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The Oscar winner and UNHCR goodwill ambassador
said the annual June 20 event came during a time of "challenge
and reflection".
"We've been forced to confront what uncertainty feels like and
of course that is the situation that the majority of refugees
live with, year in, year out," Blanchett told Reuters in an
interview.
"There's a kind of an opportunity ... to think about how we have
dealt with uncertainty and perhaps place ourselves in the shoes
of mothers and fathers and doctors and lawyers who have been,
through no fault of their own, displaced and have been living
with, for often for upwards of 18, 19 years, in that state that
we have been dealing with for 18 months."
World Refugee Day honours those who have been forced to flee
their homes due to conflict or persecution. This year's theme
calls for greater inclusion of refugees in health systems,
education and sport.
"Sadly, even in COVID, conflicts have continued around the
world," Gillian Triggs, UNHCR's assistant high commissioner for
protection, said in the joint interview.
"What we're trying to talk about ... is to support the host
countries to enable people to be included in access to
education, children to school, family members to work, but of
course, most particularly in this time of COVID, access to
health and to vaccines," Triggs added.
In its annual report released on Friday, UNHCR said the number
of people forced to flee their homes due to conflict,
persecution and human rights abuses had doubled in the past
decade to reach 82.4 million at the end of 2020. [L2N2NY1MV]
"These numbers are not going away, but the numbers are so great
that we can often forget about the human face," Blanchett said.
In her UNHCR role, Blanchett has travelled to Lebanon, Jordan
and Bangladesh, and has addressed the UN Security Council on the
Rohingya refugee crisis.
"There's been a lot of fear-based rhetoric around the notion of
people who have been forcibly displaced, either internally or
outside their own country," she said.
"I think that World Refugee Day couldn't come at a better time
because we can really think about how we can collectively build
a stronger and safer and more humane world and that being
inclusive is a superhuman power."
(Reporting by Marie-Louise GumuchianEditing by David Holmes)
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