In honor of World Refugee Day, which is well known each June 20, we current to you the findings of those bold archivists from the United Nations refugee company, UNHCR, the United Nations Workplace at Geneva, and the United Nations Archives and Data Administration Part (ARMS) The contents of which have preserved the reminiscence of the Group since its founding in 1945:
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Portrait of Margaret Bruce, Social Affairs Officer, Human Rights Division, United Nations Division of Financial and Social Affairs. (doc)
“Because the world marks the seventieth anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Conference, ARMS is confronted with a thriller.
The United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) famous that the 1951 Conference picture caption confirmed three males current however didn’t reveal the identify of the one girl seated on the desk.
Seeking solutions, UNHCR, the United Nations Workplace at Geneva and the archives group of the Archives Part teamed as much as establish the girl.
The primary clue got here from convention chairman Knud Larsen, who sat in the course of the picture. In his deal with to the conference, he thanked his deputy govt secretary, “Kitchen Woman,” who sat to his proper, for maintaining the assembly on monitor. Additional analysis revealed her identify was Margaret.
We then discover out that shortly after the 1951 conference she married and altered her identify to Margaret Bruce.
This discovery sheds new gentle on her life story.
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Margaret Ok. Bruce (left), Chief of the Part on the Standing of Girls of the United Nations Division of Human Rights, and Finnish Helvi L. Sipila, Chairman of the 1967 Fee on the Standing of Girls chat.
Margaret (Kitchen) Bruce was born in England and joined the Secretariat in 1946 on the first United Nations Basic Meeting in London.
She moved to New York with the group and later married fellow worker William James Bruce.
Margaret initially joined the Human Rights Division, working straight with Eleanor Roosevelt through the drafting of the Common Declaration of Human Rights.
She held many key positions throughout her 32-year tenure, together with deputy director of the Middle for Social Improvement and Humanitarian Affairs.
She retired from the United Nations in 1977.
United Nations Photograph/Marcel Bolomey
In the course of the first United Nations Basic Meeting in London in 1946, former U.S. First Woman Eleanor Roosevelt convened a convention of girls’s representatives. (doc)
By means of ARMS’ cautious evaluate of documentary proof, her id was rediscovered, and her contribution was lastly revealed to the world!
After the invention, the picture’s caption was modified and now consists of Margaret’s identify.
that is proper. The caption from the United Nations picture archive now reads in full:
“July 28 [1951]Twelve international locations signed the Conference Regarding the Standing of Refugees on the Palais des Nations in Geneva, which was drafted by the World Convention on Refugees and Stateless Individuals held there from July 2 to 25. Israel later signed. Signatory international locations embrace Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the UK and [then] Yugoslavia.
Seated on the desk from left to proper: Margaret Kitchen, Deputy Govt Secretary; John Humphrey, Director of the Human Rights Division; Knud Larsen (Denmark), Convention Chair; GJ Van Heuven, Excessive Commissioner for Refugees Dr. Goedhart.
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Margaret Ok. Bruce (left), Chief of the Part on the Standing of Girls of the United Nations Secretariat, talks with Maria Lavalle Urbina of Mexico, Chair of the seventeenth Fee on the Standing of Girls, in 1963. (doc)
united nations information Showcasing epic moments and excellent figures within the historical past of the United Nations, the content material is drawn from the United Nations Audiovisual Library’s 49,400 hours of movie and 18,000 hours of audio recordings, in addition to United Nations pictures and archives rigorously cultivated all through the United Nations system for the reason that founding of the United Nations in 1945.
Watch United Nations video The story of the United Nations Archives The playlist is right here and our companion collection is right here .
Be part of us subsequent week for one more deep dive into historical past.
