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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency 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 is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with over 18,879 staff working in 138 countries as of 2020.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestine War and subsequent conflicts, as well as their descendants, including legally adopted children. As of 2019, more than 5.6 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA as refugees.
Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–1949 Palestine war and the Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refugees live in or near 68 Palestinian refugee camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 2019 more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations.
Sir John Shaw Rennie was a British civil servant and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East's Commissioner-General from 1971 to 1977.
Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr. was an American diplomat and statesman. He was the third Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from 1954 to 1958. He was the director of the United Nations Children's Fund for years (1965–1979). He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A lawyer, he was United States Ambassador to France 1952–1954, as well as United States Ambassador to Greece 1962–1965. Labouisse had been the principal United States Department of State official dealing with the implementation of the Marshall Plan.
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İlter Türkmen was a Turkish diplomat and politician.
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Howard Kennedy was a Canadian Army officer and the first Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from 1950 to 1951.
Giorgio Giacomelli was an Italian diplomat who represented Italy as ambassador to Somalia and Syria and was UNRWA's Commissioner-General from 1985 to 1991.
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Philippe Lazzarini is a Swiss-Italian who has been serving as Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) since 2020.
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On 26 January 2024, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced it was investigating allegations, presented to it by Israel nearly two weeks before, of the involvement of its employees in Hamas's October 7 attacks on Israel.
References
- ↑ "UNHCR - the UN Refugee Agency".
- ↑ Benjamin N. Schiff, Refugees Unto the Third Generation: UN Aid to Palestinians, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995), pp. 292-293.
- ↑ "Mr. Philippe Lazzarini has been appointed as its new Commissioner-General (CG)". UNRWA. 19 March 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
- ↑ Secretary-General appoints Pierre-Krähenbuehl of Switzerland Commissioner-General of UNRWA, UNRWA
- ↑ Pierre Krähenbühl Assumes Post as UNRWA Commissioner-General, UNRWA
- ↑ ISRAEL PUSHES FOR UNRWA’S CLOSURE AS LEADER QUITS AMID MISCONDUCT PROBE
- ↑ TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO POST: WHITE HOUSE WAS RIGHT ABOUT UNRWA CORRUPTION
- ↑ "Secretary General Appoints New Commissioner-General and Deputy Commissioner-General", UNRWA.org
- ↑ "Karen Koning AbuZayd '63: Interview by Commissioner-General’s Alma Mater" UNRWA.org
- ↑ Bush forces UN refugee chief to go, theguardian.com
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Benjamin N. Schiff, Refugees Unto the Third Generation: UN Aid to Palestinians, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995), p. 293.
- 1 2 3 Benjamin N. Schiff, Refugees Unto the Third Generation: UN Aid to Palestinians, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995), p. 292.
- ↑ Benjamin N. Schiff, Refugees Unto the Third Generation: UN Aid to Palestinians, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995), p. 292