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What
is the UNHCR?
Historical
view:
Wars, political conflicts and the competition to gain more power
were the motive for the development of human race on planet earth. And it’s affected deeply all of our life activities. Public humanitarian work was remarkable activity after the major 2 wars in last century. Wars are destructive and it brought much misery for humans widely. Always wars leave victims behind; those victims need help and fast relief work at the time of wars and aftermath the wars at peace time.
After the World War1 and because all of the destruction and the misery that the war left behind, the nations thought about establishing some kind of cooperation between the nations and humans as individuals or among private organizations (NGOs) on political bases to prevent another wars, and on humanitarian principles to solve the war aftermaths problems. Like this the League of Nations began to take shape after the war.
The league faced many problems and crises, politically and humanitarian, but I’ll concentrate on humanitarian side because it’s our subject and because I’m humanitarian.
Some of these problems led to our recent understanding for human rights and to create the UNHCR (United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees). I’ll give you some examples for these problems with simple historical facts.
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1921
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To
try to cope with the post-World War I crisis, the League of
Nations created a high commissioner for refugees in 1921
After
the World War1, international organizations were created to give
assistance. 1.5 million Russians fled the Revolution of 1917;
in the 1920s large numbers of Armenian and Greek refugees fled
from Turkey, and many Bulgarians left their country. In 1921
the League of Nations appointed Fridtjof Nansen its high
commissioner for refugee work.
Nansen
worked to solve the problem of war prisoners. After the world
war1 there was Suffering in prison camps in Europe and Asia
were half a million forgotten men; prisoners of war, who had
fought for Germany and its allies. Locked in the grip of the
Revolution, the Russians were largely indifferent to their
fate. Many of the prisoners no longer had a homeland.
The
Soviet authorities agreed to negotiate with Nansen personally.
Funds were somehow raised, and the gigantic task put in hand.
By September of 1922 Nansen was able to tell the League of
Nations that the mission had been accomplished. The Nansen
Relief organization had succeeded. Well over 400,000 prisoners
of war had been repatriated, not only quickly, but at
amazingly low cost.
The
prime contrbution of Nansen
was to provide the refugees with an accepted means of
identification. This would not only give them status, but the
possibility of procuring a passport. Nansen proposed that
certificates be issued giving the most. Many governments
agreed to recognize the "Nansen passports" and
thousands of stateless people were enabled to travel and to
settle in other countries. He himself approached the
governments and managed to persuade them to accept quotas of
refugees."
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1930
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The
Nansen International Office for Refugees,
Authorized
by the League of Nations in the fall of 1930, began active
operations on April 1, 1931. This office was the successor of
the first international agency dealing with refugees, the High
Commission for Refugees, established by the League of Nations
under the direction of Fridtjof Nansen (q.v.) on June
27, 1921.
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1943
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United
Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
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United
Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA),
organization founded (1943) during World War II to give aid to
areas liberated from the Axis powers.
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1946
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International
Refugee Organization
(IRO),
temporary
agency of the United Nations, established in 1946. In
arranging for the care and the repatriation or resettlement of
Europeans  made
homeless by World War II, the organization brought to a
conclusion part of the work of the United Nations Relief and
Rehabilitation Administration. IRO terminated its work in
1952, having resettled c.1,000,000 persons. It was superseded
by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees.
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1951
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United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Established
Jan, 1951, by the General Assembly. It superseded the
International Refugee Organization. It seeks permanent
solutions to refugee problems, offers international protection
to refugees, coordinates the activities of voluntary agencies,
and assists the most needy refugee groups.
UNHCR's
first mandate was of limited geographical scope and time – a
three-year program to help principally European refugees. In
the intervening decades the problem of displaced people became
both more complex and took on a global dimension. UNHCR
changed along with the problem. It expanded from a relatively
small, specialized agency to an organization with offices in
120 countries, a $1 billion annual budget, the capacity to
provide not only legal protection but also material relief in
major emergencies, and the ability to help increasingly
diverse groups of dispossessed people.
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1967
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The
1967 Protocol,
The
UNHCR
was limited to protecting mainly European refugees in the
aftermath of World War II, but a 1967 Protocol expanded the
scope of the Convention as the problem of displacement spread
around the world. The original document also inspired regional
instruments such as the 1969 Africa Refugee Convention and the
1984 Latin American Cartagena Declaration.
With
1967 protocol UNHCR authorized to help the INTERNALLY
DISPLACED PERSONS (IDPs) aroubd the world.
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