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By browsing our website without changing the browser settings you grant us permission to store that information on your device. It began operating in , and its headquarters are in Geneva. The agency currently has a national and international staff of more than 7, working in countries. The High Commissioner is currently Mr. Antonio Guterres, who took up the position on 15 June and was reelected in April The organization is divided into several departments international protection, operational support, finances, inspection and evaluation, human resources , as well as regional divisions.
To this end, it helps States face the administrative, legal, diplomatic, financial, and human problems that are caused by the refugee phenomenon. UNHCR also works with governments to search for durable solutions for refugees. Being a refugee is a transitory condition for an individual. To protect such individuals or groups of individuals, States must grant them a stable and lasting legal status.
To this effect, UNHCR favors various forms of voluntary repatriation, integration into the State of asylum, and third country resettlement. It did not carry out material relief actions directly for refugees—its contribution was limited to giving financial support to private organizations that carried out such tasks. Thus, its contribution to the protection of refugees focused on negotiating and obtaining legal guarantees to their benefit and facilitating administrative formalities.
With the growth in the number of refugees, UNHCR turned into an operational agency that is now present in more than countries. Governments are invited to:. It was progressively expanded to include other persons in particular, war refugees by successive UN General Assembly resolutions.
States undertake to cooperate with UNHCR and to provide it with all the necessary information and statistical data, especially concerning refugees, the implementation of the Convention, and any other laws enacted that relate to refugees Art.
This function is crucial in order to lift administrative obstacles that refugees often face. These documents include identification papers or temporary travel documents Art. In more than six decades, the agency has helped tens of millions of people restart their lives. Today, a staff of some 7, people in more than countries continues to help some Optimistically, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, by the United Nations General Assembly with a three-year mandate to complete its work and then disband.
By the end of the century there were fresh refugee problems in Africa and, turning full circle, new waves of refugees in Europe from the series of wars in the Balkans. At the same time, UNHCR has been asked to use its expertise to also help many internally displaced by conflict. Less visibly, it has expanded its role in helping stateless people, a largely overlooked group numbering millions of people in danger of being denied basic rights because they do not have any citizenship.
In some parts of the world, such as Africa and Latin America, the original mandate has been strengthened by agreement on regional legal instruments. The aim of UNHCR is to promote action which will help the refugees to become self-supporting, and eventually, through naturalization to cease being refugees. Assistance given in achieving this aim may include emergency aid and rural settlement projects in Africa and to some extent in Asia; mainly housing and establishment assistance in European countries; and counseling, education, and training of one sort or another in most areas.
The UN provides administrative expenses and extends to the High Commissioner permission to obtain appropriations for current programs from individual governments and to accept contributions from private sources.
The funding target for any given year is determined by the Executive Committee upon recommendation of the High Commissioner whose budget varies in response to the needs of the time. Special programs are specially financed. Within these programs special allocations were made for various purposes, such as Camp Clearance that is, the finding of permanent solutions for refugees in European camps , and assistance to refugees in the Far East.
Since , a part of each program has been devoted to projects for refugees of longer standing and part to projects for new refugees. From , while the work in Europe continued, the Office, acting on the basis of resolutions of the General Assembly requesting the High Commissioner to extend his good offices to refugees not covered by the original Statute of , provided assistance to various groups of refugees in other parts of the world.
In and again in the High Commissioner was asked to use his good offices to encourage arrangements for contributions to assist Chinese refugees in Hong Kong whose numbers are estimated at over one million.
Since , and again on the basis of the good offices resolutions, the epicenter of UNHCR material assistance has moved from Europe to Africa and to some extent to Asia, where world events have caused a steady increase in the number of refugees requiring assistance.
By there were in Africa about one million refugees within the competence of UNHCR, of whom , received material assistance during that year. In Africa, and to some degree in Asia, the main solution for the refugee problem has been rural settlement, in which the Office has cooperated extensively with governments and with agencies, members of the United Nations system. In some cases these settlement projects have led to development programs for refugees and the local population alike. In the twenty-year history of the Office, there have been four high commissioners: G.
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
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