Pursuant to article 35 of the Convention and the corresponding article II of the Protocol, States parties to these instruments undertake to co-operate with the Office in the exercise of its functions and particularly in facilitating its duty of supervising the application of their provisions. While UNHCR is in regular contact with a number of Governments of States parties to these instruments on various aspects of implementation, it considers that more effective performance of its function in this regard requires an intensification of activity. This would necessarily depend on the availability of additional staff members entrusted with protection · duties, both in UNHCR field offices and at Headquarters. At its twenty-ninth session, the Executive Committee welcomed the High Commissioner's efforts to make such staff available. 22/
OAU Convention of 1969
The
63. Complementing and in some respects extending at the regional level the provisions of the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol, the OAU Convention of 1969 Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa is of particular significance. Convention contains an extended definition of the term "refugee" as well as detailed provisions regarding asylum and voluntary repatriation. There were no further accessions to the OAU Convention during the reporting period and the total of States. parties remains at 18. Questions concerning the implementation of the OAU Convention and other important problems relating to the protection of refugees in Africa will be examined by the Pan-African Conference on Refugees to be held in Arusha on 7-17 May 1979.
American Convention on Human Rights of 1969
64. The American Convention on Human Rights of 1969 (the "Pact of San José, Costa Rica") entered into force on 18 July 1978, the date on which Grenada deposited. its instrument of ratification as the eleventh State to become party to this instrument. Subsequently, both Peru and Jamaica also adhered. This Convention contains inter alia important provisions relevant to asylum, and gives expression to the fundamental principle of non-refoulement. It is of particular value for the protection of refugees in that some States parties to the Pact of San José, Costa Rica, have not yet acceded to the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol.
Other international legal instruments of relevance to refugees
65. During the period under review there were no further accessions to other international legal instruments of dealing specifically with refugees, such as the 1957 Agreement and 1973 Protocol relating to Refugee Seamen, and the European Agreement of 1959 on the Abolition of Visas for Refugees.
66. The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness together constitute the principal international instruments adopted at the universal level for the benefit of stateless persons, many of whom are also refugees. The former instrument is modelled on the 1951 Convention and provides for the granting to stateless persons of a status which
22/ See Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-third Session, Supplement No. 12A (A/33/12/Add. 1), para. 68 (1)(k).
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