UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES, OFFICE ...

(UNHCR), organization established as the successor to the International Refugee Organization by the UN General Assembly on Jan. 1, 1951, to provide legal and political protection for refugees until they could acquire nationality in new countries of residence. With its main office in Geneva and branch offices situated in important countries of asylum, the UNHCR intervenes with the various national governments in order to ensure such minimal rights as freedom from arbitrary expulsion, access to the courts, the right to work and to educational opportunities, and possession of identity and travel documents. Financed primarily by voluntary governmental contributions, the UNHCR also provides social and economic aid. The UNHCR initially focused its efforts on aiding refugees and displaced persons in Europe after World War II. In later decades effort was shifted to resettling refugees who were the victims of war, political turmoil, or natural disasters in Africa and parts of Asia and Latin America. The UNHCR was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace twice, in 1954 and 1981.