AMMAN - Her Majesty Queen Noor on Wednesday addressed the UNHCR Annual Consultations with NGOs in Geneva, appealing for renewed international support for the estimated 67 million refugees and displaced people worldwide, including nearly five million displaced Iraqis.
She urged international donors to ensure sufficient aid to countries which host refugees, and highlighted the importance of stepping up resettlement, according to a statement released by the Noor Al Hussein Foundation (NHF).
Queen Noor added that industrialised countries share responsibility for ensuring the well-being of displaced Iraqis, nearly half of whom live in Syria and Jordan, where they put an enormous strain on already stretched public services and fragile infrastructures.
"I have been heartened and moved by the compassion and sacrifice of my fellow Jordanians and others in our region who have reached out to help, even when struggling themselves with limited resources," she told nearly 350 representatives of the UNHCR and its partner NGOs.
Queen Noor also highlighted the growing challenge of urban refugees struggling to survive among the underclass in cities in the developing world, including Iraqis living in Damascus and Amman.
She said that ultimately "we all must support the Iraqi government in providing a secure environment that will allow their citizens to voluntarily return home as soon as possible".
Queen Noor, a board member of Refugees International, works on behalf of refugees around the globe through several organisations.
Since 1985, she has been the founder and chairperson of the NHF, which has partnered with the American NGO International Relief and Development (IRD) and the Jordanian Red Crescent to implement innovative programmes funded by UNHCR and the US State Department, that provide primary and psychosocial healthcare screening and referral services to thousands of Iraqi children and mothers in Jordan.
The UNHCR organises annual consultations with its partner NGOs to exchange views of mutual interest on a variety of issues ranging from the protection of refugee women and children at risk to the monitoring of refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants in detention.
Also yesterday, Queen Noor participated in the closing session of the Global Humanitarian Forum presided over by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
© Jordan Times 2008
