ANNEX A
REFUGEE LAW
There are several pre-war instruments covering particular groups of refugees (e.g. Russians and Armenians 1928, Germans 1938). But the refugee Magna Carta is the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol which removed the time and geographical limitations on the Convention. There are 82 States parties to one or other of these instruments, scarcely more than half the membership of the UN. Two other Conventions of which the UK is also a party are the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1964 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The two most important principles embodied in the Refugee Convention are:
(a) the definition of a refugee (Article 1A (2)) as someone
who "owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion is outside the country of his nationality"; and
(b) the non-refoulement clause (Article 32): "no
contracting state shall expel or return ("refouler") a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion".
In addition there is the Statute of UNHCR, adopted by a UN General· Assembly resolution in 1950 which contains a similar definition to the Convention, though without time or geographical limitations. It lays upon UNHCR the duty to provide protection for refugees, that is to ensure that all their rights are fully safeguarded, and also material assistance as an essential complement to the protection functions. The Statute (together with subsequent General Assembly resolutions) defines the mandate of the High Commissioner and because it was adopted by the UN applies in respect of all states. This provides a basis for UNHCR protection regardless of whether or not the state in which a refugee problem arises is a party to the Convention and/or Protocol, or maintains the geographical limitation. Given that in Asia for example only Iran and Israel are parties to the instruments, the Statute has assumed increasing importance with the emergence of new refugee problems in the region.
Refugees protected by the Statute alone are known as Mandate refugees whereas those recognised by states under the Convention are called Convention refugees. The determination of refugee status under the Convention and the procedure for doing so are left to the discretion of states, but there is no obligation for them to grant asylum even when a person has been granted refugee status. Such a determination in any event only takes place when an individual arrives in the territory of a state party and requests asylum whilst in the case of groups of refugees accepted abroad for resettlement the conferment of refugee status is assumed to have taken place by the time they arrive. There is also a group of
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