CHAPTER I
INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION
A.
Introduction
11. While there have been some positive developments in the international protection of refugees during the period under review, the over-all picture has been one of challenge to the international community requiring both sustained endeavours to improve the status of millions of persons within the competence of the Office and attention to newly arisen and developing situations. In some circumstances the immediate security of refugees has called for an urgent response within the framework of international solidarity.
12.
The need for international protection derives from the exceptionally vulnerable situation in which the refugee finds himself. The international protection of refugees is based primarily on the Statute of the Office of the High Commissioner (General Assembly resolution 428 (v), annex) and the 1951 Convention 2/ and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. 3/ While the Statute establishes the authority of the High Commissioner to protect refugees on behalf of the international community, the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol give the force of international law to the standards for the treatment of refugees, as therein defined. Under the Convention and Protocol, contracting States undertake to co-operate with the Office in the exercise of its functions and, in particular, to facilitate its duty of supervising the application of the provisions of these instruments.
13. In addition to the facilitation of voluntary repatriation, where feasible, and to direct intervention concerning the immediate security of the refugee in matters such as the grant of at least temporary asylum and the prevention of refoulement, expulsion and abusive detention, international protection is primarily directed towards (a) finding a country prepared to grant asylum on a more than temporary basis; and (b) ensuring that treatment in the country of residence conforms as far as possible to internationally accepted standards, with the over-all objective of promoting the progressive assimilation of the refugees within the new community. A subsidiary objective, with which UNHCR is increasingly concerned, is the promotion of measures enabling the refugee's immediate family members to join him in the country of residence.
2/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 189, No. 2545, p. 137. 3/ Ibid., vol. 606, No. 8791, p. 267.
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