UNHCR relaunches its global French website

GENEVA, March 19 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency on Friday relaunched its global French website, which features a cleaner design, more than 220 new landing pages and thousands of documents and images. It is based on UNHCR's global English-language website, which was remodelled last year.

Development of the French site has been welcomed by UNHCR staff working in francophone countries, including France itself. There are more than 40 francophone countries around the world and French is one of the official languages of the United Nations.

"The launch of this website will reinforce our brand on the internet," said Alwyn Greer, who leads the team that built the site. "To communicate effectively with francophone countries about the mission and activities of UNHCR, we think it is necessary to develop new information technologies and communication," added Francisco Galindo-Velez, UNHCR's representative in Paris.

UNHCR provides a wealth of information on its activities, including through regular press briefings, daily stories on the website, press releases, photo galleries and videos filmed in some of the most remote parts of the world.

The two global websites - in English and French - play a key role in spreading awareness about the organization and the people of concern to it as well as in raising funds.