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Rights of Refugees, the Internally Displaced, and Asylum Seeking People

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Rights of Refugees, the Internally Displaced, and Asylum Seeking People ODUMUNC 2015 Issue Brief for the Human Rights Council Rights of Refugees, the Internally Displaced, and Asylum Seeking People By: Christopher Steadman Old Dominion University, Model United Nations Society A central practice to the United Nations is the protection of humanitarian rights. Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 it reads “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution,”1 and from this declaration the United Nations’ commitment to the protection and assistance of refugees, displaces persons, and asylum seekers began. According to the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees there are 51 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, all of whom have been uprooted from their homes and must seek asylum elsewhere. This is the most since the end of the Second World War seventy years ago. Such numbers testify to the several problems of internal warfare and armed conflict in countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, South Sudan, Sudan and Syria. Figure 1. Leading sources of refugees and IDPs Source: Wikipedia While humanitarian obligations are universally accepted, their interpretation depends not only on international law, but also on domestic law of welcoming countries as well as their government policies. Virtually all states say they respect the needs and rights of refugees and internally displaced people. But the willingness to accept refugees varies greatly. Countries like Ethiopia, Germany, India, Kenya, Jordan, Pakistan, Russia, Sweden, Turkey and Ukraine, for example, are 1 UN. "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Declaration, Human Rights Charter, The Un and Human Rights." UN News Center. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ Copyright © Old Dominion University Model United Nations Society. All rights reserved. ODUMUNC 2015 Issue Brief for HRC: Rights of Refugees, the Internally Displaced, and Asylum Seeking People widely recognized for their willingness to accept refugees. Countries like Australia and the United States have more complicated polices and take far fewer. Forcibly displaced people globally are categorized as being either internally displaced, asylum seeking, or a refugee. The definition of each category according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is as follows: Refugees- the definition of a refugee was determined in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, it was decided to be someone who “owing to a 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 is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."2 International refugees are under the authority of international treaties and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The Convention of 1951 and the Protocol of 1967 will both be discussed in more detail in later sections. Asylum Seekers- Asylum seekers are people who self-identify as refugees. The difference is they have not been processed through the host state’s national asylum systems to have been deemed a refugee. This means that any asylum seeker deemed to not be a refugee may be deported by the country they denied seeker resides in.3 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) - Internally displaced persons are people who have fled their homes to find safety to avoid persecution or out of necessity like a refugee, but they have not crossed an international border. This means they remain under the jurisdiction of their home country (even if their country is the persecutor) and retain the same rights that the country that they are citizens of guarantees.4 They are not under the responsibility of international law or international institutions like UNHCR. These displaced people are the inevitable result from any armed conflict, large scale natural disaster, or oppressive government. These people have largely no voice, and the United Nations and its member states are tasked with protecting their basic rights. 2 UNGA. 1951, 1967. Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html 3 UNHCR. "Asylum-Seekers." UNHCR. http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c137.html 4 UNHCR. "Internally Displaced People." UNHCR. http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c146.html Copyright © Old Dominion University Model United Nations Society. All rights reserved. ODUMUNC 2015 Issue Brief for HRC: Rights of Refugees, the Internally Displaced, and Asylum Seeking People Figure 2. Syrian refugees and IDPs, 2014 Source: European Commission Humanitarian Aid Background and History The international protection of displaced persons and refugees began with the precursor of the United Nations, the League of Nations. The League of Nations was created following the First World War in order to prevent another global scale war and to deal with the war’s post war challenges. The first major wave of refugees of the 20th century was one such challenge. The League’s involvement with refugees begins in 1921. As a result of World War One and the several wars following it between one and two million Russians fled Russia for areas in Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Responding to this refugee crisis was originally the responsibility various charities, specifically organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Because these organizations can only respond to these crises and not take many preventative measures, the ICRC held a conference in February of 1921 to draft a proposal to the League of Nations’ Council (which was similar in function and purpose to the UN’s Security Council) concerning long term action of the behalf refugees. The conference decided to “invite the Council to appoint a High Commissioner to define the status of refugees, to secure their repatriation or their employment outside Russia, and to coordinate measures for their assistance.” The Council responded by adopting what was basically the original proposal created by the ICRC’s convention5. The responsibility of appointing a High Commissioner was let to the 5 Gilbert Jaeger. 2001. “On the History of the International Protection of Refugees” International Review of the Red Cross, No. 843. Geneva: International Committee of the Red Cross Copyright © Old Dominion University Model United Nations Society. All rights reserved. ODUMUNC 2015 Issue Brief for HRC: Rights of Refugees, the Internally Displaced, and Asylum Seeking People President of the Council, who appointed Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, an Arctic explorer, humanitarian, and doctor of Zoology. This began the relationship between intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and the protection of displaced peoples. After this first conference concerning Russian refugees the League of Nations amped up its involvement in humanitarian affairs. One major development to the rights of refugees that originated with the first High Commissioner Dr. Nansen was the first internationally recognized refugee passport. This passport was known as a Nansen passport, and was recognized by over 50 countries as official travel documents. Seeing as there were about 80 sovereign states in the world at the time, that level of cooperation was unprecedented. The League established several bodies underneath the High Commissioner to further deal with refugees; these bodies include the Nansen International Office for Refugees (established 1931), the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees coming from Germany (established 1933), the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (established 1938), and the Office of the High Commissioner of the League of Nations for Refugees (established 1939). All of these bodies did not last longer than ten years. The largest development for refugee rights under the League of Nations was the Convention relating to the International Status of Refugees of 1933. In this convention the questions relating to the administration of aid, labor rights, legal issues, welfare, education, and allowed for the league to create specific committees to answer refugee crises5. This convention and most other advancement in refugee rights were flawed because they only focused on select groups of refugees. Because of this the League had to convene different bodies every time there was a crisis, and that the way of responding to each crisis was done on a case by case basis. The League of Nations did of course eventually fail, thus paving the way for the United Nations to take its place. What the League of Nations did succeed in doing however is to organize the major powers of the world to protect and promote human rights and those specifically of refugees. The United Nations following its establishment in 1945 created its first body addressing refugees in 1946, the International Refugee Organization (IRO). This organization was dismantled about a year behind when it was originally designed to be, and replaced with the current agency in charge of refugee relief, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The fact that the refugee crisis in Europe following the Second World War would not be solved quickly and that refugee crises will always arise the UN convened for one of the most important conventions on human rights ever, the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Copyright © Old Dominion University Model United Nations Society. All
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