Elisa Mason is the information manager for the Forced Migration Online project (http://www.forcedmigration.org/portal/home/homepage.htm) at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. This article was prepared while she was working as an independent refugee information specialist and does not necessarily reflect the views of her current employer. The author is grateful to Courtney Mireille O’Connor for her invaluable input into early drafts of this paper.
Editor’s note: This article is an update to the Annex: Human Rights, Country and Legal Information Resources on the Internet, (published February 15, 2001). There are numerous additions, changes for some Web site addresses, as well as some deletions. These additions and changes are indicated by (yellow background color) for easy identification.
[Editor’s Note: This article is a companion to Update to Guide to Country Research for Refugee Status Determination, by the same author, published on March 18, 2002]
- I. Legal Information
- A. International Instruments
- B. National Laws and Policies
- C. Case Law
- D. Guidelines, Recommendations, Resolutions
- II. Human Rights Reports
- A. Surveys of Human Rights Violations and World Conflict
- B. Individual Country Reports on Human Rights Conditions
- C. Other Sources
- III. News Services
- A. Forced Migration-Specific
- B. General
- IV. Background Country Materials
- V. Experts
- VI. Country Research Services
A number of conventions and treaties exist that might be relevant to a particular refugee status determination claim. Rather than try to provide a comprehensive list, this section notes the location of some of the principal refugee- and human rights-related instruments. This information is supplemented by the web addresses of several collections that offer access to a much larger repository of texts.
(organized by date; ratification details usually available)
- 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees [French; Spanish]
- Defines “refugee” in Article 1A(2) as “any person who…owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his [or her] nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself [or herself] of the protection of that country… .”
- 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons [French; Spanish]
- Article 1 defines “stateless person” as “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.”
- 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees [French; Spanish]
- Reaffirms the 1951 Convention definition of refugee but removes date and geographic limitations.
- 1969 Organization for African Unity Convention governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa [French]
- Uses the same language as the 1951 Convention, but adds the “term ‘refugee’ shall also apply to every person who, owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of his [or her] country of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his [or her] place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his [or her] country of origin or nationality” (Article 1, para. 2).
- 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees [Spanish]
- Recommends that the definition of refugee also include “persons who have fled their country because their lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order” (para. 3).
- 1992 Declaration on the Protection of Refugees and Displaced Persons in the Arab World
- Article 6 recommends that Arab States “adopt a broad concept of ‘refugee’… .”
(organized by date)
A number of international and regional human rights instruments include provisions that have been used effectively for refugee protection purposes, particularly those which prohibit torture. Examples include:
- 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms [French]
- Article 3 states, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
- 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [French; Spanish]
- Article 7 stipulates, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” The associated General Comment notes that “States parties must not expose individuals to the danger of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment upon return to another country by way of their extradition, expulsion or refoulement” (para. 9).
- 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment [French; Spanish]
- Article 3 states, “No State Party shall expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he [or she] would be in danger of being subjected to torture.” Note: Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights provides a brief summary of how to seek relief under Article 3 of the CAT; see http://www.mnadvocates.org/Refugees/torture.htm for more information.
- Human Rights Treaties and Other Instruments (University of Minnesota, U.S.) [Arabic; French; Russian; Spanish]
- Texts of treaties can be accessed by subject, title, or keyword; ratification details usually included, although some are only available by subscription to the UN treaty database.
- International Human Rights Instruments (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Switzerland) [French; Spanish]
- Texts organized by subject; access to the status of ratifications and declarations and reservations also provided.
- International Humanitarian Law Database (International Committee for the Red Cross, Switzerland) [French; Spanish]
- Texts can be retrieved by title or keyword; signatory/ratification details also provided.
- Text of the Inter-American Treaties Approved within the Framework of the OAS (Organization of American States, U.S.) [Spanish]
- Texts and signatories/ratifications can be located by title, year or subject (see e.g., “human rights” or “extradition”).
- Treaties and International Agreements (Australasian Legal Information Institute, Australia)
- Directory of links to treaty collections on the Internet.
- Treaty Office (Council of Europe, France)
- Bilingual English/French site offering access to treaties by European Treaty Series number, keyword, date; results include the text of the treaty in various formats, signature/ratification details, and declarations/reservations.
A variety of national regulations and laws may prove useful to country of origin information researchers: constitutions, penal codes, refugee laws, conscription policies, etc. Many of these are now available online with the advent of UNHCR’s Legal Information database (http://www.unhcr.ch/research/legal.htm). Texts can be located by country, or by using the search engine provided. This allows you to search by title, country, region, author, keywords, language or date. Alternatively, you can conduct a search for any word appearing within the text of the document using “text search.” Other examples of key foreign and international law sites whose objectives are to facilitate the retrieval of this type of information are listed below.
