Features – Annex: Human Rights, Country and Legal Information Resources on the Internet

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Elisa Mason is the newly appointed information officer for the Forced Migration Portal Project (http://www.forcedmigration.org/portal/home/homepage.htm) at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. This article was prepared while she was working as an independent refugee information specialist and does not necessarily reflect the views of her current employer. The author is grateful to Courtney Mireille O’Connor for her invaluable input into early drafts of this paper.

[Editor’s Note: This article is a companion to Guide to Country Research for Refugee Status Determination, by the same author,


Table of Contents

I. Legal Information
A. International Instruments
Refugee Titles
Human Rights Titles
Collections
B. National Laws and Policies
Immigration Offices
Collections
C. Case Law
Asylum Decisions
Human Rights Decisions
D. Guidelines, Recommendations, Resolutions
II. Human Rights Reports
A. Surveys of Human Rights Violations and World Conflict
B. Individual Country Reports on Human Rights Conditions
C. Other Sources
III. News Services
A. Forced Migration-Specific
B. General
IV. Background Country Materials
V. Experts
VI. Country Research Services

I. Legal Information

A. International Instruments

A number of conventions and treaties exist that might be relevant to a particular refugee status determination claim. Rather than try to provide a comprehensive list, this section notes the location of some of the principal refugee- and human rights-related instruments. This information is supplemented by the web addresses of several collections that offer access to a much larger repository of texts.

Refugee Titles

(organized by date; ratification details also available)

1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees [French; Spanish]
Defines “refugee” in Article 1A(2) as “any person who…owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his [or her] nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself [or herself] of the protection of that country… .”
1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons [French; Spanish]
Article 1 defines “stateless person” as “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.”
1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness [French; Spanish]
1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees [French; Spanish]
Reaffirms the 1951 Convention definition of refugee but removes date and geographic limitations.
1969 Organization for African Unity Convention governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa [French]
Uses the same language as the 1951 Convention, but adds the “term ‘refugee’ shall also apply to every person who, owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of his [or her] country of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his [or her] place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his [or her] country of origin or nationality” (Article 1, para. 2).
1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees [French; Spanish]
Recommends that the definition of refugee also include “persons who have fled their country because their lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order” (para. 3).
1992 Declaration on the Protection of Refugees and Displaced Persons in the Arab World [French]
Article 6 recommends that Arab States “adopt a broad concept of ‘refugee’… .”

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Human Rights Titles

(organized by date)

A number of international and regional human rights instruments include provisions that have been used effectively for refugee protection purposes, particularly those which prohibit torture. Examples include:

1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms [French]
Article 3 states, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [French; Spanish]
Article 7 stipulates, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” The associated General Comment notes that “States parties must not expose individuals to the danger of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment upon return to another country by way of their extradition, expulsion or refoulement” (para. 9).
1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment [French; Spanish]
Article 3 states, “No State Party shall expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he [or she] would be in danger of being subjected to torture.” Note: The World Organization against Torture USA offers an online information packet explaining how to use the CAT in asylum cases; see http://www.woatusa.org/refugees.html

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Collections

Human Rights Treaties and Other Instruments (University of Minnesota, U.S.) [Arabic; French; Russian; Spanish]
Texts of treaties can be accessed by subject, title, or keyword; ratification details usually included, although some are only available by subscription to the UN treaty database.
International Human Rights Instruments (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Switzerland) [French; Spanish]
Texts organized by subject; access to the status of ratifications and declarations and reservations also provided.
International Humanitarian Law Database (International Committee for the Red Cross, Switzerland) [French; Spanish]
Texts can be retrieved by title or keyword; signatory/ratification details also provided.
Text of the Inter-American Treaties Approved within the Framework of the OAS (Organization of American States, U.S.) [Spanish]
Texts and signatories/ratifications can be located by title, year or subject (see e.g., “human rights” or “extradition”).
Treaties and International Agreements (Australasian Legal Information Institute, Australia)
Directory of links to treaty collections on the Internet.
Treaty Office (Council of Europe, France)
Bilingual English/French site offering access to treaties by European Treaty Series number, keyword, date; results include the text of the treaty in various formats, signature/ratification details, and declarations/reservations.

