A Rwandan refugee in Cape Town, discusses the drawing he did for the UNHCR study on children and violence.
© UNHCR/J Redden
The refugee world has become highly complex. UNHCR currently cares for 20.8 million people in all corners of the world and in all types of situations. It pursues many roles including providing material aid for civilians who may number just a handful or many hundreds of thousands in any given exodus. It is involved in highly technical legal work assisting asylum seekers, helping governments establish refugee regimes and helping to shape international humanitarian law. To help it fulfil these various roles, the agency is involved in many research, analysis and evaluation projects.


Refworld online
An up-to-date and comprehensive collection of refugee- and asylum-related documents by UNHCR specialists and information partners.


Policy Development and Evaluation
UNHCR's Policy Development and Evaluation Service analyzes and assesses UNHCR's policies, programmes and practices.




UNHCR Archives
Records are kept to facilitate the ongoing work of the UNHCR mission, to enable a highly mobile staff streamlined access to timely information, to facilitate the organization's response to external review of UNHCR activities by donors or international courts, and to preserve the institutional memory of the organization for research.


UNHCR Library & Visitors' Centre
The UNHCR Library and Visitor's Centre offer a variety of information and documentation services on refugee issues.