Alternatively, when citing from texts, you may wish to go directly to the source, e.g., immigration divisions or foreign affairs offices in order to verify the language used within a particular piece of legislation.
- Danish Immigration Service (Denmark) (select “Information in English,” then “Danish Aliens Act”)
- Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Australia), Legislation
- Immigration and Nationality Directorate (UK), Law and Policy
- Immigration and Naturalization Service (U.S.), Laws, Regulations and Guides
- Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Legal References [French]
- Ministerio del Interior (Spain), Asilo y Refugio (scroll down for link to text of asylum law)
- Ministry of Justice (Japan) (scroll down to “Immigration Bureau” for access to texts of Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and the Alien Registration Law)
- Office fédéral des réfugiés (Switzerland), Principes du droit d’asile [German; Italian]
- Directory of Community Legislation in Force (European Union, Belgium)
- Includes sections for asylum policy, right to asylum and right of refugees and displaced persons; available in all official languages of the EU.
- Global Legal Information Network (Law Library of Congress, U.S.)
- Searchable database housing English summaries of laws and regulations from contributing governments. For example, entering the thesaurus term “refugees & asylum” will retrieve close to 150 summaries from a variety of countries. Links to the full-texts of legal documents are not yet available.
- Governments on the WWW (Gunnar Anzinger, Germany)
- Organized by country or type of institution; the country option includes links to governmental institutions, representations in foreign countries, political parties, as well as other country-related information. One particularly useful feature provided is the date of the last change made.
- Guide to Law Online (Law Library of Congress, U.S.)
- Links to online information sources in government and law; each country tends to include links to constitutions, the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, as well as to guides and general resources. Where links are not available, source information is still provided.
- Legal Tools (Asylumlaw.org, U.S., Australia & Canada)
- Contains detailed overviews of the asylum process in Australia, Canada and the U.S., as well as links to statutes and/or other legal references for a variety of countries.
- Legislación Migratoria (Centro de información sobre migraciones en America Latina, Chile)
- Scroll down to relevant entry; only Spanish-language texts are available online; references to English-language texts are noted, and the texts can be requested from CIMAL.
- Legislation (Project DIAL, Australia)
- Service that allows users to browse through links to national legislation on a country-by-country basis, or conduct a full-text search. For example, a search on “asylum” yields over 1100 hits. Most countries’ constitutions appear to be available.
This section highlights sites that post refugee and asylum case law. Other resources provide access to larger repositories of case law. See, for example, the links listed at http://www.ecre.org/links/jurisprudence.shtml.
- Commission permanente de recours des réfugiés (Belgium)
- Decisions in either French or Dutch, available primarily between 1991 and 1996.
- Gender Asylum Case Law (Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, U.S.)
- Summaries of over 150 cases decided in the U.S. relating to gender; summaries can be retrieved by country of origin, type of harm, other relevant factors or claimed asylum ground. Links are included to the full-texts of the decisions – where available – in PDF format.
- Integration durch Information Datenbank (DIM Net, Germany)
- Click on “Start” to enter the database; provides access to bibliographic references, legal decisions, and organizations.
- New Zealand Refugee Law (Rodger Haines, NZ)
- Searchable database of Refugee Status Appeals Authority decisions; the full-texts of leading decisions are available. Also provided are abstracts of refugee-related cases from the High Court and Court of Appeal.
- RefLex (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada) [French]
- Digest of recent immigration and refugee law decisions; can be searched by keyword or browsed by issue.
- Refugee Caselaw (University of Michigan Law School, U.S.)
- Searchable database housing the full-texts of selected decisions “that interpret the legal definition of ‘refugee’.” Currently, courts represented include Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UK, and the U.S. Decisions are available in their original languages.
- Refugee Review Tribunal(Australia)
- Includes full-texts of all decisions; can be searched by keyword or case name.
- Swiss Asylum Appeal Commission [French; German; Italian]
- Decisions are available in French, German, or Italian; English summaries available for 1999 cases; searchable by keyword or browsable by year.
- U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals (Executive Office of Immigration Review, U.S.)
- Scroll down to “Virtual Law Library”; Board of Immigration Appeals decisions can be accessed either by date and case title or by Interim Decision number; texts are in PDF format.
- Annual Reports (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, U.S.) [Spanish]
- Lists annual reports dating back to 1970; each includes a chapter on individual cases; see also http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cases/commissn.htm for cases from 1991-2000.
