A new edition of the training manual ‘Researching Country of Origin Information’ has been published this week by the Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation (ACCORD), a department of the Austrian Red Cross.

The training manual includes sections on the role of Country of Origin Information (COI) in protection procedures, the COI quality standards and principles, advice on asking the right research questions, evaluating source reliability, the use of social media, and the importance of transparency in the presentation of results. The manual also includes two appendices explaining the main legal concepts in COI research and lists the most frequently used sources.

The publication updates an earlier version from 2004. The 2013 edition is directed at a wider audience, an goes beyond Europe, covering  regional instruments relating to refugees in Latin America, Africa, and the Arab world.

 

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This article originally appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin of 31 October 2013
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