THE chief instrument that empowers the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to act is the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.
The birth of the Convention took place during the times of the League of Nations in 1921, following the aftermath of World War I (1914-1918), when mass movements of war refugees were seen on an unprecedented scale. That, of course, was surpassed by the number people displaced during World War II (1941-1945).