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B. National Laws and Policies

A variety of national regulations and laws may prove useful to country of origin information researchers: constitutions, penal codes, refugee laws, conscription policies, etc. Some of these texts are becoming available online, although they are not all necessarily accessible through one standard gateway. Strategies for locating national legislation include, once again, going to the original source, e.g., immigration divisions or foreign affairs offices, or taking advantage of certain key foreign and international law sites whose objectives are to facilitate the retrieval of this type of information. Examples of both are highlighted below.

Immigration Offices

Danish Immigration Service (Denmark) (select “Information in English,” then “Danish Aliens Act”)
Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Australia), Legislation
Immigration and Nationality Directorate (UK), Law and Policy
Immigration and Naturalization Service (U.S.), Laws, Regulations and Guides
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Legal References [French]
Ministerio del Interior (Spain), Asilo y Refugio (scroll down for link to text of asylum law)
Ministry of Justice (Japan) (scroll down to “Immigration Bureau” for access to texts of Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and the Alien Registration Law)
Office fédéral des réfugiés (Switzerland), Principes du droit d’asile [German; Italian]

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Collections

Directory of Community Legislation in Force (European Union, Belgium)
Includes sections for asylum policy, right to asylum and right of refugees and displaced persons; available in all official languages of the EU.
Global Legal Information Network (Law Library of Congress, U.S.)
Searchable database housing English summaries of laws and regulations from contributing governments. For example, entering the thesaurus term “refugees & asylum” will retrieve close to 150 summaries from a variety of countries. Links to the full-texts of legal documents are not yet available.
Governments on the WWW (Gunnar Anzinger, Germany)
Organized by country or type of institution; the country option includes links to governmental institutions, representations in foreign countries, political parties, as well as other country-related information. One particularly useful feature provided is the date of the last change made.
Guide to Law Online (Law Library of Congress, U.S.)
Links to online information sources in government and law; each country tends to include links to constitutions, the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, as well as to guides and general resources. Where links are not available, source information is still provided.
Legal Tools (Asylumlaw.org, U.S., Australia & Canada)
Contains detailed overviews of the asylum process in Australia, Canada and the U.S., as well as links to statutes and/or other legal references for a variety of countries.
Legislación Migratoria (Centro de información sobre migraciones en America Latina, Chile)
Scroll down to relevant entry; only Spanish-language texts are available online; references to English-language texts are noted, and the texts can be requested from CIMAL.
Legislation (Project DIAL, Australia)
Service that allows users to browse through links to national legislation on a country-by-country basis, or conduct a full-text search. For example, a search on “asylum” yields over 1100 hits. Most countries’ constitutions appear to be available.

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C. Case Law

This section highlights sites that post refugee and asylum case law. Other resources provide access to larger repositories of case law. See, for example, the links listed at http://www.ecre.org/links/jurisprudence.html.

