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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.

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.

Contents 1 History 2 Persons of concern to UNHCR 3 Staffing 3.1 Goodwill ambassadors 3.2 High Commissioners 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

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.

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

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)

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].

The post of High Commissioner has been held by:

• António Guterres, 2005 - present (term to expire in 2009) (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)

Fridtjof Nansen was the League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1922.

• United Nations
• Nansen International Office for Refugees

• 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.

• Official web site
• 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

v • d • e Nobel Peace Prize Laureates
Léon 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 Hammarskjöld (1961) • Linus Pauling (1962) • International Red Cross and Red Crescent (1963) • Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964) • UNICEF (1965) • René Cassin (1968) • International Labour Organization (1969) • Norman Borlaug (1970) • Willy Brandt (1971) • Henry Kissinger / Le Duc Tho (1973) • Seán MacBride / Eisaku Satō (1974) • Andrei Sakharov (1975)
Complete roster | (1901-1925) | (1926-1950) | (1951-1975) | (1976-2000) | (2001-2025)

v • d • e Nobel Peace Prize Laureates
Betty Williams / Mairead Corrigan (1976) • Amnesty International (1977) • Anwar Al Sadat / Menachem Begin (1978) • Mother Teresa (1979) • Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (1980) • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1981) • Alva Myrdal / Alfonso García Robles (1982) • Lech Wałęsa (1983) • Desmond Tutu (1984) • International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (1985) • Elie Wiesel (1986) • Óscar Arias (1987) • UN Peacekeeping (1988) • Dalai Lama (1989) • Mikhail Gorbachev (1990) • Aung San Suu Kyi (1991) • Rigoberta Menchú (1992) • Nelson Mandela / F.W. de Klerk (1993) • Yasser Arafat / Shimon Peres / Yitzhak Rabin (1994) • Pugwash Conferences / Joseph Rotblat (1995) • Carlos Belo / José Horta (1996) • International Campaign to Ban Landmines / Jody Williams (1997) • John Hume / David Trimble (1998) • Médecins Sans Frontières (1999) • Kim Dae-jung (2000)
Complete roster | (1901-1925) | (1926-1950) | (1951-1975) | (1976-2000) | (2001-2025)

v • d • e United Nations (UN)
History	United Nations Charter
Membership	Member states · Observers
UN System	General 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
Resolutions	General Assembly · Security Council