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UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR)

Mandate

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner

for Refugees (UNHCR) was established on 14

December 1950 by the United Nations General

Assembly. The UNHCR is mandated to lead and co-

ordinate international action for the world-wide protec-

tion of refugees and the resolution of their problems.

UNHCR's primary purpose is to safeguard the rights

and well being of refugees, by striving to ensure first

and foremost that everyone can exercise the right to

seek asylum from persecution or other serious threats

to life or liberty.

The United Nations General Assembly has, over the

years, authorized UNHCR's involvement with other

groups in need of the organization's protection and

assistance. These include former refugees who have

returned to their home country, internally displaced

people and stateless persons.

UNHCR in Armenia

The Republic of Armenia is a state party to the 1951

Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its

1967 Protocol. It has also signed both the 1954

Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons

and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of

Statelessness.

UNHCR established its presence in the Republic of

Armenia in December 1992 in response to a request

from the Government to assist with the mass influx of

approximately 360,000 ethnic Armenian refugees from

Azerbaijan. Since the end of 2004, Armenia has also

received hundreds of refugees from Iraq and small

numbers of asylum-seekers and refugees from other

countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The total volume of UNHCR's operations in the

Republic of Armenia between 1992 and 2009 stood at

around USD 35 million. This included projects for the

construction of more than 4,300 flats and cottages for

refugees, carried out in cooperation with the

Norwegian Refugee Council, the Swiss Development

Cooperation and the Government of the Republic of

Armenia. UNHCR has also contributed to the construc-

tion of schools in different parts of the country.

In 2009, UNHCR implemented a social housing program

with funding provided by the Japanese government. The

former factory building in Kasakh village of Kotayk province,

kindly donated by the local authorities, was reconstructed

into a residential building with around 20 apartments.

At present, the main focus of UNHCR's activities in

Armenia is:

a. to help strengthen the national asylum institu-tions and the requisite capacities and skills for fair,effective and efficient refugee status determinationprocedures and acceptable standards of treatmentof asylum-seekers that ensures respect for theirdignity and fundamental human rights,

b. to promote the integration of refugees througheffective cooperation among governmental institu-tions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), therefugees themselves and other societal actors and,

c. to contribute towards the prevention and reduc-tion of statelessness.

UNHCR is actively engaged in promoting international

refugee law and in strengthening the capacity of gov-

ernment stakeholders and civil society on refugee and

asylum issues.

UNHCR was actively involved in the development of the

new Law on Refugees and Asylum which was adopted

in November 2008 and entered into force in January

2009.

With financial and technical assistance from UNHCR,

reception facilities for asylum-seekers have been

expanded. UNHCR is regularly conducting training and

awareness raising activities on asylum-sensitive border

management.

UNHCR also works with a number of NGO partners on

the implementation of projects aimed at the provision of

basic health care and social counseling to particularly

vulnerable refugees. UNHCR has recently expanded

its activities by initiating a birth registration project in

cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund

(UNICEF) as part of its strategy on addressing the

problem of statelessness.

Issues relating to integration of refugees are proba-

bly the most challenging areas of the national asy-

lum system in the Republic of Armenia, as in many

other countries around the world. The Government is

interested in fostering the integration of refugees

into the society's economic, social, cultural and polit-

ical life, but this commitment needs to be translated

into specific legislation, official policies and state

budget allocations. Integration should involve multi-

dimensional projects since the various areas of need

for integration (i.e. housing, employment,

vocational training, language education, etc.) are

inter-linked and one factor affects another. Lack of

affordable housing remains the greatest obstacle to

refugees' self-reliance and self-sufficiency in their

integration process.

CONTACT: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

UN House14 Petros Adamyan St.Yerevan 0010, Armenia

Tel.: (374 10) 56 47 71, (374 10) 58 48 92, (374 10) 54 59 35,(374 10) 54 59 36, (374 91) 41 53 87Fax: (374 10) 56 78 17e-mail: armye@unhcr.orgURL: http://www.unhcr.org

http://www.un.am