'The main legal instruments governing the legal status of refugees in international law are the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention) and its 1967 Protocol. Although the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol are applicable to States, people meeting the eligibility criteria set out in them are refugees of concern to UNHCR. UNHCR encourages States to accede to the Convention and its Protocol and supervises their implementation. As of September 2006, 146 states had signed up to the 1951 Convention or its Protocol, or – in the great majority of cases – both.
The 1951 Convention in Article 1A(2) defines refugees as people who are outside their countries because of a well-founded fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group, and who, for persecutionrelated reasons, are unable or unwilling to return home.10 The United Nations and Palestinian Refugees Al-Tanf tented site on the Syria – Iraq border.
Article 1D of the 1951 Convention states that the Convention “shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance. When such protection or assistance has ceased for any reason, without the position of such persons being definitively settled in accordance with the relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, these persons shall ipso facto be entitled to the benefits of the Convention”.
UNHCR considers that two groups of Palestinian refugees fall within the scope of Article 1D of the 1951 Convention:
(i) Palestinians who are “Palestine refugees” within the sense of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948 and other UN General Assembly Resolutions, who were displaced from that The United Nations and Palestinian Refugees 11 part of Palestine which became Israel, and who have been unable to return there.
(ii) Palestinians who are “displaced persons” within the sense of UN General Assembly Resolution 2252 (ES-V) of 4 June 1967 and subsequent UN General Assembly Resolutions, and who have been unable to return to the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967.
A third group of Palestinian refugees consists of individuals who are neither “Palestine refugees” nor “displaced persons” but who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for one or more of the 1951 Convention grounds, are outside the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967 and are unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return there. Such Palestinians can qualify as refugees under Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention.'
The United Nations and Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, 2007
UNRWA (12/1949)
United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in the Near
East
The Agency provides education, health care, social services, shelter, micro-credit loans and emergency aid to Palestine refugees in its five fields of operations: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
At the end of June 2008, there were a total of 4,618,141 refugees registered with UNRWA; 1,930,703 in Jordan, 416,608 in Lebanon, 456,983 in Syria, 754,263 in the West Bank, and 1,059,584 in the Gaza Strip.
UNHCR (01/1951)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
principal aim of the agency was dealing with refugees in Europe left homeless by World War II. UNHCR has a world-wide mandate to protect, assist, and seek durable solutions for refugees as well as for other people in need of international
protection. UNHCR’s mandate covers Palestinians who are refugees within the meaning of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which could include Palestine refugees as defined by UNRWA. UNHCR normally takes up the case of Palestinian refugees only when they are outside UNRWA’s area of operations.
The vast majority of Palestinian refugees fall under the UNRWA mandate, but there is still a large number living in other countries of the region, such as the Gulf States, Egypt, Iraq or Yemen, or further afield in Australia, Europe and America
The refugees are now in their third and even fourth generation. In 1999, there were some 6 million Palestinians worldwide.
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