Brazilian nun chosen for UNHCR award
Sister Rosita Milesi, a Brazilian nun, lawyer, social employee, and motion builder who has championed the rights and dignity of displaced folks for almost 40 years, has been granted the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award, the United Nations introduced in Geneva Wednesday. Moreover Milesi, 4 different ladies had been named regional winners.
“All too usually, ladies face heightened dangers of discrimination and violence, particularly when compelled to flee,” mentioned UNHCR Excessive Commissioner Filippo Grandi. “However these 5 winners present how ladies are additionally enjoying a crucial function within the humanitarian response and to find options,” he underscored. Grandi praised their dedication to driving motion in their very own communities, constructing grassroots assist and even shaping nationwide insurance policies.
Sister Rosita has personally assisted hundreds who’ve both been compelled from their houses or gone in quest of new alternatives – serving to them entry authorized documentation, shelter, meals, healthcare, language coaching, and entry to Brazil’s labor market. As a lawyer, she has additionally been instrumental in shaping public coverage, the UNHCR mentioned.
Her work on Brazil’s 1997 refugee regulation helped to amplify refugee rights in keeping with the 1984 Cartagena Refugee Declaration, thus making certain extra safety for folks in want, in keeping with worldwide requirements.
“I made a decision to dedicate myself to migrants and refugees. I’m impressed by the rising want to assist, to welcome, and to combine refugees,” the 79-year-old Sister Rosita mentioned. “I’m not afraid to behave, even when we don’t obtain the whole lot we need to. If I take one thing on, I’ll flip the world the other way up to make it occur,” she added.
Established in 1954, the award this yr will even give an honorable point out to the folks of Moldova who ignored their financial challenges and acted as a beacon of hope for humanity by adapting faculties, neighborhood areas, and houses to develop into shelters for greater than 1,000,000 folks fleeing the battle in Ukraine.
The awards, with monetary assist from the governments of Norway, Switzerland, the Swedish Ikea Basis, and the Canton of Geneva, will likely be introduced in Geneva on Oct. 14.
Additionally receiving awards at a regional degree will likely be Burkina Faso activist Maimuna Ba (Africa), Syria-born entrepreneur Jin Davod (Europe), Sudanese refugee Nada Fadel (Center East and North Africa), and Nepal’s Deepti Gurung (Asia-Pacific).
The award is known as after Norwegian explorer and refugee rights stalwart Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), who turned the primary worldwide excessive commissioner for his or her safety again within the then-League of Nations, the UN’s predecessor.