President Stjepan Mesic gives speech at WRD 2009 conference, Zagreb, 18 June 2009.

World Refugee Day 2009 – Real People Real Needs

On the occasion of the World Refugee Day, a conference organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Regional Development, Forestry and Water Management, was held in Zagreb, on Thursday, 18th of June.

The event was very well attended. It was opened by the President of the Republic of Croatia, H.E. Mr. Stjepan Mesic and among others; it was addressed by the Vice President's of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, Ms. Jadarnka Kosor and Mr. Slobodan Uzelac. Speakers of the competent Ministries and experts from national and international non-governmental organizations participated in two sessions titled "Return and sustainable Reintegration of refugees and displaced persons" and "Asylum and other forms of protection in Croatia".

President Stjepan Mesic highlighted few points:

• The return of refugees and displaced people is the task that is still not completed
• Acceptable solutions must be found for former tenancy right holders
• Revised budget should not effect on the return of refugees and displaced people
• Croats and Serbs should enjoy the same rights when applying for a job, which should in no way be connected with a person's ethnic background

Vice President of Croatian Government, Jadranka Kosor recalled Croatia's own painful experience during its war of independence in the early 1990s, when at one time there were one million refugees and displaced people in the country. She underlined that everyone had the right to return and the right to have a family and a home.

In addition, Vice President Uzelac, pointed out that for refugee return to become sustainable, it is important not only to reconstruct houses, but create jobs in areas of return.

Representatives from Parliament, Government and competent authorities, the academia, the international community and representatives of the civil society attended the event.

President Stjepan Mesić speech

Representative of UNHCR in Wilfried Buchhorn speech

Photo gallery from the event: