Dag Hammarskjöld Library at Uppsala University
Refugees
- © United Nations
There are an estimated 50 million refugees and displaced persons worldwide affecting almost every continent and country. The causes of the refugee crisis are complex including external and internal conflicts, human rights violations, searing poverty and famine, racial hatred and ethnic violence.
The United Nations system for the protection and humanitarian assistance to refugees rests on two pillars: the Geneva Convention from 1951
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees with its additional Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees from 1967 - and the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide with the primary concern to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. In the course of time, however, the UNHCR has been called upon, to concern itself with longterm solutions, such as voluntary repatriation and reintegration. UNHCR works in close cooperation with a number of actors including UN programmes and agencies, international and regional organizations, NGOs and governments and local authorities.
UN programmes, funds and agencies involved in refugee and disaster relief:
UN body | Full name | More information in DagDok |
International Fund for Agricultural Development | ||
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction | ||
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs | ||
United Nations Children's Fund | ||
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees | ||
World Food Programme |
Documentation
The United Nations has adopted several instruments for the protection of refugees:
Statute of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, adopted by General Assembly resolution 428 (V) of 14 December 1950.
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, adopted by the United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiarities on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons under General Assembly resolution 429 (V) of 14 December 1950, entered into force 22 April 1954. The convention and its protocol are also posted online at the UNHCR official web site. There you can access information about signatures, ratifications, reservations and preparatory work, the so called Travaux préparatoires, under the section The 1951 Refugee Convention.
Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, 1966, entered into force 4 October 1967.
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, 1998.
The UNHCR official web site provides background information, news, statistics, country surveys and full text reports and documents. For more information about the UNHCR documentation, see DagDok: UNHCR.
Yearbook of the United Nations, Part Three: Economic and social questions, Chapter III. Humanitarian and special economic assistance, XII. Refugees and displaced persons provides an overview of the United Nations action. A complete collection of yearbooks is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. Since October 2008 the complete full text collection of The United Nations Yearbooks is available online at http://unyearbook.un.org/.
Databases and Indexes
A web portal to UN action for the protection of refugees and displaced persons with links to UN main bodies and focal points and full text documents and reports is posted at the Official web site of the United Nations, section Global Issues, Refugees.
RefWorld, UNHCR's database for refugee information. Contents: Over 90.000 full text documents, International Thesaurus of Refugee Terminology, international and national law related to refugees, country information, maps, statistics and the UNHCR library catalogue with references to book, articles and conference papers The database is available is available online at the UNHCR official web site.
The UN Library online catalogue UNBISnet contains reports, documents and articles related to UN activities with links to full texts for recent years. Subject search can be performed using relevant terms from the UNBIS THESAURUS.
Printed Indexes