Unhcr handbook 1951 convention

How do I reference a document I found on a web page? Another key companion reference is the. Handbook for the protection of internally displaced Cite this. Settlement Planning for Refugees Australia and the United The handbook serves as a reference for NGOs and governments of resettlement countries on good practice and methodologies for effective resettlement of refugees. Reference lists and Growth strategies.

Acknowledgments This Handbook is the product of collaborative efforts, resulting from extensive consultations with, and contributions, from UNHCR staff and partners. Read together, the Handbook and its update are an essential source of information for lawyers of Palestinian refugees working in states which are signatories to the Refugee Convention.

Palestinian refugees present one of the largest and most protracted cases of displacement in the world. Most Palestinian refugees were displaced in —, when the state of Israel established itself by means of military force on the land of Arab towns and villages. However, many other waves of displacement have occurred since, for example during the Arab-Israeli war.

Palestinians continue to be displaced, both within and from the occupied Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem , and within and from the state of Israel itself. The majority of Palestinian refugees live in Arab countries adjacent to Israel i.

Many have suffered several displacements, and most of them lack adequate protection of their human rights. The information contained on this page will focus on legal issues relating to those Palestinians who have left their homes in the Middle East and become asylum seekers elsewhere.

It will be argued that Article 1D of the Convention provides a potential legal framework for the recognition of refugee status of Palestinian asylum-seekers in countries which are signatories to the Convention. The Handbook included research of asylum cases of Palestinian refugees in more than 30 countries. Practitioners may wish to consult these documents for further details on the various legal issues which will be briefly introduced below.

The contents of the page are as follows:. The following two sections will discuss arguments to make on behalf of Palestinian asylum seekers who wish to obtain refugee status in a third country. This information aims to serve as a practical guideline for all parties, including lawyers and national authorities, involved in the process of determining Palestinian refugee status. It is crucial for practitioners, and ultimately for national asylum authorities, to understand that Palestinian refugees have been singled out in the Refugee Convention and that a different and separate analysis based on Article 1D applies in the determination of their status when they seek asylum in third countries.

Moreover, and most importantly, practitioners and national authorities should interpret and implement Article 1D in accordance with the wording, historical context and purpose of the provision. Thus, the refugee status determination process by national authorities in cases involving Palestinian refugees should be based on Article 1D and not on Article 1A of the Convention. In the case of persons falling within paragraph 2 of Article 1D, no separate determination of well-founded fear under Article 1A 2 of the Convention is required to establish that such persons are entitled to the benefits of that Convention.

Unfortunately, however, most national authorities have not to date implemented the proper interpretation of Article 1D, despite the repeated and numerous recommendations of UNHCR - for example in the Revised Note see further Section III. This means that Palestinian refugees are often in practice denied the rights and protection to which they are entitled according to the legal framework set out in Article 1D. This Convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance.

When such protection or assistance has ceased for any reason, without the position of such persons being definitively settled in accordance with the relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, these persons shall ipso facto be entitled to the benefits of this Convention.

Article 1D thus includes both an exclusion clause paragraph 1 and an inclusion clause paragraph 2. Before discussing the proper implementation of Article 1D, it is important to discuss the group of Palestinians who might ultimately benefit from this specific provision. Given the wording, historical context and purpose of Article 1D of the Convention, certain Palestinian refugees fall within the scope of that Article because: i they have the characteristics of refugees as defined in Article 1A of the Convention; ii their position has not been definitively settled in accordance with relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly; and iii alternative arrangements have been made for such refugees to receive assistance or protection from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than UNHCR.

Palestinians who do not fall within these groups would not be entitled to benefit from the status determination process set out in Article 1D, paragraph 2. By way of example, Palestinians who were displaced inside the state of Israel around and their descendants do not fall within the scope of Article 1D. They might, however, qualify as refugees under Article 1A 2 of the Convention. The objective of the provision was thus, in relation to Palestinian refugees, who were considered refugees under Article 1A of the Convention, to replace the determination process set out in Article 1A of the Convention with the Article 1D test.

The following section will address the various arguments which practitioners need to make when defending the application of Article 1D in a specific case. Israel is therefore to be considered the putative state of persecution in a claim to refugee status submitted by Palestinians under Article 1D.

This also applies to displaced persons. In order to be able to benefit from the inclusion clause in Article 1D, paragraph 2, practitioners would first have to establish that the Palestinian asylum seeker falls within the scope of Article 1D, as discussed above section II. This means that evidence would have to be presented to national authorities showing that the Palestinian asylum seeker is either a a Palestine refugee, or b a displaced person under UNGA Resolution ; or a descendant of a person belonging to one of these groups.

The question of whether a Palestinian falls under group a would have to be determined on a case-to-case basis. As the overwhelming majority of refugees are registered with UNRWA, evidence of belonging to group a and their descendants can often be provided by obtaining a verification of registration from the Department of Relief and Social Services at UNRWA's headquarters in Amman see contact address below.

Refugee lawyers or national authorities who are seeking to verify whether a Palestinian asylum seeker is registered with UNRWA should include the following information in their request:. Upon verification of refugee status, UNRWA will inform the authority or refugee lawyer as to whether there is a UNRWA registration for a person with the name and background of the asylum-seeker.

UNRWA cannot, however, verify that the person who is applying for refugee status is, indeed, the person with the name on the registration card in question. It is, however, UNRWA's practice to ascertain that refugees applying for new registration are legally residing in the country where they wish to be registered. The question of whether a Palestinian falls within group b and thus became a refugee for the first time in or is a descendant of such a refugee would also have to be determined on a case-to-case basis.

Box , Amman , Jordan see also www. Practitioners should finally note that UNRWA requires proof of consent by the asylum-seeker concerned before personal data, including registration status, will be released.

Enquires should therefore be accompanied by a certificate signed by the client indicating consent to the release of information pertaining to them. Evidence of this is straightforward because Palestinians seeking asylum will do so outside UNRWA's area of operations and, hence, their physical location itself proves that they no longer receive assistance from UNRWA and that they therefore fall within the scope of Article 1D, paragraph 2.