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Refugee Protection Research Guide

Introduction

The focus of this research guide is refugee protection. The types of sources outlined below include norms and principles of international law, focusing on refugee, human rights, and humanitarian law (or a combination thereof). When researching in this area, one may also need sources of law (statutes, rules and procedures) from other jurisdictions.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact the Wolff Library reference desk at 202-662-4195 or by email: intlref@law.georgetown.edu. You may also submit your question via this online form.

Locating Norms and Principles of International Law

Often you will need to locate international agreements and documents from various international organizations, such as the UN, the UNHCR, and other IGOs. For help locating treaties and agreements, see the Treaty Research Guide. For help locating documents issued by the UN and UNHCR, see Researching the United Nations.

To locate basic instruments and documents related to refugees specifically, see the following resources:

Selected web sites:

Locating Relevant Foreign Law

For more in depth assistance with researching foreign and comparative law, see the Researching Foreign and Comparative Law research guide.

Constitutions

Asylum, Aliens, Citizenship and Nationality Laws

Country Conditions

See the Researching Human Rights research guide and the CALS Asylum Case Research Guide for detailed information about researching country conditions.

Selected Titles

To locate relevant books and journals in the Library, try title or keyword searching in the online catalog. Below is a list of some relevant titles.

Periodical Literature

Periodical Indexes

Many periodicals (both legal and non-legal) contain articles on human rights issues. Be sure to use indexes listed below and not just full-text sources on Lexis and Westlaw. Many of these indexes can be accessed remotely, see the Library's remote access page for more information. The help screen available from this page contains instructions on remote access.

The follow indexes are available electronically to members of the GULC community.

There are several other more general periodical indexes available on our journal indexes page.

Selected Journals

NGO Documents

There are many NGOs and institutions which are involved in refugee and related issues (especially human rights). Use the following directories to locate the relevant organizations. See also the Researching Human Rights and IGOs & NGOs research guides for detailed information about researching NGOs and for additional NGO directories.

Selected Web Sites

Research Assistance

Electronic Databases

These electronic databases are available to GULC only.

  • AccessUN
    Readex United Nations Index provides access to current and retrospective (1956-2000) UN documents and publications. Some full-text documents are available.
  • Ethnic News Watch
    Full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Includes articles, editorials, columns, and reviews which provide a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints. Coverage is back at least to 1994.
  • Human Rights Internet
    This collection is a vast storehouse of international and a good starting point for conducting human rights research. Their databases include information on human rights organizations, bibliographic abstracts of the literature, bodies which fund human rights work, human rights awards, education programs on human rights and children's rights information.
  • World News Connection
    This database contains the full-text or summaries of non-U.S. newspaper articles, conference proceedings, radio and television broadcasts, periodicals and non-classified technical reports. Also available on Westlaw.
  • United Nations Treaty Collection
    Includes the UN Treaty Series, Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary General, and recently deposited multilateral treaties.

International Organizations

Selected Instruments

Governmental Bodies

Many of these sites provide relevant laws, rules and procedures, and other useful information.

Revised March 2007 (aeb)