Last Updated: Wednesday, 16 January 2013, 07:44 GMT

Information Partners

UNHCR's Strategic Information Partners provide Refworld with a critical mass of knowledge and information and are drawn from the NGO sector, Intergovernmental Organisations, Academic Institutions and National Governments. Our partners are widely recognized, particularly in jurisprudence, for having achieved a reputation for delivering authoritative, relevant and timely assessments and analysis of socio-political, human rights, and legal situations around the world.

Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit
The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) is an independent research organisation based in Kabul. AREU's mission is to conduct high-quality research that informs and influences policy and practice. AREU also actively promotes a culture of research and learning by strengthening analytical capacity in Afghanistan and facilitating reflection and debate. Fundamental to AREU's vision is that its work should improve Afghan lives.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. AI's mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.
Article 19
Article 19 is an international human rights organisation which defends and promotes freedom of expression and freedom of information all over the world. It monitors, researches, publishes, lobby, campaigns, sets standards, and litigates on behalf of freedom of expression wherever it is threatened. Article 19 also advocates for the implementation of access to information legislation to ensure transparency and strengthen citizens' participation, and campaigns against the widespread use of defamation laws, restrictions on media and censorship to safeguard pluralism and diversity of views.
Asylum Aid
Asylum Aid is an independent UK-based charity that works to secure protection for people seeking refuge in the United Kingdom from persecution and human rights abuses abroad. It provides legal services to asylum-seekers, it campaigns and lobbies for an asylum system based on inviolable human rights principles, working closely with refugees and other community-based organizations.
Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation (ACCORD)
ACCORD (Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation) was established in March 1999 in a joint effort by UNHCR and the Austrian Foundation for Development Research. Since January 2002, ACCORD is part of the Headquarters of the Austrian Red Cross. It has answered more than 4800 research requests on over 120 different countries. Its staff of social scientists and lawyers ensures high quality source assessment and research. ACCORD cooperates with the Federal Austrian Asylum Agency and NGOs and is integrated in European networks. ACCORD is co-funded by the European Refugee Fund, UNHCR, the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, Austrian refugee organizations and the Austrian Red Cross. Together with other European Organizations ACCORD coordinates and provides maintenance for the online information-system ecoi.net – European Country of Origin Information Network
Centre for Civil and Political Rights
The CCPR Centre's activities aim at promoting the role and participation of NGOs in the Human Rights Committee's reporting procedure and at building capacity and support of NGOs in their activities related to the Human Rights Committee, including the follow-up to the concluding observations. The CCPR Centre is designed to be an informal and small-scale structure, with a small team based in Geneva (Switzerland) and focal points in different regions of the world, which include renowned Human Rights Defenders who are committed to linking the CCPR Centre with national civil society organisations.
Commission of the European Communities
The European Commission is the politically independent institution that represents and upholds the interests of the European Union as a whole. It proposes legislation, policies and programmes of action and it is responsible for implementing the decisions of Parliament and the Council.
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1981. The Committee promotes press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe was set up in 1949 to defend human rights, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, develop continent-wide agreements to standardise member countries' social and legal practices, and to promote awareness of a European identity based on shared values and cutting across different cultures. The protection of human rights is one of the Council of Europe's basic goals, to be achieved in four main areas: effective supervision and protection of fundamental rights and freedoms; identifying new threats to human rights and human dignity; developing public awareness of the importance of human rights; promoting human rights education and professional training.
Danish Immigration Service
The Danish Immigration Service is a directorate within the Danish Ministry of Refugees, Immigration and Integration Affairs. The service administrates the Danish Aliens Act. It handles applications for asylum, family reunification, visas, work permits, etc. In addition, the service is engaged in a wide range of other duties relating to the asylum and immigration area, including the task of accommodating asylum seekers.
European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)
ECRE is an umbrella organisation of 80 refugee-assisting agencies in 30 countries working towards fair and humane policies for the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees
Forum 18
Forum 18 is an organization that promotes the implementation of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and concentrates upon gross and open breaches of religious freedom, especially situations where the lives of individuals or groups are threatened, and where the right to gather based upon belief is threatened.
Freedom House
Freedom House is an independent non-governmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world. It is widely recognized for its information on the state of freedom around the globe. Freedom Houses four annual surveys (Freedom in the World, Freedom of the Press, Nations in Transit, and Countries at the Crossroads), which are all available in their entirety on Refworld, along with numerous special reports.
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Human Rights Watch is the largest human rights organization based in the United States. Human Rights Watch researchers conduct fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses in all regions of the world.
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
The IRB is Canada's largest independent administrative tribunal. Its mission is to make well-reasoned decisions on immigration and refugee matters, efficiently, fairly, and in accordance with the law.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
IWPR builds democracy at the frontlines of conflict and change through the power of professional journalism. IWPR programs provide intensive hands-on training, extensive reporting and publishing, and ambitious initiatives to build the capacity of local media. Supporting peace-building, development and the rule of law, IWPR gives responsible local media a voice.
Interights - International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights
Interights, the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights, works to promote respect for human rights through the use of law. The main focus of its work is strategic litigation - bringing or supporting cases in critical areas where there is either a potential for human rights standards to be developed or where existing standards are under threat. Interights complements its litigation work through legal capacity building and standard setting activities and by publishing and disseminating legal information.
International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ)
The International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ) was formed in Warsaw in 1997. The Association seeks to foster recognition that protection from persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion is an individual right established under international law, and that the determination of refugee status and its cessation should be subject to the rule of law.
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
The International Commission of Jurists is dedicated to the primacy, coherence and implementation of international law and principles that advance human rights. The ICJ provides legal expertise at both the international and national levels to ensure that developments in international law adhere to human rights principles and that international standards are implemented at the national level.
International Crisis Group
The International Crisis Group is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, with nearly 120 staff members on five continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.
International Federation of Human Rights
FIDH's mandate is to contribute to the respect of all the rights defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. FIDH aims at obtaining effective improvements in the protection of victims, the prevention of Human Rights violations and the sanction of their perpetrators.
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) is an international, non-governmental organization constituted by 46 national Helsinki Committees and Cooperating Organizations in more than 40 of the participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), i.e., in Europe, Central Asia, and North America. The IHF seeks to promote compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and its follow-up documents, with international legal obligations undertaken in the Council of Europe and the United Nations, and with human rights norms promoted by the European Union. The IHF mandate is to protect and strengthen civil society groups that monitor and report on human rights issues from a non-partisan perspective, and to bring them together on a common international platform. The IHF represents its affiliates on the international political level and in the media, supports and assists their human rights monitoring and advocacy activities, and disseminates documentation based on their research.
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), established in 1998 by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), is the leading international body monitoring conflict-induced internal displacement worldwide.
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is the main international trade union organisation, representing the interests of working people worldwide. It has 312 affiliated member organisations in 156 countries and territories, with a total membership of 176 million workers. The ITUC was founded at its inaugural Congress in Vienna, Austria, on 1 -3 November 2006. It groups together the former affiliates of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL), along with trade union organisations which had no global affiliation. The ICFTU and the WCL dissolved themselves on 31 October 2006, to pave the way for the creation of the ITUC.
Jamestown Foundation
The mission of the Jamestown Foundation is to inform and educate policy makers and the broader policy community about events and trends in those societies which are strategically or tactically important to the United States and which frequently restrict access to such information. Utilizing indigenous and primary sources, Jamestown’s material is delivered without political bias, filter or agenda. It is often the only source of information which should be, but is not always, available through official or intelligence channels, especially in regard to Eurasia and terrorism.
Landinfo - Norwegian Country of Origin Information Center
Landinfo works to provide accurate, objective, sourced and up-to-date information on immigrants and asylum seekers' countries of origin, for use by the immigration and integration authorities in Norway. Its main objective is to meet the information requirements of the Norwegian migration authorities, but their collection of information and services may also assist others involved in these issues.
Minorities at Risk
The Minorities at Risk (MAR) Project tracks 284 politically-active ethnic groups throughout the world from 1945 to the present -- identifying where they are, what they do, and what happens to them. Minorites at Risk focuses specifically on ethnopolitical groups, non-state communal groups that have "political significance" in the contemporary world because of their status and political actions.
Minority Rights Group International (MRG)
Minority Rights Group International (MRG) works to secure the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide, and to promote cooperation and understanding between communities. MRG publishes Reports, Training Manuals, Briefing Papers and Workshop Reports covering a broad range of issues concerning the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples.
Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Utrecht School of Law
The Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) was established in 1981, as a research institute of the Faculty of Law of Utrecht University. The institute aims to serve as a centre for human rights studies. It conducts and promotes research projects, and collects relevant documentation on international human rights issues with an aim to enhance and distribute the knowledge on human rights procedures and practices. The Institute has several databases in which its collection of documentation is made accessible, and assist UNHCR in the selection of decisions in individual complaints procedures of the United Nations human rights treaty bodies.
Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Foreign Ministry coordinates and carries out Dutch foreign policy at its headquarters in The Hague and through its missions abroad. It is likewise the channel through which the Dutch Government communicates with foreign governments and international organisations. It promotes the interests of the Netherlands abroad, and is committed to promoting the international legal order and building a safe, stable and prosperous world. We are dedicated to eliminating conflict, poverty and injustice.
Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO)
The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), based in New York and Geneva, facilitates dialogue and works on specific issues, among other human rights and refugees. They are known for speaking out against injustice and war - issues that are incompatible with their vision of a world in which peace and justice prevail. QUNO seeks to strengthen the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and to foster the better protection of refugees and asylum-seekers, in particular children and adolescents (former child soldiers seeking asylum) and conscientious objectors to military service. It has also highlighted the largely unrecognised problem of statelessness and the importance of States to become parties to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. It has worked with UNHCR on the applicable standards in relation to asylum for conscientious objectors, draft evaders and deserters.
Refugee Documentation Centre, Ireland
The Refugee Documentation Centre is an independent Library service which is provided under the aegis of the Legal Aid Board. The role of the Refugee Documentation Centre is to maintain a collection of objective and up to date Country of Origin Information and asylum, immigration, legal and human rights documentation.
Refugees International
Refugees International generates lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection for displaced people around the world and works to end the conditions that create displacement.
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is an international non-governmental organization that aims at defending journalists and media assistants imprisoned or persecuted for doing their job and exposes the mistreatment and torture of them in many countries. It fights against censorship and laws that undermine press freedom, gives financial aid to journalists or media outlets in difficulty, as well to the families of imprisoned journalists, and works to improve the safety of journalists, especially those reporting in war zones.
Swiss Federal Office for Migration
The Federal Office for Migration is responsible for all concerns related to aliens and asylum in Switzerland.
United Kingdom Home Office
The Home Office is the UK government department responsible for leading the national effort to protect the public from terrorism, crime and anti-social behaviour by focussing, inter alia, on strengthening the borders, asylum decisions, and ensuring and enforcing compliance with UK immigration laws. Refworld contains documents from the UK Border Agency, a shadow agency of the Home Office, the Home Office's Research, Development and Statistics directorate (RDS), as well as their predecessors.
United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
This agency of the US Department of Homeland Security is charged with processing immigrant visa petitions, naturalization petitions, and asylum and refugee applications, as well as making adjudicative decisions performed at the service centers, and managing all other immigration benefits functions
US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
The mission of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants is to address the needs and rights of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide by advancing fair and humane public policy, facilitating and providing direct professional services, and promoting the full participation of migrants in community life.
United States Department of State
The Department of State is the lead institution for the conduct of American diplomacy, a mission based on the role of the Secretary of State as the President's principal foreign policy adviser.
Women's Refugee Commission
The mission of the Women's Refugee Commission is to improve the lives and defend the rights of refugee women and children, including the internally displaced, returnees and asylum seekers. The Women's Refugee Commission works in consultation with refugee women and children to ensure that their voices are heard. It seeks solutions to seemingly intractable problems by assessing and monitoring the situation of refugee women and children through research, field visits and consultation; identifying and documenting the widely overlooked problems and issues that affect refugee women and children; developing and promoting policies and practices that will lead to real on-the-ground change by advocating to policy makers, key organizations, donors and the public to ensure their implementation.
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
Created in 1986, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is today the main coalition of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) fighting against torture, summary executions, enforced disappearances and all other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. With 282 affiliated organizations in its SOS-Torture Network and many tens of thousands correspondents in every country, OMCT is the most important network of non-governmental organizations working for the protection and the promotion of human rights in the world.
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Immigration and Naturalisation Service of the Netherlands
The Immigration and Naturalisation Service is the organization that is responsible for the implementation of the immigration policy and handles the admission of foreigners in the Netherlands. That means that it processes all applications for asylum, family reunification, visa and other residence permits, as well as all applications submitted by foreign nationals who wish to become Dutch nationals. It implements the aliens policy, the Aliens Act and the Netherlands Nationality Act.
Department of Justice, Equality & Law Reform of Ireland
The Department's mission is to maintain and enhance community security and equality through the development of a range of policies and high quality services which underpin: (a) the protection and assertion of human rights and fundamental freedoms consistent with the common good; (b) the security of the State; (c) an effective and balanced approach to tackling crime; and (d) progress towards the elimination of discrimination and the promotion of equal opportunities and the accommodation of diversity.
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Irish Aid, Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland
Irish Aid is the Government of Ireland's programme of assistance to developing countries. Ireland has had an official development assistance programme since 1974, which has grown steadily over the years. Ireland's development cooperation policy is an integral part of Ireland's wider foreign Its aid philosophy is rooted in our foreign policy, in particular its objectives of peace and justice. Its development cooperation policy and programme reflect its longstanding commitment to human rights and fairness in international relations and are inseparable from Irish foreign policy as a whole.

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