United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
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	United Nations Portal

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Office of the UN 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.

History

UNHCR was established on December 14, 1950 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

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.

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

• 3 229 822 in America, of which
  • 717 545 in North America and in the Caribbean
  • 2 512 277 in South America

Staffing

The UNHCR employs a staff of approximately 6,300 people in more than 110 countries.^[1]

High Commissioners

The post of High Commissioner has been held by:

• António Guterres, 2005 - present (term to expire in 2010) (Portugal)
• Ruud Lubbers, 2001 - 2005 (the Netherlands)
• Sadako Ogata, 1990 - 2000 (Japan)
• Thorvald Stoltenberg, January-November 1990 (Norway)
• Jean-Pierre Hocké, 1986 - 1989 (Switzerland)
• Poul Hartling, 1978 - 1985 (Denmark)
• Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, 1965 - 1977 (Iran)
• Félix Schnyder, 1960 - 1965 (Switzerland)
• Auguste R. Lindt, 1956 - 1960 (Switzerland)
• Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart, 1951 - 1956 (the Netherlands)

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

Goodwill ambassadors

Colin Powell and UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie

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.^[2] Previous ambassadors include Richard Burton, James Mason and Sophia Loren.

Privacy

80/20 Thinking Limited has commenced an international privacy audit of the registration systems operating in UNHCR refugee centres, focusing on fingerprinting technologies, The evaluation will commence in Malaysia and will then take place in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. 80/20 will be the external evaluators for the UN internal assessment and will produce a Privacy Impact Assessment for UNHCR.

See also

• United Nations
• Nansen International Office for Refugees
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Representation in Cyprus

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.

External links

• Official web site
• UNHCR's "Refworld" refugee document and news web site: from UNHCR's Status Determination and Protection Information Section (SDPIS) in the Division of International Protection Services (DIPS).
• Bottled Water Program in Support of the UNHCR
• News from UNHCR official website
• "Basic facts" from official website
• Measuring Protection by Numbers, Report from official website
• History of the United Nations - UK Government site
• "Who is a Refugee and who is not - the Crisis of Identity as a Challenge to Protection" Online video of an address by Ms. Erika Feller, Director, Department of International Protection, UNHCR, in 2005
• USCRI's Campaign to End Refugee Warehousing
• USCRI's joint Statement Calling for Solutions to End the Warehousing of Refugees
• "Prisons of the Stateless: The Derelictions of UNHCR" by Jacob Stevens
• Nine Million
• EarthWater