10. Appendix 6 Other refugee documentation centres and similar institutions Underlag till styrelsemöte 1-2 maj 1997

APPENDIX 6: OTHER REFUGEE DOCUMENTATION CENTRES AND SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS; SOME EXAMPLES

Centre for Documentation and Research (COR), UNHCR, Geneva

The aim of UNHCR's Centre for Documentation and Research (CDR) is to provide users with an authoritative collection of relevant refugee literature, legal and country of origin information. Main subject areas are refugees and durable solutions for refugees, human rights violations, minorities and displaced persons, and international refugee law and instruments, case law and national refugee law. CDR acts as the resource centre for UNHCR. It serves UNHCR, other intergovernmental agencies, governments, NGOs and the interested public. CDR has produced REFWORLD, a CD-ROM collection of databases containing information on refugees, including publicly available country information, legal documentation and policy-related documents in full text. REFWORLD includes official UNHCR documents, including the Refugee Survey Quarterly and the State of the World's Refugees, a collection of international and regional refugee, human rights and humanitarian law instruments, UN General Assembly and UN Security Council resolutions as well as reports submitted to the UN Commission on Human Rights. It further contains abstracts of important precedent-setting refugee-related decisions, a collection of national laws and regulations on asylum, nationality and citizenship, and over 10,000 analyses and reports on country situations based on public sources.

Zentrale Dokumentationsstelle der Freien Wohlfahrtspflege für ~ (ZDWF)

ZDWF, based in Siegburg, Germany, is a national documentation and information centre set up by the German voluntary ~g~in~~5 with financial backing from the Federal Government. ZDWF compiles and disseminates information relating to asylum seekers and refugees in Germany, including court decisions and information on asylum law and procedure. It also collects and makes available to lawyers, voluntary agencies and other interested persons and institutions data on the political and human rights situation in refugee producing countries and the reception of refugees in other countries. ZDWF maintains a collection of court decisions on individual asylum cases consisting of about 12.000 entries. There are also more than 38.000 pieces of information on the human rights situation in and the political background of the home countries of asylum seekers and refugees. Material recorded includes reports, leaflets, clippings from newspapers and magazines as well as expert opinions and country assessments by academic institutions, human rights groups and the German government. Publications issued by ZDWF include an annual overview of important court decisions and papers discussing developments in national and international asylum law and procedure.

Immigration and Refugee Board (Canada)

The Immigration and Refugee Board's Documentation, Information and Research Branch (Dl RB) exists to meet the information requirements of those involved in Canada's refugee determination process. DIRB collects, produces and makes publicly available currant and credible documentation related to human rights, refugee and migration issues. It attempts to provide a thorough and objective analysis of a wide range of topics, relying on a wide variety of sources. Researchers compile and update unclassified material relating to the social, political, economic and human rights conditions in countries that are sources of refugee claimants. Information is gathered from a variety of sources, including national and international governmental and non-governmental organizations, human rights monitors, academics, publications and on-line news services. DIRB has developed a number of databases that supply information on countries of origin and on human rights and bibliographical sources. In addition, it manages an external Refugee Decisions database.

DIRB cooperates with. other agencies such as UNHCR in Geneva and the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington, D.C.

Bundesamt für Fluchtlinge - Federal Office for Refugees (Switzerland)

The Swiss Bundesamt für Flu chtlinge (BFF) operates a country information and analysis unit (Landerinformation und Lageanalysen - L + L), which collects and makes available information on the home countries of persons seeking asylum in Switzerland. Subject matters include the political and economic situation, laws and the administration of justice, police and military institutions, the human rights situation, political parties, ethnic and religious groups, migration and flight. The database now consists of some 46,000 documents in full text available to asylum status determination officers and decision makers only. In addition to the database, which can be searched from workplaces, the unit provides country bulletins (press clippings), country information sheets and more in-depth background reports, some of which are publicly available. The unit attempts to provide decision makers with an objective analysis of information based on unclassified material from a wide variety of reliable sources, which are always mentioned.

Refugee Studies Programme, Oxford, U.K.

The Refugee Studies Programme (RSP), established in 1982, is part of the University of Oxford. Its aim is to increase understanding of the causes, consequences and experiences of forced migration through multidisciplinary research, teaching, publications, seminars and conferences. Independent of governments and assistance agencies, RSP provides a neutral forum for discussion between refugees, researchers, practitioners and policy makers. although not primarily a documentation centre, RSP has a Documentation Unit, which now holds over 26,000 documents. RSP also publishes the Journal of Refugee Studies and a newsletter. The principal sources of funding are foundations and trusts.


Other institutions, which have as part of their wider mandate developed documentation and information systems and activities relevant to refugees, include the following:

- Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), York University, Canada;
- Danish Refugee Council,
- Danish Centre for Human Rights (both Copenhagen),
- Bundesamt für die Anerkennung ausländischer Flu chtlinge - Federal Office for the
Recognition of Foreign Refugees (Germany);
- Refugee Legal Centre (U.K.)