Standing as one of the oldest fundamental agencies of the United Nations, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was initially created by the General Assembly in 1950 to deliver humanitarian assistance to the millions of people who had to flee from their homes caused by the aftermath of the Second World War. Currently, the UNHCR works alongside many other UN bodies like the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to achieve its goal of providing a safe space and delivering humanitarian necessities to any refugees forcibly displaced from their homes either internally or externally. In addition to its duty of delivering humanitarian aid, the UNHCR also aims to create more consistent and proactive international conventions and laws on the rights of refugees, while improving the monitorization of conflicts to prevent possible refugee crises.

Knowing that the globe is increasingly becoming polarized with factionalism while millions actively suffer from humanitarian crises caused by wide-scale conflicts, the duties and functions of the UNHCR have truly evolved. In the contemporary world, the UNHCR has become an organ working not just to protect refugees, but also to prevent refugee crises through diplomacy between states alike actively. This year in Koç JMUN, under the conference theme of “Adopting global diplomacy as a catalyst for combatting international conflicts,” both of the agenda items were selectively chosen from active refugee crises the UNHCR has made efforts to settle. Due to the complexities of having to keep in mind the political aspects of the root causes behind the agenda items, and the actively worsening humanitarian crisis that still requires international attention, the delegates must debate critically on how the UNHCR should intervene to tackle the issue most optimally.