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Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
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Office established in 1951 to give legal, social, economic, and political aid to refugees. The UNHCR is the successor of the International Refugee Organization. Its first efforts focused on Europeans displaced by World War II; it has since assisted refugees in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Yugoslavia. It is based in Geneva and is financed by voluntary government contributions. The office won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1954 and 1981.

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Encyclopedia of Public Health: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
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Persecution, political violence, natural disasters, armed conflict, and other catastrophic events are among the numerous reasons that, throughout history, millions of people have had to flee their homes as refugees and seek protection in other countries. Organized efforts to protect and assist refugees while finding lasting solutions to their problems can be traced back to 1919 and the founding of the League of Nations. Due to the large numbers of refugees that resulted from World War I, the Russian revolution, and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations, in 1921, created the position of High Commissioner to deal with the problems of displaced persons.

Initially, the office of the High Commissioner addressed the needs of refugees from Europe, but later became more involved with displaced persons from other nations, including Syria. At that time, refugee assistance focused on defining the status of refugees, helping them with employment, and protecting them from further expulsion.

In 1945 The League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations (UN), and in 1947 the UN created a new agency called the International Refugee Organization (IRO) to deal with matters affecting displaced persons. However, this organization only addressed the needs of refugees from Europe. In 1951 the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was created to replace the IRO. In contrast to the former organization, the UNHCR was charged with addressing refugee problems around the world.

The main role of The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is to protect and assist refugees in finding durable solutions to their displacement, addressing their special needs, and promoting and monitoring states' adherence to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention in order to provide adequate protection to the refugees in their respective territories.

UNHCR activities changed significantly during its first half century of existence. For example, the scale of UNHCR operations was greatly increased, with offices in more than 120 nations around the world in 2001. In addition to permanent solutions to the long-term needs of refugees, the organization provides assistance with many more immediate concerns for survival. Initially, the UNHCR focused primarily on facilitating the flow of refugees. Now it also provides material support such as food, shelter, health care, education, and other related social services. It has also designed special programs to meet the specific needs of groups such as women, children, adolescents, the elderly, and those who are suffering from the effects of war trauma. Additionally, the UNHCR has developed programs that assist displaced people within their own countries, returnees, asylum seekers, and stateless people. Finally, the UNHCR works hand in hand with other United Nations agencies, peacekeepers, military forces, regional agencies, human rights organizations, and other international and local organizations and agencies.

Since its establishment in 1951, UNHCR has had as its primary mission the goal of meeting the needs of those forcibly displaced. However, the agency faces continuing challenges such as limited funding, difficult working environments, military threats, large numbers of displaced persons, and often overwhelmingly poor health conditions. Finding clear, lasting, and meaningful solutions to refugee problems around the world is extremely difficult due to complex political, economic, social, and related barriers. However, with more than 20 million refugees worldwide today—and another 24 million displaced persons—there is an obvious need for the UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations to work jointly to ensure peace and tranquility by mobilizing resources that support displaced persons.

(SEE ALSO: Famine; Genocide; International Health; Natural Disasters; Refugee Communities; Terrorism; War; World Health Organization)

Bibliography

UNHCR (2000). The State of the World's Refugees 2000. Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action. Available at http://www.unhcr.ch/.

— MICHELE YEHIELI; CLEMENTINE MUKESHIMANA


 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
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United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Office of the (UNHCR), established Jan., 1951, by the General Assembly. It superseded the International Refugee Organization. It seeks permanent solutions to refugee problems, offers international protection to refugees, coordinates the activities of voluntary agencies, and assists the most needy refugee groups. It was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981. In the late 1950s the office of UNHCR aided refugees from Hungary, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, and Chinese refugees in Hong Kong. Since the 1960s most of its economic assistance has gone to refugees created by tribal and political conflicts and civil wars. In the 1980s and 90s such conflicts have taken it to the Horn of Africa, Central America, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and the former Yugoslavia.

Bibliography

See L. Holborn, Refugees, a Problem for Our Time: The Work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1950-1970 (1974).

