Ensuring the human and rights based treatment of refugees in an increasingly restrictive environment is among the most pressing problems facing the international community today. The subject of international refugee law has, as a consequence, acquired global importance. This unique reader constitutes a comprehensive introduction to international refugee law from an interdisciplinary and third world perspective. It provides not only a detailed analysis of the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees but covers regional conventions and declarations as well as other issues of topical importance.