Chapter Three Legal Framework on International Protection and the Separate Protection Framework for Displaced Palestinians Displaced Palestinians, whether they are registered refugees, unregistered refugees, or IDPs, are subject to a separate legal protection framework than that which is afforded to other refugees. At the time the Palestinian refugee crisis arose in 1948, the international protection system was underdeveloped – neither the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention), nor the UNHCR existed. Instead, international protection was a piecemeal system that responded to specific crises and circumstances. Therefore, the UN, spearheaded by the Arab states, established two separate agencies to protect and assist Palestinian refugees: (1) the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP), mandated to advocate for the protection of Palestinian refugees as per UNGA Resolution 194 of 1948,317 and (2) UNRWA, mandated to provide assistance to Palestinian refugees as per UNGA Resolution 302 of 1949.318 Aside from the temporal factor that the Refugee Convention and the UNHCR did not yet exist, the creation of a distinct framework for Palestinian refugees was also the result of the political position of Arab states. These states asserted that the UN was directly complicit in creating the Palestinian refugee issue, rendering it responsible for ensuring Palestinian refugees’ protection, specifically facilitating their right to return. As stated by the representative of Lebanon at the time: “… The existence of the Palestine refugees […] was the direct result of a decision taken by the United Nations itself, with full knowledge of the consequences. The Palestine refugees were therefore a direct responsibility on the part of the United Nations and could not be placed in the general category of refugees without betrayal of that responsibility. Furthermore, the obstacle to their repatriation was not dissatisfaction with their homeland, but the fact that a Member of the United Nations was preventing their return”.319 317 194 (III). Palestine - Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator (11 December 1948) UNGA Res A/RES/194 <https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FRES%2F194%2520(III)&Language=E&DeviceType=De sktop&LangRequested=False> accessed 3 October 2022. 318 302 (IV). Assistance to Palestine Refugees (8 December 1949) UNGA Res A/RES/302 (IV) <https://www.unrwa. org/content/general-assembly-resolution-302> accessed 3 October 2022. 319 UNGA ‘Refugees and Stateless Persons’ (27 November 1950) UN Doc A/C.3/SR.328, para 47 <https://digitallibrary. un.org/record/819334?ln=en> accessed 3 October 2022