Every year, the international community celebrates World Refugee Day on June 20, as approved by the UN General Assembly in 2000. This day is dedicated to recognizing and honoring the courage and resilience of refugees worldwide. African Refugee Day is also celebrated in several countries on the same day.

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2000 to express solidarity with Africa, which hosts a considerable number of refugees and has historically shown generosity towards them. This resolution led to the simultaneous celebration of World Refugee Day and African Refugee Day on June 20. This date also marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

Refugees and internally displaced persons are individuals who have fled their countries due to a well-founded fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Many become refugees as a result of wars, natural disasters, or other crises.

Under international law, refugees are those who cannot or will not return to their home countries due to fear of persecution. Currently, there are over 120 million refugees and 68 million internally displaced persons registered globally, with the majority being women and children. A significant portion of the world's refugees originate from Syria and Iraq.

In Turkmenistan, on July 1, 2020, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees supported the adoption of a new law on civil status to prevent statelessness among children born in the country, regardless of their parents' legal status. This is part of the country's efforts to prevent and reduce statelessness, in line with its commitments made during the High-Level Session on Statelessness in 2019.

Over the past 15 years, around 23,000 refugees and stateless persons have received Turkmen citizenship, with approximately 10,000 formerly stateless individuals granted citizenship since Turkmenistan acceded to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons in 2011.

Turkmenistan has actively participated in global forums and initiatives to address statelessness and support refugees. The country's delegation attended the first Global Forum on Refugees at the UN office in Geneva in December 2019 and is scheduled to participate in the second UN High Commissioner for Refugees on Refugees in 2023. Moreover, the UNHCR has been collaborating with Turkmenistan and other Central Asian countries to prevent statelessness and address existing cases through its Global Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024.

Shirin HANMAMMEDOVA,
student of the Institute of International Relations
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.