- Judgments and Decisions (European Court of Human Rights, France) [French]
- Includes Hudoc, a searchable case law database, as well as a list of recent judgments.
- Jurisprudence (Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Costa Rica)
- Includes latest judgments, advisory opinions and contentious cases in English and Spanish.
- SIM Documentation Centre (Netherlands Institute of Human Rights)
- Access is free, but users must first register; the case law option allows users to search the following databases: CCPR, CAT, CERD, ECHR, UNCOM (the latter includes comments from the six human rights treaty bodies)
- Treaty Bodies Database (UNHCHR, Switzerland)
- Provides access to the jurisprudence, decisions, and/or observations/comments of the six human rights treaty bodies.
D. Guidelines, Recommendations, Resolutions
Governmental bodies, international agencies, and non-governmental organizations often put out guidelines, make recommendations, or adopt resolutions on legal issues relating to refugees and asylum-seekers. While these publications may lack the force of law, they can serve to represent a consensus within the international community, which in turn can lend weight to a particular line of argument. Positions such as these are often made available on the web sites of individual organizations. Examples of various sources are noted below.
- Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (U.S.)
- Provides access to the gender-related guidelines produced by Australia, Canada, and the U.S., and proposed guidelines for the UK.
- European Council on Refugees and Exiles (UK)
- Visitors will find policy position papers and research papers. The most recent publications are noted on the home page.
- Human Rights of Parliamentarians (Inter-Parliamentary Union, Switzerland) [French]
- Texts of resolutions adopted by the IPU on human rights cases as of 1996.
- Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada [French]
- Includes reference materials, guidelines (on gender-related persecution, child refugees, and civilian non-combatants), and practice notices.
- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (Switzerland) [French; Spanish]
- Resolutions and decisions are available under each body listed: Commission on Human Rights, Economic and Social Council, General Assembly, Security Council, and Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
A. Surveys of Human Rights Violations and World Conflict
These resources provide readers with an overview of a country situation, and therefore are particularly useful for researchers who are just embarking on their investigations.
- Annual Assessment of Conditions Affecting Refugees (U.S. Committee for Refugees)
- Includes country profiles from the World Refugee Survey as of 1997.
- Annual Report of the Observatory for Human Rights Defenders (World Organisation against Torture and Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme, Switzerland & France) [French; Spanish]
- Information can be browsed by date, country, subject, or type.
- Annual Reports (Amnesty International, UK) [Arabic; French (2000 report); Italian; Spanish; Swedish]
- Full-text reports in English are available for 1998-present, regional summaries for 1996-1997. In Spanish, introductions and regional summaries from reports as of 1997; complete report available as of 1999.
- Annual Reports (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, U.S.)
- Includes reports in English as of 1987 and in Spanish as of 1970; each includes a chapter on the human rights situation in selected countries.
- Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights 1998 (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Belgium) [French (reports available for 1996, 1998 and 2000); Spanish (reports available for 1998 and 2000)]
- Surveys available as of 1996.
- Armed Conflict in the World Today: A Country by Country Review (Humanitarian Law Project and Parliamentary Human Rights Group, U.S. & UK)
- 2000 report available.
- Armed Conflicts Report (Project Ploughshares, Canada)
- Current edition available in full-text.
- Attacks on the Press (Committee to Project Journalists, U.S.) [Spanish]
- Includes links to previous reports.
- Conflict Barometer (Heidelberger Institut für Internationale Konfliktforschung, Germany) [German]
- Reports as of 1997 (English) and 1995 (German).
- Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (U.S. Department of State)
- Reports as of 1993.
- For the Record (Human Rights Internet, Canada)
- Annual summary of the human rights work of the UN since 1997 and of the European regime since 2000; available in English and French.
- Freedom in the World (Freedom House, U.S.)
- Reports available since 1998/1999 edition.
- Human Rights in the OSCE Region: The Balkans, the Caucasus, Europe, Central Asia and North America, Report 2000 (International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Austria)
- Scroll down to title; earlier Annual Reports are also available for 1997-2000.
- International Religious Freedom Report (U.S. Department of State)
- 2001 report available.
- World Legal Survey (International Lesbian and Gay Association, Belgium)
- Each country profile includes the following sections: background, sexual behavior, association/expression, anti-discrimination, employment, partnership/marriage, parenting, asylum, transgender, street violence and police harassment, and HIV/AIDS.
- World Report (International Coalition for Religious Freedom, U.S.)
- Profiles of religious freedom organized by region; most current version posted.
- World Report 2002 (Human Rights Watch, U.S.)
- Access is provided to French, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic versions; earlier reports available at http://www.hrw.org/wr2k.
