New Zealand Refugee Law -RefNZ
Intelligent Searching of the Database
Contents of headnotesTo perform an intelligent search you should have some idea of what you are likely to find. Each headnote in the database contains the following:
Queries
- An abstract of the facts of each case, including reference to the appellant's country of origin, and where relevant, the appellant's race/ethnicity, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion.
- The holdings in relation to the principal Refugee Convention elements, eg well-foundedness of the fear, persecution, Convention reason, exclusion.
- Discussion of any relevant procedural matters.
- Whether the appeal was allowed or dismissed.
- A summary of the treaties, legislation, cases and other materials referred to in the decision, both NZ and international.
- The names of the Authority members sitting, and the names any representatives appearing for the refugee appellant or the New Zealand Immigration Service.
To search this database, use queries which contain specific search terms, preferably with a narrow focus. Where appropriate use Boolean terms, eg:
Iran, women
procedure <and> adjournment
extortion <or> Sendero Luminoso
Exclusion <not> Article 1F aSearch terms such as "persecution" and "well-founded fear" occur in every headnote, and therefore will not be helpful.
Other methods to define a search are to use:
- Dates, eg August 1996
- Surnames of the Authority members, eg Nicholson. The suffix "dec" is placed after the surname of the member who delivered the decision, eg Nicholsondec.
- Surnames of appellant's representatives, eg Jones.
- Treaties, legislation, cases, texts, journals and reports which may have been referred to in a decision, eg ICCPR, Ward, Hathaway.
So if searching for cases in which the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1984 has been discussed in the context of the Punjab and in which the appeal has been allowed, the query to use would be:
Convention Against Torture, Punjab, allowed
Or, if searching for cases involving asylum seekers from Guangdong Province in the People's Republic of China and in which the decision was given in 1996, use:
Guangdong <and> 1996