Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees

The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, also known as the 1951 Refugee Convention, is a United Nations multilateral treaty that defines who a refugee is, and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum. The Convention also sets out which people do not qualify as refugees, such as war criminals. The Convention also provides for some visa-free travel for holders of refugee travel documents issued under the convention. Although the Refugee Convention was agreed in Geneva, it is considered incorrect to refer to it as 'the Geneva Convention' because that term is more widely understood as referring to any of four treaties regulating armed conflict. The Refugee Convention builds on Article 14 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes the right of persons to seek asylum from persecution in other countries. A refugee may enjoy rights and benefits in a state in addition to those provided for in the Convention. The Convention was approved at a special United Nations conference on 28 July 1951. Denmark was the first state to ratify the treaty on 4 December 1952, which entered into force on 22 April 1954. It was initially limited to protecting European refugees from before 1 January 1951 (after World War II), though states could make a declaration that the provisions would apply to refugees from other places. The 1967 Protocol removed the time limits and applied to refugees 'without any geographic limitation', but declarations previously made by parties to the Convention on geographic scope were grandfathered. As of 1 July 2013, there were 145 parties to the Convention, and 146 to the Protocol. Most recently, the President of Nauru, Marcus Stephen, signed both the Convention and the Protocol on 17 June 2011 and acceded on 28 June 2011. Madagascar and Saint Kitts and Nevis are parties only to the Convention, while Cape Verde, the United States of America and Venezuela are parties only to the Protocol. Since the US ratified the Protocol in 1968, it undertook a majority of the obligations spelled out in the original 1951 document (Articles 2-34), and Article 1 as amended in the Protocol, as 'supreme Law of the Land'. The rights promulgated by the Convention generally still stand today. Some have argued that the complex nature of 21st century refugee relationships calls for a new treaty that recognizes the evolving nature of the nation-state, population displacement, environmental migrants, and modern warfare. Nevertheless, ideas like the principle of non-refoulement (Article 33) are still applied today, with the 1951 Convention being the hallmark of such rights. Article 1 of the Convention defines a refugee as this: The U.N. Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees which entered into force on 4 October 1967, defined the term refugee to mean any person within the definition 1951 Convention as if the words “As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and ...” were omitted.