Celebrating World Refugee Day: Afghanistan-Progress or Decline

June 20, 6:00-7:00pm
Fairmont Hotel Nob Hill
950 Mason Street
Gold Room
San Francisco, California 94108

Join the World Affairs Council of Northern California as it teams up with the U.N. High Commission for Refugees to celebrate World Refugee Day in San Francisco and to discuss the status of Afghanistan. More than 5 million Afghans have returned to their homeland since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. But growing insecurity threatens the gains the country has made since then. While the refugees have returned with high hopes, they have found that harsh realities await them. Localized conflict continues to displace some communities within Afghanistan, while poverty and lack of job opportunities oblige many Afghans to seek employment abroad.

This event is co-sponsored by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley, the International Rescue Committee, Women's Interfaith Dialogue on the Middle East, and the Persian Center. For more information please visit the World Affair's Council Web Site.

Speaker(s):

Khaled Hosseini, Author, Kite Runner & A Thousand Splendid Suns
Ewen MacLeod, Deputy Representative, UNHCR Afghanistan
Fariba Nawa, Afghan-American Journalist

Source: World Affairs Council