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United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

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United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

  • The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a relief and human development agency. 
  • The UNRWA is the only UN agency dedicated to helping refugees stemming from the Israel-Palestine conflict.
  • It was established in 1949 by the UN General Assembly to cater to refugees from the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, and began operations on May 1, 1950. 
    • UNRWA was created by the UN General Assembly on December 8, 1949, to provide basic support including food, healthcare and education to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees
  • UNRWA Headquarters are located in Amman and in Gaza. 
    • The Agency maintains a field office in each of its areas of operations – Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip – and liaison offices in New York, Washington, Brussels and Cairo.

Mandate

  • UNRWA is mandated by the UN General Assembly to serve ‘Palestine refugees’.
    • This term was defined in 1952 as any person whose “normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” Palestine refugees are persons who fulfil the above definition and descendants of fathers fulfilling the definition.
    • UNRWA supports some six million Palestinian refugees who live within and outside Palestine.
    • The UNRWA body does not have a mandate to resettle Palestine refugees
  • In addition to Palestine refugees, the UN General Assembly has also mandated UNRWA to offer services to certain other persons who require humanitarian assistance, on an emergency basis as and when required, in UNRWA fields of operations. 
    • Notably, the General Assembly has mandated the Agency to provide services to persons in the region who are currently displaced and in serious need of continued assistance as a result of the 1967 and subsequent hostilities. These persons are not registered as Palestine refugees. 
  • Only the UN General Assembly can change the mandate of UNRWA, the definition of a Palestine refugee and whom the Agency is mandated to serve.
  • UNRWA operates separately from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which was also established in 1949. While UNHCR provides temporary protection and assistance to refugees, it does not have a mandate over Palestinian refugees within the UNRWA fields of operations.

Areas of Operation

  • It provides assistance and protection to Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem
  • Distinct from UNHCR, which deals with refugees worldwide.

Services Provided

  • It runs education, health, relief and social services, microfinance and emergency assistance programmes
  • UNRWA does not manage refugee camps and is not responsible for protecting the physical safety or security of Palestine refugees or maintaining law and order in the five fields of UNRWA operations.

Do you know?

  • UNHCR(United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) does not have a mandate over Palestine refugees within the UNRWA fields of operations (Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip). 
    • This is not a decision on the part of either UNRWA or UNHCR, but rather the result of decisions of the international community enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention and the UNHCR Statute (adopted by the General Assembly).
  • In 1949, the UN General Assembly established two different UN refugee agencies – the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) – to respond to distinct refugee crises. 

Funding

  • The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN Member States. UNRWA also receives some funding from the Regular Budget of the United Nations, which is used mostly for international staffing costs.
  • In 2022, the UNRWA’s top government donors were the US, Germany, the European Union, Sweden, Norway, Japan, France, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Turkey.

FAQs 

Q 1. What is UNRWA?

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is a UN agency established in 1949 to support Palestine refugees who were displaced due to the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict.

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