UNESCO RILA Chair statement on Behrouz Boochani
Published: 27 July 2020
27 July 2020 - The Kurdish Iranian exile and journalist recognised as a refugee in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts welcomes the news that Behrouz Boochani has been recognized as a refugee in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We recognise that the right to seek and enjoy asylum is a Human Right that all may avail themselves of in countries which are signatories of the Refugee Convention. We recognise Behrouz as a fellow academic, writer, linguist and artist and also that none of these elements of his work are necessary to the claim of asylum or the recognition of the right to protection.
We recognise too that Behrouz has made an extraordinary, perhaps the defining, literary contribution as journalist, poet, author, film maker and intellectual, to documenting the worst of the barbarous systems of detention and torture in this second decade of the twenty first century.
We share the delight in this news, and we share the on-going determination to continue to ensure that the right to seek asylum is one which may be enjoyed, not just sought, which may come with safety and freedom from fear, that may be fully focused on the untouchability of the dignity of each human being.
First published: 27 July 2020