Oxford LibGuides: People on the move: legal &amp; HR responses: Asylum and Refugee Law

Right of Asylum and International Refugee Law

Refugee Convention 1951 (aka Geneva Refugee Convention) and 1967 Protocol
Official UNHCR website, texts and status details. Convention Entry into force: 22 April 1954. Protocol
protocol EIF 4 October 1967,
Travaux preparatoires to the 1951 Convention
Free resource. Note this is an archived webpage - may take a short time to load. These are linked in ascending date order.
Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees
The Handbook was first published in 1979 and re-issued in 1992 and in 2019 Available as a free download pdf format

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and Its 1967 Protocol: A Commentary by Andreas Zimmermann (Editor)
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link
ISBN: 9780199542512
Publication Date: 2011
Print copy in Law Library at Internat 570 Z73a and in SSL at K3230.R45.NIN 2011

Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
Official website. Cite as 360 UNTS 117EIF: 6 June 1960
Declaration on the Human Rights of Individuals Who are not Nationals of the Country in which They Live
Official website. UN Doc. A/40/53
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This Declaration guarantees to non-nationals ("aliens") a number of fundamental rights, such as life and security, privacy, fair treatment before tribunals, freedom of conscience and religion, peaceful assembly, and others. It proscribes torture and cruel punishment of non-nationals. It also expressly precludes the legitimization of the illegal entry of aliens into a State, and requires their observance of the laws of the State in which they are present.
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
Official website. UN Doc. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2
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The Guiding Principles "identify rights and guarantees relevant to the protection of persons from forced displacement and to their protection and assistance during displacement as well as during return or resettlement and reintegration." (Intro., sec. 1.)
The Principles are available online in several languages in PDF format.
In 2000, ASIL and the Brookings Institution published Annotations to the Guiding Principles by Walter K�lin in Stud. in Transnat'l Legal Pol'y, no. 32, available online in PDF. Two OCHA volumes relating to the Guiding Principles are the Manual on Field Practice in Internal Displacement (large PDF file) and the Handbook for Applying the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (large PDF file), prepared by the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacment. Further information and documentation pertaining to internally displaced persons may be found at ReliefWeb.

Exile Within Borders : a global look at commitment to the international regime to protect internally displaced persons by Gabriel Cardona-Fox
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link
ISBN: 9789004375550
Publication Date: 2019
Lending copy in SSL at HV640.CAR 2019 if preferred

Regional protection

Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa (African Union)
Open access download from official website OAU Doc. No. CAB/LEG/24.3 Ratification information is available on the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights web site.

The Regional Law of Refugee Protection in Africa by Marina Sharpe
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link.
ISBN: 9780198826224
Publication Date: 2018
Print copy is at Internat 570 S532.5a if preferred

Cartagena Declaration on Refugees (1984)
Open access from official website of Organization of American States (OAS) adopted by the Colloquium on the International Protection of Refugees in Central America, Mexico and Panama, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, 22 November 1984

Latin America and Refugee Protection by Liliana Lyra Jubilut (Editor); Marcia Vera Espinoza (Editor); Gabriela Mezzanotti (Editor)
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link
ISBN: 9781800731141
Publication Date: 2021
Print copy in Latin American Centre Library
Main Library - F1419 J

Subject searches on SOLO

International refugee law

Refugees legal status, laws etc

Asylum, Right of

Works with shelf marks beginning Internat 570 are on Level 3 of the Law Bod.

SOLO searches will also find books held by our neighbouring library the Bodleian Social Science Library

The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law by Cathryn Costello (Editor); Michelle Foster (Editor); Jane McAdam (Editor)
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link
ISBN: 9780198848639
Publication Date: 2021
Print copy at Internat 570 C841.2a and Bodleian Social Science Library at K3230.R45.OXF 2021
The Rights of Refugees under International Law by James C. Hathaway
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this book online via title link
ISBN: 9781108495899
Publication Date: 2nd edn 2021
Print copy is at Internat 570 H363b2
International Refugee Law and the Protection of Stateless Persons by Michelle Foster; Hélène Lambert; Hélène Lambert
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link
ISBN: 9780198796015
Publication Date: 2019
Print copy is at Internat 570 F756b

