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:

Archives and records

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

1922

1945

1948

1950

1951

1955

1956

1957

1959

1967

1975

1979

1921

Black and white photo of a conference of the League of Nations

First High Commissioner for Refugees appointed

20 August 1921

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

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

Black and white photo: A group fo refugees wait to board a ship

Second World War ends

2 September 1945

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

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

10 December 1948

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

Black and white photo of refugee family in a camp in Europe

UNHCR is born

14 December 1950

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

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

28 July 1951

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

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

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

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

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

Black and white photo of a group of Angolan refugees waiting for food rations

1967 Protocol

31 January 1967

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

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

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.

In photos: The history of UNHCR

UNHCR's first task in 1951 was to help an estimated 1 million mainly European civilians, including these refugees in a camp in Germany, still uprooted in the aftermath of World War Two.

The agency's predecessor, the International Refugee Organization, had helped 1 million people, including these Europeans from camps in Germany, Austria and Italy en route to a new life in the United States, to resettle in other countries.

When the Hungarian uprising erupted in 1956, UNHCR faced its first post-war emergency, coordinating help for more than 200,000 people who fled that country. Some refugees remained in Austria where UNHCR funded housing projects like the one above.

Africa's first modern refugee crisis occurred in the late 1950s during Algeria's independence struggle against France. UNHCR, during its first intervention on the African continent, provided assistance for 200,000 refugees who fled to surrounding countries.

As colonialism came to a close, conflicts erupted in many parts of Africa in the 1960s including, not for the last time, strife in the central African state of Rwanda. This group of Rwandese is seen waiting for the distribution of food at a refugee centre in Uganda's Oruchinga Valley.

Independent African states welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the chaos of independence struggles. One of UNHCR's most successful operations in the 1960s was the rural integration of refugees in countries of asylum, including these Mozambicans in Tanzania.

The flight of 10 million Bengalis to India in 1971 was the most dramatic exodus of the 20th century. UNHCR acted as focal point for a vast relief operation.

In 1974, 400,000 people became homeless during clashes between Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus. UNHCR coordinated food, health and shelter.

The flight of Vietnamese refugees began after the fall of Saigon to North Vietnam forces in 1975. An estimated 3 million, including these Vietnamese boat people arriving in Malaysia in 1978, fled in the wake of the various conflicts in Indochina.

In the late 1970s, Thailand became the country of first asylum for refugees from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. These Cambodian children were among the tens of thousands who fled to Thailand during and after the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

A cycle of repression and violence engulfed Central America in the 1980s and more than 300,000 people, including this Guatemalan woman in Mexico, received assistance.

Miskito Indians from Nicaragua wait for a food distribution at a Honduran camp during the 1980s.

The exodus of more than 6 million Afghans started in 1979. People fled to such sites as the Ghazi Refugee Village in Pakistan.

Drought and war resulted in a massive influx of Ethiopians into Sudan during the 1980s and tens of thousands of people died before a relief effort became effective.

Nearly 1.5 million Mozambicans fled civil war to neighbouring countries in the 1980s, receiving assistance and education. In 1992, UNHCR began helping them return home in the largest repatriation of refugees in African history.

After more than 15 years in exile, an estimated 41,000 refugees from Namibia returned home in 1989, including these civilians leaving Lubango in Angola.

The Gulf War in the early 1990s was followed by the exodus of 1.5 million Iraqi Kurds. Some refugees, including these children, were able to return home within weeks.

By late 1991 nearly 750,000 Somalis were sheltering in Ethiopia's Hararghe region and the need for wood became a serious environmental burden in one of Africa's most inhospitable spots. Somalia remained in crisis in 2010.

An estimated 250,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar began arriving in Bangladesh in early 1991. Many returned home where UNHCR provides assistance and monitors their wellbeing.

After years of exile and a 13-month repatriation operation completed in 1993, tens of thousands of Cambodians began a new life with food rations, tools, land or a cash grant provided by UNHCR.

Some of the refugees originating from Bhutan who ended up staying in seven camps in eastern Nepal. This picture was taken in 1992, but a resettlement programme was launched in late 2007 and 40,000 of the refugees had been resettled by late 2010.

War and displacement ripped through West Africa in the 1990s. More than 800,000 Liberians fled their homeland in the early 1990s, followed by tens of thousands of Sierra Leoneans. The supply of clean water was essential to prevent the spread of disease.

War in the Balkans in the 1990s displaced 3 million people and 8,000 men and boys from the Bosnian Muslim enclave of Srebrenica were executed. Women and children mourn the deaths of their menfolk one year after the fall of Srebrenica.

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda triggered a massive exodus into neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania, where huge camps, such as this one established in the Ngara area of Tanzania, sprung up.

The crisis in Africa's Great Lakes region also involved Burundi where 270,000 Rwandans sought safety, including this group in Mugano camp.

At least 20,000 people were killed, a half million people were displaced and 60,000 civilians fled to Afghanistan, including this doctor and patient, when civil war erupted in the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan in 1992.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, conflict erupted in several areas of the former empire, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee, including these civilians from North Ossetia at a collective centre.

Within days of NATO's air strikes against Serb positions in 1999, nearly one million civilians fled or were forced into exile from Kosovo, including these civilians at a border crossing with the neighbouring Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Refugees began flooding back into Kosovo virtually as quickly as they had left, but many returned to scenes of utter destruction.

The end of the 20th century was marked by a refugee exodus from East Timor. When an international force restored order, many of the displaced were able to go home with the help of UNHCR.

Afghan refugees prepare to return home in 2002 from a staging post near the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

32. Sudanese refugees from the Darfur region in eastern Chad in 2004. They were forced to flee their homes to escape attacks by armed groups.

Somali refugees after arrival at Hagadera camp in the north-east Kenyan district of Dadaab. The Dadaab camps are the most crowded in the world, housing almost 300,000 though built for just 90,000 refugees.