RefWorld 2005
Full Review
Reviewed by: Ronda Bresnick Hauss, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and founder of the Quiet Waters Center for Trauma, Stress and Resilience, PLLC; Washington, D.C., USA
Review posted 26 July 2006
Review No. 83
Content: This CD-ROM collection of over 90,000 UNHCR documents is a useful source of information for organizations and people working in the refugee, political asylum, and human rights fields. The CD-ROMs are especially useful for organizations, groups, and individuals that do not have access to the internet.
Publication Date: 1 September 2005
Audience: This collection is a useful library for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), legal clinics, human rights activists, and any organizations that may be interested in or work with refugees, asylum seekers or students.
Producer: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Size: 3.5GB
Price: US$150 government institution rate / US$75 NGOs working with refugees.
Manual needed: No, but the provided brochure helps in using the search facility more effectively.
How to order:
Order by mail:
Status Determination and Protection Information
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Geneva 2
Switzerland
Order by fax:
Fax: +41 (0) 22 739 7396
Download order form .*
*This link takes you outside the ADBI website. Please use the back button to return to ADBI.org.
Content
Refworld is a collection of six CD-ROMs. The majority of the documents are in English, but some are also available in French, Spanish, and other languages. Large portions of the information in the CD-ROMs are also found on the UNHCR website. However, the CD-ROMs are especially useful for those who do not have internet access.
CD-ROM 1: UNHCR Information provides historical documents on UNHCR’s creation, documents from the Executive Committee, speeches from all High Commissioners, UNHCR Country Operations Plans, and bibliographic listings of articles, books, and official documents from the UNHCR library. Perhaps most useful to human rights organizations is UNHCR’s Country Operations Plans, which looks at the political context, the security situation, protection issues, as well as UNHCR's role in each country.
CD-ROM 2: Legal Information contains UNHCR policy and position papers, and guidelines. It also contains international decisions and cases from the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights, and other regional courts. Additionally, it includes a comprehensive database of international instruments relating to refugees and human rights, lists of state parties to key conventions, as well as refugee-related national legislation.
The National Legislation database on this CD-ROM contains legislative information on many countries. The main topics covered include citizenship, nationality, statelessness, immigration and migration, and human rights. The database also includes each of the country's constitutional provisions and penal codes. This information would be useful to activists.
CD-ROM 3 and 4: Country Information includes human rights and country reports from international, governmental, and non-governmental organizations. It consists of reports from the Commission of the European Communities, the Governments of Canada, Denmark, the UK, and the United States, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Danish Refugee Council. Of particular use to human rights activists is the database that includes chronologies of events in each country, as they relate to human rights issues. In addition, documents prepared by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch provide very useful independent sources of information by country.
CD-ROM 5: United Nations Documents contains the latest and historical refugee-related and UNHCR-related reports, resolutions, decisions, and documents produced by the UN Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Commission on Human Rights. Reports and presidential statements by the Security Council may be of interest to human rights activists.
CD-ROM 6: UN Treaty Bodies, Maps and Statistics contains UNHCR operational maps, detailed statistics relating to political asylum, and UN reports about observations from the UN human rights treaty monitoring system (for example, bodies such as the Committee Against Torture and the Human Rights Committee). Statistics on asylum trends and refugees by number would be useful to policymakers and activists working on refugee issues.
These CD-ROMs are a good source of information for those interested in refugee and human rights issues who do not have internet access. It provides stand-alone access to large volumes of information such as key legal documents, statistics, and country reports.
User-Friendliness and Navigability
Refworld 2005 is an easy to use, self-contained resource with searching and printing capacities. It starts immediately and does not require an internet connection. The application required to read the CD-ROM files is available in CD-ROM 1.
Simple and advanced searching is made easy with instructions from a brochure included with the CD-ROMs. However, only the contents of one CD-ROM can be searched at any one time. There is a plan to issue the information in DVD format, which would enable users to search the entire contents of Refworld simultaneously.
Because the CD-ROMs contain many small files (Refworld is approximately 3.5GB in total) some operating systems may encounter difficulties copying data from the CD-ROMs to the hard disk.
Response from the technical support staff via e-mail is prompt, with most queries being responded to within 24 hours.
Interactivity
No interactive features are available.
Distribution
The CD-ROM collection can be ordered through UNHCR by fax or mail. Details are noted in the "How to Order" section above.
A full subscription to Refworld 2005 costs US$150 for governments, international organizations, academic institutions, research institutes, libraries, bar associations, law schools, and the judiciary. A reduced fee of US$75 is offered to NGOs contributing to or involved in work with refugees. Legal clinics, students, individuals, and lawyers working on behalf of asylum-seekers and refugees are also offered this reduced fee. However, even this may be difficult for developing country NGOs, particularly indigenous NGOs that often operate on very small budgets. UNHCR indicates that it does offer, exceptionally, complimentary copies to subscribers in low-income countries (upon recommendation from the local UNHCR office).
Sustainability
The information in these CD-ROMs is current as of September 2005. Some of the data and information, such as country reports and statistics will become outdated over time. Historical documents, decisions, treaties, and resolutions may be less time sensitive. UNHCR intends to issue a new Refworld in 2006.
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