Wikipedia: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
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Small Flag of the United Nations ZP.svg   United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
 
UNHCR DADAAB REGION, KENYA AFRICA DOD 2006.JPEG
UNHCR packages containing tents, tarps, and mosquito netting sit in a field in Dadaab, Kenya, on 11 December 2006, following disastrous flooding.
Org type Programme
Acronyms UNHCR
Head António Guterres
Established 1950
Website http://www.unhcr.org
Portal Portal:United Nations United Nations Portal

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR; established December 14, 1950) is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.

Contents

Function

UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950[1] and succeeded the earlier United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another state, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.

UNHCR's mandate has gradually been expanded to include protecting and providing humanitarian assistance to what it describes as other persons "of concern," including internally displaced persons (IDPs) who would fit the legal definition of a refugee under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and 1967 Protocol, the 1969 Organization for African Unity Convention, or some other treaty if they left their country, but who presently remain in their country of origin. UNHCR presently has major missions in Lebanon, South Sudan, Chad/Darfur, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan as well as Kenya to assist and provide services to IDPs and refugees.

Palestine refugee mandate

Main article: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

Most Palestinian refugees – those in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan – do not come within the responsibility of the UNHCR, but instead come under an older body, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). But Palestinian refugees outside of UNRWA's area of operations do fall under UNHCR's mandate, if they meet the UNHCR's more limited definition of refugee.

Public awareness

Several new programmes have recently been introduced to support and bring awareness to the issues faced by refugees around the world. These two new programs are a product of the benchmarks set out by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Awards

UNHCR was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981.

Persons of concern to UNHCR

As of 1 January 2007, UNHCR reported a total of 21 018 589 individuals falling under its mandate.

  • 7 979 251 in Asia, of which
    • 2 580 638 in the Middle-East
    • 2 974 315 in South-East Asia
    • 218 584 in Central Asia
    • 1 304 189 in South Asia
    • 901 525 in East Asia and the Pacific
  • 4 740 392 in Europe, of which
    • 1 617 214 in Eastern Europe
    • 708 132 in South-East Europe
    • 616 132 in Central Europe and in the Baltic states
    • 1 798 914 in Western Europe
  • 5 069 123 in Africa, of which
    • 1 359 175 in Central Africa and the Great Lakes region
    • 2 105 314 in Eastern Africa
    • 1 031 030 in Western Africa
    • 434 427 in the Southern African region
    • 139 177 in North Africa

Staffing

The UNHCR employs a staff of approximately 6,300 people in more than 110 countries.[2]

High Commissioners

The post of High Commissioner has been held by:

Prior to the establishment of UNHCR, Fridtjof Nansen was the League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1922.

Goodwill ambassadors

UNHCR is also represented by a number of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassadors, who at present are Barbara Hendricks, Adel Imam, Angelina Jolie, Giorgio Armani, Boris Trajanov, Julien Clerc, George Dalaras, Osvaldo Laport, Khaled Hosseini and Muazzez Ersoy.[3] Previous ambassadors include Richard Burton, Nazia Hassan, James Mason and Sophia Loren.

See also

References

  • Gil Loescher, Alexander Betts and James Milner. UNHCR: The Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection into the Twenty-First Century, Routledge. 2008.
  • Gil Loescher. The UNHCR and World Politics: A Perilous Path. Oxford University Press. 2002
  • Fiona Terry. Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action. Cornell University Press. 2002.
  • Nicholas Steiner. Problems of Protection. Routledge. 2003.
  1. ^ "History of UNHCR: A global humanitarian organization of humble origins". UNHCR. http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646cbc.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01. 
  2. ^ "Basic facts". UNHCR. http://www.unhcr.org/basics.html. Retrieved 2008-04-12. 
  3. ^ "UNHCR Goodwill Ambassadors". UNHCR. http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/help?id=3f8d07664. Retrieved 2008-04-11. 

External links

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Encyclopedia of Public Health. Encyclopedia of Public Health. Copyright © 2002 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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