BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee

Protection
The UNHCR recognizes 1948 and 1967 Palestinian refugees outside UNRWA areas of operation as prima facie
“Convention refugees” under Article 1D of the 1951 Refugee Convention. 212 In other words, they do not need
to prove individual persecution under Article 1A. Descendants of 1948 and 1967 refugees are also entitled to
protection under the Convention. Other Palestinians displaced after 1967, who are neither 1948 or 1967 refugees,
and are considered refugees according to Article 1A of the Convention, also fall within the protection mandate of
the UNHCR. As of 2005, UNHCR statistics indicate that an estimated 349,000 Palestinian refugees or less than
5% of the total Palestinian refugee population (not including IDPs), fall within the UNHCR mandate. 213
The UNHCR’s limited mandate for 1948 and 1967 Palestinian refugees may be explained by a variety of factors,
including the absence, in the 1950 Statute of the UNHCR, of an inclusion clause for Palestinian refugees
similar to the second clause of Article 1D of the 1951 Refugee Convention; the perception that the “political
character” of the Palestinian refugee case is incompatible with the “neutral character” of UNHCR protection
activities; financial concerns related to the inclusion of millions of additional refugees in UNHCR programs;
and combined Western and Arab opposition to the inclusion of all Palestinian refugees within the protection
mandate of the UNHCR.
UNHCR protection activities for Palestinian refugees outside UNRWA areas of operation have included
assistance with travel documents, renewal of UNRWA registration cards, facilitation of interim solutions for
Palestinian refugees in cases of forced departure from Arab host countries, legal aid for stranded Palestinian
refugees seeking asylum, and advice to states on the interpretation and application of the 1951 Convention to
Palestinian refugees. After the PLO was forced to leave Lebanon in 1982, for example, the UNHCR intervened
with the Lebanese authorities on behalf of Palestinian refugees who were experiencing difficulty in obtaining the
renewal of Lebanese travel documents. Other UNHCR efforts have included drafting the 1992 Cairo Declaration
on the Protection of Refugees and Displaced Persons in the Arab World and the 2002 Note on the Applicability of
Article 1D of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to Palestinian Refugees.
The UNHCR recognizes the protection gap faced by 1948 and 1967 Palestinian refugees, and has issued several
calls to remedy the problem. For example, following the massacre of several thousand Palestinian refugees in Beirut
in September 1982 by Israeli-allied Lebanese Phalangist militiamen, the UNHCR Executive Committee (the
advisory body to the High Commissioner) “expressed the hope that measures would be taken to protect refugees
against such attacks and to aid the victims.” 214 During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, in the context of the
first Palestinian intifada in the 1967-occupied Palestinian territory, the UNHCR issued numerous Executive
Committee conclusions that “[e]xpressed concern about the lack of adequate international protection for various
groups of refugees in different parts of the world, including a large number of Palestinians, and hoped that
efforts would be undertaken within the United Nations system to address their protection needs.” 215
During the 1990–91 Gulf War, the UNHCR extended protection services and provided material assistance
to several hundred thousand Palestinian refugees in the Gulf States who were confronted with detention and
forced departure. Between 1995 and 1997, the UNHCR provided assistance to Palestinian refugees stranded
on the Libyan-Egyptian border after being expelled from Libya in 1995.
Since the US-led war and occupation of Iraq in 2003, the UNHCR reports that “Palestinians [in Iraq] have
become subject to discriminatory and violent acts, forcing some of them to leave the country in search of safety
abroad.” 216 The UNHCR has provided humanitarian assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees stranded
in Iraq and on the borders with Syria and Jordan. 217 The UNHCR has also made numerous appeals expressing
strong concern, and urgently calling for at least a temporary solution for Palestinians refugees from Iraq. At a
briefing, a UNHCR spokesperson noted that “right now, it’s an untenable situation for the Palestinians, and
it is deteriorating on a daily basis”, 218 and urged “the international community, including neighbouring and
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