UNHCR presence in the field

A legal analysis of UNHCR
Marjoleine Zieck
Pages: 403 pages
Shipping Weight: 510 gram
Published: 07-2006
Publisher: WLP
Language: US
ISBN (hardcover) : 9789058501684

Product Description

The UNHCR was established as a non-operational agency but has developed into a highly operational agency with a field presence in more than 100 states. In many instances this presence is based on a cooperation agreement and UNHCR has concluded more than 90 of those agreements. Unlike host state agreements, the cooperation agreements do not merely govern questions concerning the establishment and operation of a representative presence in the territory of states but also address substantive questions which allow UNHCR to operate in the field with tasks well beyond those originally envisaged.

The book considers both aspects of the cooperation agreements in terms of the corresponding fields of law, that is, the law relating to international privileges and immunities and international refugee law respectively. With respect to the first-mentioned field of law, the analysis enables to demonstrate some systemic flaws which, in practice, affect UNHCR`s operations in the field, and with respect to the latter, it allows to infer that the cooperation agreements are part and parcel of the international refugee law regime, indispensable parts in that.

The annexes to the book include the text of UNHCR’s model cooperation agreement and an overview of the cooperation agreements concluded by UNHCR since the time it was created.

Marjoleine Zieck (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands) is the author of UNHCR and Voluntary Repatriation of Refugees (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers).