The International Center for Human Rights (ICHR) Statement for World Refugee Day – June 20, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.
Toronto, Canada

On this World Refugee Day, the International Center for Human Rights (ICHR) urges the Government of Canadato urgently reaffirm its moral, legal, and humanitarian obligations to protect vulnerable refugees, especially those facing immediate, life-threatening danger in countries like Iran.

The world is watching as authoritarian regimes bomb, kill, and silence their own people. once again as they cover their mass atrocities, and falsely blame external forces, including Israel. Canada must not be a passive observer.

ICHR is deeply alarmed by:

  •  The deliberate collapse of Canada’s once-admired refugee system programs are under-resourced, delayed, and dangerously out of touch with real-time global crises.
  • The failure to adequately respond to the UNHCR-recognized refugees waiting for resettlement.
  • A growing neglect of the LGBTQ+ refugee program, leaving LGBTQ+ asylum seekers trapped in violent, homophobic regimes.

ICHR urgently calls on the Canadian government to:

  1. Immediately establish a special emergency program for Iranian refugees especially as the Islamic Republic has shut down the internet and is preparing to violently crush its own people behind a digital blackout. Civilians in Iran face mass killing, bombing, arrest, and propaganda, while the regime blames its own actions on external enemies.
  2. Reinstate and strengthen the LGBTQ+ refugee sponsorship and fast-track process, to rescue people from countries where being LGBTQ+ means imprisonment, torture, or execution.
  3. Guarantee the resettlement of UNHCR-recognized refugees, many of whom remain in limbo for years while their lives remain in danger.
  4. Rebuild Canada’s refugee programs to once again reflect this nation’s foundational values of protection, inclusion, and justice.

“Refugee protection is not a favour it is a responsibility,” said Ardeshir Zarezadeh, President of ICHR.

“While the Canadian government celebrates World Refugee Day with words, it continues to fail in action. People are dying, and the government is moving too slow, or not at all.”

There is no time left.

Iran is under siege not from a foreign country, but from its own criminal regime.
LGBTQ+ refugees continue to suffer violence, discrimination, and death.
And those with UNHCR status remain abandoned in camps or unsafe countries.

On World Refugee Day, we remind Canada not just of its promises, but of what it stands for.

The world doesn’t need more statements. It needs action.

 Canada must act now.