assistance. Originally intended to be a temporary agency, UNRWA’s mandate has been repeatedly renewed by the General Assembly. UNRWA’s services – which include education, health, relief and social services, microfinance and emergency assistance ‎‎ – ‎ are available for registered “Palestine refugees”‎ ‎ living in its area of operations (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the ‎West Bank, including East Jerusalem) and who are in need of assistance. ‎UNRWA’s role has evolved over time, providing emergency humanitarian assistance to displaced Palestinians as well as encompassing, to a certain extent, international protection. UNRWA defines protection in general terms, as “what the Agency does to safeguard and advance the rights of Palestine refugees,” and has adopted a “holistic approach” which embodies protection through “internal” and “external” dimensions. Notably, while the former is developed through service delivery programs, the latter is articulated through engagement with relevant duty bearers, by “monitoring and reporting of violations and by engaging in private and public advocacy.” However, despite this step forward, UNRWA remains to this day neither explicitly mandated nor adequately equipped to provide the just and durable solution to which Palestinian refugees are entitled.170 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Established by UN Resolution 319,171 UNHCR is currently the main global refugee agency responsible for ensuring the international protection of refugees and seeking permanent solutions for refugee crises, as the “guardian” of the framework outlined by the Refugee Convention.172 Its 1950 Statute173 defines refugees as “all persons outside their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order and who, as result, require international protection,” but places an exclusion clause in paragraph 7(C), pursuant to which its competence “shall not extend to a person […] who continues to receive from other organs or agencies of the United 170 BADIL, Bulletin No. 27: Understanding the Political Underpinnings of UNRWA’s Chronic Funding Crisis, June 2018, available at http://badil.org/en/publication/research/briefs.html [accessed 27 Jul 2018]. 171 UN General Assembly, Refugees and Stateless Persons, A/RES/319, 3 December 1949, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3b00f1ed34.html [accessed 7 June 2018] [hereinafter UN General Assembly Resolution 319]. 172 UNHCR’s mandate goes however beyond that of the Refugee Convention, including protection for returnees (i.e. former refugees), stateless persons and, in specific circumstances, internally displaced persons. UNHCR, Note on the Mandate of the High Commissioner for Refugees and His Office, October 2013, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/5268c9474.html [accessed 27 Jul 2018]. 173 UNHCR Statute, supra note 161. 57