Asylum Decisions

Commission permanente de recours des réfugiés (Belgium)
Decisions in either French or Dutch, available primarily between 1991 and 1996.
Gender Asylum Case Law (Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, U.S.)
Summaries of over 150 cases decided in the U.S. relating to gender; summaries can be retrieved by country of origin, type of harm, other relevant factors or claimed asylum ground. Links are included to the full-texts of the decisions – where available – in PDF format.
Integration durch Information Datenbank (DIM Net, Germany)
Log in as guest; provides access to bibliographic references, legal decisions, and organizations.
New Zealand Refugee Law (Rodger Haines, NZ)
Searchable database of Refugee Status Appeals Authority decisions; the full-texts of leading decisions are available. Also provided are abstracts of refugee-related cases from the High Court and Court of Appeal.
RefLex (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada) [French]
Digest of recent immigration and refugee law decisions; can be searched by keyword or browsed by issue.
Refugee Case Law (UNHCR, Switzerland)
Searchable database housing abstracts of relevant refugee decisions from a variety of countries; at the time of this writing, however, the cases represented did not appear to be very current.
Refugee Caselaw (University of Michigan Law School, U.S.)
Searchable database housing the full-texts of selected decisions “that interpret the legal definition of ‘refugee’.” Currently, courts represented include Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UK, and the U.S. Decisions are available in their original languages.
Refugee Review Tribunal(Australia)
Includes full-texts of all decisions; can be searched by keyword or case name.
Swiss Asylum Appeal Commission [French; German; Italian]
Decisions are available in French, German, or Italian; English summaries available for 1999 cases; searchable by keyword or browsable by year.
U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals (Executive Office of Immigration Review, U.S.)
Scroll down to “Virtual Law Library”; Board of Immigration Appeals decisions can be accessed either by date and case title or by Interim Decision number; texts are in PDF format.

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Human Rights Decisions

Annual Reports (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, U.S.) [Spanish]
Lists annual reports dating back to 1979/1980; each includes a chapter on individual cases; see also http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cases/commissn.htm for cases from 1991-1996.
Judgments and Decisions (European Court of Human Rights, France) [French]
Includes Hudoc, a searchable case law database, as well as a list of recent judgments.
Jurisprudence (Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Costa Rica)
Includes latest judgments, advisory opinions and contentious cases in English and Spanish.
Reports (European Commission on Human Rights, France)
Case reports available for 1997 and 1998, in either English or French.
SIM Documentation Centre (Netherlands Institute of Human Rights)
Access is free, but users must first register; the case law option allows users to search the following databases: CCPR, CAT, CERD, ECHR, UNCOM (the latter includes comments from the six human rights treaty bodies)
Treaty Bodies Database (UNHCHR, Switzerland)
Provides access to the jurisprudence, decisions, and/or observations/comments of the six human rights treaty bodies.

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D. Guidelines, Recommendations, Resolutions

Governmental bodies, international agencies, and non-governmental organizations often put out guidelines, make recommendations, or adopt resolutions on legal issues relating to refugees and asylum-seekers. While these publications may lack the force of law, they can serve to represent a consensus within the international community, which in turn can lend weight to a particular line of argument. Positions such as these are often made available on the web sites of individual organizations. Examples of various sources are noted below.

Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (U.S.)
Provides access to the gender-related guidelines produced by Australia, Canada, and the U.S., and proposed guidelines for the UK.
European Council on Refugees and Exiles (UK)
Visitors will find policy position papers and research papers. The most recent publications are noted on the home page.
Human Rights of Parliamentarians (Inter-Parliamentary Union, Switzerland) [French]
Texts of resolutions adopted by the IPU on human rights cases as of 1996.
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada [French]
Includes reference materials, guidelines (on gender-related persecution, child refugees, and civilian non-combatants), and practice notices.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (Switzerland) [French; Spanish]
Resolutions and decisions are available under each body listed: Commission on Human Rights, Economic and Social Council, General Assembly, Security Council, and Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Switzerland)
REFWORLD’s “legal information” section provides access to the UNHCR Statute (which includes its own refugee definition); a refugee policy feature with links to the full-texts of UNHCR’s detention, sexual violence, and refugee women guidelines; the Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status in English, French and Spanish; Executive Committee Conclusions on International Protection; and Notes on International Protection.

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II. Human Rights Reports

A. Surveys of Human Rights Violations and World Conflict

These resources provide readers with an overview of a country situation, and therefore are particularly useful for researchers who are just embarking on their investigations.

