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Information about Unhcr

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (established December 14, 1950) protects and supports refugees at the request of a government or the United Nations and assists in their return or resettlement.

Enlarge picture
Colin Powell and UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie


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 the older body UNRWA. But, Palestinian refugees outside of UNRWA's area of operations do fall under UNHCR's mandate.

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, Iraq, Afghanistan as well as Kenya to assist and provide services to IDPs and refugees.

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.

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

A staff of over 6689 individuals in 116 countries continues to help millions of refugees and internally displaced people around the world.(UNHCR, Appel Global, 2007)

Goodwill ambassadors

UNHCR is also represented by UNHCR Goodwill Ambassadors, one of whom is actress Angelina Jolie [1]. The newest UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador is the Greek singer George Dalaras [2].

High Commissioners

The post of High Commissioner has been held by: Fridtjof Nansen was the League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1922.

See also

References

Gil Loescher. The UNHCR and World Politics: A Perilous Path. Oxford University Press. 2002

David Rieff. A Bed for the Night. Simon and Schuster. 2003.

Fiona Terry. Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action. Cornell University Press. 2002.

Nicholas Steiner. Problems of Protection. Routledge. 2003.

Tony Waters. Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan. Westview. 2001.

External links

 •  • [ e]
Nobel Peace Prize Laureates
Lon Jouhaux (1951) • Albert Schweitzer (1952) • George Marshall (1953) • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1954) • Lester B. Pearson (1957) • Georges Pire (1958) • Philip Noel-Baker (1959) • Albert Lutuli (1960) • Dag Hammarskjld (1961) • Linus Pauling (1962) • International Red Cross and Red Crescent (1963) • Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964) • UNICEF (1965) • Ren Cassin (1968) • International Labour Organization (1969) • Norman Borlaug (1970) • Willy Brandt (1971) • Henry Kissinger / Le Duc Tho (1973) • Sen MacBride / Eisaku Satō (1974) • Andrei Sakharov (1975)
 •  • [ e]
Nobel Peace Prize Laureates
Betty Williams / Mairead Corrigan (1976) • Amnesty International (1977) • Anwar Al Sadat / Menachem Begin (1978) • Mother Teresa (1979) • Adolfo Prez Esquivel (1980) • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1981) • Alva Myrdal / Alfonso Garca Robles (1982) • Lech Wałęsa (1983) • Desmond Tutu (1984) • International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (1985) • Elie Wiesel (1986) • scar Arias (1987) • UN Peacekeeping (1988) • Dalai Lama (1989) • Mikhail Gorbachev (1990) • Aung San Suu Kyi (1991) • Rigoberta Mench (1992) • Nelson Mandela / F.W. de Klerk (1993) • Yasser Arafat / Shimon Peres / Yitzhak Rabin (1994) • Pugwash Conferences / Joseph Rotblat (1995) • Carlos Belo / Jos Horta (1996) • International Campaign to Ban Landmines / Jody Williams (1997) • John Hume / David Trimble (1998) • Mdecins Sans Frontires (1999) • Kim Dae Jung (2000)
 •  • [ e]
United Nations (UN)
HistoryUnited Nations Charter
MembershipMember states Observers
UN SystemGeneral Assembly Security Council Economic and Social Council Secretariat Trusteeship Council International Court of Justice
Programs,
funds and agencies		FAO ICAO ILO IPCC ITU UNCTAD UNDCP UNDP UNEP UNESCO UNFIP UNFPA UNHCR UNHRC UN-HABITAT UNICEF UNRWA UPU WFP WHO WMO
ResolutionsGeneral Assembly Security Council
Geneva (pronunciation /dʒənivə/; French: Genève /ʒənɛv/, German: Genf
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Motto
Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno (Latin) (traditional)[1]
"One for all, all for one"
Anthem
"Swiss Psalm"
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December 14 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1287 - St.

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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
1947 1948 1949 - 1950 - 1951 1952 1953

Year 1950 (MCML
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Headquarters
(and largest city)
Official languages Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish
Membership 192 member states
Leaders
 -  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Establishment
 - 
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The of this article or section may be compromised by "weasel words".
You can help Wikipedia by removing weasel words. Palestinian refugees
Total population: 4.9 million[1] -- 4.
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The West Bank (Arabic: الضفة الغربية,
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GDP (PPP)  estimate
 -  Total $770 million (160th1)
 -  Per capita 600 $ (167th1)
Currency Israeli new sheqel (de facto) (ILS)
Time zone (UTC+2)
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Motto
Kūllūnā li-l-waṭan, li-l-'ula wa-l-'alam   (Arabic)
"Nous sommes tous pour le pays, la sublimation et le drapeau!"
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Anthem
Homat el Diyar
Guardians of the Land


Capital
(and largest city) Damascus

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Anthem
عاش المليك
The Royal Anthem of Jordan
   ("As-salam al-malaki al-urdoni") 1
Long live the King
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December 14 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1287 - St.

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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
1947 1948 1949 - 1950 - 1951 1952 1953

Year 1950 (MCML
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The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was proposed to the United States Congress by president Franklin Delano Roosevelt on June 9, 1943 to provide relief to areas liberated from Axis powers after World War II.
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internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who has been forced to leave their home for reasons such as religious or political persecution, war or natural disaster, but has not crossed an international border. The term is a subset of the more general displaced person.
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Headquarters
(and largest city)
Official languages Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish
Membership 192 member states
Leaders
 -  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Establishment
 - 
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United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is an international convention that defines who is a refugee, and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum.
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Motto
Kūllūnā li-l-waṭan, li-l-'ula wa-l-'alam   (Arabic)
"Nous sommes tous pour le pays, la sublimation et le drapeau!"
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Motto
"Al-Nasr Lana"   (Arabic)
"Victory is Ours"
Anthem
نحن جند للہ جند الوطن   (Arabic)

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Motto
"Unité, Travail, Progrès"   (French)
"Unity, Work, Progress"
Anthem
"La Tchadienne"
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Darfur (Arabic: دار فور, lit. "home of the Fur") is a region of far western Sudan, bordering the Central African Republic, Libya, and Chad.
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Motto
الله أكبر    (Arabic)
"Allahu Akbar"   (transliteration)
"God is the Greatest"
Anthem

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Semi-protection is not an endorsement of the current version. To see other versions, view the [ page history].
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Motto
"Harambee"   (Swahili)
"Let us all pull together"
Anthem
Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu
"Oh God of All Creation"
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Millennium Development Goals are eight goals that 192 United Nations member states have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015.

The Millennium Development Goals derive from earlier OECD 'international development goals'[1]
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Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is the name of one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.
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January 1 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining. The preceding day is December 31 of the previous year.
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