UNHCR

UNHCR's Resources and Publications

[updated Feb. 2025]

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a prolific publisher but the large volume of information both generated and collected by the headquarters and field offices is often hard to keep track of. This page highlights some of UNHCR's principal content collections and provides links to a number of the organization's key publications and specialized resources. Note that this is not a comprehensive listing!

I. Information Collections (org. alphabetically by information type)

Appeals & financial information:

Global Focus [access]

- This “is UNHCR’s main operational reporting portal for donors and other key partners. This site provides an overview of the protection risks that refugees and other populations of concern to UNHCR face across the world, as well as regularly updated information about the organization’s programmes, operations, financial requirements, funding levels and donor contributions.”

See also: UNHCR appeals via ReliefWeb

Country of origin information (COI):

As of 2019, UNHCR discontinued its COI information service (via Refworld) and announced its support for ecoi.net as the main platform for providing "high-quality and up-to-date country of origin information for all actors involved in asylum cases." More info is available via this FAQ.

Evaluations & lessons learned:

Evaluation Service [access]

- Provides access to both centralized and decentralized evaluations initiated by UNHCR as well as links to other evaluations in which UNHCR was involved. 

See also: UNHCR evaluations via ReliefWeb

Executive Committee documents:

Documentation from EXCOM sessions [access]

- "The Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme (ExCom) meets in Geneva annually to review and approve the agency’s programmes and budget, advise on international protection and discuss a range of other issues with UNHCR and intergovernmental and non-governmental partners." Documents are available for each session held since 1990. French-language documentation can be accessed here.

Documentation from EXCOM's Standing Committee [access]

- The Standing Committee generally meets three times a year to discuss international protection and  administrative and financial matters. All documents are available since the first SC meeting held in 1996. French-language documentation can be accessed here.

EXCOM Conclusions on International Protection [access]

- A "language" filter is provided on the left. A compilation of Conclusions issued from 1975-2017 (Nos. 1-114) is also available in English and French.

EXCOM Notes on International Protection [access]

- Annual analysis of trends in international protection. A "language" filter is provided on the left. 

Legal & protection-related information:

Case Law Collection in Refworld [access]

- This collection includes case law from "more than 60 national jurisdictions, and a vast amount of international judgments and decisions from international and regional courts and tribunals as well as the United Nations." Also provides access to court interventions and case law compilations.

Legal Instruments Collection in Refworld [access]

- This collection "contains international, regional and national legal instruments, relating to refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless and internally displaced persons, including their legislative history and comments on these instruments." Note: Select one of the sub-groups within the collection, then use the many filters available in the search form to narrow the view to specific types of legal information. 

Policy & Guidance Collection in Refworld [access]

- "The policy & guidance collection consists mainly of UNHCR policy & guidance documents, although contributions from other sources are also available. It also includes ExCom Conclusions on International Protection. The majority of the documents cover asylum policy on countries, specific situations or thematic/subject matter based issues." 

Research & Reports Collection in Refworld [access]

- Provides access to "reports, relating to countries or regions, meetings, or thematic issues, from a variety of publishers. It also includes research from institutions and scholars." Note: Select one of the sub-groups within the collection, then use the many filters available in the search form to narrow the view to specific types of reports.

UNHCR Publications in Refworld [access]

- This collection provides access to a subset of UNHCR-specific information retrieved from each of the a/m collections. 

See also: The "Protection Publications" page on UNHCR's website provides quick access to various legal publications, including the “Legal and Protection Policy Research Series.” Note, however, that it is not up-to-date!

UNHCR Protection Manual [access]

- “The Protection Manual is UNHCR's repository of protection policy and guidance. The Protection Manual is updated whenever a new protection policy or guidance document is published, and can thus be relied upon to represent the latest UNHCR protection policy/guidance.”

Operational information:

Operational Data Portal (ODP) [access]

- “The Operational Data Portal (ODP) was created in 2011 to enable UNHCR’s institutional responsibility to provide an information and data sharing platform to facilitate coordination of refugee emergencies.” Note: You can browse information by country or by situation. There is a separate section dedicated to locating and viewing maps. Alternatively, use the search form to locate different types of operational materials, as well as items in specific languages.

See also: UNHCR maps via ReliefWeb

See also: UNHCR situation reports via ReliefWeb

Reference materials:

Handbooks and Toolkits [access]

- "This page gathers all recent handbooks and toolkits issued by UNHCR. They provide guidance, practical tools and resources on key topics related to UNHCR’s work worldwide."

