UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett urges people to join UNHCR’s global campaign Home Away from Home by signing their petition.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, launched a new global campaign entitled ‘Hope Away from Home’ calling for renewed solidarity and firm commitments from States to uphold the rights of people seeking safety from war, violence and persecution.

The campaign comes amid record global levels of forced displacement (110 million people), with access to asylum under threat in many parts of the world from increasingly restrictive policies and shrinking options for long-term solutions and resettlement.

In some places, populist anti-refugee sentiment, externalization of asylum obligations, rising discrimination and xenophobia, and tougher and more restrictive admission policies are threatening the right to seek safety. With insufficient safe and legal routes to asylum, it is harder for people forced to flee their homes to access safe territory and other rights. Many are therefore forced to take dangerous routes by irregular means (including by land or sea) to reach safety.

While many countries and communities welcome and protect refugees, enabling them to restart their lives and make important contributions to their host societies, more States must follow suit and show solidarity with other countries – particularly the low- and middle-income countries where the large majority of the world’s refugees are received.

“People fleeing war, violence and persecution should be met with compassion and kindness, not barriers, restrictions and discrimination, which should have no place in today’s world. They need safety and protection, and it is the responsibility of the international community to come together to find lasting solutions that allow them to live in safety and dignity,’’ said Elizabeth Tan, Director of UNHCR’s Division of International Protection.

Under the banner of ‘’Hope Away from Home”, the campaign calls for enhanced global solidarity to be turned into concrete action and solutions through greater international cooperation, legal reforms and policy change.

Over the next three years, UNHCR, through this campaign, will work together with other partners and stakeholders to advocate for law and policy change in five key areas:

1. Ensuring access to safe territory and protecting people from violence or death along their route.
2. Ensuring adequate conditions and treatment for refugees in line with human rights, dignity and inclusion.
3. Acceding to the Refugee Convention, lifting reservations, and establishing fair and efficient asylum procedures.
4. Increasing access to durable solutions, including resettlement.
5. Showing solidarity with and providing support to countries and communities hosting large refugee populations.

“Many States are showing commendable solidarity in welcoming people who have been forced to flee, despite their own domestic challenges. But more needs to be done to support those communities that receive them. With this campaign there is an opportunity to do more in solidarity with millions of forcibly displaced people and the communities hosting them, by focusing on our shared humanity and working together to find solutions,” said Dominique Hyde, Director of UNHCR’s Division of External Relations.

You can sign the #HopeAwayfromHome campaign here.