[IntOrg] The role of International Organization for Migration and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Ms. Naoko Hashimoto) (3rd October 2012)



 On 3rd October 2012, Ms. Naoko Hashimoto, the Programme Manager in IOM Tokyo Office, gave the students an informative lecture of two organizations: IOM and UNHCR. She emphasized the importance of IRO (International Refugee Organization) in understanding the births of IOM and UNHCR during 1950s. Firstly, she explained the activity of IOM. IOM primary focuses on promotion of humane and orderly migration in a way to benefit both migrants, including refugees, and sending/receiving societies. It has a lot of local offices so they can work in every corner effectively around the world. Secondly, she talked about UNHCR. She focused on the legal definition of refugees and how the activities of UNHCR have evolved during the past 60 years. Finally, she explained the relation between IOM and UNHCR and explained about Refugee Resettlement, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), climate change and migrants/refugees, and development and IOM / UNHCR. (Misa Komine)