BEGIN YOUR RESEARCH: One place to start is by familiarizing yourself with material from the United Nations and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency provides a wealth of information on their web site. The research/evaluation section includes links to RefWorld (a collection of documents ranging from background country reports to legal position papers, guidelines and statistics) and to RefLink (an internet portal of selected information sources dealing with refugees, asylum, human rights and related topics). Basic facts, news, protecting refugees, publications, and statistics are among the sections presented. All sections are worth exploring. You will locate publications ranging from Global Refugee Trends or The State of the World's Refugees to Protecting Refugees: A Field Guide for NGO's. You will find maps, current news stories, and more. Try the "Quick Find" and "Browse by Country" features also.

CHECK OUT LIBRARY BOOKS:
other UNHCR pubs
The United Nations' Policy in Africa

LOOK AT OTHER WEB SITES: Many more organizations provide material online. Here are a few:

• Amnesty International
  Provides access to documents by region or by theme in the Library section. Includes both general guidelines (for instance Refugees: Human Rights Have No Borders and The UN and Refugees' Human Rights) and current news (Refugee Rights Are Being Eroded in Central Africa).
• ICRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross
  Provides access to news, information resources on ICRC and humanitarian law, and more. Use the search feature to quickly locate specific information, or go to the Focus and Humanitarian law sections for particular topics such as Refugees and IDPs.
• Refugees International
  Resources include policy recommendations, news, publications, and events. Select Issues for topical access--Child Soldiers or Forgotten People or Refugee Women, etc.
• U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
  Provides access to a range of news and documents. Includes first-hand accounts from refugees, the World Refugee Survey, refugee conditions by country--for example the World Refugee Survey 2004 Country Report on Nigeria--and additional material.

READ JOURNAL ARTICLES: Find Journal Articles in African Studies indexes, or use the electronic resources database--selecting "Articles and Indexes" as the "Resource Type" and then a "Subject" such as Political Science--to identify additional indexes like Historical Abstracts and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts.

Use the library catalog or the electronic journals database to search for journals like the International Journal of Refugee Law, the Journal of Refugee Studies, Refugee Survey Quarterly, and others you may wish to browse.

FINDING MORE WEB SITES: See what is suggested by African studies web sites at other universities. Stanford's includes a Human Rights section.

Take a look at the University of Chicago Library's subject pages to identify additional resources. Try Political Science, perhaps, or History, or other subjects. Law includes a section on Foreign & International Law, and Government Documents includes a section on International Organizations.

SEE HOW NEWS MEDIA PRESENT ISSUES: WN Africa and other news services may prove useful.