|
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
15/12/2000 The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1950, one of several attempts by the international community during the last century to provide protection and help to refugees. The new agency was initially set up for three years only and began its work with just 33 staff and a budget of $300,000. Its purpose was to resettle the 1.2 million European refugees left homeless by the war in Europe, then go out of business. That early, mainly European, crisis did not go away. In the 1960s, as colonial empires crumbled, Africa was convulsed by violence. Ten years later, it was Asia's turn. By the 1980s, cold war manoeuvrings resulted in forced population movements from Central America, Africa and Afghanistan. And as the century drew to a close and the refugee pandemic reached global proportions, UNHCR was caring for around 22 million forcibly uprooted people. The agency's core mandate is to protect and care for refugees: that is people who are outside their countries cannot return home because of a well-founded fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group. As a humanitarian non-political organisation, UNHCR has two core aims - to protect refugees and to seek ways to help them restart their lives in a normal environment. In fulfilling these, the agency is guided by the 1951 UN Convention of the Status of Refugees and its 1968 Protocol, although there are many other human rights instruments that also support its work. International protection is the cornerstone of the agency's work. This means safeguarding refugees' human rights and ensuring that none are forced back to a country where they fear persecution. It also includes promotion of international refugee agreements and monitoring government compliance with international refugee law. In addition, the agency seeks long-term solutions by helping refugees return home if conditions warrant, by assisting their integration in their countries of asylum, or organising their resettlement in third countries. As part of its protection function UNHCR co-ordinates the provision and delivery of shelter, food, water and sanitation for refugees. It also designs specific projects for vulnerable groups such as women, children and the elderly who comprise eighty per cent of a refugee population. In
recent years, millions of people who do not legally qualify as refugees
because they remain within their own countries have been forced
from their homes by violent conflict. Globally there are around
25 million so-called internally displaced. In the absence of any
other means of protection, increasingly UNHCR has been called upon
to help some of these people.
©EuropaWorld 2000 - Copyright Policy
|
|||
