Useful Websites.

Information on Treatment and Healthcare Accessibility in Countries of Origin
(ITHACA) - http://www.ithaca-eu.org/
- Provides "information on the medical situation in countries of origin in
support of the asylum process."

RefBlog - http://icaruk.wordpress.com/
- RefBlog combines ICAR's two previous blogs, PolicyBlog and MediaBlog, along

with the weekly Asylum Update, and presents the content in one unified blog.

Refugee Law Reader: Cases, Documents and Materials -
http://www.refugeelawreader.org
- Fourth edition recently released.

Posted in: Web Sites & Tools.

ECOI.net

ECOI.net is an online resource which provides up-to-date and publicly available country of origin information with a special focus on the needs of asylum lawyers, refugee counsels and persons deciding on claims for asylum and other forms of international protection. Access to information is facilitated by a comprehensive search tool and Topics & Issues files, offering thematically structured information on asylum-relevant topics and issues for a set of focus countries.

Web: http://www.ecoi.net/

UNHCR Launch of Refworld Online

Dear colleagues,

To increase awareness of UNHCR recommendations, guidelines and related papers,
UNHCR regularly sends out e-mail notifications of recently released papers of
interest. We would like to draw your attention that, on Thursday 14 June 2007,
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres officially launched the new
Refworld website (www.refworld.org), in the presence of Assistant High
Commissioner for Protection, Erika Feller, and the Director of the Division of
International Protection Services, George Okoth-Obbo.

Refworld is UNHCR's state-of-the-art, internet-based protection information
system. It is a knowledge resource which facilitates quality, evidence-based
and effective decision making in refugee status determination procedures.. Over
approximately 15 years, UNHCR has built up a wide patronage among users,
including UNHCR protection officers and other staff, government decision
makers, non-governmental organizations, the judiciary, private practitioners
and academics. The system has proved vital for evidence-based advocacy for
resettlement, internally displaced and stateless persons, migration, and
various other protection concerns.

The information in Refworld has been carefully selected and compiled in
collaboration with UNHCR's global network of field offices, governments,
international and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions,
judicial bodies and others.

The new website includes a professional and consistent design, vastly improved
search functionality and navigation/browsing options, topic guides and
specifically developed special features on core issues. Refworld includes
multiple and advanced possibilities for browsing the collection of documents by
region and/or country, by publisher, by topic/keyword and by document type. In
addition, it has a powerful full text search engine and advanced search
facilities. The complete contents of Refworld - including country reports,
national legislation and case law, and all public domain UNHCR protection
policies and guidelines - are now, for the first time, freely accessible to all
UNHCR staff, external partners and the public at large.

Refworld online is accessible at www.refworld.org.

Please also see today's top news story on the UNHCR website:

UNHCR relaunches Refworld as state-of-art online protection tool
15 June 2007
http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/4671697f4.html

Best regards,

Status Determination and Protection Information Section (SDPIS)
Division of International Protection Services (DIPS)
E-mail: refworld@unhcr.org
Web: http://www.refworld.org

New Online Resource

Diaspora.fi is a resource page for scholars interested in religions in the globalising world. It provides information on available studies, journals, projects and researchers in the field. The diaspora mailing list is an information channel for new publications, funding, positions, conferences and other events. Areas of interest include religion in diaspora, religion and international migration, globalisation and transnationalism, and the study of religion in local settings. Hence, an interest for religious mapping projects is central, as they reval the many forms that traditions take once situated in a new context.

There is also an interest toward the settlement processes of religious groups, religion and integration, racism and ethnicity. Beyond settelement, there are questions of migrant generations, mixed marriages, gender, religiosity, etc. The aim of the website is to promote the study of these and related issues, and to create debate and connections between researchers. I hope you shall enjoy this resource. All suggestions for additions and collaboration are welcome.

Web address: http://www.diaspora.fi/index.html

Researching Asylum in London (RAL). Major new website

Researching Asylum in London (RAL). Major new website

(note from HC: well worth looking at/being aware of this)
www.researchasylum.org.uk

RAL is an independent database of research on refugee and asylum issues relevant to London. The aim of this project is to make research more accessible to service providers and policy-makers working in the field. The database contains summaries of research and the aims, methodology, key findings, conclusions and recommendations are easily identifiable. You can search by keywords, explore by population or theme or browse by location. The site already includes the final report of the Project Co-ordinator from the pilot phase of Welcome To Your Library. The site is hosted by the Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees (ICAR) and the About Us section of the website provides fuller information on how the site came about, criteria for inclusion and how to suggest items for inclusion.