B. Individual Country Reports on Human Rights Conditions
The resources highlighted in this section provide a more in-depth assessment of country and human rights situations. They can be useful for researchers who require greater detail about specific targets of persecution, patterns of human rights violations, and treatment of particular groups.
- Background Papers on Refugees and Asylum Seekers (UNHCR Centre for Documentation and Research, Switzerland)
- Papers available since 1994; newest ones in PDF format.
- Country Assessments (Immigration and Nationality Directorate, UK)
- Available for the top 36 countries that generate the most asylum applications in the UK.
- Country Papers (Writenet, UK)
- Papers available since 1993; newest ones in PDF format.
- Country Reports (Amnesty International, UK) [French (selected documents only; made available as ZIP files)]
- Reports can be accessed by region, sub-region, country, or theme.
- Country Reports (Human Rights Watch, U.S.)
- Alphabetical listing of countries; recent reports available in full-text, while summaries are available for older reports.
- Country Reports (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, U.S.)
- English-language reports date from 1985, while Spanish-language reports date from 1962.
- Feuilles d’information sur les pays (Office fédéral des réfugiés, Switzerland) [German]
- Most recent version available only; most reports available in PDF format.
- Online Reports (Minority Rights Group, UK)
- Limited selection of reports available in PDF format.
- Press Freedom Reports (Committee to Protect Journalists, U.S.)
- Available as of 1999.
- Publications (International Crisis Group, Belgium & U.S.)
- A number of reports are also available in French.
- Publications (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Resource Information Center)
- Variety of reports available, with some dating back to 1992; most documents available in PDF format.
- Rapports en Ligne (Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’homme, France)
- Selection of full-text reports in French, with a few in Spanish and English.
- REFQUEST (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada)
- Available in English and French; users can browse by country or launch a search.
- Reports on Fact-Finding Missions (Danish Immigration Service) (click on “Information in English”)
- Select “Publications in English” for full-text reports of fact-finding missions.
- Special Reports (Forced Migration Projects, U.S.)
- This site has been discontinued; archived reports available for 1995-1999.
- United Nations Human Rights Documents (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Switzerland) [French; Spanish]
- Provides access to reports and other documents of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, and the six human rights Treaty Bodies.
A number of supplementary human rights resources exist in other formats that focus on specific groups or issues: databases, files, newsletters, alerts, etc.
- AAAS Human Rights Action Network (AAASHRAN, U.S.)
- Alerts relating to human rights violations of members of scientific community; these can be browsed by date, country or case number, or can be searched.
- Accessing Group Files (Minorities at Risk, U.S.)
- Profiles of politically active communal groups.
- Asylmagazin (Pro Asyl, Germany)
- Monthly newsletter in German; each issue includes country information, asylum and other legislative news.
- Global IDP Database (Global IDP Project, Switzerland)
- Although the focus is on internally displaced persons, useful background information is provided; a number of sources used to compile the information are available on the web.
- Index Online (Index on Censorship, UK)
- Updates of the Index’s censorship chronicle.
- The Internet Directory: A Compendium of Human Rights and Refugee Resources Available on the Internet (Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada) [French]
- Organizes links to Internet resources by country and/or theme; search engine also available.
- Länderrechtsprechung und -materialien (Pro Asyl, Germany)
- In German; organized by country; includes excerpts from relevant documents and links to sources.
- Lawyer to Lawyer Network (Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, U.S.)
- Includes appeals concerning human rights violations committed against lawyers.
- Regional Internet Guides (INCORE, UK)
- Links to resources relating to ethnicity and/or conflict, organized by country.
- Rapports sur les pays (Organisation suisse d’aide aux refugies, Switzerland) [German]
- In PDF format; reports on selected countries as of 1997; searchable by theme or country.
- REFINFO (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada)
- Repository for “responses to requests for information” submitted to the IRB during the refugee status determination process; includes either English or French responses depending on the original language of the request.
- Urgent Appeals (World Organization against Torture, Switzerland) [French; Spanish]
- Appeals can be accessed by date, subject, country or type; an archive of appeals is also available at http://www.derechos.org/omct/actions/past.html, organized by country.
- The World (UNHCR, Switzerland)
- Profiles of refugee situations around the world and UNHCR’s in-country activities.
- World Watch (International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, U.S.)
- Action alerts organized geographically; often available in French or Spanish in addition to English.
News sources are particularly useful for current coverage of breaking stories. A large number of news services make available headlines, the current day’s news, or an archive of their reports on the web. The resources listed in the first section below provide access to news and information specific to the field of refugees and forced migration. Given the proliferation of news-related sites on the web, the second section suggests resources that will link users to many of the news and media sources from around the world.
