what is unhcr

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency that is mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration, or resettlement to a third country. It was created in 1950 to address the refugee crisis that resulted from World War II, and the 1951 Refugee Convention established the scope and legal framework of the agencys work, which initially focused on Europeans uprooted by the war. Since then, the scope of UNHCRs operations has broadened to include displacement caused by other conflicts, from the Hungarian Uprising to the decolonization of Africa and Asia. UNHCR is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with over 18,879 staff working in 138 countries as of 2020. The agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide, and its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees.