Call for inputs: UNHCR's Handbook on Refugee Law Project

[Thanks to A Lambe for posting about this on the Forced Migration List!] 

Call for inputs for new UNHCR Handbook on Refugee Law – Volume on Criteria for Determining Refugee Status (posted 30 June 2026) [text]

"UNHCR has launched a multi-year project to update and consolidate its core interpretive framework on refugee protection. The project will integrate and expand the 1979 Handbook and the 14 Guidelines into a new Handbook on Refugee Law that, in three volumes, will cover refugee status criteria, the rights of refugees under international law, and standards for procedures and evidence in refugee status determination.

   In the context of the drafting of Volume 1 of the new UNHCR Handbook on Refugee Law, which will address the criteria for determining refugee status, UNHCR invites written inputs from interested stakeholders."

The Director of UNHCR’s Division of International Protection and Solutions described the new Handbook this way: "The new Handbook will reflect the latest developments in international law and doctrine and in the laws and jurisprudence of States and will benefit from input from a range of different stakeholders working with and for refugees. Its purpose is to promote greater coherence, legal certainty and fidelity to the Convention and regional refugee instruments across asylum systems by clarifying how the existing framework should be understood and applied today."

More details are provided in the call. Submissions must be received by 15 September 2026.

For background on the genesis of this project, see Geoff Gilbert's posts on the Univ. of Essex blog and on OpinioJuris' Symposium on the 1951 Refugee Convention at 75.

Links to the Handbook/Guidelines:

- Text of the Handbook in 8 languages: https://www.refworld.org/policy/legalguidance/unhcr/2019/123881

- Alternative link: If the English text is not displaying correctly via the a/m link, try this instead: https://www.unhcr.org/media/handbook-procedures-and-criteria-determining-refugee-status-under-1951-convention-and-1967

- Access to the 14 guidelines: https://www.refworld.org/search?order=desc&sm_document_source_name[]=UN%20High%20Commissioner%20for%20Refugees%20%28UNHCR%29&sm_document_subtype_name[]=Guidelines%20on%20International%20Protection&sort=score

- Alternative link: https://www.refworld.org/thematic-area/refugee-status-determination (select "Policy Documents" to view the guidelines)