Posts Tagged ‘United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’

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Forced return to North Korea: Laos and China seem not to know the concept of non-refoulement

June 2, 2013

Nine North-Korean defectors, aged 15 to 23, entered Laos through China on 9 May 2013 and were caught by Laotian authorities on 16 May. They were sent back home on Tuesday 28 May via China. [Under North Korean law, defectors face a minimum of five years of hard labour and as much as life in prison or the death penalty in cases deemed particularly serious]  UN Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, urged Chinese and Laotian authorities to publicly clarify the fate of the nine defectors and the conditions of their return, which apparently violated international law, UN deputy spokesperson

Logo of United Nations Refugee Agency.Version ...

said. “The High Commissioner’s office is dismayed that the governments of Laos and China appear to have abrogated their non-refoulement obligations, especially given the vulnerability of that group, all of whom are reported to be orphans” The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said on Thursday in a statement that it is trying to locate the defectors and expressed concern that they did not receive a chance to have their asylum claims assessed.

via UN protests return of N Korean defectors | News24.

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New REFWORLD goes live this week: an underestimated tool for Human Rights Defenders and researchers

April 16, 2013

Logo of United Nations Refugee Agency.Version ...

UNHCR’s Refworld 2013 goes live this week at http://www.refworld.org. The website has undergone significant changes based on a feedback received from internal and external users over the years.

Refworld started almost 20 years ago as an ever-expanding series of DVD’s containing the different databases of documentation centre of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. With the wider availability of broadband it switched in 2007 to internet only. It was already then considered an advanced protection information resource which aims to facilitate evidence-based and effective decision-making in refugee status determination procedures. Now it functions more broadly as a key tool for evidence-based advocacy relating to resettlement, statelessness, internal displacement, as well as specific protection concerns. The database, updated on a daily basis, now contains more than 167,000 documents relating to countries of origin or asylum, case law, legislation and policy. Especially the ‘country of origin’ information is relevant to human rights defenders as it is in fact a selection of human rights violations documentation. Also the legal information section is a unique collection of worldwide documentation concerning refugee law and statelessness.

Refworld 2013  features a number of improvements, such as: Read the rest of this entry »

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Call for Nominations 2013 for the Nansen Refugee Award now open

January 24, 2013

Do you know of anybody who has gone beyond the call of duty and shown outstanding dedication and service to the refugee cause? Or maybe a group of people or an organization? Any person can nominate candidates (individuals, groups of people or organizations) but self-nominations and nominations of current or former UNHCR staff are not encouraged.

Each laureate for the Nansen Refugee Award is selected in line with the following:

  • The deed for which the person/entity is nominated should either take place outside the framework of normal professional duties and/or go beyond the call of duty;
  • It should demonstrate courage;
  • It should raise awareness for refugees; and
  • It should, in a significant way, benefit the beneficiaries the Awardee serves and possibly also the country/area where the Awardee operates.

The independent Nansen Refugee Award Committee, chaired by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, selects the annual laureate by a unanimous or majority decision.

Ms. Ingrid PrestetunMs. Ingrid Prestetun, Coordinator, Nansen Refugee Award Programme, UNHCR Geneva.

Download the nomination form here (English, French) and send it to: Nansen@unhcr.org

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