United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1950, primarily to assist refugees displaced by World War II. Over the years, its mandate has expanded to support millions of refugees globally who have fled their homes due to war, violence, and persecution. The UNHCR aims to safeguard the civil rights of these individuals, helping them either resettle in host countries, return home safely after conflicts subside, or seek asylum in third nations.
The agency operates under guidelines defined by the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which classifies refugees and sets out their rights, as well as the responsibilities of nations to protect them. Throughout its history, the UNHCR has responded to numerous refugee crises, from the Hungarian Revolution to the ongoing Syrian Civil War, providing essential aid such as food, medical assistance, and shelter to those in need. Governed by a high commissioner and supported by a large staff, the UNHCR's budget has grown significantly, reflecting the increasing scale of displacement; by 2016, it reported assisting over 50 million refugees and managing an annual budget of $6.54 billion. Through its efforts, the UNHCR plays a crucial role in addressing humanitarian challenges and promoting the rights and well-being of refugees worldwide.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is an agency of the United Nations (UN) tasked with providing material assistance to refugees around the world. The organization safeguards the civil rights of refugees who have been forced to flee their homes due to war or other violence and are seeking refuge in other countries. The UNHCR's ultimate goals are to help refugees either settle in the country to which they have fled, safely return to their home countries after violence has stopped, or seek asylum, or political protection, in a third country of their choice.
The UN General Assembly created the UNHCR in 1950 as an instrument for helping Europeans who had been displaced by the destruction of World War II (1939–1945). The agency was meant to resettle these refugees within three years and then dissolve. The rise of other refugee crises around the world into the late twentieth century forced the United Nations to extend the life of the UNHCR indefinitely. In 2023, the UNHCR had staff in 136 countries and had resettled 158,700 refugees.
Background
The UN itself, like the mostly autonomous UNHCR, was created primarily for humanitarian purposes in the aftermath of World War II. Fifty-one nations from around the world established the UN in 1945 as a global partnership that would work to stop international conflicts and support human rights and social progress everywhere. The organization's charter also stated that the UN would actively attempt to alleviate humanitarian crises around the world.
World War II had been highly destructive in Europe. Millions of civilians across the continent had lost or left their homes during the war, and they had not resettled even five years after the conflict ended. On December 14, 1950, the UN General Assembly created the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The UNHCR was to remain active from January 1, 1951, to December 31, 1953. The agency was mandated to resettle the European refugees in this three-year period and then become inactive.
However, this was not the end of the UN's work with international refugees. In July 1951, the UN adopted the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a constitution that defined exactly who was considered a refugee. The UNHCR would govern itself based on the principles and definitions described in the convention. For example, according to the document, a refugee is a person who has been forced to leave his or her country due to war, persecution, or other violence. To be legally considered a refugee, the person must also have legitimate reason to fear returning home, such as oppression in one's country aimed at certain racial, religious, or political groups.
The UNHCR resettled the European refugees through 1953. The organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 for its accomplishments. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 presented the UNHCR with its first real-time refugee crisis. That year, the Soviet Union violently put down a popular uprising in Hungary, which the Soviets controlled as a socialist state. The chaos forced about 200,000 Hungarians to flee across Hungary's northwestern border into Austria. The UNHCR resettled many of these refugees.
Mass decolonization in Africa during the 1960s then created a stream of refugee crises requiring aid from the UNHCR. Decolonization involves the granting of independence to a nation's colony. The UNHCR also helped to resettle refugees in Asia and Latin America into the late 1960s and 1970s. In 1981, for its work in safeguarding refugees around the world, the UNHCR received a second Nobel Peace Prize. Over the next twenty years, the agency focused on more refugee emergencies in Africa and in Europe, where many people were displaced by the violence of the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
The UNHCR continued its refugee resettlement efforts in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East in the twenty-first century. The Middle East was particularly concerning to the organization in the mid-2010s. In this era, civil war and terrorist violence in Syria, Iraq, and various other nations forced millions of civilians, mostly Syrians, to flee to safety in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, and elsewhere in the world.
By the end of 2016, about 5 million Syrians had been displaced by the conflict in their home country. Those refugees forced to live indefinitely in refugee camps or in houses with other refugee families in the Middle East often depended on the generosity of others to survive. The UNHCR provided many of these refugees with food, medicine, money, winter clothing, and various other essential items. By early 2017, the agency had requested $8 billion in additional funding from other UN humanitarian organizations to continue helping the Syrian refugees.
Overview
The UNHCR is overseen by a high commissioner, who is chosen by the UN General Assembly. The assembly and the UN Economic and Social Council officially govern the UNHCR, but the agency's own executive committee directs its activities and budget.
USA for UNHCR, an American nonprofit organization that works directly with the UNHCR, defines different classes of refugees. Internally displaced people, for instance, are refugees who have fled their homes due to violence but have not actually left their home country. Because they have not crossed any national borders, they are not entitled to the same material aid as refugees who have gone to other countries. The UNHCR believes repatriation, or returning to one's country after a conflict has ended, is the best recourse for internally displaced people. Stateless people are refugees who are not citizens of any country, while asylum seekers are refugees who have applied for legal sanctuary in another country. Being granted asylum means refugees will receive necessities and legal protection.
By 2024, the UNHCR had a global staff of 20,305 workers in 136 countries. The agency's annual budget, which was $300,000 at the organization's inception, was $10.71 million in 2022. By this time, the UNHCR claimed it had helped more than 50 million refugees since the early 1950s. They had also helped 122.6 million displaced people by the mid-2020s.
Bibliography
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