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Refugees

Today there are about 20.8 million refugees world wide (UN), and with every conflict between nations, religious, social, and political groups this number just continues to climb higher and higher. The United Nations developed an organizational branch called the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR) to try and deal with the issues of this ever growing number of refugees around the world. There has yet been an establishment of any solid international laws that lay a strong foundation of a proper way to deal with refugees. There have been some movement towards establishing law but as of now there is to much of a grey area where states can develop their own ideals of how they are supposed to deal with refugees. This is a major problem that is continually being debated. The UNHCR is continually working towards making the standards in which states deal with refugees put into international law.
The office of the UNHCR was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. Its objective is to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve the problems by safeguarding the rights and well being of the refugees. Its efforts include trying to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to seek asylum and be protected from harm from the state in which they fled from. They work to also provide the option of returning home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country (UNCR). They work in partnership with governments, regional organization, and international and non-governmental organizations to try and achieve their objectives.
In the past 50 years the UNHCR has helped and estimated 50 million people restart their lives. The agency is made up of 6,689 staff in 116 countries around the world. One of their goals is to reduce the instances of forced displacement by encouraging states to create conditions which are favorable to the protection of human rights and the peaceful resolution of disputes...