The European Country of Origin Information Network – www.ecoi.net Presentation at PERCO GM in Oslo, 27 April 2007 Austrian Red Cross/ACCORD Hans Lederer, hans.lederer@redcross.at ACCORD – Background “A fair RSD procedure requires access to information and knowledge about the situation in the countries of origin.“ Country of origin research and documentation centre established in 1999 upon initiative of UNHCR. Since 2002 part of the Headquarters of the Austrian Red Cross . 1
ACCORD - Activities Coordination ECOI.NET COI Research Training Case-related query responses www.coi-training.net Country reports www.coi-network.eu ECOI.NET 2
Aim and Means To contribute to a fair, effective and efficient refugee status determination procedure by securing easy and fast access to high-quality and up-to-date country of origin information for all actors involved in asylum cases. Methodology ECOI.NET … � gathers publicly available and publicly citable information; � promotes equal access to high-quality COI for all persons involved in RSD procedures; � is committed to an impartial information policy (corroboration, variety of sources); � is committed to the objective and neutral presentation of COI. 3
Topics and Issues in Focus � Country background (eg history, economy, languages) � Politics and law (eg government, political parties, elections) � Human rights (eg religious, ethnic, political affiliation, women) � Humanitarian issues (eg health, social security, food supply) � Protection-related issues (eg IPA, return, third countries) � Security (eg security situation, criminality and corruption) Access to Information � Country overview (important documents, maps, country profiles, national legislation, links, all documents) � Recent developments (alert service on latest developments and newly added documents in selected countries) � Full text search (wildcard search, fuzzy search, soundex search, Boolean operators, advanced search) � Topics & Issues files (thematically sorted information) � Additional resources for research (sorted link list) 4
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Facts & Figures (as of April 2007) � 357.000 visits recorded in 2006, 178.000 from European countries � 64.000 documents featured in total � 11 Topics & Issues files � 120 sources covered on a regular basis � Cooperates with IV Asyl (Germany), Swiss Refugee Council, Dutch Council for Refugees and supported by ECRE � Co-funded by UNHCR, European Refugee Fund (national), Austrian Ministry of the Interior, Refugee Documentation Centre Ireland and Austrian NGOs � One of eight COI systems assessed by the European Commission to be integrated in Common COI Portal 7
More Information ECOI.NET � http://www.ecoi.net � � Download List of ECOI.NET Sources and Priority Countries � http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/432_1176728945_2007-03-28-ecoi- sources-manual-short.pdf ACCORD � http://www.roteskreuz.at/822.html � � Information on Training and Download of Training Manuals � http://www.coi-training.net/content/ COI Network III – Training, Master Class, Good Practice � � http://www.coi-network.eu/content/ 8
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