief and human development agency.

It is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN Member States. The Agency’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance and emergency assistance.

Source: PNN