United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Also called: UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency · Topic: Citizenship: Idea and Indian Law · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Citizenship"
Meaning
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also called the UN Refugee Agency, was set up by the UN General Assembly in 1950. It protects and helps refugees and stateless people. Refugees are people forced to flee war or persecution. Stateless people are those no country accepts as citizens. UNHCR also works to find lasting solutions for them: safe return home, settling in the host country, or moving to a third country. It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and again in 1981.
Example
India has signed neither the 1951 Refugee Convention nor its 1967 Protocol, and it has no refugee law. Even so, refugees such as the Rohingya live in India, and their protection is decided case by case. UNHCR's role matters most for groups like these, who fall outside any national law.
Don't confuse with
- 1951 Refugee Convention: this is the treaty that defines who a refugee is. UNHCR is the agency that does the protection work on the ground.
Related concepts
- Universal citizenship
- Refugee
- Statelessness
- 1951 Refugee Convention
- Non-refoulement
- Global citizenship
- Global Citizenship Education