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Thewallbehind Whichrefugees Canshelter the 1951 Geneva Convention N°123 - 2001

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Thewallbehind Whichrefugees Canshelter the 1951 Geneva Convention N°123 - 2001 VOLUME 2 • NUMBER 123 • 2001 50TH ANNIVERSARY THEWALLBEHIND WHICHREFUGEES CANSHELTER THE 1951 GENEVA CONVENTION N°123 - 2001 Editor: Ray Wilkinson French editor: Mounira Skandrani Contributors: Walter Brill, Nathalie Karsenty, Patrick Tigere DEU•1945 2 EDITORIAL Editorial assistant: Virginia Zekrya ©BPK/ The Refugee Convention at 50. Photo department: Suzy Hopper, Anne Kellner 4 COVER STORY Design: The Geneva Convention has been the Vincent Winter Associés cornerstone of protection for 50 years, but there is Production: a lively debate about its relevance today. Françoise Peyroux The international community adopted the By Marilyn Achiron Administration: 4 1951 Geneva Refugee Anne-Marie Le Galliard Convention mainly in Personal view Distribution: response to the atrocities The Convention. committed in World War II John O’Connor, Frédéric Tissot and to help the millions of By Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary Map: people uprooted by that New problems conflict. Refugee crises UNHCR - Mapping Unit spread around the world in Gender-based persecution leaves the shadows. Historical documents: the following decades. By Judith Kumin UNHCR Archives Cessation When the Convention is over. Refugees is published by the Public Information Section of the United C.S.•GIN•2001 Nations High Commissioner for QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Refugees. The opinions expressed by 16 contributors are not necessarily those The most frequently asked questions about the of UNHCR. The designations and Refugee Convention. maps used do not imply the expression of any opinion or recognition on the UNHCR/L. TAYLOR/ Exclusion part of UNHCR concerning the legal status of a territory or of its authorities. Who is NOT protected by the Geneva Convention. Refugees reserves the right to edit all A key provision in the articles before publication. Articles Convention is the BBC and photos not covered by copyright © 16non-forcible return of Broadcasting to the world. may be reprinted without prior civilians fleeing such crises as permission. Please credit UNHCR and those currently engulfing The firing line the photographer. Glossy prints and West Africa. Other questions Making the Convention work. slide duplicates of photographs not and answers on the By Peter Showler covered by copyright © may be made Convention. available for professional use only. 24 ASYLUM One man’s struggle to obtain asylum. English and French editions printed in Italy by AMILCARE PIZZI By Lisa Getter S.p.A., Milan. Signatories Circulation: 227,500 in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Signing up for the Convention and its Protocol. Spanish, Arabic, Russian and ©D. DRENNER/L.A. TIMES Chinese. Even when fleeing 30 PEOPLE AND PLACES ISSN 0252-791 X civilians reach 24apparent safety, their ordeal is often not ended. 31 QUOTE UNQUOTE One story of a long effort to UNHCR obtain asylum. P.O. Box 2500 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland www.unhcr.org REFUGEES 3 THE EDITOR’S DESK The Refugee Convention at 50… hen delegates from 26 countries as quickly. The United Nations High Commissioner for diverse as the United States, Israel and Refugees, the guardian of the Convention, which had Iraq gathered in the elegant Swiss city of been created shortly before, was given a three-year GenevaW in 1951, they had some unfinished business to mandate and was then expected to ‘go out of business’ attend to. with the problem solved. World War II had long since ended, but hundreds of Fifty years later, the treaty remains a cornerstone of thousands of refugees still wandered aimlessly across protection. There have been momentous achievements and changes along the way. Regional conventions were BIH•1994 created in its image. Some provisions such as the defini- tion of the term ‘refugee’ and the principle of non- ©S. SALGADO/ forcible return of people to territories where they could face persecution (non-refoulement) have become funda- mental international law. With the treaty’s help, UNHCR assisted an estimated 50 million people restart their lives. The global crisis outgrew parts of the original docu- ment and a 1967 Protocol to the Convention eliminated the time constraints. Issues which the original delegates, the European continent or squatted in makeshift camps. all males, never even considered such as gender-based The international community had, on several occasions persecution became major problems. earlier in the century, established refugee organizations This refugee world also became more crowded, with and approved refugee conventions, but legal protection millions of refugees, economic migrants and others on and assistance remained rudimentary. the move. All of this, some