See also: UNHCR manuals & guidelines via ReliefWeb

See also: UNHCR training manuals via Refworld 

II. Key UNHCR Publications

Emergency Handbook (2003 update) [access]

- Also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian & Spanish.

Global Appeal (annual) [access to current edition]

- Provides details on "UNHCR’s financial requirements for the coming year; priorities and budget activities for the next annual period; and global strategic priorities." Also available in French. To locate previous editions, scroll down to "All Publications," and select "Global Appeal" from the drop-down list.

Global Report (annual) [access to current edition]

- Reports on "results and achievements of UNHCR’s work, including details about major refugee operations worldwide; contributions from top donors and funding figures for programmes; and budget and expenditures." Also available in French & Spanish. To locate previous editions, scroll down to "All Publications," and select "Global Report" from the drop-down list.

Global Trends (annual) [current & four previous years] [archived editions]

- Reports on "key trends and latest numbers of refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced and stateless people worldwide [as well as] people who have returned to their countries or areas of origin."

Mid-year Trends (annual) [current & two previous years] [archived editions] 

- Provides "statistical data on global displacement trends from January to June each year." 

New Issues in Refugee Research (working paper series published from May 1999-Feb. 2017) [access] [archived versions]

- Note: The papers in this series can still be accessed on the UNHCR site via the first link above, but not in any particular order! Follow the second link for papers in reverse numerical/chronological order. 

The State of the World’s Refugees (six editions published from 1993-2012) [access]

- Note: A new volume related to this series was published in Feb. 2022.  

Statistical Yearbooks (editions published from 2004-2015; statistical overviews avail. 1994-2000) [access]

UNHCR Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status and Guidelines on International Protection Under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, HCR/1P/4/ENG/REV. 4; plus accompanying guidelines [access]

- Note: Select "Policy Documents" to access the Handbook and guidelines; visit each item individually to identify the different language versions available.

III. Specialized Resources

COVID-19 Data Portal [access]

- Point of entry to UNHCR's COVID-19-related information. Also provides access to the Temporary Measures and Impact on Protection Platform, the aim of which was to inform government policy and decision-making during the pandemic and identify gaps in protection. See also related story map.

Global Compact on Refugees Digital Platform [access]

- A community platform where actors who are creating, supporting, or running refugee-related projects can learn more about the Compact, share Good Practices, and publicize their commitments. 

Independent Oversight Portal [access]

- Provides access to "reports issued by the four independent oversight providers for UNHCR: UNHCR’s Evaluation Office, UNHCR’s Internal Audit Service (OIOS), the UN Board of Auditors, and the UN Joint Inspection Unit – since 2020."

Information for Refugees, Asylum-seekers and Stateless People [access]

- Select a country to locate information on services, asylum procedures, or refugee rights and duties.

Master Glossary of Terms [access]

- This resource "provides an online library of definitions and descriptions related to the work of serving and protecting people forced to flee."

Microdata Library [access]

- The MDL "provides access to microdata containing information about UNHCR persons of concern: refugees, asylum seekers, IDPs, returnees, stateless people, and other. The MDL contains unit-level microdata collected directly by UNHCR or indirectly through its partners, but supported in some way by UNHCR."

Organizations Led by Forcibly Displaced and Stateless People [access]

- A small repository of resources to support capacity sharing.  

Refugee Data Finder: Refugee Population Statistics Database [access]

- Despite its name, this database contains information on not just refugees, but also IDPs, asylum-seekers and stateless people. Data are sourced from UNHCR, UNRWA and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC.

Resettlement Data Finder [access]

- Note: This tool has been decommissioned and directs visitors to the Refugee Data Finder listed above.  

Scholarship Opportunities for Refugees [access]

- This database includes information on "accredited higher education academic or scholarship programmes verified by UNHCR."

UNHCR Archives Online Catalogue [access]

- Use this search tool to locate historical records held by UNHCR.

UNHCR Web Archive [access]

- This service provides access to 1) a tool for searching across archived versions of different UNHCR platforms, and 2) a list of archived versions of UNHCR's institutional/country websites and social media accounts.

IV. UNHCR Country & Regional Websites 

To access a list of websites available for specific languages (Arabic, English, French and Spanish), regions and individual countries, go to www.unhcr.org, click on the globe on the upper right side of the page, and select accordingly.