Fifty years ago this month, the United Nations began a unique humanitarian undertaking that continues today, unknown to most of the world, but still critically important to nearly 4 million Palestine refugees -- and to the cause of peace. There is no larger group of refugees anywhere else in the world; indeed, it is bigger than the entire population of Ireland.

The landmark anniversary of this U.N. institution, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is no cause for celebration, but rather serves as a painful reminder that the long and tragic saga of the Palestine refugees has yet to reach its conclusion. The refugees, who account for roughly half the world's Palestinian population, have for five decades endured conditions of extreme hardship -- as a dispossessed, stateless and largely impoverished population in "temporary" exile in the host countries and occupied territories.

But the picture is not all bleak. Nearly half a million refugee girls and boys attend U.N. schools, which employ some 13,000 teachers. The agency promoted gender parity in its schools from the start and in 1962 opened the first residential college for women in the region. Since then, more than 57,000 young refugees have graduated from its eight training colleges. A certificate from these centers has long been regarded as a benchmark among qualifications for higher-level jobs in the Arab world.