Annual Assessment of Conditions Affecting Refugees (U.S. Committee for Refugees)
Includes country profiles from the World Refugee Survey as of 1997.
Annual Report of the Observatory for Human Rights Defenders (World Organisation against Torture and Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme, Switzerland & France)
Available as of 1998; in PDF format.
Annual Reports (Amnesty International, UK) [Arabic (2000 report); French (2000 report); Spanish (introductions and regional summaries from reports as of 1997; complete report available for 1999)]
Full-text reports for 1998-present, regional summaries for 1996-1997.
Annual Reports (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, U.S.)
Includes reports in English as of 1991 and in Spanish as of 1984; each includes a chapter on the human rights situation in selected countries.
Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights 1998 (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Belgium) [French (reports available for 1996, 1998 and 2000); Spanish (reports available for 1998 and 2000)]
Surveys available as of 1996.
Armed Conflict in the World Today: A Country by Country Review (Humanitarian Law Project and Parliamentary Human Rights Group, U.S. & UK)
Available as of 1999.
Armed Conflicts Report (Project Ploughshares, Canada)
Current edition available in full-text.
Attacks on the Press in 1999 (Committee to Project Journalists, U.S.) [Spanish]
Includes links to reports for 1995-1998.
Conflict Barometer (Heidelberger Institut für Internationale Konfliktforschung, Germany) [German]
Reports as of 1997 (English) and 1995 (German).
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (U.S. Department of State)
Reports as of 1993.
For the Record (Human Rights Internet, Canada)
Annual summary of the human rights work of the UN since 1997 and of the European regime since 2000; available in English and French.
Freedom in the World (Freedom House, U.S.)
Reports available since 1998/1999 edition.
Human Rights in the OSCE Region: The Balkans, the Caucasus, Europe, Central Asia and North America, Report 2000 (International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Austria)
Scroll down to see earlier Annual Reports for 1997-1999.
World Legal Survey (International Lesbian and Gay Association, Belgium)
Each country profile includes the following sections: background, sexual behavior, association/expression, anti-discrimination, employment, partnership/marriage, parenting, asylum, transgender, street violence and police harassment, and HIV/AIDS.
World Report (International Coalition for Religious Freedom, U.S.)
Profiles of religious freedom organized by region; most current version posted.
World Report 2001 (Human Rights Watch, U.S.) [Arabic (2000 report); Spanish (as of 1998) (scroll down to “Informe” options in menu)]
Earlier reports available at http://www.hrw.org/wr2k.

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B. Individual Country Reports on Human Rights Conditions

The resources highlighted in this section provide a more in-depth assessment of country and human rights situations. They can be useful for researchers who require greater detail about specific targets of persecution, patterns of human rights violations, and treatment of particular groups.

Background Papers on Refugees and Asylum Seekers (UNHCR Centre for Documentation and Research, Switzerland)
Papers available since 1994; newest ones in PDF format.
Country Assessments (Immigration and Nationality Directorate, UK)
Available for the top 35 countries that generate the most asylum applications in the UK.
Country Papers (Writenet, UK)
Papers available since 1993; newest ones in PDF format.
Country Reports (Amnesty International, UK) [French (selected documents only; made available as ZIP files)]
Reports can be accessed by region, sub-region, country, or theme.
Country Reports (Human Rights Watch, U.S.)
Alphabetical listing of countries; recent reports available in full-text, while summaries are available for older reports.
Country Reports (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, U.S.)
English-language reports date from 1993, while Spanish-language reports date from 1962.
Feuilles d’information sur les pays (Office fédéral des réfugiés, Switzerland) [German]
Most recent version available only; most reports available in PDF format.
Online Reports (Minority Rights Group, UK)
Limited selection of reports available in PDF format.
Publications (International Crisis Group, Belgium & U.S.)
A number of reports are also available in French.
Publications (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Resource Information Center)
Variety of reports available, with some dating back to 1992; most documents available in PDF format.
Rapports en Ligne (Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’homme, France)
Selection of full-text reports in French, with a few in Spanish and English.
REFQUEST (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada)
Available in English and French; users can browse by country or launch a search.
Regional and Country Reports (Committee to Protect Journalists, U.S.)
Country by country listing with access to archived reports as of 1996.
Reports on Fact-Finding Missions (Danish Immigration Service) (click on “Information in English”)
Select “Publications in English” for full-text reports of fact-finding missions.
Special Reports (Forced Migration Projects, U.S.)
This site has been discontinued; archived reports available for 1995-1999.
United Nations Human Rights Documents (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Switzerland) [French; Spanish]
Provides access to reports and other documents of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, and the six human rights Treaty Bodies.

