UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Agenda - Protecting the Rights of Child Refugees.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the global organization included in the system of the United Nations (UN) that aims to save lives, protect rights, and build a better and more sustainable future for refugees, people who were forced to flee their home due to conflict or persecution. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, was established in 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to help millions of Europeans who fled from their homes as a consequence of World War II. As the refugee crisis became exaggerated throughout the 20th century, UNGA passed a resolution making the body permanent in 2003. Out of 103 million forcibly displaced people worldwide in mid-2022, 32.5 million were refugees. Out of these 32.5 million, 13.7 million refugees and asylum-seekers were children under 18 years old. Between 2018 and 2021, 1.5 million children were born as refugees; over the next 25 years, climate change is estimated to put 1.2 billion people at risk of internal and cross-border displacement, a substantial proportion of which is expected to be children.