critics argue, has made the After more than three weeks of tough legal wran- Convention outdated and irrelevant. gling, delegates on 28 July adopted what has become On the 50th anniversary of its adoption, a lively known as the Magna Carta of international refugee law, debate is underway. British Prime Minister Tony Blair the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. says though the treaty’s “values are timeless” it is now This resulting instrument was a legal compromise time to “stand back and consider its application in “conceived out of enlightened self-interest,” according to today’s world.” Many jurists say the Convention has one expert. Governments refused to “sign a blank shown extraordinary longevity and flexibility in meet- check” against the future, limiting the scope of the ing known and unforeseen challenges. Convention mainly to refugees in Europe and to events Whatever the outcome of these discussions, it is cer- occurring before 1 January 1951. tain that millions of uprooted people will continue to It was hoped the ‘refugee crisis’ could be cleared up rely on the Convention for their protection. 2 REFUGEES | COVER STORY | A ‘TIMELESS’ TREATY UNDER The Geneva Refugee Convention ATTACK is 50 years old. It has helped millions of the world’s downtrodden, but faces continued criticism. Protection: Travel or identity documents for refugees equal new opportunities and happiness. DEU•1992 © R. VENTURI/ | COVER STORY | A ‘TIMELESS’ Ã TREATY UNDER ATTACK by Marilyn Achiron he images were stark and shocking: in the heart of Eu- rope, tens of thousands of people were fleeing terror and murder, inflicted by their own government, because of their Tethnic background. Men, women and chil- dren, bundled in blankets and carrying whatever possessions they could fit into bags or, if they were lucky, broken down carts and rusting tractors, staggered into neighboring countries in search of safety. These images were eerily reminiscent of an earlier era, though they were not in the grainy black-and-white of the mid- 1940s; rather, they were in color and trans- mitted live into every TV-owning house- hold around the world just two years ago from Kosovo and the Balkan region. Five decades earlier the international community had faced a similar tragedy in the aftermath of World War II when mil- lions of uprooted peoples wandered hun- gry and aimlessly through devastated land- scapes and cities. In a spirit of empathy and humanitarianism, and with a hope that such widespread suffering might be averted in the future, nations came to- gether in the stately Swiss city of Geneva and codified binding, international stan- dards for the treatment of refugees and the obligations of countries towards them. DEU•1945 The resultant, groundbreaking, 1951 Convention relating to the Status of ©BPK/ Refugees subsequently helped millions of Scenes like this led to the 1951 Refugee Convention. A REFUGEE IS A PERSON WITH A “WELL-FOUNDED FEAR OF BEING PERSECUTED FOR REASONS OF RACE, RELIGION, NATIONALITY, MEMBERSHIP OF A PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUP OR POLITICAL OPINION...” Article 1A (2) civilians to rebuild their lives and has be- But on the 50th anniversary of its adop- travel has become easy and a burgeoning come “the wall behind which refugees can tion, the Convention is coming apart at the business in human trafficking has swelled shelter,” says Erika Feller, director of the seams, according to some of the same cap- the number of illegal immigrants. States Department of International Protection of itals which had breathed life into the pro- say their asylum systems are being over- the United Nations High Commissioner tection regime a half century ago. Crises whelmed with this tangled mass of for Refugees (UNHCR). “It is the best we such as Kosovo have multiplied, spilling refugees and economic migrants and are have, at the international level, to temper millions of people into headlong flight in urging a legal retrenchment. The Con- the behavior of states.” search of a safe haven. Intercontinental vention, they say, is outdated, unworkable 6 REFUGEES | COVER STORY | parties. Where it will all lead remains un- clear. DEVELOPING PROTECTION People have fled persecution from the moment in earliest history when they be- gan forming communities. A tradition of offering asylum began at almost the same time; and when nations began to develop an international conscience in the early 20th century, efforts to help refugees also went global. Fridtjof Nansen was appointed in 1921 as the first refugee High Commis- sioner of the League of Nations, the fore- runner of the United Nations. The United Nations Relief and Reha- bilitation Agency (UNRRA) assisted seven million people during and after the Sec- ond World War and a third group, the In- ternational Refugee Organization (IRO), and irrelevant. to prevent refugee crises, The treaty’s “values are timeless,” like investing in
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