UNHCR dismayed at murder of humanitarian worker

Press Releases, 15 July 2009

GENEVA The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) wishes to express its shock and deep sorrow at the murder on 15 July of Ms. Natalia Estemirova, a staff member of UNHCR's implementing partner, Memorial, in the Russian Federation. Ms. Estemirova was found dead in the North Caucasus region of Ingushetia following her abduction from her home in Grozny.

UNHCR extends its condolences to Memorial and Ms. Estemirova's family.

Since 2000, Ms. Estemirova had been a social worker with the NGO Memorial and its UNHCR-funded legal and social counselling project in Grozny. She worked on issues related to internally displaced people in Chechnya and their safe return to their homes. Memorial has been an implementing partner of UNHCR in the North Caucasus since 2000 and received UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award in 2004.

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Finding home: UNHCR honours uprooted people on World Refugee Day

It's said that a man's home is his castle; a place of security and comfort. But for millions of people, home is a distant memory. It is a place they have had to flee to escape violence and persecution. Many end up living in a makeshift shelter or tent, either in their own country or in a foreign land. More than half of the refugees of concern to UNHCR now live in deprived urban areas.

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Finding home: UNHCR honours uprooted people on World Refugee Day

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