“We cannot let innocent people be buried by indifference,” said  Ban said in his remarks to the moving ceremony. “We cannot let heartlessness expose so many children to deadly risk […] We stand with refugees. The summit next week is for them,” he said.

The #WithRefugees petition was launched on 19 June, World Refugee Day by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

We stand with refugees. The summit next week is for them.

The Secretary-General underscored that the refugees are merely asking for what all people deserve, namely a home, a school and a chance.

He thanked and credited the UN for offering global solidarity when he, himself, was a six-year old refugee, saying without which “I would not be standing here.”

The UN chief, who has proudly stood with refugees around the world in camps and reception centres, said the upcoming Summit is a foundation to build a stronger global response and that the Organization was mobilizing all partners.

“On Friday,” he concluded, “we declare our commitment to share the responsibility. That will benefit everyone. Let us help refugees and create a better future for all.”

The petition calls on representatives of the 193 governments attending the Summit to make sure all refugee children can go to school; that all refugees have a safe place to live and that all refugees can work and contribute to their local community.

An extraordinary outpouring of solidarity

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, together with refugees and prominent UNHCR supporters presented the symbolic gesture to  Ban and the President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson, to ensure the call is heard in the highest places.

When the petition was launched in June,  Grandi spoke about why UNHCR was making the public call to support refugees.

“We are in a period of deepening conflict and turmoil in the world, which is causing many more people to flee their homes than before,” he said, adding: “It affects and involves us all, and what it needs is understanding, compassion and political will to come together and find real answers for the refugee plight.”

The UN refugee agency chief explained that millions of people were newly displaced in 2015, causing global refugee and internal displacement totals to skyrocket. While countries of the developing world were most affected, Europe too witnessed dramatic scenes, as hundreds of thousands of people crossed the Mediterranean in search of safety and refuge. Thousands died along the way.

He stressed, “This has become a defining challenge of our times.”

 Grandi emphasized that at the height of the refugee crisis in Europe, many ordinary people had come forward to help, saying “There was an extraordinary outpouring of empathy and solidarity, as ordinary people and communities opened their homes and their hearts to refugees, and some countries have welcomed new arrivals even while already hosting large numbers of refugees.”

The handover featured a live performance by award-winning slam poet Emi Mahmoud on her ode to drowned Syrian refugee toddler Alan Kurdi. In it she vividly described what happened to the three-year-old boy and so many others, saying “It makes the Earth a cemetery.”

UNHCR supporter Ben Stiller recited the petition and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, model and former refugee Alek Wek made comments.

After making history at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Olympic Refugee Team swimmer Yusra Mardini from Syria and runner Yiech Pur Biel from South Sudan attended the event. United States-resettled refugees also threw their support behind the petition, speaking on the appeal’s main asks.

On Friday’s event was the culmination of a week of global broadcasts by UNHCR’s celebrity supporters on Facebook Live encouraging people in every region to sign the #WithRefugees petition, which will remain active until all its goals are achieved.

The broadcasts were launched by UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett and included her Facebook-produced film What they took with them – which premiered at on Friday’s event. Taken from the poem of the same name written by Jenifer Toksvig, it lists things refugees carried with them when they fled, and expresses the trauma when conflict and persecution force people to leave their homes.