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C. Other Sources

A number of supplementary human rights resources exist in other formats that focus on specific groups or issues: databases, files, newsletters, alerts, etc.

AAAS Human Rights Action Network (AAASHRAN, U.S.)
Alerts relating to human rights violations of members of scientific community; these can be browsed by date, country or case number, or can be searched.
Accessing Group Files (Minorities at Risk, U.S.)
Profiles of politically active communal groups.
Asylmagazin (Pro Asyl, Germany)
Monthly newsletter in German; each issue includes country information, asylum and other legislative news.
Global IDP Database (Global IDP Project, Switzerland)
Although the focus is on internally displaced persons, useful background information is provided; a number of sources used to compile the information are available on the web.
Index Online (Index on Censorship, UK)
Updates of the Index’s censorship chronicle.
The Internet Directory: A Compendium of Human Rights and Refugee Resources Available on the Internet (Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada) [French]
Organizes links to Internet resources by country and/or theme; search engine also available.
Länderrechtsprechung und -materialien (Pro Asyl, Germany)
In German; organized by country; includes excerpts from relevant documents and links to sources.
Lawyer to Lawyer Network (Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, U.S.)
Includes appeals concerning human rights violations committed against lawyers.
Regional Internet Guides (INCORE, UK)
Links to resources relating to ethnicity and/or conflict, organized by country.
Rapports sur les pays (Organisation suisse d’aide aux refugies, Switzerland) [German]
In PDF format; reports on selected countries as of 1997; searchable by theme or country.
REFINFO (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada)
Repository for “responses to requests for information” submitted to the IRB during the refugee status determination process; includes either English or French responses depending on the original language of the request.
Urgent Appeals (World Organization against Torture, Switzerland) [Spanish]
Appeals for the year 2000, organized chronologically; an archive of appeals is available at http://www.derechos.org/omct/actions/past.html, organized by country.
The World (UNHCR, Switzerland)
Profiles of the refugee situations in countries around the world; each profile also includes links to other relevant UNHCR publications online.
World Watch (International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, U.S.)
Action alerts organized geographically; often available in French or Spanish in addition to English.

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III. News Services

News sources are particularly useful for current coverage of breaking stories. A large number of news services make available headlines, the current day’s news, or an archive of their reports on the web. The resources listed in the first section below provide access to news and information specific to the field of refugees and forced migration. Given the proliferation of news-related sites on the web, the second section suggests resources that will link users to many of the news and media sources from around the world.

A. Forced Migration – Specific

Refugees Daily (UNHCR, Switzerland)
Daily summaries of refugee-related news from around the world; links are included to the original source, if available online; stories can be searched using the Refugee NewsNet facility at http://www.unhcr.ch/news/newswire/newswire.htm
ReliefWeb (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, Switzerland)
Provides news and information on natural disasters and complex humanitarian emergencies, largely supplied by international agencies and non-governmental organizations; search engine available.
Security Watch (International Relations and Security Network, Switzerland)
Offers headlines, stories from the last five days, and a searchable archive; most useful for conflict-related news coverage of the OSCE area.
Update on World Conflicts (Carter Center, U.S.)
Weekly updates since 1997 on armed conflicts around the world.

