In December 1949, the United Nations General Assembly established the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to provide humanitarian relief to the more than 700,000 refugees and displaced persons who had been forced to flee their homes in Palestine as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Also in December 1949, the United Nations General Assembly decided to set up the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as of 1 January 1951, with the principal aim of dealing with refugees in Europe left homeless by World War II. Nevertheless, since its inception, UNHCR has had the mandate to deal with refugees worldwide, and began to do so in earnest during the 1960s.
UNRWA was mandated to carry out "relief and works programmes" in support of Palestine refugees, that is, refugees from the territory that had been under the British Mandate for Palestine, regardless of nationality. Over time its operations have evolved to meet changing needs and circumstances. The Agency currently provides both basic humanitarian relief and human development services in its area of operations, namely Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic and the occupied Palestinian territory.
UNHCR has a world-wide mandate to protect, assist, and seek durable solutions for refugees as well as for other people in need of international protection. UNHCR's mandate covers Palestinians who are refugees within the meaning of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which could include Palestine refugees as defined by UNRWA. UNHCR normally takes up the case of Palestinian refugees only when they are outside UNRWA's area of operations.
For the past 55 years, UNRWA and UNHCR have been cooperating, each within its mandate, and in close coordination with the host states, to support and protect Palestinian refugees. In recent years, the partnership between the two agencies has become closer, resulting in increased cooperation in a variety of areas, including in the exchange of information and joint efforts to resolve problems faced by Palestinian refugees.