The Nobel Peace Prize 1954
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was originally established
by the General Assembly of the United Nations for a three-year period from
January 1, 1951, to December 31, 1953, but it has since been
voted successive five-year extensions through 1958, 1963, 1968,
and 1973. Within the framework of the United Nations, the UNHCR
superseded the International Refugee Organization (IRO),
1947-1952, which had in its turn taken over the refugee work of
the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
(UNRRA), 1943-1947.
In the mandate of the UNHCR, the term «refugee» is
carefully defined: in general, the refugee is a person who,
because of fear of persecution arising from his race, creed, or
political philosophy, is living outside his former home country
and is unable or unwilling to avail himself of that country's
protection. UNHCR provides him international protection in
accordance with the provisions of the Convention Relating to the
Status of Refugees adopted in 1951, which has been operative
since April, 1954, and has now been ratified by sixty countries.
The 1967 Protocol broadens the provisions of the 1951 Convention
to include new groups of refugees, and the UN Declaration on
Territorial Asylum of 1967 extends the effectiveness of
international protection. Protection is broadly aimed at
promoting international legal instruments for the benefit of
refugees and ensuring that they are treated in accordance with
such instruments, in particular as regards right to work, social
security, and access to travel facilities.
With headquarters in Geneva and at present some thirty branch
offices situated in strategic spots throughout the world in
addition to special representatives and correspondents, UNHCR is
not a specialized agency but an integral part of the UN, its High
Commissioner being nominated by the Secretary-General and elected
by the General Assembly.
In function, UNHCR, unlike IRO, is promotional rather than
operational. It coordinates international action for refugees,
establishing liaisons with governments, with UN specialized
agencies, with intergovernmental organizations, and with
nongovernmental organizations. It seeks permanent solutions to
the problem of refugees through voluntary repatriation, a
preferred solution; through emigration, a solution applied in
conjunction with the Intergovernmental Committee for European
Migration; and through integration in the country of residence, a
solution that has proved workable for vast numbers of refugees.
The aim of UNHCR is to promote action which will help the
refugees to become self-supporting, and eventually, through
naturalization to cease being refugees. Assistance given in
achieving this aim may include emergency aid and rural settlement
projects in Africa and to some extent in Asia; mainly housing and
establishment assistance in European countries; and counseling,
education, and training of one sort or another in most
areas.
The UN provides administrative expenses and extends to the High
Commissioner permission to obtain appropriations for current
programs from individual governments and to accept contributions
from private sources. The funding target for any given year is
determined by the Executive Committee upon recommendation of the
High Commissioner whose budget varies in response to the needs of
the time. Special programs are specially financed. For example,
early in the 1950's the Ford Foundation provided a grant of about
$3,000,000 (increased to about $8,000,000 with matching funds
from other sources) to carry out pilot projects in the economic
integration of refugees in Austria, Germany, France, and Trieste,
and on the resettlement of refugees in Latin America, Canada, and
Australia.
From 1955 to 1958 there was an UNHCR material assistance program
known as the UNREF Program which was budgeted at $16,000,000.
Since 1959 there have been annual programs varying in size
between $3,000,000 and $7,000,000. In 1960, World Refugee Year,
the annual program was unusually large, amounting to about
$12,000,000.
Within these programs special allocations were made for various
purposes, such as Camp Clearance (that is, the finding of
permanent solutions for refugees in European camps), and
assistance to refugees in the Far East. Since 1963, a part of
each program has been devoted to projects for refugees of longer
standing and part to projects for new refugees.
From 1957, while the work in Europe continued, the Office, acting
on the basis of resolutions of the General Assembly requesting
the High Commissioner to extend his good offices to refugees not
covered by the original Statute of 1950, provided assistance to
various groups of refugees in other parts of the world. In 1957
and again in 1962 the High Commissioner was asked to use his good
offices to encourage arrangements for contributions to assist
Chinese refugees in Hong Kong whose numbers are estimated at over
one million. In 1957-1958 UNHCR took action in cooperation with
the League of Red
Cross Societies to alleviate the plight of Algerian refugees
in Tunisia and Morocco, and in 1962 participated in their
voluntary repatriation.
Since 1962, and again on the basis of the good offices
resolutions, the epicenter of UNHCR material assistance has moved
from Europe to Africa and to some extent to Asia, where world
events have caused a steady increase in the number of refugees
requiring assistance. By 1969 there were in Africa about one
million refugees within the competence of UNHCR, of whom 250,000
received material assistance during that year. UNHCR assistance
was given also to needy refugees among the Chinese refugees in
Macao and the Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal. In Africa, and
to some degree in Asia, the main solution for the refugee problem
has been rural settlement, in which the Office has cooperated
extensively with governments and with agencies, members of the
United Nations system. In some cases these settlement projects
have led to development programs for refugees and the local
population alike.
In the twenty-year history of the Office, there have been four
high commissioners: G.J. van Heuven Goedhart (1951-1956), The
Netherlands; Auguste R. Lindt (1956-1960), Switzerland; Felix
Schnyder (1961-1965), Switzerland; Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan
(1965- ), Iran.
Selected Bibliography
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. United
Nations Document A/Conf. 2/108, August, 1951.
The Displaced Persons Analytical Bibliography. House of
Representatives Report No. 1687. Washington, D.C., Superintendent
of Public Documents, 1950.
Edding, Friedrich, The Refugee as a Burden, a Stimulus and a
Challenge to the West Germany Economy. The Hague, Nijhoff,
1951.
Elbadrawy, B.M.F., The Refugee: A Problem of International
Social Welfare. New York, Columbia University Press, 1951.
Contains a bibliography.
Frings, Paul, Das internationale Flüchtlingsproblem.
Frankfurt am Main, Verlag der Frankfurter Hefte, 1951.
Heuven Goedhart, G.J. van, «The Problem of Refugees.»
Five lectures. Académie de droit international: Recueil
des cours, 82 (1953) 265-369. Leyden, Sijthoff, 1954.
Holborn, Louise, The International Refugee Organization.
London, Oxford University Press, 1956.
Proudfoot, Malcolm J., European Refugees, 1939-1952: A Study
in Forced Population Movement. London, Faber & Faber,
1957. Contains a bibliography.
Stoessinger, John George, The Refugee and the World
Community. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1956.
Contains a bibliography.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Reports.
See UN General Assembly, Official Record, Sixth Session
and sessions thereafter. Or see United Nations Documents Index:
United Nations and Specialized Agencies Documents and
Publications, Vols. 1-13 (1950-1962), and its successor,
United Nations Documents Index: Cumulative Index and
Cumulative Checklist, Vol. 14- (1963- ).
Vernant, Jacques, The Refugee in the Post-War World.
London, Allen and Unwin, 1953. Contains a bibliography.
Woodbridge, George, The History of the United Nations Relief
and Rehabilitation Administration. 3 vols. New York, Columbia
University Press, 1950.
See also selected bibliography for the Nansen International Office
for Refugees, Vol. 2, p. 284.
* The editor gratefully acknowledges permission to use freely material kindly supplied by the UNHCR for this history.
From Nobel Lectures, Peace 1951-1970, Editor Frederick W. Haberman, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972
This text was first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1954
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