The global refugee crisis remains one of the most pressing humanitarian challenges of our time, with millions forcibly displaced due to conflict, persecution, and climate-induced migration. Refugees navigate a landscape of legal precarity, systemic discrimination, and limited access to essential services. In Pakistan—home to one of the world’s largest protracted refugee populations, primarily from Afghanistan—issues of legal identity, statelessness, and restricted access to education, healthcare, and employment further marginalize refugee communities.

Recognizing these challenges, CFHR developed an immersive Refugee Rights Clinic as part of its Thematic Clinic on Vulnerable Groups (2019-2020). This initiative empowered students with the knowledge and tools to critically engage with Pakistan’s refugee crisis, providing invaluable exposure to the lived realities of refugee children and youth, with a particular emphasis on their fundamental right to education.

Through rigorous research and legal analysis, clinic participants examined the intersection of legal identity and the right to education, scrutinizing systemic barriers that prevent refugee children from accessing schooling in Pakistan. By promoting a nuanced understanding of international and domestic legal frameworks, the clinic championed inclusive policies that uphold education as a universal right, irrespective of nationality or migration status.

Grounded in legal scholarship and empirical realities, the Refugee Rights Clinic underscored the urgent need for policy reforms to bridge protection gaps and ensure that every child can pursue education with dignity. The clinic's research culminated in a report, Humanizing Refugees in Pakistan, supporting further research conducted by CFHR. 

Report: Humanizing Refugees in Pakistan
(pending publication)

The Refugee Rights Clinic enrolled 21 students from Universal College Lahore (UCL) and Kinnaird College for Women (KCW), providing them with hands-on experience in researching and advocating for refugee rights under the mentorship of refugee rights experts at CFHR. Participants explored the legal and policy nexus between the right to education and legal identity, focusing specifically on refugee children’s access to schooling in Pakistan.

Key Skills Developed:

Through their engagement, students not only gained a deeper understanding of refugee struggles but also contributed meaningfully to a broader movement advocating for policy reforms and social inclusion.

CFHR experts continue to explore critical issues such as legal identity, access to education and healthcare, and pathways to social and economic inclusion, working towards evidence-based policy reforms that uphold refugee rights and dignity. Our team brings extensive experience in refugee rights research, including compiling a country profile on the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, supporting analyses of sub-regional protection needs to raise awareness of demographic-specific challenges, and examining access to education for Afghan girls in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan—particularly in the post-August 2021 context—as a pathway for durable solutions. Additionally, our experts have contributed to research on protection concerns faced by Afghan refugee women and girls awaiting international protection and solutions, as well as the challenges of Afghan child migration and the availability of child protection services for displaced children in Pakistan.