I. Birth of a Humanitarian Mandate The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established on December 14, 1950, by the United Nations General Assembly as a temporary agency to assist millions displaced by the devastation of World War II. Initially, it was granted a three-year mandate, reflecting the hope that postwar displacement would soon be resolved. Few could have foreseen that seventy-five years later, UNHCR would still exist—larger, more complex, and