On today’s marking of World Refugee Day, organized by the UNHCR office in Serbia, their prominent advocate for refugee rights, our well-known actress Branka Katić, delivered a very inspiring speech.

Here it is in full:

What does it mean to be human? What distinguishes us from other species, from beasts? Is it our reason? Is it?

The present day in which we live forces us to ask this question again. The horrific scenes from war zones that we witness every day compel us to wonder where is humanity’s reason? And where is its heart?

Centuries pass, and we do not seem to become any wiser. What more needs to happen to us to say enough is enough. Enough of the struggle for supremacy, for dominance, enough destruction to prove superiority.

Wars are a source of suffering for millions of innocent civilians. In conflicts, it is not the powerful who suffer, but ordinary people, the small man, woman, child. Those fortunate enough to survive often lose everything they considered their home and their life in a single moment. The madness of war and discrimination forces them to embark on a long and dangerous journey in search of a little peace, a little safe place under the sun. A place that belongs to everyone, because we are all born on this planet.

Our planet has given us more than enough: air, water, and food; it belongs to all of us. It does not know mine and yours.

Each of us can become a refugee at any moment. No privileges, wealth, knowledge, or culture provide sufficient protection from that.

In these four years of working with UNHCR, I have had the opportunity to meet people displaced from various parts of the world. I have always been fascinated by their courage and their will to fight for a better tomorrow.

Thank you all for helping them in this struggle, for giving them a chance to live with dignity. They bring with them their culture, their customs, their spices—all that makes our planet so beautiful and diverse.

I wish a brighter future for us all!