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History of UNHCR

About UNHCR

History of UNHCR

Established in the aftermath of the Second World War, UNHCR has been there protecting people forced to flee conflict and persecution for over 70 years.
Black and white photo of three women and a child arriving at a refugee camp in Austria.

In this section:

There for people forced to flee for over 70 years 

Initially, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1950 in the aftermath of the Second World War to help the millions of Europeans who had fled or lost their homes. We were given three years to complete this work, and then disband. 

As new refugee crises unfolded across the globe, our mandate was extended multiple times throughout the 20th century until a General Assembly resolution in 2003 made the agency permanent.

Today, we are a global organization dedicated to protecting people forced to flee. We lead international action to protect refugees, deliver life-saving assistance, help safeguard fundamental human rights, and develop solutions that ensure people have a safe place to call home where they can build a better future.

Over the years, our scope has widened to also include supporting refugees returning home, people forcibly displaced within their own country, and those denied a nationality and left stateless.

UNHCR now has 18,879 personnel working in 137 countries. We have helped more than 50 million refugees to successfully restart their lives, and continue to protect and provide support for the 89.3 million people currently displaced.

70 years of protecting those forced to flee

For over 70 years UNHCR has been working to strengthen international refugee protection systems and provide aid and assistance to those that are forced to flee their homes. Learn more about our beginnings and how our mission has expanded and evolved over the past seven decades. 
 

1921
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Black and white photo of a conference of the League of Nations
First High Commissioner for Refugees appointed
The League of Nations, forerunner of the United Nations, appoints Norwegian scientist and explorer Dr. Fridtjof Nansen as the first High Commissioner for Refugees, marking the start of the modern international system for protecting refugees.
1922
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A sample of a passport
The Nansen Passport is introduced
Realizing that one of the biggest problems refugees face is a lack of internationally recognized identification papers, the High Commissioner introduces the Nansen Passport. It is effectively the first legal instrument to grant international protection to refugees and allows almost half a million people displaced by the First World War to settle in a new country.

This same year, Dr. Fridtjof Nansen receives the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his work for refugees, as well as organizing relief for millions of Russians affected by famine, and helping 400,000 prisoners of war return home.
1945
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Black and white photo: A group fo refugees wait to board a ship
Second World War ends
An estimated 60 million people have lost their lives, cities are in ruins, and in Europe alone 40 million people are displaced. UNHCR predecessor, the International Refugee Organization (IRO), helps one million to resettle in other countries, including the people pictured in the photo who are travelling from camps in Germany, Austria and Italy to the United States of America on an IRO-chartered ship.
1948
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Black and white photo of a conference
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 14(1) of the Declaration states: “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”.
1950
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Black and white photo of refugee family in a camp in Europe
UNHCR is born
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is formally established by the United Nations General Assembly.

The office's first task is to help more than one million people who still remain displaced in the wake of the Second World War, mainly in Europe, like the family pictured left in a camp in Germany. UNHCR has a three-year mandate to complete this work and then disband.
1951
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A black and white photo showing travel documents and The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is adopted
The 1951 Convention consolidates earlier international instruments and provides the most comprehensive codification of refugee rights in history.

It is the first internationally recognized definition of what is meant by the word ‘refugee’ and outlines their rights as well as the legal obligations of countries to protect them. It will be applied without discrimination to race, religion or country of origin. Significantly, it is limited to persons who became refugees before 1 January 1951.
1955
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Mr. Gunnar Jahn, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, hands the Nobel Peace prize to to the United Nations High Commissioner.
UNHCR awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
UNHCR receives the 1954 Nobel Peace Prize “for its efforts to heal the wounds of war by providing help and protection to refugees all over the world”, with the ceremony taking place in 1955. It is the first United Nations agency to receive the award.

During his Nobel Lecture, then High Commissioner Gerrit van Heuven Goedhart said "There can be no real peace in this world as long as hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, through no fault of their own [...] still remain in camps and live in misery and in the greatest uncertainty of their future."

At the time, there was an estimated 2.2 million refugees in the world, today there are over 100 million.
1956
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Black and white photo of three women and a child arriving at a refugee camp in Austria.
Hungarian uprising
The Hungarian uprising and its brutal suppression see more than 200,000 people flee to neighboring countries. UNHCR faces its first post-war emergency, coordinating help for the thousands of displaced who arrive exhausted, hungry and in need of shelter.

This marks UNHCR’s transformation from an organization that dealt with the aftermath of the Second World War to one that could rise to the challenge of new, large-scale emergencies. It is also UNHCR’s first experience of working with a mass exodus of refugees fleeing political repression.
1957
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Black and white photo of a refugee settlement in Hong Kong
Assisting refugees in Hong Kong
UNHCR is asked by the United Nations General Assembly to use its "good offices" to bring assistance to thousands of Chinese refugees arriving in Hong Kong.

It is to be UNHCR's first operation outside of Europe.

Pictured: Refugee dwellings in Hong Kong, 1961
1959
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Black and white photo of a refugee family
Algerian War of Independence
UNHCR's is asked to organize material assistance for thousands of Algerian refugees who have fled to Tunisia and Morocco during the Algerian War of Independence against France, which began in 1954.

It is Africa's first modern refugee crisis and UNHCR’s first involvement on the African continent.

When the conflict is over in 1962, UNHCR will help an estimated 250,000 Algerians return home safely. This will be the first large-scale repatriation operation in UNHCR history.
1967
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Black and white photo of a group of Angolan refugees waiting for food rations
1967 Protocol
The need for refugee aid and protection has spread far beyond Europe. Huge new refugee populations have been created in Asia and Africa.

The 1967 Protocol is introduced to amend the 1951 Refugee Convention, which was limited to only those persons who became refugees before 1 January 1951.

It extends protection to all refugees whatever the date they were forced to leave their homes.
1975
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A group of Vietnamese refugees help carry each other to shore in Malaysia after their boat sank
Fall of Saigon
Saigon falls to North Viet Nam Communist forces. Tens of thousands flee the country, taking to the South China Sea, despite the risks of piracy and drowning.

When boat arrivals escalate dramatically in 1979, boat ‘pushbacks’ become routine in many countries. It is estimated that thousands of Vietnamese people may have perished at sea. The group pictured arrived in Malaysia in 1978. They made it to shore after their small boat sank metres from safety.

Nearly 255,000 Vietnamese 'boat-people' were given temporary asylum in Malaysia, with UNHCR helping over 245,000 resettle permanently in Western countries.
1979
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A Cambodian refugee child looks at photos of other refugees
Height of the Indochina refugee crisis
Upheavals following the Communist victories in former French colonies of Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam have displaced tens of thousands. Under the Khmer Rouge regime, an estimated one million Cambodians have been executed or died of starvation, disease or overwork.

When the regime falls in 1979, thousands stream into neighbouring Thailand, among them many accompanied children. The Khao-I-Dang camp becomes home to 140,000 Cambodian refugees within months.

UNHCR will manage the camp with Thai authorities for 14 years, looking after construction, food, water, and protection of refugees, before its eventual closure in 1993. It was turned into an education centre on the Indochina refugee crisis in 2016.

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