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B. General

Non-U.S. Newspaper Archives on the Web (Special Libraries Association, U.S.)
Links to news services that provide archives of their reports, many of which are searchable.
Online Newspapers (Web Wombat, Australia)
Users can select newspaper titles from drop-down menus organized by region.
Yahoo! News and Media
Organizes links to news and media resources by type, region, and broad subject; see also the local Yahoos at the bottom of the Yahoo home page (http://www.yahoo.com) for local-language and regional resources.

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IV. Background Country Materials

This section lists various information sources from what might be termed the area studies field. These resources can help provide context for the issues covered in the reports noted above. They do not adopt a human rights perspective per se, but rather focus on countries and their peoples as a whole.

Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library (Australian National University)
Directory of links to web-based resources relating to Asian studies; organized by region and country.
Background by Country (ReliefWeb, Switzerland)
Listed under each country are links to resources for the following categories: country profiles, culture, demographics, development, disaster history, economics, food and agriculture, geography and environment, government and politics, health, history, HIV/AIDS, human rights, infrastructure, media, military and defence, refugees and IDPs, UN, and weather.
Country Analysis (Economist Intelligence Unit, UK)
Archive of country analysis provided for 2000; organized in reverse chronological order.
Country Studies (Library of Congress, U.S.)
Detailed overviews of the historical, social, economic, and political aspects of over 100 countries.
Diasporas and Transnational Communities: A Bibliographical and Study Guide (Transnational Communities, UK)
Extensive bibliographical references are provided for different categories of ethnic groups.
Encyclopaedia of the Orient (LexicOrient, Norway)
“Covers all countries and cultures between Mauritania in the west and Iran in the east, Turkey in the north and Sudan in the south”; includes definitions of terms and country profiles.
Ethnologue (Summer Institute of Linguistics, U.S.)
Provides background on the different languages spoken in countries around the world.
FIRST Reference Database (International Relations and Security Network, Switzerland)
Database that allows users to customize views by country and year with information and data on international membership, conflicts, arms production and weapons holdings, military expenditures, political systems, and maps; users must first register, but access is free.
Guia del Mundo (Instituto del Tercer Mundo, Uruguay)
Each profile includes demographic data, an historical overview, maps, and photos; in Spanish.
InfoNation (United Nations, U.S.)
Database that allows users to view current statistical data for up to seven UN member states at a time; also available in French and Spanish.
The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency, U.S.)
Each profile includes a map and sections with data on geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues.
The WWW Virtual Library: Latin American Studies (University of Texas, U.S.)
Directory of links to Latin American resources organized by broad subject; country list also available.

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V. Experts

In the end, the resources noted above may fail to produce the necessary information. Some details are very difficult to corroborate except without some kind of personal “testimony”; for this reason, researchers may need to turn to experts in a particular field for advice and referrals. This section lists several directories that can be used to identify the individuals that may be best positioned to respond to an information request. Alternatively, researchers can subscribe to online discussion lists on a particular topic and pose questions directly to a particular community. For more information on lists and their utility, see http://www.asil.org/resource/lists1.htm.

Asylumlaw.org (U.S., Canada & Australia)
Offers a database of “knowledgeable attorneys/advocates” who can advise on country conditions or asylum issues; to access this database, users must first register.
Ethnic Studies in Europe: A Survey of Research Centres and Resources (Ethnobarometer, UK)
Provides contact information and a brief description of activities; links to web sites are included when available.
Experts (Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, U.S.)
Lists experts who have been involved in gender asylum cases; organized by subject matter.
Managing Global Issues Information Network (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, U.S.)
Enter the database, then select “search for experts”; references can be located by issue, theme, name, organization, or country.
Refugee Resource Network (U.S. Committee for Refugees)
Searchable database housing contact information and areas of expertise of practitioners.

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VI. Country Research Services

If you decide not to undertake country research yourself, a number of centers provide research and documentation services or pre-prepared country information packages for a fee. Examples include:

Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation
Human Rights Documentation Exchange
Refugee Law Center
Refugee Legal Centre
Political Asylum Research and Documentation Service (PARDS)

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Posted in: Features, Human Rights, International Legal Research