A. Forced Migration – Specific
- Asylumlaw.org (U.S., Canada, Australia)
- The homepage includes asylum/refugee news headlines provided by Moreover.com.
- Immigrationnews.org (UK)
- Provides news stories from Moreover.com under the following headings: asylum, border patrol, brain drain, children, conflict, deportation, detention, domestic workers, expatriates, extradition, foreign workers, free trade, guest workers, green card, human trafficking, overseas workers, refugees, Schengen, sex trade, visas, women.
- News (UNHCR, Switzerland)
- Daily updated refugee-related news stories from around the world; a search facility is also available.
- ReliefWeb (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, Switzerland)
- Provides news and information on natural disasters and complex humanitarian emergencies, largely supplied by international agencies and non-governmental organizations; search engine available.
- Security Watch (International Relations and Security Network, Switzerland)
- Offers headlines, stories from the last five days, and a searchable archive; most useful for conflict-related news coverage of the OSCE area.
- Daypop (U.S.)
- Very current and international news search engine.
- Non-U.S. Newspaper Archives on the Web (Special Libraries Association, U.S.)
- Links to news services that provide archives of their reports, many of which are searchable.
- Online Newspapers (Web Wombat, Australia)
- Users can select newspaper titles from drop-down menus organized by region.
- Yahoo! News and Media
- Organizes links to news and media resources by type, region, and broad subject; see also the local Yahoos at the bottom of the Yahoo home page (http://www.yahoo.com) for local-language and regional resources.
IV. Background Country Materials
This section lists various information sources from what might be termed the area studies field. These resources can help provide context for the issues covered in the reports noted above. They do not adopt a human rights perspective per se, but rather focus on countries and their peoples as a whole.
- Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library (Australian National University)
- Directory of links to web-based resources relating to Asian studies; organized by region and country.
- Background by Country (ReliefWeb, Switzerland)
- Listed under each country are links to resources for the following categories: country profiles, culture, demographics, development, disaster history, economics, food and agriculture, geography and environment, government and politics, health, history, HIV/AIDS, human rights, infrastructure, media, military and defence, refugees and IDPs, UN, and weather.
- Country Studies (Library of Congress, U.S.)
- Detailed overviews of the historical, social, economic, and political aspects of over 100 countries.
- Diasporas and Transnational Communities: A Bibliographical and Study Guide (Transnational Communities, UK)
- Extensive bibliographical references are provided for different categories of ethnic groups.
- Encyclopaedia of the Orient (LexicOrient, Norway)
- “Covers all countries and cultures between Mauritania in the west and Iran in the east, Turkey in the north and Sudan in the south”; includes definitions of terms and country profiles.
- Ethnologue (Summer Institute of Linguistics, U.S.)
- Provides background on the different languages spoken in countries around the world.
- FIRST Reference Database (International Relations and Security Network, Switzerland)
- Database that allows users to customize views by country and year with information and data on international membership, conflicts, arms production and weapons holdings, military expenditures, political systems, and maps; users must first register, but access is free.
- Guia del Mundo (Instituto del Tercer Mundo, Uruguay)
- Each profile includes demographic data, an historical overview, maps, and photos; in Spanish.
- InfoNation (United Nations, U.S.)
- Database that allows users to view current statistical data for up to seven UN member states at a time; also available in French and Spanish.
- The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency, U.S.)
- Each profile includes a map and sections with data on geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues.
- The WWW Virtual Library: Latin American Studies (University of Texas, U.S.)
- Directory of links to Latin American resources organized by broad subject; country list also available.
In the end, the resources noted above may fail to produce the necessary information. Some details are very difficult to corroborate except without some kind of personal “testimony”; for this reason, researchers may need to turn to experts in a particular field for advice and referrals. This section lists several directories that can be used to identify the individuals that may be best positioned to respond to an information request. Alternatively, researchers can subscribe to online discussion lists on a particular topic and pose questions directly to a particular community. For more information on lists and their utility, see http://www.asil.org/resource/lists1.htm.
- Asylumlaw.org (U.S., Canada & Australia)
- Offers a database of “knowledgeable attorneys/advocates” who can advise on country conditions or asylum issues; to access this database, users must first register.
- Experts (Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, U.S.)
- Lists experts who have been involved in gender asylum cases; organized by subject matter.
- Managing Global Issues Information Network (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, U.S.)
- Enter the database, then select “search for experts”; references can be located by issue, theme, name, organization, or country.
If you decide not to undertake country research yourself, a number of centers provide research and documentation services or pre-prepared country information packages for a fee. Examples include: