RSD Watch
RSDWatch.org was launched in February 2005 as part of a widening effort by grassroots refugee rights organizations to promote reform of the way that UNHCR conducts refugee status determination (RSD). The aim of RSDWatch is to monitor UNHCR’s procedures of determining refugee status so as to promote fairness, transparency and accountability in its RSD adjudication, and to provide a forum in which to discuss the protection challenges posed by UNHCR’s RSD procedures.
The Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN)
The APRRN is an open and growing network of over 200 civil society organisations and individuals from 26 countries committed to advancing the rights of refugees in the Asia Pacific Region through information sharing, mutual capacity building, and joint advocacy. APRRN advocates for the rights of people in need of protection in the Asia Pacific region specifically refugees, asylum seekers, stateless person and internally displaced people, and all of those affected by forced migration. APRRN has been functioning since its formation in November 2008 at the First Asia Pacific Consultation on Refugee Rights held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Contributions to the website are welcome, including contributors’ analysis of key issues in their own country or the region or stories of being a refugee advocate or a refugee in the Asia Pacific region.
Contact: website@refugeerightsasiapacific.org.
The APRRN publishes an online newsletter, to sign up for the newsletter see here.
The International Detention Coalition (IDC)
The International Detention Coalition is a unique global network of over 300 non-governmental organisations, faith-based groups, academics and practitioners in 67 countries that aim to promote greater protection of and respect for the human rights of those held in detention and to raise awareness of detention policies and practices. It also aims to promote the use of international and regional human rights standards and principles as they relate to the detention of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. The Coalition reaches these objectives through networking, advocacy, awareness raising and researching and reporting on issues worldwide relating to the detention of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants.
The IDC collates the latest news on immigration detention from around the world in its monthly e-newsletter, the International Detention Monitor.
To join, subscribe or find out more, visit www.idcoalition.org or email info@idcoalition.org.
Centre for Refugee and IDP Studies (CESI)
The Centre for Refugee and IDP Studies (CESI) was established through partnership of UNHCR in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Faculty of Political Science at University of Sarajevo in 2011, as a first academic centre in BiH and Western Balkans region dedicated to forced migration studies. CESI is dedicated to improving awareness and understanding of the causes and consequences of forced migration by providing a forum for education, research, training and dialogue in the field of refugee and IDP studies.
Netzwerk Flüchtlingsforschung (German Network Refugee Research)
Netzwerk Flüchtlingsforschung (German Network Refugee Research) is a multi-disciplinary network of scholars in Germany working on asylum, forced migration and refugee protection. It is also open to international scholars working on these issues in regard to Germany. The network aims to establish and foster refugee research in Germany as well as to serve as a platform for information, cooperation and exchange. It collects and shares information about its members, their projects and publications. Moreover, it promotes refugee research in academia as a field of study and publically, to highlight the relevance of studying refugees and forced migration. For these ends, Netzwerk Flüchtlingsforschung offers a homepage, publishes a newsletter and is present on Facebook.
The German Network Refugee Research runs the FlüchtlingsforschungsBlog, a German language blog where members and other scholars and practitioners publish short articles covering a wide range of issues regarding displacement, forced migration and refugee protection. Read the blog here: www.fluechtlingsforschung.net/blog.
To find out more, email info@fluechtlingsforschung.net or, for non-German speakers who have specific requests for information, contact Ulrike Krause: ulrike.krause@staff.uni-marburg.de.
Secretariat: Southern Refugee Legal Aid Network (SRLAN)
The Rights in Exile Programme is the Secretariat of the Southern Refugee Legal Aid Network (SRLAN). SRLAN began in 2007 at a conference in Nairobi, Kenya. It was born out of a common understanding amongst its members that refugees are people with rights enshrined in international human rights and refugee law who are often treated as passive victims with endless needs, and whose rights are regularly violated. The human suffering refugees endure often results from restrictions on their autonomy as human beings, and thus must be addressed by ensuring their ability to exercise basic rights. This is particularly challenging in the global south, where judicial institutions to redress rights violations are less developed and/or accessible. To remedy this, organisations are increasingly conducting rights-based advocacy for refugees in the global south, through pro bono legal aid and/or research and policy advocacy. These organisations are bound by a common desire to foster respect for the rights of refugees in the global south.
These organisations are often unique in their countries and isolated from each other internationally. While they face common challenges, they have not had sufficient opportunities to learn from each other’s experiences. Slowly and informally, however, rights-based refugee organisations have been increasing their information sharing and coordinated advocacy. The Southern Refugee Legal Aid Network was thus initiated to formalise such cooperation, with a view to channelling disparate refugee rights organisations into a movement for refugee rights in the global south. At the time of inception, the SRLAN concluded the Nairobi Code by which all members of the Network agreed to abide. The SRLAN continues to develop and invites new members from the refugee legal aid world.
The SRLAN invites new members in the refugee legal aid sector from around the world. The SRLAN Charter (2007) outlines its objectives and membership requirements and the SRLAN Bylaws aim to refine and implement the principles, vision and mission established in Nairobi and memorialised in the 2007 Charter.
To apply to become a member, please read the Nairobi Code of Ethics and SRLAN Bylaws before completing the SRLAN Membership Form. Please see the SRLAN website for more information on how to join.
The Rights in Exile Programme is a member and the Secretariat for the Southern Refugee Legal Aid Network.