Protecting the human rights of refugees internationally has been an integral part of the work of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights since its inception. We have advocated on behalf of refugees around the world from Vietnamese asylum seekers in Hong Kong to ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. We have developed expertise in a range of issues that affect refugees from the right to enter and seek asylum to repatriation policy and the optimal role of international institutions such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Organization of African Unity (recently reconstituted as the African Union).

Our goals are:

• To ensure that the rights of refugees provided under UN and regional refugee and human rights law are protected and to identify and address specific situations in which enjoyment of these rights is in jeopardy;
  
  
• To monitor the standard of refugee protection accorded by national and international institutions and organizations;
  
  
• To contribute to the development of enhanced legal mechanisms and practices in order to more effectively tackle new protection challenges;
  
  
• To work with local and international non-governmental organizations (both human rights organizations and relief groups) to strengthen regional and institutional capacity to deal with refugee protection concerns.

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