São Paulo – A nationwide contest will award the best academic work on refugees written in Brazil. Promoted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the contest will select a doctoral thesis, a master’s thesis and an academic paper on the topic. Currently, around 4,500 foreign refugees live in Brazil, including many Palestinian and Iraqi Arabs.
According to the UNHCR, the objective is to foster academic research on international laws for refugees and spread knowledge among the Brazilian academic community. According to the UN branch, that should lead to a better protective environment in the country and help raise awareness of the intellectual elite.
Currently, according to the UNHCR, there is lengthy research work on refugees underway in the country. The organization has recently launched a directory of scientific works on the matter, comprising 23 doctoral theses, 61 master’s papers, and other materials such as book excerpts. The initiative was undertaken in partnership with the Catholic University of Santos and Santa Marcelina School.
Brazil is internationally known as a country that welcomes foreigners. Out of all refugees in the country, approximately 420, nearly 10% of the total, are Arab. “Each refugee brings along a wealth of habits, traditions and personal experiences that contribute to the society that welcomes them. That is no different with the Arab people who live here and who have a positive influence on Brazilian culture with their rich baggage,” say the UNHCR representative in Brazil, Andrés Ramirez.
According to Ramirez, most Arab refugees in the country are Palestinian (117) and Iraqi (200). There are smaller numbers of people from Somalia, Lebanon, Algeria, Syria, Egypt, morocco, Libya and Mauritania. “We hope the academic work contest promoted by the UNHCR and by the workgroup Cátedra Sérgio Vieira de Mello will foster the production of scientific knowledge on the theme of refugees, and more specifically about Arab refugee communities in Brazil,” he says.
Entries will be accepted until June 29, including undergraduate, postgraduate, master’s and doctoral students at teaching institutions acknowledged by the Ministry of Education. Winners will receive certificates and their articles will be published on the UNHCR website and in the reissue of the directory on refugees. The UN branch wants to promote the works to the best of its ability and upload them on the website of Cátedra Sérgio Vieira de Mello, to be up soon in the UNHCR site.
The workgroup Cátedra Sérgio Vieira de Mello, which co-promotes the contest, was established by the UNHCR in 2003 to pay homage to Sérgio Vieira de Mello, a UN employee who worked with refugees and was killed in an attack to the UN building in Iraq. It works to spread international humanitarian law, and to promote refugees’ rights and related academic training of professors and students.
Service:
1st National Contest of Academic Studies of Cátedra Sérgio Vieira de Mello
For master’s theses, doctoral theses, and academic papers
Entries open until June 29
View the call: http://www.acnur.org/t3/fileadmin/scripts/doc.php?file=t3/fileadmin/Documentos/portugues/eventos/I_Concurso_Nacional_de_Estudos_Academicos_da_Catedra_Sergio_Vieira_De_Mello
Additional information: (+55 61) 3367 4187
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
