Selected International Organizations

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International organizations are a good source for reports and document on issues such as detention; country of origin conditions, etc. Many human rights organizations provide good documentation for refugee and asylum work. For more help researching human rights, see Researching International Human Rights Law.

Selected Inter-governmental Organizations (IGOs)

• United Nations Homepage. See topical pages, such as human rights and humanitarian affairs.
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The primary refugee IGO. Provides access to many documents, instruments and information related to refugee issues.
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), Nationality, Statelessness, Asylum and Refugees page. Provides access to documents and news related to these issues. Also links to related issues, such as international humanitarian law and war crimes.
• UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). UN documents and information related to humanitarian issues.
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Policy document, development reports (Human Development Report and Arab Human Development Report).
• International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC is a cross between an IGO and a NGO. Provides access to a tremendous amount of information re humanitarian law and issues. See also Refugees and IDPs page.
• International Organization for Migration (IOM). Information related to many issues related to migration. Access to UN resolutions and reports related to migration.

Selected Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)

• Amnesty International, a human rights NGO. The Library provides news and reports by country, region, and topic. There is also a page devoted to refugee documents and news.
• Asylumlaw.org. This site provides several kinds of materials, including human rights reports on several countries by the governments of the UK and other countries. It provides resources for case support (country condition information), legal research, and links to other relevant sites. The site now includes over800 documents on country conditions, arranged by topics and country. They can be found by browsing the documents in the Case Support section. Briefs, an expert witness database, and a discussion forum are available by registering on the site (registration is free). There is a super search which allows the researcher to search 15 human rights databases at once.
• Center for Gender & Refugee Studies. Case summaries, gender asylum law documents, country condition reports, and links.
• Human Rights First
  • Material Support
• Human Rights Watch, another human rights NGO. Provides country condition information, as well as a page devoted to refugee issues.
• Refugee Council USA
  • Material Support
• Refugee Law Center, provides court and legal documents, country condition information and other documentation.
• U.S. Committee for Refugees. Worldwide refugee information, country conditions information, statistics, and more.

Other Relevant Web Sites

• IHL Research Portal. A collection of international instruments, reports, analysis and more. You must register to use, but the resource is free.
• INCORE Internet Country Guides. Links to reports and information re conflicts in various countries.
• Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN). A good source for news and information on humanitarian, refugees, human rights, and related issues.
• Forced Migration Online. Access to a wide variety of documents, articles, reports regarding forced migrants worldwide. Research guides and handbooks are also available.
• Global IDP Project. Documents, information, and links regarding the internally displaced.
• OneWorld.net. News and information regarding many human rights and refugee issues.
• ReliefWeb. Contains many documents and reports on humanitarian relief and operations. Good source of news.

Country Conditions

Prepared by Marci Hoffman, International and Foreign Law Librarian, UC Berkeley Law Library, January 2006.