The UN General Assembly creates UNICEF

In December 1946, much of Europe and Asia lay in ruins, and millions of children faced starvation in the wake of the Second World War. To meet the crisis, the United Nations General Assembly voted on 11 December 1946 to establish the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund — the body the world now knows simply as UNICEF.

Its original mandate was narrow and urgent: deliver emergency food, clothing, and health care to children and mothers in the countries the war had devastated. The fund worked without regard to a child’s nationality, religion, or politics, a principle that set it apart in a divided postwar world.

What began as a temporary relief effort became a permanent fixture of the UN.

In 1953 the General Assembly made UNICEF a permanent part of the United Nations and broadened its work toward the long-term welfare of children everywhere. The agency’s wartime acronym stuck even after its formal name was shortened. In 1965 UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work on behalf of children across the globe.