RefWorld: National Legislation Open access. Point in time collection. Check currency.
RefWorld: Case law database Open access. Collections case Law from national and international courts, administrative bodies and tribunals.
Asylum Information Database AIDA (Europe)
EDAL: European Database of Asylum Law
Official website The European Database of Asylum Law (EDAL) is an online database containing case law from 17 EU Member States interpreting refugee and asylum law as well as from the CJEU and ECtHR.
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EDAL summarises relevant case law in English and the Member State’s national language and provides a link to, and/or pdf. of, the full text of the original judgment where available.

EDAL was created through funding from European Commission’s European Refugee Fund. Its creation was coordinated by the Irish Refugee Council in partnership with the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE); the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) also joined as partners during the second phase of development. EDAL’s objective is to strengthen the development of harmonized standards of protection within the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and, in particular, to increase consistency and quality in the interpretation and application of CEAS legislation.

Currently the database is managed by ECRE and is being provided with financial support from the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme of the European Union.

The primary audience is decision-makers at all levels, practitioners, academics and policy makers. EDAL aims to foster deeper cooperation amongst decision-makers and practitioners in Member States. The database contains case summaries from the following Member States:

Austria
Belgium
The Czech Republic
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
The Netherlands
Poland
Slovenia
Slovakia
Spain
Sweden
UK
European Council on Refugees and Exiles ECRE
FRLAN: Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter
Free resource. FRP "... was created to provide access to knowledge, nurture the growing refugee legal aid and advocacy movement in all countries, and encourage active sharing of information as well as expertise among legal practitioners throughout the world. It links refugee-assisting networks ... [it] is funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. http://www.refugeelegalaidinformation.org/about-us-0#sthash.smaRli1Q.dpuf
Guy Goodwin-Gill on the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Geneva, 28 July 1951; Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, New York, 31 January 1967
Free resource. Part of the UN's Audiovisual Library of International Law.
Lecture & Full Text of Declaration on Territorial Asylum
Official website Click the Documents tab for link to scan of text. Citation: UN Doc. A/6716
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This Declaration provides for the mutual respect among States of other States' decisions to grant asylum to persons fleeing persecution. It proscribes the expulsion or return of such persons to States where they may be persecuted. However, persons who have committed war crimes, or crimes agains peace or humanity, are not entitled to a grant of asylum.
The Refugee Law Reader
Open access for non-commercial use. The Refugee Law Reader was initiated and is supported by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and funded by the European Refugee Fund and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "As a 'living book', new editions of The Reader continue to include the basic legal instruments and documents, as well as reflect the most important recent developments."
Human Rights Watch
A nonprofit registered in the USA makes its reports and publications available Open Access Use eg Country or Topic filter, or the search function

Asylum Matters On the Front Line of Administrative Decision-Making by Laura Affolter
Call Number: Open access title available to all online via title link
ISBN: 9783030615116
Publication Date: 2020
Open Access online. An ethnographic study of asylum decision-making in the Swiss Secretariat for Migration

Refugee and Asylum Seeker Populations by Country of Origin and Destination, 2000-22
Open Access "Using data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this map shows countries of origin and destination for the 108.4 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide as of the start of 2023, including four subpopulations: Refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people, and other people in need of international protection. Select a country of origin or destination for one of these groups. Population bubbles will display over countries based on estimated population size. The default year for the tool is 2022; by using the slider at the top, the year setting can be changed."
European Country of Origin Network
iFree resource. "Information system of the Austrian Red Cross, gathers, structures and processes publicly available country of origin information with a focus on the needs of asylum lawyers, refugee counsels and persons deciding on claims for asylum and other forms of international protection.

ecoi.net promotes the principle of public domain information as well as equal access to high-quality country of origin information for all persons involved in asylum cases."

ecoi.net is committed to an impartial information policy and to the objective and neutral presentation of country of origin information. While ecoi.net focuses on human rights issues of relevance for asylum procedures, it includes information regardless of its positive or negative character.

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