Website Focus: UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency

One great resource that I have used throughout my blog this semester is the UNHCR website on refugees, found here:
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home

This is the homepage for all UN work dealing with refugees, all commissions that they do, all the surveys and statistics that they find, and all of their proposed policy changes to help deal with refugee crises. Some of the best parts of the webpage are the continually updated news stories about refugees around the world, and also the “Major Operations” pages that they put up, which are full of resources and statistics that can be used when discussing some of the large refugee crises around the world, specifically Iraq, Southern Sudan, Chad/Darfur, and Afghanistan. Another great aspect of the site is the multimedia presented, including photo galleries of different areas of the world.

Major Operations: http://www.unhcr.org/afghan.html

This link is for the specific Major Operations page on Afghanistan. All of these pages are great for finding information about specific conflicts, including news stories, photos, statistics, and reports put out by both the UN and other organizations. If you need briefing notes to give a presentation or talk about a situation, these webpages are the best place to go for that. It’s good to give you an overview of why a conflict is happening, and what the current situation is.

Photo galleries: http://www.unhcr.org/static/home/photosets.htm

I love this section of the webpage because it gives an amazing visual to go along with the stories and news about refugees around the world. While some of the galleries focus on sad aspects of refugee life, others highlight positive things happening around the world. One such gallery shows how girls/women in Afghanistan went from begging on the street to working in a beauty salon, making an income and not having to beg any more. Some others of the best photo galleries are the ones showing people returning home in Chad and Afghanistan, and the education system being set up for refugees in Columbia.