Soliloquy of a Postage Stamp #42 /Fouad Kronfol

This week I have made a slight change in the focus of my Column...instead of featuring Children and UNICEF, I am showing philatelic materials on various "Themes" related to the UN and UNICEF. This thematic approach will show stamps and covers about important events commemorated by the UN Family and as they relate to UNICEF, either directly or indirectly.

This week's theme is the 1959/1960 World Refugee Year commemorated by the UN to draw attention to the problem of millions of refugees and the work of the UN on their behalf during the twelve months from June 1959..More than sixty years since that Event, the subject of refugees and displaced person is still among the most serious issues faced by many countries around the world. According to UNHCR there were 82.4 million people worldwide who were forcibly displaced.(June 2021). Of these 20. million are under UNHCR mandate, 5.7 million are under UNRWA mandate, 48 million are internally displaced;  and 4.1 million are asylum seekers. Some 86% of these were hosted in developing countries, and 73% were hosted in neighbouring countries. 68% originated from 5 countries.Syria ,Venezuela, Afghanistan, Myanmar and South Sudan (another 7.9 % were from other counhtries).Of special concern to UNICEF is the demographics of these displaced persons..about 42 percent are Children (who actually are only 30 % of the world's population). 

World Refugee Year 1959/60 is one of the earliest of the UN "Years" and the subject of refugees has been represented philatelically a number of times since. It is also recalled that UNHCR was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on two occasions, in 1954 and 1981.

The UN Postal Administration (UNPA) issued this set of two stamps on 10 December 1959 to commemorate the World Refugee Year,1959/1960.These two stamps show the official logo of WRY  which is a wreath with two hands covering a human as protection. The designer was Olav Mathieson from Denmark. The stamps both have a tag showing the UN Emblem and the inscription "Refugee Year 1959 in English and French.

Here we see a First Day Cover from Lebanon issued on 7 April 1960 in Beirut. The two stamps show another emblem of WRY which is an uprooted oak tree from a circular base, depicting the situation of displaced persons and refugees who are forced to leave their places of residence.The inscription on the stamps reads;"the anniversary of the World Refugee Year, 7 April 1960" in both Arabic and French. The cachet of the FDC reproduces the uprooted oak tree.

In 1971 the UNPA again issued two stamps to commemorate the two agencies UNHCR and UNRWA and to show international support for refugees. The two stamps show a statue sculpted by Dr. Kaare Nygaard. 

This is another FDC issued by the United Arab Republic (Egypt) in Cairo on 7 April 1960 to commemorate World Refugee Year. It is identical to the FDC from Lebanon seemingly because the Arab countries decided to issue their stamps in the same format and on the same day. The two stamps show a mother pointing with her son towards a map of Palestine, with the inscription " We Shall Return" in Arabic.The stamps also show the official WRY logo in the upper left corner.The cachet, however, is the uprooted oak tree one, while the two rather elaborate postmarks reproduce the  FDC cachet .

The state of Cameroon issued this stamp in 1960 to commemorate the World Refugee Year. The stamp s a stylized version of the uprooted oak tree emblem but with some differences; the wreath is replaced by blue clouds? and the oak tree is different. The French inscrition reads;" The World Refugee Year, 1960".

From the Republic of Haiti we have here a Souvenir Sheet showing four stamps issued in 1962 but commemorating the World Refugee Year. The design is another variance of the official UN logo of two hands but with the oak tree in between instead of the human figure.It is not clear why the issue was delayed to 1962.

Here I show one of the four stamps from Haiti referred to above which was to commemorate World Refugee Year but was issued in 1962.The stamp was post marked from Port-au-Prince but the actual date is not visible.

This Souvenir Sheet from Belgium shows three stamps related to refugees; clothing a young boy; feeding three children and a mother with two children. The sheet shows the royal insignia of Belgium in the left hand corner and the UN WRY logo in the right corner. The sheet, however, was issued in 1967 and cost 20 Francs.

 

From the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan we have this stamp that commemorates World Refugee Year on 7 April 1960, the same date as those issued by Lebanon and Egypt, above. Here the design of the stamp is an exact replica of the official UN logo  for the WRY.

Another Arab country, the Kingdom of Libia, (this was before the revolution that brought in Muammar Qaddafi) issued these two stamps to commemorate WRY.The date is the same as the other Arab countries, 7 April 1960.The design, however, made by F. Kabazi, and printed in Rome, Italy, takes essentially the same uprooted oak tree emblem but the tree has two insignia in it; the emblem of the UN on the left and the royal emblem on the right.

Here the Syrian Arab Republic has issued these two air mail stamps in 1966 to commemorate UNRWA for Palestine Refugees. and the 21 st. anniversary of UN Day. The inscription is for "Refugee Week" and shows the UN logo as well as the UN emblem. There is a surcharge on both stamps which was to raise funds for refugee assistance.

From Afghanistan we have this stamp issued in 1966 to commemorate the" 20 th.anniversary of refugees" It shows Zahir Shah and the UN Emblem over the figure 20 and the dates 1966 and 1345 H. Note that other than the Afghan language the stamps use French as the foreign language.

It was to be expected that the US would issue a stamp for the UN's World Refugee Year that would be markedly different in design from all others..Here we see no UN emblem nor WRY logo, but a black silhouette design showing a family of four looking towards the light at the end of two walls..The stamp was issued in 1960.

Here we have three stamps from Cyprus which were issued to raise monies for the National Refugee Fund.These are from a series that were issued in successive years as an additional surcharge on postage from the island. The first stamp issued in 1974 shows a refugee woman with a child . The second stamp shows a child sitting behind some barbed wire and was issued in 1984. The third stamp is similar to the second in design but was issued in 1994, although the date on the stamp is 1974 when the emergency occurred.

From the Kingdom of Iran we have this two stamp set issued in 1960 to commemorate World Refugee Year. It is interesting that while they show a stylized version of the uprooted oak emblem there is no mention of WRY, the UN or anything else but the name of the country and the value of the stamps.

In 1984 the UNPA again issued this stamp related to the plight of displaced people.The design was made by Hans Erni and shows a mother holding her child. The inscription reads: " A Future for Refugees".

As a last item here I show three stamps from India issued in 1971. These were for use as 'postage due' for mailings that did not meet the required postal rate with the funds being used for the national Refugee Relief activities. The first two stamps were the regular stamps for family planning over-printed with the words, "Refugee Relief". The third stamp was issued specifically for Refugee Relief and shows a group of people carrying their belongings as they presumably are forced from their residences.

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