The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also known as The UN Refugee Agency is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland and is a member of the United Nations Development Group. The UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes, once in 1954 and again in 1981.

Following the demise of the League of Nations and the formation of the United Nations, the international community were acutely aware of the refugee crisis following the end of World War II. In 1947, the International Refugee Organization(IRO) was founded by the United Nations. The IRO was the first international agency to deal comprehensively with all aspects pertaining to refugees' lives. Preceding this was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which was established in 1944 to address the millions of people displaced through Europe as a result of World War II.

High Commissioner is the title of various high-ranking, special executive positions held by a commission of appointment.

The English term is also used to render various equivalent titles in other languages.

In the Commonwealth of Nations, a High Commissioner is the senior diplomat (ranking as an ambassador) in charge of the diplomatic mission of one Commonwealth government to another. In this usage, a Commonwealth nation's High Commission is its embassy to another Commonwealth nation.

Historically, in the British Empire (most of which would become the Commonwealth) High Commissioners were envoys of the Imperial Government appointed to manage protectorates or groups of territories not fully under the sovereignty of the British Crown, while Crown colonies (which were British sovereign territory) would normally be administered by a Governor and the most significant possessions, large confederations and the independent Commonwealth Dominions would be headed by a Governor-General.

Cases include:

António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, GCC (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐ̃ˈtɔniu ɡuˈtɛʁɨʃ]; born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician, a former prime minister and President of the Socialist International. Currently he is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

António Guterres was born and raised in Portugal's capital, Lisbon, son of Virgílio Dias Guterres (b. São José, Lisbon, 21 October 1913) and wife Ilda Cândida de Oliveira (b. Fundão, Donas, 12 February 1923). As a young child he already showed the abilities which would later garner him the award for Best High School Student for the year of 1965. He continued his studies at IST, where he pursued degrees in physics and electrical engineering. During his college years Guterres was never involved in the student opposition to the authoritarian regime of António de Oliveira Salazar and, from 1968, Marcelo Caetano. Instead, he dedicated himself to his studies and to meetings of the JUC (Catholic University Students Movement). In 1971 he graduated and started an academic career as Assistant Professor.

William Spindler, born in Guatemala City, Guatemala in 1963. He is a Guatemalan writer and journalist, whose works include fiction, poetry, and journalism in English and Spanish. He is the author of a novel Paises lejanos, (Magna Terra Editores, 2011, Colección Narrativa) and a book of short stories, "Expediciones", published in Bogota, Colombia in 2004. He was educated at the Liceo Guatemala school where he obtained a Bachillerato en Ciencias y Letras (Bachelors in Sciences and Letters) in September 1980. He completed his further education in London, UK after his family moved there in 1981. In 1988 he graduated from the Polytechnic of the South Bank (now the University of the South Bank) in London with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages and International Studies.

As a student, Spindler began to contribute articles, short stories, poetry and book reviews to various newspapers and magazines in the United Kingdom. He wrote both in English and Spanish, sometimes using the name William Spindler Li. While studying for a Masters degree at the University of Southampton, Spindler and other Latin American students founded the literary review Encuentros which published fiction, poetry and criticism.