“We have actually witnessed increased state cooperation and compliance not with the law, but cooperation with each other to actively avoid upholding the law, avoid protecting refugees, deterring them through grave human rights violations such as indefinite detention or family separation here at our own southern border in the United States, and weaponizing and demonizing refugee flows particularly, but not only, in the West,” said Hannah Garry, Law Professor and Executive Director of The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law, during her opening remarks at the Aurora Dialogues event held at the Luskin Conference Center in Los Angeles on December 7, 2024.
Professor Garry emphasized that such behavior has intensified in response to the largest number of refugees since World War II. The global refugee population has surged from around 15 million in the mid-1990s to nearly 44 million today. This figure does not even include the 68 million people displaced within their own countries, often a precursor to seeking refuge across borders, nor the 7 million people currently seeking asylum. These numbers, cited by Professor Garry, were drawn from the latest Global Report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The event, titled “Advancing Human Rights Amid Global Refugee Crisis,” was organized by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative in collaboration with The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law. The discussion aimed to explore the complexities of the ongoing global refugee crisis and discuss how diverse organizations and voices can effectively address the challenges faced by displaced populations. Featured speakers included Marguerite Barankitse, 2016 Aurora Prize Laureate and Founder of Maison Shalom; Shadi Martini, CEO of the Multifaith Alliance; and Dulce Valencia, Associate Director of Entertainment Media at Define American. The conversation was moderated by Armine Afeyan, CEO of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.
Armine Afeyan highlighted the ongoing devastation, noting, “Just this week, the UN estimates that a further 280,000 Syrians have been displaced from the latest escalations in violence. Displacement has increased year on year for the last 12 years, and two thirds of refugees have been displaced for more than five years.” Afeyan also shared a personal perspective on the issue: “I am the first in my family in three generations or 100 years not to be forcibly displaced. And I grew up with a lot of gratitude for that fact.” She also referenced staggering statistics that between 2018 and 2023, two million children were born as refugees, an entire population equivalent to that of Houston, Texas. These children face immense challenges, including navigating strict asylum systems.
Shadi Martini, CEO of the Multifaith Alliance, shared his own transformative experience: “Syria, traditionally, in the last 50 or 60 years, wasn’t a country that had a lot of refugees going out of it. And all of a sudden, I became one. So, I understood that it doesn’t matter who you are, what your status is, you can become a refugee instantly.”
He recalled an unexpected encounter in 2013 with individuals from an Israeli NGO who wanted to help refugees. Initially skeptical, Martini soon realized that, like him, they were humanitarians with a shared mission. This experience, he reflected, mirrors the moment when you first meet a refugee. “To be honest, I’ve never met someone from Israel. And somehow that puts me in a mindset that I don’t need to prejudge people. Sometimes engaging with people you don’t expect to engage with you changes narratives and changes perceptions.” Today, Martini continues this work with the Multifaith Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to tackling displacement crises through the collective power of over 100 faith-based and secular partners.
Marguerite Barankitse, the 2016 Aurora Prize Laureate and Founder of Maison Shalom, shared her journey from witnessing Burundi’s devastating atrocities in the 1990s to becoming a tireless advocate and a refugee herself, all while continuing to offer hope and sanctuary to others. “What I tried to do in Burundi was to create a new generation who will be able to break this cycle of violence. I created many things to give dignity to my people. Unfortunately, in 2015, I was denounced, and then they tried to kill me. Then, I became a refugee, but I never gave up. I work today in the refugee camps in Rwanda to give hope and create a new generation, because our vocation is to transform this world into a paradise.”
Dulce Valencia, Associate Director of Entertainment Media at Define American, discussed the power of media in shaping narratives about immigrants and refugees: “We are a media organization that works to humanize immigrant narratives across storytelling. At the core of Define American is a belief that politics are downstream from culture. We cannot change the politics of immigration until we first change the culture through which immigrants are seen. This is the work that’s incredibly personal to me as an immigrant who was formerly undocumented for most of my life—and also as just a fan of television.”
Summarizing this insightful conversation, Armine Afeyan, moderator and CEO of Aurora, thanked all the attendees, as well as Hannah Gary and The Promise Institute at UCLA Law for hosting the event. “Individual actions level up into systematic change. We see some green sprouts here and there. At Aurora, we’re a kind of a small part of a huge infrastructure, but what we look to do is tell individual stories as a legitimate complement to the institutional humanitarian system to bring it a little bit closer to home, to make it a little bit clearer whether progress is being made,” noted Afeyan.
Following the discussion, there was a special screening of a documentary about the 2016 Aurora Prize Laureate Marguerite Barankitse, who, after witnessing the execution of 72 friends and colleagues, embarked on an extraordinary mission in Burundi.
Top photo (L to R): Armine Afeyan, Dulce Valencia, Shadi Martini, and Marguerite Barankitse