United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (or High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner english for Refugees, UNHCR) is a personal office and a United Nations agency (UN). The High Commissioner is appointed almost universally in the protection of millions of refugees and displaced persons and is also in the field of humanitarian aid operates.

The refugee agency is accountable as a special organ of the United Nations of the General Assembly. It was founded on 14 December 1950 by the General Assembly and adopted on 1 January 1951 his work.

The Authority is the successor organization founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner and polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen after the First World War ( and until 1927 headed by him ) Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations. After his death, the Office international Nansen pour les réfugiés was built.

The headquarters of the UNHCR is located in Geneva. In 2010, UNHCR had approximately 6,800 employees in 126 countries, with over 80 percent of employees worked outside the Geneva headquarters. The German department with headquarters in Berlin has existed since the 1950s, as well as an office in Vienna. The Refugee Agency protects and supports refugees and is mandated to do so by Articles 2 and 35 of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 ) and its Protocol (1967). The prerequisite is that the respective host country has signed these instruments. On request of a government or the UN General Assembly, UNHCR is also committed to the protection of IDPs in many countries. The High Commissioner also helps refugees and displaced persons in the voluntary return, integration or resettlement her.

In addition to the legal protection and humanitarian assistance to refugees is increasingly represented, which mainly makes the UNHCR in countries of Asia and Africa. After the refugee crisis on the Cap Anamur in July 2004 off the Italian coast, UNHCR has asked the European Union to develop their refugee law. There must be a common European asylum application to be developed. In 2006, UNHCR has taken care of, inter alia, in the course of the Lebanon crisis displaced. In addition, Chad / Darfur, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq were among the largest missions of the High Commissioner for Refugees. In order to make the widest possible audience to the work of the UNHCR attentive, the High Commissioner with so-called special ambassadors and special envoys including about the actress Angelina Jolie working together.

1954 and 1981, the UNHCR was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 and the Balzan Prize for Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples.

Refugee camp in Darfur ( Chad)

Arrival of a UNHCR - helicopter with relief supplies in Macedonia

UNHCR trucks loaded with relief supplies on the way to Iraq to help Kurdish refugees

A UNHCR staff consults with U.S. Marines

Helpers from UNHCR and CARE Sort aid packages in Kenya

The High Commissioners

The Office of the High Commissioner was exercised by:

  • Fridtjof Nansen 1922-1927 ( High Commissioner of the League of Nations )
  • Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart, 1951 to 1956
  • August R. Lindt, 1956-1960
  • Felix Schnyder, 1960-1965
  • Sadruddin Aga Khan, 1965-1977
  • Poul Hartling, 1978-1985
  • Jean -Pierre Hocké, 1986-1989
  • Thorvald Stoltenberg January to November 1990
  • Sadako Ogata, 1990-2000
  • Ruud Lubbers, 1 January 2001 to February 20, 2005 (withdrawal due to internal investigation )
  • Wendy Chamberlin, from February to June 2005 ( interim)
  • António Guterres, since June 2005,
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