UNRWA’s areas of operation, in which it provides protection15 or assistance to a population of over five million Palestinian refugees.16 B. Ratione personae: Personal scope of Article 1D 8. The following groups of persons fall within the personal scope of Article 1D: Palestine refugees: Persons who are “Palestine refugees”17 within the sense of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 194818 and subsequent UN General Assembly Resolutions and who, as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, were displaced from that part of Mandate Palestine which became Israel, and who have been unable to return there. Displaced persons: Persons who are “displaced persons” within the sense of UN General Assembly Resolution 2252 (ES-V) of 4 July 1967 and subsequent UN General Assembly resolutions, and who, as a result of the 1967 conflict, have been displaced from the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and have been unable to return there.19 It also includes those persons displaced by “subsequent hostilities”.20 15 It is important to note that UNRWA has had a protection mandate from its inception. Nevertheless, the protection function has grown over time and has increased since 2010 with the adoption of a protection policy and the development of protection tools and standards. See UNRWA, Protecting Palestine Refugees, 2015, http://www.refworld.org/docid/5703647f4.html and https://www.unrwa.org/what-we-do/protection. However, UNRWA “does not own, administer or police the camps, as this is the responsibility of the host authorities.” https://www.unrwa.org/palestinerefugees. See also note 48 below. 16 For latest UNRWA figures, see: http://www.unrwa.org/. 17 The term “Palestine refugees” has never been expressly defined by the General Assembly. However, for early work on interpreting the term, see UN Doc. W/61/Add.1, Addendum to Definition of a “Refugee” Under paragraph 11 of the General Assembly Resolution of 11 December 1948, 29 May 1951 which is to be read with its Note by the Principal Secretary, UN Doc. A/AC.25/W/61, https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/418E7BC6931616B485256CAF00647CC7. UNRWA’s operational definition of the term “Palestine refugee” for registration purposes has evolved over the years as it was initially a subcategory of persons who were ‘in need’. Since 1984 it has been “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” 18 The UN General Assembly resolved in para. 11 of Resolution 194 (III) that “the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date” and that “compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property”. 19 UN General Assembly Resolution 2452 (XXIII) A of 19 December 1968 called for the return of “displaced persons”, as reiterated by subsequent UN General Assembly resolutions on an annual basis, https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/0F32DC9EB80EE553852560DF004F1352. See, also, Bolbol, (note 2 above) para. 47: “[I]t cannot be maintained, as an argument against including persons displaced following the 1967 hostilities within the scope of Article 1D of the Geneva Convention, that only those Palestinians who became refugees as a result of the 1948 conflict who were receiving protection or assistance from UNRWA at the time when the original version of the Geneva Convention was concluded in 1951 are covered by Article 1D of that convention […].” 20 See UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/37/120, 16 December 1982, which extended UNRWA’s mandate to those displaced by subsequent hostilities; http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/37/a37r120.htm. 5