This study examines the use of international practice, by exploring the notion that international standards and precedents that have been applied to refugee situations in other cases can give guidance to Palestinian refugee registration data, in reaching future claims for compensation. Three broad questions are put forward in this study: 1. To what extent can international practice as adopted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in its registration and management practices offer a constructive perspective on Palestinian refugee registration procedures and data? 2. What is the relevance of the experience gained in the settlement of refugee claims in international settings, such as the practice of international Claim Commissions in search of guidelines for the planning of a future Palestinian Claim Commission? 3. Can existing Palestinian refugee registration data be constructed in a suitable way for the preparation of future claims? On a broader level, the study will seek to explore two questions. Firstly, can Palestinian refugee registration data point towards findings that could contribute, by making available to negotiators, the quantitative data necessary for determining claims? Secondly, can international guidelines provide a framework for the use of Palestinian registration data in confronting refugee claims and losses? The study also takes on a technical analysis. The case studies subject to the analysis are Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Kosovo. Via this approach, the research will study the general norms and procedures adopted by two Claims Commissions to resolve refugee claims. Insights are then made into the possible transfer of such procedures to the Palestinian refugee case. In doing so, a clearer picture of how a future Palestinian Claims Commission could be established, and how existing Palestinian refugee registration data could be assembled, is then examined. This thesis argues that one of the major gaps in research on Palestinian refugees is that it has not benefited from the experience of international lesson-learning through the analysis of other refugee cases and especially the utilization of the experience of UNHCR and precedents set by international Claim Commissions. The study’s main conclusion is that international guidelines and precedents have significant benefits for preparing Palestinian refugee registration data, in reaching future claims for compensation within the Arab-Israeli negotiations.

Thesis advisor: David Hollenbach / The purpose of this reflection – Dignity across borders: Rethinking the protection of refugees and IDPs from an ethical perspective – has been to challenge contemporary ways of thinking and dealing with issues related to refugees and IDPs. Today, refugees and IDPs are often reduced to their needs. They are often perceived as bodies to shelter, to heal or to clothe; mouths to feed; victims of persecution to protect, etc. In the same perspective, contemporary debates on treatments of refugees and IDPs tend to rotate around the financial costs of processing claims, social security benefits for asylum seekers, and social tensions arising from the presence of large numbers of refugees and IDPs in receiving countries or communities. While acknowledging the importance of all these issues and needs, the stance of this reflection has been to refocus the debate on the concept of human dignity which transcends borders such as nationality, ethnicity, religion, race, etc. From this standpoint, the debate changes and gains more fundamental and moral depths. From the same stance, but grounded in the biblical experience, the Roman Catholic Church‘s social discourse on refugees and IDPs challenges the current international refugee protection regime. Because all are created in the image and likeness of God, all humans share the same dignity. Their dignity and their rights as humans are not related to their citizenship, but to the fact that they have been born into the human family. This is the foundation of Christian universalism that challenges the current refugee protection regime that is based on the membership of states. Yet, Christian universalism includes also a realism that respects the state sovereignty within its borders. Conversely, the main claim of Catholic social teachings on refugee issues is that the refugee issues should not be perceived only from the standpoint of the state, such as national security concern and borders control. Above all, refugees should be perceived as human beings, as dignities across borders. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

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Early in 2001 the federal government tabled Bill C-11, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), new comprehensive legislation intended to overhaul Canadas immigration laws. By this time, refugees had become singled out above other classes of immigrants as a threat to Canadian national security because a backlog of applicants had permitted thousands of failed refugee claimants to remain in Canada and allowed a small number of undesirable individuals to commit serious crimes and to plan and support terrorist activities. This led to public concern that refugees were a potential threat to public safety, national security, and even Canada-US relations. As a result, there were calls for Canada to tighten up its refugee system by adopting a more restrictive adjudication process for refugee claims. At the same time, there were calls for Canada to maintain a fair and open refugee system. This thesis uses discussions from parliamentary committees, an ethical analysis of the right of liberal states to exert sovereignty at the expense of their obligation to protect refugees, and key provisions in both the 1976 Immigration Acts and IRPA, to compare how the two important public goods discussed above, the rights of refugees and the need to protect national security, were balanced in the IRPA. Three major research questions guide this analysis: What provided the impetus for extra legal and security provisions in the IRPA related to refugees? Did amendments in the IRPA constitute a fundamental change to Canadas refugee determination system? Did the IRPA strike a right balance between safeguarding the rights of refugees and safeguarding national security? These questions represent key elements of the refugee/ security nexus, a problem that the IRPA was designed to address. My thesis finds that for the most part the IRPA provided a balanced legislative response to this problem and that it protected the rights of refugees and moderately enhanced provisions related to public safety and national security, although for the latter it did not constitute a marked improvement, nor for the former did it address the outstanding issue of security certificates. But these two deficiencies in the IRPA serve to highlight the inherent tension Canada has had enacting security measures while maintaining fundamental rights for refugees in a changing geo-political environment.

Early in 2001 the federal government tabled Bill C-11, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), new comprehensive legislation intended to overhaul Canadas immigration laws. By this time, refugees had become singled out above other classes of immigrants as a threat to Canadian national security because a backlog of applicants had permitted thousands of failed refugee claimants to remain in Canada and allowed a small number of undesirable individuals to commit serious crimes and to plan and support terrorist activities. This led to public concern that refugees were a potential threat to public safety, national security, and even Canada-US relations. As a result, there were calls for Canada to tighten up its refugee system by adopting a more restrictive adjudication process for refugee claims. At the same time, there were calls for Canada to maintain a fair and open refugee system. This thesis uses discussions from parliamentary committees, an ethical analysis of the right of liberal states to exert sovereignty at the expense of their obligation to protect refugees, and key provisions in both the 1976 Immigration Acts and IRPA, to compare how the two important public goods discussed above, the rights of refugees and the need to protect national security, were balanced in the IRPA. Three major research questions guide this analysis: What provided the impetus for extra legal and security provisions in the IRPA related to refugees? Did amendments in the IRPA constitute a fundamental change to Canadas refugee determination system? Did the IRPA strike a right balance between safeguarding the rights of refugees and safeguarding national security? These questions represent key elements of the refugee/ security nexus, a problem that the IRPA was designed to address. My thesis finds that for the most part the IRPA provided a balanced legislative response to this problem and that it protected the rights of refugees and moderately enhanced provisions related to public safety and national security, although for the latter it did not constitute a marked improvement, nor for the former did it address the outstanding issue of security certificates. But these two deficiencies in the IRPA serve to highlight the inherent tension Canada has had enacting security measures while maintaining fundamental rights for refugees in a changing geo-political environment.

Project (M.P.P.) - Simon Fraser University, 2006. / Theses (Master of Public Policy Program) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2003. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2724. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as preliminary leaves iii-iv. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-113).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Zugl.: Bremen, Univ., Diss., 2006

Thesis--Lund. / Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 274-277).