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UNHCR-sponsored refugee law course

A unique collaboration between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and a Pakistani open university will see refugee law being taught as part of a distance-learning curriculum from next year, according to an aid official. "The world in general will benefit more by learning about the nature of the refugee situation worldwide and the challenges facing them," Jack Redden, a UNHCR spokesman, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday. Three-month courses in refugee law will be offered to students from early next year according to a memorandum of understanding signed on Saturday between UNHCR and the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), a UNHCR press statement said. Under the agreement, which has been deemed extendable from its initial 12-month period, UNHCR would provide support to university staff, supply course material and finance the cost of printing books, the press release said. The AIOU was launched in 1974 and is said to have been the world's second such university after the UK's Open University, which broke new ground when it was set up in 1969. AIOU's distance-learning programme is facilitated by a network of offices in major Pakistani cities, as well as six Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, according to the statement. The proposed curriculum for the new course includes the history of the legal framework, details of international agreements governing refugees and covers specific areas of action by UNHCR, the statement said. Redden said no real assessment could be made yet about what kind of demand there would be for the new course, but noted that he had been told that it could begin earlier than the previous launch date which had been scheduled for March 2004. "We're actually working on similar agreements with other institutions also, which, I hope, will be finalised soon," he said. Best known in Pakistan for its care of Afghan refugees and the current voluntary repatriation programme, UNHCR is also engaged in efforts to increase understanding among Pakistanis about the worldwide refugee situation, the press statement said. In September, the number of Afghan refugees repatriated with UNHCR assistance to their troubled country crossed the 300,000 mark, under a programme intended to last until 2005. Millions of Afghans fled their country to seek safety in neighbouring Pakistan, following the invasion of their landlocked nation by the former Soviet Union in 1979. Most opted to stay back, even after the occupation ended in the late 1980s, as Afghanistan descended further into civil war and chaos in the 1990s following the ousting of a pro-Soviet regime and the subsequent rise of the hard-line Taliban regime. But, following the 11 September attacks on the United States and the rout of the Taliban by a US-led coalition in late 2001, most refugees decided to go home under a UNHCR-sponsored repatriation programme. At the start of this year, UNHCR estimated that there were 1.2 million Afghans residing in camps in Pakistan, primarily in the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan, both of which lie on the border with Afghanistan. An unknown number is thought to be living in Pakistani cities. The agency believes that of those who returned to Afghanistan this year, one-third came from the camps. Saying asylum policies were becoming increasingly restrictive, frequently for internal political reasons and because, in some cases, states did not honour their international obligations towards refugees, the press statement said UNHCR felt there was an urgent need to provide education in refugee law, as well as public support for the protection of refugees.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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