Refugee Studies

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Eleven NGOs call on Guterres to change RSD policy, warn that errors go undetected <http://www.rsdwatch.org/index_files/Page4616.htm>
In joint letter, NGOs criticize weakness of existing standards

Eleven refugee rights organizations have written to High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, criticizing the weakness of current UNHCR procedural standards and calling for immediate changes to prevent mistaken rejection of people in danger of persecution.
The joint letter was sent on the anniversary of the publication of new RSD standards for use at UNHCR field offices. But it also came in the wake of a European Court of Human Rights decision that effectively overturned a decision by UNHCR in Turkey to refuse protection to an Iranian woman.
The organizations, including Jesuit Refugee Service, the International Refugee Rights Initiative and legal aid and advocacy centers based in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, noted that many of the reforms included in the new Standards were non-binding, and that even those that are mandatory have not been implemented at some UNHCR field offices.
The letter noted that while the new Standards were published only in September 2005, they were distributed internally in November 2003. “It is now time to make the Procedural Standards fully binding, and to erase the gaps between UNHCR advice to governments and UNHCR’s own practices,” it said.
Plus:

Þ Responding to Hong Kong critics, UNHCR-Beijing implies that 2005 Procedural Standards are not binding <http://www.rsdwatch.org/index_files/Page4725.htm>
Þ N. Korean refugees arrested in Thailand; UNHCR plans resettlement <http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-08-23-voa9.cfm> (external link)
Þ Refugees International finds UNHCR RSD adds to hardships of Burmese in India <http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/8743/?PHPSESSID=3fc64258eda9d44c2> (external link)

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